www.withheart.ca

<p>Hey!</p>

<p>I'm currently living in Canada and would like to work with a great Cdn lab to streamline my time more and not have to deal with bringing product over the border all the time.<br>

I have been printing all my own images. however, I was hoping to find a Cdn lab that did canvas, albums and framed prints for me.<br>

Can anyone recommend a great Cdn lab? Any other suggestions?</p>

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>

<p>Hello there,<br>

I'm looking to purchase a qualtity 5' softbox for use with my Bowens Esprits. I've been googling for a few weeks now and I'm having trouble finding info. There is loads out there about Elinchrome softboxes and stuff for alien bees but alas they do not fit on Bowens. I'm starting to feel like the only girl in the world that uses these lights!<br>

Anyway, I'm terribly visual and so if you post a recommendation I would love to see a photo that you've taken with the soft box that you are recommending or a link to some examples some place<br>

I'm planning to use it to photograph toddlers. 5" octobox to the side with a giant reflector for fill. I want I nice big round catch lights in the eyes and not a lot of spill coming from the light. I see that I can use photoflex but that one appears to have problems with a hot spot in the center and people say that it breaks easily.</p>

<p>Anyone have any ideas?</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

<p>I've found a work around for this problem. I am naughty and use the main sheet feeder. It seems to work fine to use this. Feeding through the back well let's just say that, after trying it that way, I want to do to my printer what they did to the fax machine in Office Space. :)<br>

Ok here's what I do. I Stick paper in the sheet feeder. I hold the paper with both hands up against the little white feet. I put a teeny tiny bit of pressure to help it catch and then I press the button with the paper and trash can. It does it's thing and my paper should be loaded. If it didn't catch right. Then it spits it out and I try again or it never caught at all and I try again.<br>

Next I go to lightroom and print out my print.<br>

I've been doing this for sometime with great results. However today I was having problems getting it to catch. Turns out that Velvet Fine Art paper has lots of dust that you need to clean off the little gray wheel. I called Epson and we fed about 4 sheets of plain paper through and now I'm good to go again. They are sending me some cleaning sheets to help clean my printer which I will try when they arrive.<br>

Now I should add that the Epson tech did say the velvet fine art was too thick to go through the sheet feeder and gave me a lesson on how to do it through the back. After quite a few tries we got a print and the tech admitted that this back feeder is tricky. However, I've now spent around an hour trying to get it to feed through the back and can't get it to work and so I'm reverting back to what actually gets me a print. I dunno if it is bad for the printer somehow, but it seems to work just fine. :)</p>

<p> </p>

Hello Arthur,

 

I could help you potentially. What are you paying? www.withheart.ca

 

I actually might be looking for a 2nd shooter & assistant for a July 13th wedding in Bothell. So maybe we could do a trade?

 

Michelle

Michelle

What about putting you contact information on every page? Nice desgin. Kudos!

Do you know what exactly it is about not living locally that is making them uneasy?

I use h&h color lab. hhcolorlab.com

I use H&H Color's Black Tie line. www.hhcolor.com

Why not put up a questionaire on your website or someother way and ask some of the questions you want answers to in regards to marketing. Offer something to those who fill it out. Perhaps make it part of a contest or something and get the answers from the people who are drawn to your photography.

 

Good Luck!

M

Here's the final shot. I did large softbox on the right side with small reflector for the feet and a small softbox turned upwards for fill on the face only.<div></div>

Nice site!

 

I really liked your 10 reasons section; although I admit I only read the titles.

 

I got frustrated with the details section and having to hit the back button all the time. Perhaps add a next button.

 

You have some fantastic images. I found that the white on white background took away from the impact that those images should have. I see why you like the white though, as it has a very crisp, clean look to it. Perhaps try darkening the shadow around the middle box there. Just need a little something to keep the eyes from noticing all the white and draw them to the image instead.

 

I noticed in one place you said you are looking for 4-6 models and in another 10.

 

Anyhow fabulous site. I really admire how you've organized your information.

 

Good Luck to you!

Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate it.

Could be interesting to have an out of focus fire place in the background to add warmth of atmonsphere. Pretending that you are playing chest in a study. Show the child thinking out his next move. Perhaps have a hand moving a piece in focus with the child behind slightly out of focus. Window light or simulated window light would be beautiful for this. Have fun!

You know I've noticed the same thing. I'm guessing that there are different thicknesses. My professional lab uses Fuji Crystal Archive and I get nice thick prints. When I go to Costco and get Fuji Crystal Archive prints the paper is MUCH thinner. This is one thing that I educate my clients on when I'm helping them decide on prints.

 

My professional lab is H&H color if you need to find a lab that prints the nice thick prints. They have amazing customer service and great quality! :D

"But all day? Hope the model was free : -) "

 

Hee hee let's just say her and I have a close working

relationship. ;)

 

"What lights are you working with?"

 

Bowens. I have four of them. I also have a large softbox that I could use, but I only have one. I also have one large and one med sized reflector.

 

I'm actually getting organised for an upcoming shoot. The final images will likely have to be full length, but as you can see I have limited room in my apartment to shoot. :) I was thinking of using a large white reflector in front, but was a litte worried that the legs would be too dark still in the end.

 

The actual shoot is taking place off site. So I'll have more room and I'll be using matte white paper for the back ground. Not this crqazu sheet set-up.

 

Right now I have my backlight a little hot to hide all the wrinkles that I didn't want to have to photoshop out. I know I'm horrible. ;)

 

"make the light on her left side the key light (brighter than the llight to her right) , more fill on her right side -- either a larger softbox or a second one beneath the first one, and also bounce panels above and below your lens."

 

I like the key light brighter idea. DUH! Sometimes I think too much outside the box and forget about simple solutions. I was feeling like the face just looked too flat.

 

What do you guys think about that little shadow by her nose? I want some shadows on the face but I'm not sure I like that one. Does it bother you at all?

 

 

The bigger softbox on the right side I will work beautifully. Should get a nice slimming shadow on that front thigh and hopefully solve my light drop off issues in one fell swoop.

 

My clients want to be able to change the color of the background and put a glow behind the subject. Would you shoot with white background and then add the colour and glow using photoshop? Or would it be better to let the background go gray, and put a background light on it during the shoot? Does it matter?

 

Well, thanks for the tips and ideas! Fun talking shop as always. :)

Here's the lighting set up. The numbers are what I had my lights set to.<div></div>

So I've been working on this shot all day. I need some perspective. How would

you improve the lighting?

 

Thanks for your feedback!<div></div>

Great start you've got here. Okay here are my suggestions:

 

I was confused by all the different gallery types. The first one only had thumbnails and I couldn't figure out how to make them bigger to get a bigger look at the pic. You don't need flash, however. There's a way to code that in HTML. If you want flash check out jalbum.net.

 

I'd cut out the other two galleries. You want to keep ppl in your site and not lead them elsewhere IMO.

 

contact page: I think it would be good to put a phone number here in case someone would rather contact you that way.

 

booking page: some reformatting here would make this page easier to read.

 

Good luck to you!

M

I also edit all proofs. Since I inlcude the digital files I edit everything intensively for them.

 

I just got Lightroom and this speeds it up ALOT! I highly recoomend it. I've also practiced getting the pictures as perfect as possible in camera so there is less to do afterwards. Although dodging and burning still needs doing. Some professional labs will do this work for you and burn images to a CD if you pay them, so that is an option.

 

I tell my clients that I do this and charge for it. So, then there is no worry about it. They like getting all the images all perfect on a DVD. :)

About the border. :) I'm back and forth across it all the time as I've just moved from Seattle to the Vancouver area.

 

I'd reccomend crossing the border at the Sumas, WA/Abbotsford, BC crossing. It is called Huntingdon Crossing. It usually has the smallest line ups and is the one that will take you the least out of your way.

 

Depending on what day and what time of day you cross the border you can have from 10 min to 2 hours wait. Right now because the CDN $$ is high, alot of CDN go to the US for daytrips and return just before dinner. If you can hit the border in the morning on Friday the 23th, then because it is a weekday you shouldn't have a big wait.

 

Taking the Kokahala(sp?) toll road to Kamloops is the fastest way to get there. I think about 4.5 hours. If you are in Abbotsford at lunch time you must give Swiss Chalet a try. Kid friendly and they have great chicken. About 45mins outside of Abbotsford off the Trans Canada Hwy there is a waterfall that you will see from the road. Well worth the short stroll. It is called Bridal veil Falls. Could be a great place for a picnic lunch. Kamloops is as far as I've gone myself. :)

 

I'm planning to head up to Northern B.C. myself and my BC friends tell me to skip Banaff as it too commercial. They say to spend more time in Jasper and definately not to miss the ice fields if I can help it.

 

Perhaps you might be able to find a nice B&B up there for a better value than one of the hotels? And if you change your mind and decide to go to the olympic np you must check out "The Meadows Inn" in Port Angeles. Hands down the best B&B I've ever stayed at. One of the onwers is a chef and so breaky is amazing. The pics online don't do the place justice, it is gorgeous and the onwers are so nice. Anyway maybe you could find an amazing B&B up by Jasper.

 

Now if there is still snow up there and only gray skies, don't despair. One thing I've learned is that every weather condition has a strength to photograph. Try to find it and photograph for it. Perfectly overcast skies don't look so good so perhaps, so maybe do more detailed shots. Example photograph a cool icicle nice and close. Overcast skies do give you nice diffused light so find ways to use that to your advantage. Would be beautiful lilght to photograph your little girl in. So maybe do a landscape shot with her as the interest not the sky.

 

Enjoy your trip!

I really like the creative navigation. I was confused at first but I figured it out. I found the all caps in the informational areas (pricing) very hard to read though, but I loved it elsewhere.

 

On my screen (19" I think) the small pictures looked nice. I felt like I was viewing art. I liked it! You have some beautiful images btw. :)

 

Just my two cents. Good Luck to you!

The ordinary to extraordinary really caught my eye. I've been noticing more and more that if you just get people to be themselves

in interesting light that the pictures turn out fantastic. So that's been my posing formula and wow the example's he showed were really inspiring to me. So that's my two cents.

Hello there!

 

1. I also find that your packages are hard to read/see what they include. Try reading this article for some tips. http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/01/45/index3a.html

 

2. I think you need some different images on your home, pricing and contact pages. More people pictures than detail shots. For example image #4 in gallery one (of a bride holding flowers with whitebackground). She's gorgeous and every bride wants pictures of herself looking gorgeous. I'd suggest that for the pricing page.

 

In your second gallery the #1&2 thumbnails are also very nice.

 

3. Also the style of the about us picture doesn't seem to fit with the style of pictures in your gallery. Perhaps taking a shot of the two of you like you would of a Bride and Groom. Sorta leading by example. Also, on my screen it looked a bit underexposed.

 

4. Overall your prices seem really reasonable and your galleries look great.

Thanks! This helps me a lot. :) I appreciate all the information you've given. I'm leaning towards a 2400 atm.

Thanks for all the responses. I'll have to check these out :)