austinphoto

The store has been losing business for a while and is complaining about business. Well, I borrowed a camera and was ok for the weekend. This week I went to B&H, bought the camera for $50 cheaper, but at the exact price quoted on their website. I am happy, they are happy, they sale went off very smoothly, went in, paid, picked up and I have no upgraded. The Long Island Store has few walk ins these days and now I know why. They run an internet business through their store. The merchandise going on internet sales come off the store shelves. It just doesn't make sense. If you're going to have a store with a side business on the internet, your job is to make everyone happy. I've spent thousands of $$ through out the years there. No More! B&H will get my business from now on. On the Internet, on the phone, or in person! They're happy to see me. I feel better now. I've got my new DSLR and the store on LI has to get rid of one more that he could have gotten rid of. I understand that he's not working out of a warehouse. But the internet sales he processes all come out of the same store. A customer is a CUSTOMER. If you're selling out of the same spot,treat them with respect and they'll come back. Look at all the internet only stores ripping off people (check resellerratings.com) and see that the really low price internet dealers are crooks. That's why I want to go in and pick up, especially in emergancy. I spent more time on this board, than I did at B&H. They have free parking across the street. That's my store from now on!

Good answer if you have to spend time teaching and selling to a customer. I just came for a pick up, not to look, try, or be sold to. It couldn't be any simpler than that. By the way, the ad did not say internet only. All the salesman had to do was take my money. It would take more than that to mail it to me. If I was in Ca. Sammy's would be my store! I like your attitude and honesty.

How is that a higher cost to the seller? He has plenty in his shop, he wants to sell, the price advertised was the price he set, not me, and when I go to the store and I get what I want, I come back again. Over the years I have spent many dollars at the stores. The question was not about money. The man had many to sell, but if I come in, it's $40 more. I really don't see any higher cost to the seller. He is in business to bring me in, not keep me out, as it turned out to be.

I wasn't looking to bargain for price. I need a camera, and wanted to have it on the spot so I can continue with my other jobs with confidence, knowing that if something goes wrong, I have a spare. I wasn't even haggeling over price. I saw the price they were advertising and said ok. But when they didn't want to give me at that price, I got angry. If I had the time, I would have ordered over the phone or internet, but when a camera breaks down on the job and you have two more jobs the next two days, the mail will not do. The store is in Long Island. I really don't want to mention his name because I've been doing business with him for a long time, but of course, my last time to walk or call or place an order over the internet. Let's hope there are no more emergencies. To the store owner I say "So long big shot! your competition will get my business!"

I had a very crazy weekend. 3 jobs. At the end of the formals on Friday's

job, the camera froze up. The mirror did not come down. First time this

digital camera broke in 4 years. I switch to back up camera, but get nuts over

having a backup for the next 2 days. Next morning before next job, I look up

the largest local camera store to buy a new body (time to upgrade anyway) and

see the price. I call the store to check if they have it in stock. They have

plenty. How many do I want? I told them one and I'll be over in less than an

hour to pick it up. Now, the price is no longer what it said in their site,

but $40 more. It seems to me that they want to charge me to deal with them in

person. NUTS!!!! What is wrong with these dealers? Don't you want me to come

into your store anymore? The sale was already made. All he had to do was give

me the box and put the money in the register. At this point, I just get angrey

and said to the owner to forget it and since I am no longer wanted in his store

without paying a premium for coming in, I will no longer shop there. I called

a friend and borrowed a camera, sent mine to Nikon for repair and will never

shop in that store again. It's not that I wanted him to lower his price. I

just wanted it at the price it was advertised and not be charged more. His

sale was so easy. I come in, I pay, I say thank you, he says thank you, and

puts the money in his register and we both go away happy. Now I will never be

back into his store. His Loss! I no longer feel sorry for the local camera

dealer. Let him fight it out with the ebays and the large internet

wholesalers, as long as he wants to be one of those scumbuckets. I'd like to

find a store that is happy to see me and take my money.

I had the same choice to make and decided to start small. I bought the 1400 and am amazed at the quality and speed of this printer. When I need bigger, I will get the 3800, which now sells for about $1300. I paid $300 for the 1400 at CompUSA. Great Deal for the money and incredible quality. Everyone who sees the results from this printer is amazed. For the money, that's a great deal.

It's beautiful. A little bit of touch up work and cleaning it would be spectacular. I like it for what it is!

Mike, That's what I do for my kids school. You can see them at http://www.islandparksports.com. The album is made with Jalbum, which is free and very easy to use and update. I just add a new school and it will create a new album for it. When I just want to upload more photos to the album, it just updates that album and I give the parents permition to download whatever photos they want. When they started asking me for photos it just got too much, so I put them on the web for them to take. All you need is a domain name, and hosting and just upload the album, all done from Jalbum. check it out. There is a link there for Jalbum.

I just purchased an Epson Stylus Photo 1400 printer. I will be doing lots of

printing and wonder if anyone knows if there is a bulk ink system for this

printer.

Hi: Primatte chroma will require quite a bit of time. It requires you to outline inside and then outline outside of the object you wish to cut out. In Photoshop, I open background photo, (1 click), open greenscreen photo (2 clicks), select (3 clicks), color range (4 clicks), click on green (5 clicks) ok (6 clicks) inverse (7 clcicks), copy (8 clicks) click on background photo to highlight it(9 clicks), past (the inversed photo) (10 clicks and if everything is ok, flatten, if there is a halo, I will select the green in the halo and than do a color adjustment, by removing green (adding magenta) and darkening the highlighted (halo) with levels. This whole process is under 30 seconds. It's just confusing and seems like a lot at the beginning, but once you do it without thinking, it;s very fast. Express digital will not allow you to correct. It will open up photoshop for you for corrections, which could be done in photoshop anyway, much faster. Practice and it will be next to nothing after a while. At the beginning I was very slow at it, but within a few tries, I managed to speed it up very fast and simple proceedure.

I've been shooting my schools in green screen offering backgrounds galore to the parents. It worked out great, but I've tried digital express and others. None worked as good as photoshop. All left green around the edges and loose hairs or hair reflections. Photoshop was the only program that allowed me to remove the green halo. It took time at the beginning, but after some time I became very good and quick at it. They now look beautiful. IF you find that you have the green backlight halo, Photoshop is perfect for that.

IF I knew exactly what you were planning to do, I might be able to help with more info or instructions. Feel free to contact me for any specifics. By now I've done many thousands of portraits with green screen and it moves pretty quick. The type of background you put into the screen also will determine whether there will be a green halo over the edges and hairs. Blue backgrounds, make them disappear. Other backgrounds, light ones, show it more. As I said, I tried a few programs, and Photoshop was the only one I could rely on to remove the green completely. Good luck!

In spite of what I read into this posting, I think that the oppsite is really happening. I think that what was good enough yesterday is not good enough today. I see the photography and quality of work much better than it used to be. At any given time, there are standards of quality. But when you really look at work from 20 years ago, and compare them to today, The quality of work has improved tremendously! Maybe you think that standards have changed between years ago and today, but really look at work that was coming out of your studio years ago and the work that is coming out today. I don't really think that the quality has gone down. Now I know that you really meant other studios and not yours. But from what I see, it's the same increase in quality almost everywhere. There are always exceptions, but that hasn't changed over the years. We had people who thought that good enough was fine, then, and we still have them now. But for those who don't think like that, and that is a majority of photographers today, the quality of work has substantially improved. I see amazing results from many (and I mean Many!) photographers today, who produce work that is far more impressive and beautiful than I have ever seen years ago. You don't have to be "certified" to be a fantastic photographer. You have to have the desire, the love of your craft, and the knowledge to produce what you need, not the certificate. PPA, WPPI, APA, ASMP, etc. will not, cannot, and will never make an excellent photographer if he has a "good enough" attitude.

Shakil: try http://www.photocompcards.com. Great deals for cards.

Amanda, Please check out http://www.photocompcards.com we will design and print all of your printing material and do a beautiful job at a very reasonable cost. business cards and postcards will not have any design costs, only printing. For brochures, it is a lot more complicated and will require more work, so there will be a cost for design, depending on the amount of work. Get in touch with me and we can talk over your needs and what we can do for you.

It doesn't matter whether you have one or a dozen lights! You have to decide what you want your photo to look like and apply the light to the setting. I find that one light is good enough to use for many, many things. If you want to use more than one light set up, you can mix it up with reflectors, white, or silver, which can be professional units or homemade units such as white cardboard or cardboard with crumpled tin foil. When used in combinations, these will make your one light look like you used many lights. Learn about how light works. Simple enough, it always travels in straight lines and can be reflected, bounced in any direction. Try shots with light from the side, with a reflector returning light to the subject on the other side, try from behind the subject, with reflectors and without and you'll learn and be able to see much more than you now understand. Your "one sad light" has so much more potential than you give it credit for. You can make great photos with beautiful and incredibly dramatic lighting with one light. It's where you put it, how you use it, and how you reflect it. You have to try it in different locations, reflect it and understand it. Once that's done, your one light will become your great light!

Stay away from PPA. All you will get is more and more junk mail for you to buy more and more. I joined years ago and they ripped me off!

I told them and over the years, I have let people know that they are just nothing more than a sales pitch to you. They didn't even try to make good on their theft of my money. Enjoy your plastic and xeroxes. You will not benefit from them at all. Sorry to say so, but that is my experience with PPA.

I've done similar. Over expose shot by a lot. put into Photoshop, and increase contrast, increase saturation very high and you should see something quite close to it. I have one like it on my website http://www.greatlab.com. That's how I did mine. Very easy.

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This is the future of our business! It is now heading to delivery of cd's and no more prints. People will print their own. Today, pictures are viewed on computers. I've even seen people's weddings on their fancy telephone cameras. I'm amazed, nice shots, nice slide show: all on a really good telephone, or even an ipod. Progress!

From what I've seen, they're beautiful. What I really would like to know is the cost of an 8x10, 11x14 and a 16x20 print. I can't seem to get that information. Does anyone out there know?

try clone stamp right above the wires, set mode to lighten and it will take the darker lines out. Of course, if there are more variables to the wiring situation, you may have to do it again with darken or other ways. Without seeing a photo of what the problem is, Any way to fix is only advice, not actual way to do it. Good luck.

Density just means "Darker". The more density is added to a picture or a part of a picture, the darker it is. Heavy density=very dark. It's all mumbo jumbo anyway. Just tell them to print it lighter. That's all. Or, in their language, less density.

Do they look good on the screen? If they look too blue on the screen, there is a possibility that something is wrong with your camera. But if they look good (I'm not saying perfect), change your labs. They should, but do not want to go to the trouble of adjusting the colors before they print.

There's a problem here! Try to solve it. Bickering back and forth just doesn't solve any problems. You have your views, they have theirs. Try to make them happy. It's been a long time since the wedding to hear this now! ask them "what would make you happy?" and let them know that the time to complain was really 8 months ago, not now. But let them know you want to make them happy. If it comes down to a matter of money, then you know that she just wants to spend less. If It's a matter of photos, then you can try to make them the way she wants them. But whatever the reason, her fault or yours, you have to be the one to eat crow since she is the one who is unhappy and unfortunately, unhappy people love to see the other side squirm and suffer. Reasonable people make the best of it. Good luck!

Thank you Beepy!