pete_s.

Set up your camera in the menus so that you can shoot without a lens. Then take off the lens and put a piece of tape on the aperture lever on the lens so it won't close. It's a spring that closes it. Put on the lens again but not all the way. If the lens contacts aren't engaged the camera doesn't know what lens you have and doesn't try to open or close the aperture. This is what you want. Set exposure and shoot in manual mode.

Photo.net is using XenForo, a forum software. Any coding done by photo.net would only be modifications. I doubt there is more than one developer working on these modification. Which means that problems can only be resolved by XenForo, not by photo.net. Expect it to take a long time to get this show on the road. My first post on this new forum. Wonder if it works...it did!

<p>I just like to add that as Will said, the light doesn't change all the time. But to answer your question I'd say it's knowledge/experience more than practice, even if the two go hand in hand.</p> <p>If you look at the camera meter in auto it will change the exposure a lot but the light doesn't change as much. It's the camera that can't determine the difference between a black subject in bright light or white subject in low light. This is of course especially apparent in weddings where people are often dressed in all white or all black.</p> <p>My suggestion to fast track learning manual exposure is to <strong>become a student of light</strong>. Buy a small light meter, one that can take <strong>incident readings</strong> and show <strong>light levels in EV</strong>. I have the Sekonic L308. On that particular one you want to set it to ISO 100 to get the correct EV readings.</p> <p>Simplified, EV is light levels measured in stops. So if you take a reading outside and it shows 14.3 and you go into the shade and it shows 12.3 the difference is 2 which is two stops. So the shade in this case was 2 stops darker. So if you were shooting with a camera you had to increase the exposure two stops going from sun to shade. That could be done with aperture, shutter speed or ISO. Either way it would still be two stops.</p> <p>On older SLRs that has an aperture ring on the lens, changing aperture is the fastest way to change the exposure and only takes fractions of a second. On DSLRs with dials for aperture or shutter speed these can be changed relatively fast while change ISO usually requires some extra maneuvers.</p> <p>Step one for the student of light would be the incident light meter and EV readings. And study all different scenarios. No need for a camera yet.</p> <p>Step two would be <strong>learning spot metering</strong> in the camera. Camera in manual exposure of course. When you learn how reflectivity affects the spot meter you could easily adjust your exposure and not be fooled like the automatic modes of the camera.</p> <p>Another tips for the manual shooter is to only have <strong>constant aperture zooms</strong>. It's a hassle when you dial in your exposure and have to change it every time you zoom in.</p> <p>When you have the knowledge how light levels change in a room and outside you already know what you need to change in the exposure before even being in that situation. That means you can change the settings while moving and have them be right before you even raise the camera. That makes it very fast.</p> <p>With the spot meter you can easily double check your exposure without firing a frame. It's the most precise use of the in-camera meter. It's especially useful for weddings where you have a lot of black and white where you don't want to blow out the white and you don't want to underexpose the black. If you know the light and understand light levels, the spot meter would mostly be for fine tuning and double checking your estimates. A quick sweep over some black and white in the scene will take no time and then you can shoot in that light with the settings you have until something changes. </p> <p>And obviously after firing off a shot you can use the histogram, blinkies etc.</p> <p> </p>

<p>I have a number of 50mm Nikkor lenses - f2, f1.8, f1.4 and f1.2, some of them in several versions.</p> <p>My advice is to buy one of the AI lenses. Actually the 50mm f1.4 AI would be the best option for a combined low-light, travel, portrait lens IMHO.</p>

<p>As you can see most online forums are kind of dead. The wedding photography boom that was born out of the advent of the cheap dslr is over, so a lot of online resources and communities have disappeared. I think the PJ trend is dead as well.</p> <p>I would take a trip to WPPI conference in Las Vegas for a couple of days. That will let you know what is going on, what trends are going and coming and also interact with other professionals. I think they have workshops and stuff going on too so you can learn how other pros are working. Tap into what people are doing today and see what you can use or what you want to try.</p> <p>http://www.wppionline.com/index.shtml</p> <p> </p>

<p>They are different tools for different things.</p> <ul> <li>Rucksacks are for transporting gear over uneven terrain, stairs etc.</li> <li>Shoulder bags are for shooting out of. Meaning reaching inside picking out gear as you shoot. This goes for carrying pouches, vests and similar stuff too.</li> <li>Hard cases are for rugged transportation.</li> <li>Rolling bags (soft) are for less rugged transportation over even terrain.</li> </ul> <p>When I shot weddings i used a combination of methods. I'd sling two cameras with lenses as I shoot with both at the same time and I carry a shoulder bag with two more lenses and hot shoe flashes. Then I'd have a hard case with additional strobes and radio triggers. A bag with tripod and monopod and small light stands. Another bag with larger light stands, umbrellas and light modifiers. And then I'd just have monolights and other things like a hand truck in the car as well as some backup gear. If I used rented gear they would often come in real flight cases.</p> <p>What you choose to use depends on how much equipment you have and what you need to carry with you (versus have in the car) and what you need immediate access to. It's about having the right tool for the job you want it to do. It's basically a matter of how you solve your logistics. There is no right or wrong.</p> <p>PS. Another vote for ThinkTank roller bags. I do like lowepro for shoulder bags though because weight is more important.</p>

<p>She paid the 50% retainer right? So she has retained your services for the day.</p> <p>I think it's easy. Go a head and shoot the wedding. Don't do anything beyond that until you have the rest of the 50%. </p> <p>I assume you have a bunch of editing to do after the wedding. When she pays the last 50% you can proceed with editing and delivering. If against all odds she doesn't pay, she doesn't get anything and you don't have to do the editing either. </p> <p> </p>

<p>Ebay versions => Very, very low quality focusing screen. Not worth anything. Crap.</p> <p>Other split image focusing screens made for other cameras and modified to fit => Well worth it. For instance Nikon K3 (from FM3 camera) and Canon EB-C (from 1D series) are both very good.</p> <p>AF is unaffected, metering might be a little affected (depends on metering mode, aperture etc).</p> <p>Nikon don't sell any split-image focusing screens for their digital cameras. Canon does.</p> <p>It's easy to change if you're careful and reasonably technical. Since the split image screen is way more accurate than the standard screen you might need focus screen adjustment. That's a job for a service center since it's often means re-adjustning the AF as well. I've had this done on several cameras.</p>

<p>Krista,<br> Since you haven't picked up the technical details despite doing photography for years I think you might have just tried it the wrong way. My guess is that you would learn the best by taking photography workshops and classes, not online stuff, but face to face training. Second best would be to learn photography from watching DVDs. </p> <p>The good thing is that there are world class wedding photographers who have a very weak understanding of the technical details but still manages somehow to take great shots. </p> <p> </p>

<p>I'm sorry to say but it's user error. Actually a very common error and so nothing to be ashamed of. Also it's a hard one to catch unless you are more or less expecting it to happen.</p> <p>The camera is focusing on the background because the background is brighter and it's easier for the camera to find something there to focus on. There are several technical reasons for that but I won't go into it. To avoid it happening, you need to know how all the focusing settings on your camera works and find out what settings works for you in situations like this.</p> <p>You will get the highest level of control if you select the single focus point mode, and select one of the cross focus points in the center to focus with. You don't have to focus on the head or eye at all, actually in this case I would advice against it. Focus on something that is high contrast but the same distance then recompose and shot.</p> <p>With af-on focusing (backbutton) you can focus one time, then recompose and shoot several images without having to hold the shutter button half pressed the entire time. The technique doesn't make your camera focus better, it only allows more control of when you want to focus and when you want to shoot images.</p> <p>Single focus point, af-on focusing, af-c focusing mode, release priority and using a split-image focusing screen is how I choose to solve this problem. It allows me full control of when and where I allow the camera to focus and I can easily verify that the focus is spot-on right in the viewfinder. However that may not be the right solution for you.</p> <p>You have a couple of other secondary problems going on. But I wont go into that more detail than saying that you need to control exposure and also shutter speed.</p> <p>PS. I wrote this post while a couple of posts above this one where posted so sorry for repeating some of what was said.</p> <p> </p>

<p>First of all the image is done with flash or even a reflector (even though it is unlikely). And shot with a large aperture.</p> <p>Secondly, you can accomplish the rest in a hundred different ways. Background is a little warm which in part comes naturally from using flash on the subject and also shooting when the sun is on it's way down. and desaturated.</p> <p>Heavy smoothing/retouch of face. Clean colors comes from using flash but it's also very easy and common to selectively change the skin color when retouching. Classic technique for white silkysmooth skin is to desaturate slightly and then increase the brightness. It depends on what skin color the subject had from the beginning. If you use the color picker in whatever you edit in you can see the R,G,B values of the skin and replicate it in another image.</p> <p>For advanced users sometimes showing skin colors in CMYK can be easier when you aiming for something. Photoshop for instance can show values in CMYK without actually editing in CMYK.</p> <p>It's actually a good idea to have a sample image side to side with your own image when you are trying to get the same look. Also as I mentioned remember to use the color picker to check RGB values in the sample image. Use it on whatever you want to check, not only the skin.</p>

<p>As said above to avoid it in the future you have to have faster lenses when shooting without flash, at least f2.8. But preferably primes at f2 or f1.4.<br /> ISO 6400, f5.6, 1/100s is around EV 5 which is normal indoor lighting levels.<br /> Crop cameras can't handle ISO 6400 much better than this. Full frame cameras are about one stop better so if you find yourself often in situations like this you might consider upgrading the camera as well as getting some faster lenses.<br> ...<br> Regarding fixing the image you should use the raw file to start from (if you shot raw). You can tweak a little in lightroom if you use that but dedicated software can do a better job. I found in the past that Topaz Denoise does a good job on heavy noise, especially on jpeg files. Otherwise Imagenomics Noiseware produces more natural results for noise reduction. As mentioned above Focus Magic can fix image blur better than most.<br> Most of these software you can try before you buy.<br> ...</p> <p> </p>

<p>If you need more precise color matching also look at Rosco's calcolor gels.</p>

<p>The K3 have the center weighted metering ring engraved in the focus screen (look below).</p> <p>AF and everything else will work the same. You might get a little change in metering as most manual focus screens are darker than the originals. They also scatter the light slightly different. I don't think you will notice anything though.</p> <p>I have put K3 screens in my F80 cameras. I mostly shoot B&W and I didn't notice anything.<br /> <img src="http://cdn-4.nikon-cdn.com/e/Q5NM96RZZo-MRItDefY8uS3cNHsVS3bpm3NYPzZUKnZTdOoOwHT5oDP9Zwrc3iAhlOyrdhGxQh2EVtMVfC4HcHq6npHLX6DLPsYXDTDF9b4=/Views/2696_FM3A-K3-Screen_front.png" alt="" width="700" height="595" /></p>

<p>You are missing one thing to consider - image quality. The 18-35mm f1.8 has nowhere near the same optical performance at f1.8 on a crop camera as a 24-70 f2.8 does at f2.8 on a full frame.</p> <p>Also regarding sensors, Dxomark measures sensor performance and top five of <strong>all</strong> Nikon cameras are D810, D800E,D800,D610,D600.</p> <p>Another thing to consider is weight and size. FX cameras are a little larger and their lenses heavier in general.</p>