bruce_stenman1

Galen,

 

One question is whether when shooting with the 18-55mm at the 18mm setting do you find yourself wishing the lens had a wider zoom setting, more sharpness, or more speed or VR?

 

Normal for a DX camera is in the 28-35mm range and that is covered by your 18-55mm lens. If you want VR or more range the 16-85mm VR lens would be worth considering. If you want a wider FOV than 18mm provides, then one of the 10-22mm lens would be good.

 

The 55-200mm is a good value but another lens to consider if you can afford it is the Sigma 50-150mm f2.8 lens. Relatively lightweight and compact it provide an excellent zoom range, a fast lens that is more versatile than a slow f5.6 lens with VR, and excellent image quality.

With the pro lenses from Nikon working well on DX and FX cameras you are not going to see a difference in IQ between the D300 and the D700 except at ISO settings about ISO 800.

 

What the DX provides is much greater DOF at the same field of view. This would be very helpful with macro photography in particular. To get the same DOF with a FX camera entails stopping the lens down about 1.5 stops and this is also likely to have a negative impact on IQ.

 

On the other hand if you want extreme wide angle with a lens like the 14-24mm f2.8, then the FX camera is the way to go. So ultra high ISO and extreme WA are pros of the FX cameras, and higher resolution, greater DOF, and less refraction, are pros for the DX cameras.

The only way to speed up the D100 is to shoot JPEGs. With RAW the buffer can only hold 3 shots and write times to the CF card are slow. It was one of the biggest problems with the D100.

A tilt shift lens will be a big help and save you many hours post processing in Photoshop. There are two generations of older TS lenses that will still work fine for your purposes including the old 28mm f3.5 lens.

 

Just be careful in buying a used TS lens and I would avoid eBay in particular where there is no buyer protection if you are sold a lemon or a lens needing repair.

 

A decent TS lens will produce fine images even with a D40x camera. For what you want to do the lens is much more important than the camera, along with a decent tripod. And a cheap Manfrotto 3022 tripod though heavy will work great along with a cable release and locking the mirror up (may want to be sure your camera has this feature).

 

If this is an infrequent need, consider renting a TS lens. Places like www.lensprotogo.com will rent many of their lenses for a full week for $70 and this includes shipping in both directions.

I do it as soon as weather permits as it provides time for the couple to review the images and use them for invitations and a guest book. It also makes it easier for me to schedule the couple in when I am not booked shooting weddings or the weather is not likely to be good for photographing them.

 

I only shoot during the last 2 hours of daylight on Sundays and the sessions last for 90 minutes to 2 hours depending upon the couple and the light. If it is going great and the light is wonderful I will shoot until they lose interest or it is too dark. I have gotten too many great shots in the last 15 minutes to shoot on the clock.

 

I usually shoot 300-400 images taken at 10-15 spots at two different locations. I provide the couples with between 100-200. I do not know at this point in time what they like in terms of expressions of themselves or their fiance in pictures. Somethings something that might seem qwerky to me might be endearing to one of them. What I learn from their engagement session and the selection they make for their guest book helps me the day of the wedding and when I later create their albums.

 

Editing takes less than an hour.

My clients get nothing until I have been paid for my work. That puts me on even footing with the other vendors on their list. You are the easiest person for the bride to not pay.

 

As she has the DVD there is nothing you can do other than contact her parents and see if they would like to help. You could take her to small claims court and even if you get a judgment against her you still have the problem of collecting.

 

Hard to say but I would walk away and think about what you should do in the future to prevent this from happening again.

I seldom used my 12-24mm f4 due to issues with AF, slow speed, and lack of sharpness. The 14-24mm f2.8 corrected all of those shortcomings exceptionally well. I sold my 12-24mm and now use the 14-24 on both the D3 and the D300.

 

Where it is great on the D3 is in being able to get a full length shot of someone at a distance of 8' or less, as on the dance floor or in a crowded hotel room, or a small venue for the ceremony. If I did not have the D3 I would probably have opted for one of the 3rd party 10-20mm zooms.

 

Another lens that works very well for WA work is the Nikon 16mm f2.8 lens. On the D3 it is a true fisheye while on the D300 it is a extreme WA lens that does not need to be "defished" the way the 10.5mm lens does. It is also light and very small so having it in the camera bag "just in case" is not a concern.

I have been all over the USA, Europe, Central America, and Southeast Asia, and the only time I have felt unsafe and concerned for my safety was in Detroit. I felt like I was in Beirut after the Israelis occupation.

 

There are business class downtown hotels that are connected by a secured monorail with access only from the hotels and various mini malls also with high security and the various stops are patrolled and actively monitored by CCTV 24x7. If you exit to the street you cannot return except by going back into the hotels and mall spots.

 

To go walking about alone with thousands of dollars of camera gear without an armed security person seems like more of a risk than is necessary or prudent considering the value of the pictures. No doubt there are safe areas, marginal areas, and are you out of your mind areas but only a native would know which were which and at what times of the day.

Flash is very helpful - both off camera triggered by a ST-ET or on camera and bounced off a wall or ceiling. There are many areas where a HDR approach using a tripod would be very useful as there are great scenes that include very dark areas with also bright sunlight - back lighting helps, but if I go again, HDR will be on the list as well as a small tripod.

 

Also mosquito spray and long sleeve shirts pre-treated with permethin are also worth considering as this is a malaria region and there are a lot of mosquitos around many of the temples.

 

As usual I hired a car with a driver/guide/interpreter/watchman. The drivers are licensed by a government agency and can be trusted completely - unlike anywhere else I have traveled in the world. They can take you places off the beaten path and watch over extra gear so it is safe to leave it in the trunk of the car. They can also drop you off at one end of a temple complex and pick you up on the other side so you get more time for taking pictures. The tour groups hit the same temples so if it is during the tourist season they can take you to temples further from town which you will have largely to yourself.

 

I would also recommend spending time in Phnom Pinh, the capital to get a more complete picture of the country, and also to rent a power boat to take you to the delta villages and boat communities. Very inexpensive and with your own boat and driver you can take your time when you spot something of interest.

 

Wonderful country and amazing people. They have little recollection of the damage the USA did when we dropped more bombs on them than were dropped on Japan during WW II. Important to avoid going cross country as there are still millions of mines throughout the country, again courtesy of US taxpayers.

 

For the children gifts of ball point pens and balloons are especially well received and appreciated as are t-shirts with English text.

 

Cambodia is also one of the easiest countries to book via the Internet and there are very nice air conditioned hotel rooms with sat TV and Internet access and breakfast for $US 35-40. The best reference sites I found for information were run by British ex-pats. Forget the hotels.com and Expedia type of sites. Lonely Planet is not bad but not as useful or as current as the Brit sites.

Shipping is half the cost from B&H as compared to any other company I have dealt with and they are easy to deal with if you get a camera that is defective and need to return it to them. If your friend is a photographer they could check order and receive and verify the camera works properly before you arrive.

 

Suggest having your friend purchase and register the camera in their name so you get the USA warranty. You will then have the option during the first year of shipping the camera to Nikon for warranty work in the states and having them ship it directly back to your friend at your address in Brazil.

I have been all over Honduras and felt much safer than in most American cities, especially Newark and Detroit. Your camera is insured if it stolen and this is most likely to happen if you leave it in a accessible camera bag in your hotel room.

 

A camera bag with a large flap, like the LowePro Stealth Reporter style bags make it harder for pickpockets to get inside the bag while you are on the street. It also can't hurt to leave the flashy watch, etc. at home when traveling around in a country where the average worker earns less than $100 a month, if only out of courtesy for the people of a country that has been ruthlessly exploited by American corporations for the last 100 years.

 

I believe in hiring a driver/guide/translator when traveling in countries such as this as you can go off the beaten path, check reservations, help in local markets, arrange special personalized tours, and so forth. In Honduras you will find one person in 100 who speaks any English and the "Spanish" is not what you learned in school so the driver/interpreter is quite useful.

 

The only photographers I know who have had equipment stolen have been wedding photographers working at American hotels. So if you want to be fearful or especially cautious these are the placed where it is more appropriate.

Your contract needs to specify usage rights, in terms of type of usage, frequency, and duration, of usage. If your contract stated usage for a magazine ad and then the client used the images in an annual report, in press kits, on the company website, etc., then each of those additional uses should be contracted for and paid for over an above your original fee.

 

When a company uses an ad one time they should pay you 1x $ and if they use it for 4 ads they should be paying you 4x $. Work should also be limited in time and not more than a year in any case. If they have a new campaign next year the ad agency, PR firm, publications, etc. will get new revenue and if they use your images you should receive additional payment as well.

I purchased a 5-year subscription to photo.net last July and I keep getting notices that my subscription is

ending this month. I cannot get a reply from support or the contact emails.

 

Anyone else getting erroneous notices?

Forget the Fong thing as it wastes the output from your flash and you will want to get as much as possible when shooting a group. Yes you can take your D3 and shoot at ISO 4000 but it really makes more sense to get a better setup for formals and also not have to worry about the color of the walls and ceilings. I have shot only one wedding in the past year where there were white walls and ceilings to even consider bouncing off.

 

Get a silver umbrella and bounce the light off it to provide a wide area of coverage and plan on a tripod and slower shutter speeds than you would want to shoot hand held. You should have two flashes in your kit anyway, and there are inexpensive brackets for mounting two strobes on a light stand with an umbrella. You will get about a 40% increase in output by using 2 strobes over a single one.

 

The GN for the SB800 is not based on the widest angle setting and so it is at least double what you can expect with full diffusion, and then losing another 50% with the umbrella. Distance also works against you. If you have to back up from 8' to 11' to get a large group into the frame you have doubled the light output needed from the flash.

At ISO 400 it was a bit of a concern. With most cameras able to provide usable images at ISO 1600 the flash output is reduced by 75% and battery life is not a problem. I can shoot an entire wedding with one set of AA's in the flash and in the battery pack and have sub-second recycle times even in burst mode with the D3.

 

The flash should be to provide fill and not to be a substitute for the available light (which means any light that is available).

Seems odd to me to buy a $3000 FF camera with a $600 lens that is noted for poor IQ from 24-50mm. There will undoubtedly be as many posts regarding unsatisfactory IQ with this lens and the D700 as there have been from people buying the D300 along with the 18-200mm VR lens.

 

Most unfortunate that Nikon has not produced a "L" grade lens like the Canon 24-105mm f4 IS. It would be a sweet lens to have available for Nikon cameras.

Many people dream of having their own restaurant having no idea of the capital required or the 7-day work weeks. Wedding photography also looks like a fun and easy way to earn money. The reality is that I view a basic kit as two pro cameras, 5 lenses, 2 strobes, and 24GB of CF cards. And I do mean a basic (14-24mm f2.8, 24-70mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.4 or the equivalent for crop cameras) kit to be able to show up at a wedding and not be limited by equipment in my ability to capture the events of the day regardless of the lighting conditions.

 

In reality I take 3 cameras and 3 strobes, a Quantum light kit for the formals, and I shoot 90% of the time with a second shooter who also has 2 cameras and 2 strobes and a full assortment of lenses.

 

On the other hand if you want to charge $300 and show up with 1 camera and 1 flash and shoot the wedding as JPEGs and hand the couple a DVD with the files - a shoot and burn photographer - you can work with your present budget and not feel like you are ripping off your clients. You make $30 and hour and if your camera or flash malfunctions your clients will be unhappy but less likely to take you to court.

Until you are sure of your skills, the use of monlights with modeling lights helps as you make adjustments for portraits. Important in considering any light source is what light modifier options are readily available. With Alien Bees there is a a broad range of lighting accessories, even a beauty dish, and this is not true for most other low end lights.

 

Helps to appreciate that if shooting indoors, and especially if making use of a tripod, the light output from the strobes need be little more than you will get from 250 WS units. This is especially true for environmental portraits where you are not trying to overexpose a background.

 

There is a lot to be said for multiple 580EX strobes where you can quickly make adjustments to light ratios and that are easily transported. There are soft boxes and adapters from companies like Chimera that work quite well with these small strobes.

With the size soft box you are using 30" is at the outer edge of its range for producing a soft light. Suggest repeating your tests at 48", 30", and 20" and review the results.

It depends on the lens. A 50mm f1.4 is not that different in IQ compared to the 50mm f1.8. This is less true for the 85mm f1.8 vs 85mm f1.4 lenses, especially shot wide open - which is the reason to get fast lenses in the first place.

 

With zooms where there are more elements and design issues the differences are quite apparent to anyone between the 12-24mm f4 and the 14-24mm f2.8 zoom lenses. You will also see differences in lens speed which affects IQ in a number of ways. Smaller apertures reduce lens resolution so shooting the 18-200 at f8 will not produce as sharp and image as one taken with the Sigma 50-150mm lens at f4. There will be a slower shutter speed (1/4 as fast) required at f8 vs. f4 and this can induce more camera movement or subject motion blur into the image.

There is more DOF at f8 but this not something commonly needed and the f4 lens can still be used at f8 if desired.

 

A lens may be useful through 100% of its focal length range and at all of its apertures and another may be best at the tele end (as with the 24-120mm VR lens) and quite soft at the wide end, and needs to be stopped down to f8 for really sharp images. If you know and understand and are able to shoot within those limitations a less expensive lens will be satisfactory.

 

Where people go wrong in my opinion is in sacrificing image quality to gain the convenience of a single lens. Unless that is a prime lens, or a zoom lens with a moderate 1:2 or 1:3 zoom ratio, they are going to have a noticeable difference in image quality and the larger the print or the more extreme the conditions the more this will be apparent.

The Sigma 30mm f1.4 is a very fast focusing and very sharp lens. On the DX it provides a "normal" perspective equal to a 51mm lens on a film body (it really provides the FOV of a 34mm FF lens not a 30mm per Sigma's own specs).

 

Going wider and slower you might as well get a 17-55mm f2.8 or equivalent lens that will be a lot more versatile, especially indoors, than a fixed focal length lens. With clean ISO 1600 you will have enough light in most situations and there is nothing to keep you from turning on additional lights or using a external flash.

Shooting wedding ceremonies indoors requires f2.8 zooms and with a 70-200mm lens you also need VR/IS as 1/200 is not going to be possible. During the reception for the dance shots f2.8 is a minimum and f1.4 is a real plus.

 

On a Nikon DX camera that translates to the 17-55mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8 and Sigma 30mm f1.4 for starters. I would not dream of shooting a wedding for free much less for pay without the above and two bodies and two flash units. There are no retakes and a botched job is something you may forget but the poor bride never will for as long as she lives.

 

Slower lenses translates into slower shutter speeds and more motion blur from both camera movement and subject movement. An assistant of mine in an effort to save money go the Canon 24-105mm f4 and the non-IS version of the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 lens. None of her shots with the non-IS telephoto were usable and the 24-105mm required twice as much flash which greatly limited the quality of the reception images.

 

I can bake a layer cake in my oven using my existing compliment of pots and pans. Would I enter into a contract to provide a multi-tier and decorated wedding cake for a couple? No way as I do not have the equipment or skills necessary to go to this next level.

 

Anyone who takes money to perform a service at a wedding should be in a position to guarantee the delivery of a minimal level of that service on that day. They should not be practicing their skills or getting experience with their cameras or their flash, etc. on their clients. It is not ethical.

 

One should work as a unpaid 3rd photographer until they have enough experience and enough equipment (including backup gear) to insure they can deliver the results that the bride and groom and their two families and their relatives and friends expect to receive.

The 5D is not a reliable camera but does produce nice images and is relatively lightweight and inexpensive for a FF camera. You need at least two, preferably 3 to get through a wedding. The Canon 24-105mm f4 IS is a great lens overall but not a good choice for a primary wedding lens. It is too slow at f4 and IS is of no help when people are moving as with the processional, recessional, reception dancing.

 

For the 5D the best choice would be the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 along with the 70-200mm f2.8 IS. You do want IS with the 70-200mm as at 200mm zoom setting you may not be able to shoot at 1/200 in most churches.

 

With Canon you have more choices in terms of fast wide angle primes but far fewer choices in terms of quality zooms that are appropriate for photography and there are serious reliability issues (16-35mm f2.8, 24-70mm f2.8, 17-55mm f2.8 IS) with most of the f2.8 zooms as well as quality control issues. I know a photographer who had to get 4 copies of the 16-35mm f2.8 lens to get one that was sharp as shipped from the factory. When the IS fails on the 17-55mm f2.8 the lens is not usable even with IS turned off. OK for casual use but do you want to have your primary lens go out in the middle of a wedding?

 

Nikon has had relatively terrible high ISO performance compared to Canon for the past 5 years. That changed in October with the D300 that has ISO performance on par with the 5D, and the D3 which surpasses anything made by anybody by a very wide margin. Nikon has always had better lenses and a better flash system (more reliable and more consistent exposures).

You need the flexibility of zoom lenses and f2.8 speed. For primes the only lens I would consider for a Nikon DX camera are the Sigma 30mm f1.4 and the Nikon 50mm f1.4.

 

Best to start out with the Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 and the 70-200mm f2.8 VR lenses.

 

The participants at the wedding and their guests do not want you running around any more than is necessary. In the church there are limits as to how close you can get without interfering with the ceremony - something one should never do. In the reception there are tables and chairs and people that limit movement considerable. On the dance floor you may find 17mm on a DX body is barely wide enough.

The Hill & Usher policy available through PPA or WPPI cover your equipment and a failure to deliver product to your clients. If you have an accident and don't make it to the wedding or someone after the wedding steals all your CF cards, your are covered. They will even do an extension to cover a 2nd photographer's errors and omissions.