david_lee37

After hearing many good things about Capture One, I decided to download a trial

copy...only to find out that Capture One will not operate on Windows Vista! I

have Vista Home Premium. Can anybody suggest a good alternative to Capture One

that will work on Vista?

 

I'm considering purchasing Adobe CS3 Design Premium since I can take advantage

of a significant student discount at my university book store ($600), and then

maybe spending another extra $300 for Lightroom. I have Nikon's Capture NX 1.1

that came with my D80, but as others have said, it's deathly slow and useless

for large volumes of pics. I tried BreezeBrowser Pro today but I don't like the

interface. ACDSee wouldn't even open NEF files for some reason, so I

immediately uninstalled that.

 

For some background...I am starting up as a wedding photographer...just shooting

friends and family events for practice and to build a portfolio. A friend and I

are doing this together...I'm the photographer and she's the Photoshop

specialist. So maybe I can just purchase Lightroom and not Photoshop since

she'll be doing the heavy editing anyway? I'm not new to photography, but I'm

definitely new to this whole digital workflow thing...

I really like the advice about practicing at museums and such to get used to low-light situations. Thanks a lot. As for a second body, I do have a 35mm Nikon N90 with a kit 35-70mm f/3.3 Nikkor lens. I imagine that would suffice for now until I can get another D80?

I would appreciate any advice or pointers for somebody trying to slowly break

into the wedding photographer business. I've read many posts here on p.net and

appreciate the kind words that have been imparted.

 

I have a full-time non-photography job and I'm thinking of starting to do

weddings on the weekends. My dad was an avid photographer and taught me

everything he knew back in the days of 35mm, although he wasn't specifically a

wedding photographer. He even opened up his own 1 hour photo lab for a while.

I recently made an investment in a Nikon D80, a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 (based a

recommendation on p.net as a viable alternative to the similar Nikon lens), a

SB-600, and a Gary Fong Lightsphere to help with the flash. A friend of mine

was nice enough to let me shoot her daughter's wedding as an unofficial second

photographer last weekend. I got some decent shots (using RAW) and I'm putting

an album together using mpix.com's coffee book software. I'm going to give the

album to the couple as a free gift, and keep a few copies for myself to use to

show others who are interested in my services. Following advice from

thatsmymonkey.com, I'll try to shoot some low-pressure weddings for family and

friends for free to build a real portfolio before actually setting a website

and publishing a pricing structure. As for digital workflow, I'm not

experienced in PS, so I've been using Nikon's Capture NX for touch-up based

from short tutorials from the web. I have another wedding in August that I'm

shooting...the couple decided not to hire a real photographer and the father

was going to do it, so I thought I would relieve the father since I imagine

he'll be pretty busy. Sounds low-pressure...I hope.

 

I've noticed a single piece of advice repeated over and over, and that's to

find a local pro and try to tag along as an assistant or 2nd shooter. I think

I'll call the real photographer from my friend's daughter's wedding, and if I

didn't annoy her too much with my shooting, then hopefully she'll give me some

pointers. The mentoring post by Marc from the 21st is also very helpful. I've

also bought many books (Marcus Bell and Bill Hurter are my favorites so far)

that have given me valuable information.

 

So my question is...am I going about this the right way? I know I'll

eventually need to get a second body and lens, but this first set was expensive

enough. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. I would especially

like to hear any advice on exposure settings on the D80, use of fill flash, and

use of the Gary Fong Lightsphere. Has anybody else done this technique of do a

few weddings for free in order to build a portfolio? Thanks in advnace!