wholephotography

<p>Here is tonights client, and a sample 3 light setup in my basement.</p><div></div>

<p>I am rather new to the home studio myself, but I thought long and hard and went strobe from the beginning, and a friend went hot light from the start... He is in a similar situation as you.. time of day cause instability in his sessions.. has had to learn to compensate for it.<br />I purchased the PhotoBasics StrobeLight Plus outfit from FJ Westcott, especially since they are based in Toledo, and I am less than 10 miles from them. They have been great about discussions on my goals and everything. I have owned the system for 14 - 16 months and the only thing I can say is I have outgrown the quality of the photobasics line. I have family and session all over, so I wanted to setup and tear it down often, that was too much for the stitching and fabric the softboxes are made of. So.. I am currenlty upgrading using the same strobes with the WESTCOTT Pro line softboxes. Worth the cost if you want to be mobile. <br />I also use Pocket Wizards to trigger them, but you can hardwire them cheaper. All in all including the 3 light strobe kit, 2 pocketwizards, and the Pro softboxes, I about $2000 total in my lights and rely on them often! <br />Visit my site here or at <a href="http://www.wholephotography.com">www.wholephotography.com</a> to see some of my results, I am very happy with my strobes.</p>

<p>Thanks for the ideas, I will be sure to post some when complete, the shoot is Oct 4th weekend</p>

<p>I am doing that this morning, I am willing to purchase a background if anyone have an idea that sounds like it would work well.<br>

I own Black, White, Grey, Light Grey, Purple, Maple/Burgandy, light brown, washed out brown, spotted blue, pink, and a few others..<br>

Mainly hoping that someone has a recommendation on using complimentary colors or something else..<br>

My first though was a canary yellow, but I am worried about the tiffany blue.. I think a silver would look great as long as its not too shiny..</p>

<p>I have a client that is traveling me to a remote site from my home to do a session, which sounds fun for me, but I need to bring the right background and not my whole stash.. So I am asking for some ideas.<br>

The clients will be wearing Choclate and Blue, some tiffany blue, some a bit darker, but not a dark blue.<br>

Any background ideas would be great for this indoor location.</p>

<p>Thanks<br>

Craig</p>

<p>Nearly every great shoot I do begins with the 24-70 f2.8 I love it. And I love its range. I have purchased the lens over a year ago and love it. It started to get tight at the extremes of the zooms and Nikon replaced it under warranty. <br>

<img src="http://www.wholephotography.com/photonetquestions/24-70shot.jpg" alt="" width="2848" height="4288" /></p>

<p>Jr High Track meet ... Nikon D300, with Nikon 70-200 f2.8 with 2x tele<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=906957">http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=906957</a><br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/9000015-lg.jpg" alt="" width="664" height="1000" /></p>

<p>When you say.. the lighting is flat.. are you referring to a broad area at the same intensity? <br>

Would you or anyone recommend using a Low ISO setting on the Nikon D300 ? I had heard it can really be problematic.</p>

<p>A bit more of the ones I am unhappy with are viewable here... <br /><br />On my Gallery<br /><a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=899012">http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=899012</a><br>

Thanks for any advice</p>

<p>So I have read alot of tutorials and things about shooting white backgrounds, but I am still unhappy with my skill and capabilities. I am trying to perfect it with the tools I have to avoid purchasing more equipment. Any advice is appreciated. The Subject is my son Jack and these were not intended to be posed shots, just samples for testing my setup. Although Jack doesn't mind being a helper "tographer" as he calls it.<br>

I would like to know what could be done to improve these pictures under the conditions it was shot on.<br /><br />I don't like the wrap on this, it seems to be excessive. Lighting used is Westcott PhotoBasics StrobeLitePLUS system, 3 lights used, 2 on background and 1 on subject with a reflector overhead to keep light on top the hair. </p>

<p>Subject 8' from background<br />Camera - D300 with 24-70mmf2.8 Lens <br />Settings - ISO200, F11,70mm, 125sec.<br>

<img src="http://www.wholephotography.com/photonetquestions/sm_original.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Subject 6' from background<br />Camera - D300 with 85mm f1.4 Lens <br />Settings - ISO400, F6.3,70mm, 125sec.</p>

<p><img src="\\webserver\c$\inetpub\vhosts\wholephotography.com\httpdocs\photonetquestions\dsc_9931.jpg" alt="" /><br>

Thanks<br />Craig Hulbert</p>

<p>This is my first venture into event photography, and I am taking it slow. I have worked with the school and the school is paying for each family to recieve a 5x7 photo. So I am working on my workflow for this project and would like some comments.. I think I have a good idea, but I trust those of you who have down it before will have more ideas.<br>

Background and props are being handled by the decorator, I am most interested in keeping over 500 pictures straight and getting them back to the kid who is in the picture.<br>

#1 I built a spreadsheet with all the kids and their main classroom teacher <br /> each name has barcode next to it that represents a first name and last inital and teacher initals<br>

<br />#2 I setup my D300 and WT4 to FTP the image in real time to my event pc\<br />#3 I setup lightroom to have a watch folder so it auto adds to the catalog<br />#4 I setup a simple saved export settings system so I can barcode scan the student from the worksheet after they sign in<br />#5 I have a directory with full metadata applied and 100% jpgs spelled the way I want them<br />#6 I upload them at night following the dance and pick up the prints the next day and deliver to the school after packaging them in 5x7 paper envelope frames. The prints are back printed at the lab with the filename and copyright also.<br>

Questions...<br>

Is there any other automation in lightroom that you have used onsite at an event?<br>

Is there any thing that I am forgetting ... like what if there are two kids in one family, I need to printand image for both kids.. I think I should be able to just export it twice.. one with each childs barcode.<br>

What about the future.. what should I be doing next time... I have considered a Fuji Ask 4000 for such projects, but I can print the next day at a local lab cheaper.. so onsite priniting is a bust unless each person has to pay for the images.. when the school wants to foot the bill I feel I have to do it as cheap as I can but still put out quality images so they call me again.<br>

Also I am concerned about onsite printing for dances, kids have no place to put the image, so they will tend to loose them or not to have it taken.<br>

Thanks<br>

Craig Hulbert<br /><b>Signature URL removed, not allowed on photo.net</b>

<p>I am a fairly new investor in Nikon and their wonderful lens selection, so here is my 0.02</p>

<p>My first purchase with my first D300 was a 24-70 VR f2.8 and a 70-200 VR f2.8. I love them dearly, I travel with both often. I added so cheap lenses to support a second body I purchased, the 18-55 and 55-200 ... their slow and they suck, but I wanted a lens to take into caves and I needed a wider lens but couldn't afford the second body and a 14-24 f2.8 yet. So.. here I was with 2 D300s and 4 great lenses, I have ended up having the 24-70 on one body and the 70-200 on the other almost 95% of the time.<br>

I just bought an 85 f1.4 and I truly love this lens, so if you can deal with the fixed mm of this lens I would highly recommend it for modern dance. from a distance of about 50' you will have a 5' depth of field to get the whole body in focus but take all else into beautiful blur.<br>

My next lens will be a 14-24 f2.8 but honestly I spend my evenings getting my automation setup using the WT4 and lightroom so I can shoot and shoot and then when I am done, its all waiting on me in lightroom in the editing room, no transfer time.</p>

Thanks for so much detail, i reaaly love the support I get here.

I have been asked to take some pictures of a 12yr old girl and her horse. She rides in shows with jumps and stuff

too.. I have the action covered..

 

My questions is for any suggestions on frameable pictures of her and her horse.. anybody shoot near stables indoors

or out.. with strobes or hot lights as to not scare the horse

 

I have never shot animals with kids and am concerned about not only doing a good job, but not putting the child in an

unsafe environment with flash/strobes while on the horse if horses are prone to not like strobes.

 

Any links to similar pictures would be helpful, I am scouring the web for ideas...

 

Thanks

 

Craig

I had the same comparison several months ago..

 

I settled on the D300 because of the features and accessories. I purchased the

D300, a 24-70 2.8 VR ED, a 70 -200 2.8 VR ED, Lensbaby 3G, 18 -55 5.6, and a

55 - 200 5.6. and I am insanely happy with my choices.. the 5.6 lenses are

mainly for teleconverter possibilities..

 

I also outfitted my home studio with a 3 light Photo Basics Strobe Lite Plus

system and Manfroto tripods and Supierour Seamless, Studio Dynamics, and

Westcott backgrounds. I settled with a Sekonic 358 light meter and Pocket

Wizard Plus's

 

After choosing the D300 .. all equipment choices from there fell into place.... Nikon

took forever to get the 2 - 2.8 lenses.. like 6 weeks but it was worth the wait.

 

Best of Luck to you..

I purchased the NIkon Camera Control Pro and WT-4 so I can shoot tether to my pc also.. so I can immediatly look at it in CaptureNX and see if I like the shot...

 

I am considering the AlienBees.. but like many manufacturers they don't have a kit for what I am looking for.. they have a 4 light kit not a 3.. what would I use the 4th head for? and when you talk about radio trigger.. are you talking about something like a pocket wizard .. so I would need 2 of those one in the hot show and one on the first head.. then let the heads trigger themselves?

 

Sounds doable.. slightly more than I was wanting to spend.. but I keep hearing about the alien bees stuff.. I am guessing its considered the workhorse of the industry..

 

What I am thinking is 4 head busy bee kit and add a boom and that should get me started.. maybe a second softbox later..

 

i do have the histogram on my d300 and the 28" monitor for immediate viewing.. so I think this should be a nice kit..

 

should i ditch the wired remote that comes with the Bees and try to find a wireless one.. pocket wizard with right cables ?

I recently purchased a Nikon D300 and SB800 with a westcott mini appollo

softbox. I just getting into taking portraits and object photography and am

rather new to the whole photography thing.

 

I have a 20' x 20' x 10' High room to use for my studio and am looking for idea

on lights.

 

Max number of people I intend to shoot in the space would be 4 - 6 at a time.

Also I like to shoot wine bottles and product shots.

 

I would like to know..

 

If I decided to go the strobe route is a 320ws monolight kit bright enough to

get started.

 

I would like to stay away from hot lights but would be ok with cool lighting..

but can't afford stobes and cool lights.

 

What manufactures would you recommend and how should I trigger them and tie

them to my D300...

 

portability is important because my wife and I travel to family locations and

would like to setup for portraits there to.

 

I have been looking in the $600 - $1200 range for lights and looking for 2

heads or 3...I am willing to get a light meter but would like to use the Nikon

if I can for a while.

 

I have looked at and am interested in integrated wireless capabilities of

monolights.. rather than using pocket wizards unless you guys really think for

timing you have to use them..

 

I think Hensel, Elinchrom, Photoflex, Photogenic, Interfit, and Wescott are

brands I am interested in..

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Craig Hulbert

My Hobby's are at www.mylittleservers.com