spritestress
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Posts posted by spritestress
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Might I suggest implementing a user info management page? Even the most humble open source BBS systems provide user info management pages where users can make changes at will to such things as display name information, update email address, and so on. Such basic online management features may help to persuade more people that a paid subscription might be worth their investment. With many huge competitors, I would imagine such basic features may make a difference.
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If someone creates
an account on
photo.net and then
later discovers a
misspelling in their
user name, how might
one go about
correcting it?
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Try the following
techniques:
Use the C
(continous) focus
switch setting
except when shooting
still life
photographs.
Shoot portraits in
as low an ISO as
possible.
Get some reflector
disc tools, the
brand doesn't
matter. For most
situations, use the
white side of the
reflector disc to
fill in the shadows
of your subjects.
Another reflector
tool is white
foamcore sheets,
which are available
in many sizes. It is
marvelous and is
used by many pros.
Use whatever flash
you have in manual
mode. The SB-800 in
SU-4 manual mode
provides the
smallest increments
of adjustment, to
add just small
amounts of flash to
a photo that you are
otherwise metering
with available
light. In available
light, shoot in
shutter priority
mode or at least
meter with your
camera in shutter
priority mode, then
switch to manual
mode and set similar
aperture and shutter
settings, then
manually take
bracket shots with
higher and lower
apertures, checking
the histogram to get
exposures that you
like. Use an off
camera flash
whenever possible.
Using reflectors to
fill shadows and
highlight faces
reduces the dynamic
range of the
highlights versus
shadow, and also
reduces noise in the
shadow areas.
Always shoot RAW,
adjust in Nikon
Capture NX or Adobe
Lightroom and save
to TIFF, and edit in
16bit using PS CS3
for best results.
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Also, if you physically touch the sensor itself with anything, you may void your camera's warranty.
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If you are near a Calumet Photo branch, they will do it for about $50.00.
Meanwhile, you may want to read the instructions at the back of your D200 manual about removing sensor dust.
As your first approach, you may want to get a Giottos Rocket hand air blower. Following the instructions in the D200 manual for how to perform mirror lock-up for sensor cleaning, squeeze the Giottos Rocket blower repeatedly with the lens opening downward to blow the dust particles out of the camera.
In the future, always keep the camera upside down when changing lenses, and use the giottos rocket blower to clear all particles from and near the camera doing the lens change operation.
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Having noticed something additional in your original post . . .
You may want to consider sending a copyright "cease and desist" notice to the
advertiser that your magazine intends to allow to infringe on your copyrighted
work. The advertiser may be unaware that you own the copyright, not the
magazine. The advertiser may be just as liable as the magazine if they infringe
on your protected work. Notification to the advertiser also gives you an
opportunity to twist a little justified screw into the corpus of that magazine.
The magazine may lose that advertiser's business!
You may also want to consider that this thread is searchable in Google, as are
your connections and associations with that magazine. The people at that
magazine can quickly and easily discovery this thread, and consequently the
actions you may be contemplating.
Good luck getting busy covering your bases . . .
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The larger spectrum of articles on Bruce Schneier's site demonstrates the extent to which we now live in an Orwellian police state, in the aftermath of the WTC bombings. What is more amazing is the number of people who don't care they their rights are disappearing, and the number of people all too ready to see civil rights, civil liberties, and personal privacy destroyed.
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Skyy, you are very talented. Your impressive photographs demonstrate significant
photographic, and digital post processing skill and experience. I hope you
understand that the detailed information I have provided here is intended to
provide you with as much immediate assistance as is practical, because your work
seems worth helping you get started protecting; protecting it, yourself, your
work, and your business.
Below is a list of books you may want to purchase, read thoroughly, assimilate,
and put to use, so that you can get yourself started creating a suite of
contracts and related legal agreements and documents to use when conducting
business.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/158115206X/nmphotonet-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1581154771/nmphotonet-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1584281944/nmphotonet-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1584281480/nmphotonet-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/158115254X/nmphotonet-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0971339899/nmphotonet-20
You can also google "contract law":
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22contract+law%22
and start reading the countless links that provide lots of background
information about contract concepts.
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You may also want to consider sending the magazine that you believe intends to
infringe your copyright a:
"cease and desist"
notice, in which you can demand that the magazine not use your protected work
and that you intend to protect your copyright interests. You can google: '
copyright "cease and desist" '
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=copyright+%22cease+and+desist%22&btnG=Search
for examples of such notices. Be certain to send such a notice via certified
mail with return receipt requested. A certified letter such as that usually
provides an adequate scare for most people and companies to reconsider taking
advantage of the letter's sender.
(covering my butt)
If you have any questions about doing something like the above, you should of
course, seek the advice of an attorney so that you can execute something like a
"cease and desist" in an appropriate and effective manner. Remember always to
remain polite and professional, while remaining firm in such communications.
Never make idol threats and never use profanity. Consider all such
communications on the record because if you sue the receiver, the will be on the
record, they will become evidence. Consider carefully how the contents of such a
letter will be construed at a later date. A calm, matter of fact, letter that
simply and clearly states that their intended use of your work is unauthorized,
unlawful, in violation of your copyright, and that they must cease and desist or
they will incur every possible consequent legal liability, is more effective
than anything that uses fighting words or expresses anger.
I hope you make your present experience at least intangibly profitable to you by
taking the opportunity to arm yourself with business, contract, and legal
knowledge and tools.
Good luck,
Sprite Girl
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You are in over your head. The things you are doing are invitations to all sorts of trouble. In addition to contract law, your situation involves "business entity" formation law. Formally speaking, creation of a true "business partnership" can be quite complex because there are many issues to consider, just a few of which your own post outlines.
However, even if you had and could afford an attorney, every businessperson needs to have some basic knowledge of contracts in order to be able to evaluate the quality of the contracts the attorney creates.
Despite the fact that you are in over your head, there is no time like the present to catch up. Visit amazon.com to find and purchase some books about legal education for photographers. There are numerous books available with sample contracts and other legal paperwork for photographers. Purchase half a dozen of them. Read all those books carefully before reaching your own conclusions and deciding what will work best for you. It took me just a couple moments to generate the following list (please don't infer any recommendations):
You can also simply google "contract law":
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22contract+law%22
and start reading the countless links that provide lots of background information about contract concepts.
Too many talented and well intentioned photographers, with inadequate business education and training, all too often end up in the kind of situation the following photographer faces:
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Ppgc
Good Luck ...
Sprite Girl
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A few more additional thoughts ...
Please keep in mind that attorneys are yet another group of people to be careful
of when doing business with them. Don't engage one without a well-defined,
written, contract describing what you want done, and the terms you expect.
Otherwise you might find yourself involved in two bad business situations, one
involving your own attorney, which can be worse than the slimy magazine you
already have to tussle with.
One example of things attorneys, (like doctors/hospitals), think nothing of
doing, is sending a client an invoice whose total is five or even six figures in
size. To prevent that, it is important to require an attorney to notify you
before embarking on any task that will generate fees over some dollar amount you
should specify, so you don't get an invoice that might surprise you. Unless you
find someone who will take your case on contingency, in a civil case, remember
that the moment there is even a hint you can't pay, your attorney will withdraw,
leaving you hanging in the breeze. They are in it for the money. By the way,
attorneys usually only take contingency cases they think they can win, because
they aren't in it for charity, they are in it for the money. Actually it is sort
of a good sign if an attorney will take your case on contingency. However, on
contingency, read the fine print in the contract, their fee percentage is
usually calculated as a percent of everything collected, and then they add their
expenses, costs, and other expenditures on top of that. Expect an attorney to
take half of your judgment or settlement if you win. Consider that, and the
length of time required to litigate, before embarking on litigation. Also,
consider whether the defendant has deep enough pockets before starting
litigation. Even if you don't make that consideration, an attorney definitely
will, and will likely tell you not to bother suing a client who doesn't have
money to pay a settlement or judgment, and that they wouldn't take such a case
on contingency, because they are in it for the money.
Also, before engaging an attorney, check them out on:
You can check their rating and experience level with that site.
To further check out attorneys ho practice in federal court, you can also get a
PACER account from the court, which enables you to browse federal district court
case in your area. Searching for and reading through cases your potential
attorney has litigated will give you a good idea of their experience level,
skill, and approach to litigation. A copyright litigator who is "for real" will
have litigated a requisite number of case in your judicial district. All court
documents in federal cases are stored as PDF files and can be downloaded for
pennies per page.
http://www.uscourts.gov/electaccrt.html
Good luck with your copyright and business problems and with your potential
encounters with attorneys.
Yours,
Ms. Sprite
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Skyy, my purpose in my previous post was to give you some wake-up calls about conducting business, with the hope you may be better able to protect yourself and your business interests in the future. It would be nice to trust people, but the best defense against the few who 'play' the uninitiated is protective business practices. Think of protective business practices as a part of risk management, like buying insurance.
Craig is correct that you have copyright ownership of your photographs from the moment you create them, notwithstanding some circumstance that creates a 'work for hire' relationship, or a contract wherein you sell someone the copyright interest in one or more photographs. Usually that occurs, a specific, written transfer of copyright interested would needed, about which you would obviously have records.
I also believe it is important that you understand at least some of the hurdles you face if you find yourself interested in litigation. Litigtation is nasty. Litigation is usually unfair, favoring the party with deeper pockets. Litigation usually takes ridiculous amounts of time, generally measured in years. In U.S. District Court ( the federal trial court ), it often takes judges a couple months to rule on a single motion.
Meanwhile, I would urge you to submit registration paperwork for the disputed photographs to the U.S. Copyright office immediately, using certified mail with return receipt requested. Remember that you can register an entire group of photos with a single registration. However, it is possible to get higher statutory damages if you register photos individually, which can get expensive considering that it currently costs $50.00 for each registration submitted. As I noted in my previous post, although a copyright registration is valided/dated from the date the copyright office processes it for entry, in my personal experience, the copyright office often takes as long as six months just to return the green certified mail return receipt. This is important because there is significant case law available through Westlaw and Lexis at your county law library, which clarifies that the plaintiff must possess the copyright registration certificate in order to bring a suit for copyright registration. The federal copyright statutes also require that copyright suits be litigated in federal court, and in the defendant's jurisdiction and venue.
Once you get a lawyer, if you find a good one who specializes in copyright infringement, you may be able to apply pressure, and negotiate a settlement without actually filing suit. Be prepared for an attorney to ask for a retainer in the thousands of dollars just to get started.
For your future protection, I do hope you will develop appropriate written contracts for your business and remember to never do business in the future, with anyone, unless you have a signed written contract with them that clearly specifies your copyright ownership, which clearly specifies restrictions on the client's use of photographs that you LICENSE to them only for specific uses you make available to them. The possible parameters of photographic licenses can vary greatly. It is up to you to study the possibilities so that you can negotiate them with clients and clearly specify them in contracts.
Good Luck
Ms. Sprite
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Always shoot RAW and always use AUTO white balance, because the white balance of each photograph is unique. Use Adobe Lightroom to make fine white balance adjustments, and other adjustments, for each of your photos.
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( I am not a lawyer and the following should not be considered legal advice)
You need a lawyer for many reasons.
Your first mistake was doing business without a written contract. No gig is
worth it without a written contract that you and your attorney have drafted.
It is important to understand that there is a circumstance where you might not
own your copyright to photos, it is called "work for hire", which you can expect
your defendant to claim if your spend the tens of thousands required to bring a
federal copyright suit against that magazine, et al.
In addition, your copyright is worthless and meaningless unless you have
registered it with the Library of Congress. Nobody can bring a copyright claim
without first registering that copyright. The copyright process registration
takes many months because the copyright office in Wash. D.C. is so ridiculously
slow, one of the most shamefully slow aspects of the federal government, IMO. By
the way, the fastest and cheapest way to register a copyright is to fly to Wash.
D. C. and register the copyright in person at the Library of Congress copyright
counter, which provides immediate service at the counter.
For future:
- learn some contract law - at least read about contract law online
- learn some copyright law - at least read the statutes and procedures online
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/
- develop your own contracts with an attorney and don't work without them.
- file copyright registrations for your photographs ASAP after each shoot, using
certified mail /w return receipt.
- maintain a legal defense fund because copyright litigation in federal court
will be very expensive, and a copyright is useless if an infringer thinks you
don't have the ability to litigate with them.
The best defense to all this is to do business only with a signed written
contract that explicitly defines your rights.
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Check your states privacy and recording statutes. If one party recording of
conversations is legal in your state, get an Olympus digital recorder, and
secretly record all those business negotiates, about which jerks usually deny
their promises after the fact. Revealing the recording as evidence of their
perjury during a deposition when sued would destroy them.
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1308
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1309
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1292
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There is also a plug-in available for Firefox 3.0 that provides a GUI interface for changing the color management settings.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6891
Even without the plug-in, the process for changing the settings, described in my original post, was accomplished in a few seconds.
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The news reports indicate that Firefox 3.0 will be officially released next
week, on Tuesday June 17, 2008.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,147039-c,mozilla/article.html
One of the most photo.net relevant reasons to install and use Firefox 3.0 is its
support for ICC profile color managed image display.
To enable Firefox 3.0 color management, do the following:
- enter 'about:config' in the firefox address bar
- type 'gfx' in the filter field to limit its display to relevant entries.
- double click the - gfx.color_management.enabled - entry and its value will
change to true.
- double click the - gfx.color_management.display_profile - entry and a text
input field will appear. Paste the file location string below, or another
similar one with the desired ICC profile, into the field.
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Color\Profiles\Recommended\sRGB Color Space
Profile.icm
The profile file location above is only one of many possible locations for these
files on a Windows machine. To locate them on your system, simply perform a file
search for '*.icm' to generate a list of ICC profiles on your system.
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A reflector, such as those made by photoflex, is another way to fill in shadows while shooting in sunlight. In the photo above a reflector placed diagonally, from camera center to camera right, just out of the frame, would have filled in the under eye shadows and decreased the shadow on the left side of your subject's face.
Another approach to making this kind of shot is to use manual flash with shutter priority to establish the exposure settings. Use your camera's spot metering to measure and establish an optimal aperture for the shot. Then take a series of shots using manual flash at 1/4, 1/2 and then full power, and then check the LCD histogram and use visual verification to see which level provided the amount of fill you like most. With some practice, you will begin to be able to estimate the right amount of manual flash to use for this kind of shot in sunlight. Manual flash provides predictable results, and results where you know what the input value was that produced the result.
Another approach that some photographers use for staged shots in sunlight, is an overhead scrim. Westcott, Photoflex, and others make 77 in. square frames and translucent fabric to stretch on them. The translucent frame can be attached to two light stands and suspended overhead in midday sun. The translucent panel diffuses the sunlight. The overhead panel is above and outside the frame, and completely invisible in the photo, but the subject's faces are evenly illuminated by the diffused light coming through the scrim.
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The Canon and Nikon wireless units use infra-red (IR) technology. I have one of each. They sit in a drawer and will probably get sold at some point. The IR
technology requires line of sight and is very finnicky. Both the Canon and Nikon remote shutter trigger systems are quite overpriced, IMO, and neither is all that reliable because of the IR technology used in them.
I now use the aforementioned "adorama" radio frequency remote shutter trigger and it works just fine and quite reliably.
http://www.adorama.com/CZDRHSCA.html
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Here is a 30 in LCD from HP with a wide color gamut for those who want the
Profoto RGB color gamut visible on their display as well as whatever other dream
output device they are using that supports it.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/10/hp-gets-color-critical-with-30-inch-dreamcolor-lp2480xz-lcd/
Hope fans are ready for the $3,499.00 price tag that goes with it.
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Why not go with a lighting manufacturer whose lights you can try out at a photographic store near you before you purchase them?
Why not visit Calumet Photo in Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, or whichever is near you, and try out the various brands of strobe lights they have available, and then choose one that suits your needs, that the manufacturer will stand behind with warranty and availability for reliable service if required?
http://www.calumetphoto.com/ctl?ac.ui.pn=compinfo.CompStoreLocDetail&ac.comp.locID=LA
http://www.calumetphoto.com/ctl?ac.ui.pn=compinfo.CompStoreLocDetail&ac.comp.locID=SD
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What you are asking is like trying to have a doctor diagnose your illness by telephone. For the same reasons a doctor usually won't, it is difficult for generous people like me determine what is going on without seeing what is happening in person. There are too many possible variables to diagnose what is happening on your computer.
I suspect that Lightroom itself is not likely the problem. Based on your descriptions, I have the impression that my first description of what you are seeing is exactly what I described previously. To repeat, on first click of a newly imported file, Lightroom displays the file's internal preview JPEG until it generates its own preview. During that process, Lightroom even displays a visual indicator stating that it is generating its own preview. After that, Lightroom displays the RAW file's actual contents without adjustments.
From there it is necessary to enter "Develop" mode, and adjust the photograph to personal taste, which is usually quite subjective and individual. Lightroom provides numerous tools that make it possible to fine tune photographs with precision, and even to save multiple settings "snapshots".
For most accurate presentation, I would also suggest a hardware monitor calibration device, such as a Spyder, Huey, and so on. Without clearing up those variables, there isn't any way to determine what is going on for you.
Please also remember not to bite hands like mine, which are trying to feed you with helpful suggestions. To use another metaphor, I am just a messenger, so please do not shoot me because of the ostensible problem(s) you have encountered.
If you are truly intent about resolving your problem, you might try paying for assistance. You might try paying Adobe a technical support service fee to diagnose your problem. Or you might try having a "Geek Squad" or similar service visit you and your computer to help you.
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Why are you concerned with the geographical location of the lighting equipment manufacturer?
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In its default mode, Lightroom does not perform any "automatic" adjustments.
I suspect that what you may be eluding to is the appearance of the RAW file's JPEG preview that Lightroom displays just after import, until Lightroom generates its own previews. After that first instant, Lightroom displays the contents of a RAW file based on its own "RAW development engine", which is really an expanded version of the engine in Adobe Camera Raw.
Another thing to understand is that if you shoot RAW, "picture styles" and what not are ignored by non "manufacturer" RAW file processors. No matter what, when shooting RAW, your end result will always be the product of the adjustments made in its processing software.
It is very important to take the time to read the Lightroom online documentation thoroughly. It may also be helpful to read some articles and books on RAW files, and RAW file processing software.
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You should never touch a digital camera's sensor with anything. If dust appears on test photos, first use the 40D's electronic auto sensor cleaning feature numerous times. After that, use only a blower, like a Giottos rocket, when trying to remove sensor dust. Do that only after carefully reading all the instructions in the manual repeatedly, a few times. If a blower can't remove something on the sensor, send the camera to Canon for service, following their instructions carefully, with insurance on the camera, via a shipment method that provides a delivery receipt.
If you physically touch a camera's sensor with anything, the camera's warranty will be void, void, void.
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According to a couple google queries, today and tomorrow are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavuot
http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayc.htm
Which is why the major NYC camera stores are closed.
how to correct ID spelling error
in PhotoNet Site Help
Posted
I am not familiar with an adage such as: "the proprietor is always right".
Good Luck