matthew_neale

<p>It looks like my best bet is to shoot RAW, stay in something like tiff during processing and then convert to jpeg for delivery to the customer. Thanks for the advice</p>

<p>Actually lighting won't vary much once set up the first time. You always want to limit ambient light as much as possible, and you always want to make sure your strobes are working properly. I always metered my lights at the beginning of the day and occasionally during the day when I used film. With digital I'll have instant feedback and can dump the images onto the computer at the conclusion of each sitting. I have found that some light is a good idea so that a scary monster isn't coming out of the darkness to scare the kids. The problem with fluorescent overheads is that they give off a green cast if you're not careful. If your strobes are powerful enough they will overcome this, but then they blind your customer, so you have to find a balance. My preference is to have some table lamps rather than overheads to chase away the total darkness. A grey card at the start of the day is never a bad idea since it gives a nice reference point for everyone. Even with film consistency was important, you could save a lot of money in printing if exposure was consistent. In that respect directories are like school pictures.</p> <p>If you have never seen what happens during a photo session for a directory, let me explain. You set up a complete studio in the church, which means at a bare minimum 2 lights. If you are using traditional backgrounds, then you want a 4 light setup. That means a main, fill, background and hair light. Each sitting will be a shortened version of a full studio experience. Singles will be about 5 different poses, couples 5 together and 2 of each individual. Families can be anywhere from 3 to the Duggars in size. Usually when I had a family it was 5-6 shots of the family with 2-3 different poses. I then did a couple shots of the parents and then a couple poses of the kids. You will deal with newborns through Centenarians. You will deal with this during a single day and almost none of them will have ever darkened the door of a professional photography studio. Your goal is to get to know these people quickly and give them a portrait session that goes beyond just a picture. You want to get at least one pose during the session that captures an image of the soul. The basic studio is pretty straight forward, props are another thing entirely. You need posers and props for every age. Your posing has to be efficient since you only have an average of 10 minutes per session. Even though you are moving quickly, you don't want people to feel rushed. One more thing, if you don't like kids and don't know how to play, this is not the business for you.</p> <p>What I want is to make sure that if the client takes their file to a good lab, they will get a good print.</p>

<p>I spent 20 odd years doing church directories, before taking a 10 year break. If you are printing a hard copy like my competitors your lighting has to be "spot on." I'm using a Tamron 28-200 that I have had since I last had my studio and I've been happy with the film images. Keeping separation from the background is important, no matter what background you use. The clientele is different in this environment than what comes into a studio and frankly is usually less artistically minded. You don't get to do any type of pre-sitting consultation so you deal with whatever walks through the door. My demands for quality are usually much higher than their's so usually if I'm happy, they're happy.</p> <p>Like I've mentioned, I'm starting cheap in case I'm wrong about the demand for my product. If I'm right, I'll be upgrading cameras in a hurry. I also don't like working without lots of backup equipment anyway. I'm starting as a cash business and no debt. That means I can turn a profit quickly, which also means I can upgrade quickly. </p>

<p>The less than full size sensor and 6mp are why I consider this an entry level camera. I was able to get it off Ebay for less than $70.00. If I'm right and this thing grows then I can step up to something like a D90 or newer. The photography part of this I just need to shake the rust off. The digital part is all new to me. I've never done a lot with digital photography, but this project has taken on a life of it's own. I've always enjoyed darkroom work and what little digital work I've done has been fun. That is really the point of this thread, learning what RAW is all about. I understand the idea that it is the WYSIWG off the sensor. I need to know what I need to do to it. I assume it's kind of like film, that if you get the lighting and posing right, then you don't need to do much darkroom work. Of course I could be wrong.</p>

<p>I was planning on setting things up at home to get the setup the way I want it. String can be a photographer's best friend if you don't have time to meter every pose. My concern is that I want to give customers a large enough file that they can at least get an 11x14 and maybe a 16x20. If this goes according to plan I'll be upgrading to at least a full frame with a minimum of double the pixel count.</p> <p>I am planning on delivering the images in jpeg, but I wonder if RAW might be better to do the chroma key swap and any other correction first. White balance should be straight forward since I'm using daylight balanced studio strobes. What I have to keep in mind is that I'll be processing and editing around 300 images for every day I'm in a church. For now the chroma key will be done in Paint, so I'll have to edit in something like Elements and convert to something that is loss less, change the background and then do cleanup.</p> <p>I know a lot of studio pros won't like what I'm going to do, but they aren't my competition. I'm competing against the corporate photography businesses. Very few of the people photographed through a church directory would ever go to a portrait studio for a family portrait.</p>

<p>I'm not new to professional photography, but I am new to digital. Things have fallen together to allow me to restart into professional photography specializing in volume family portraits. Without going into great detail, my plan is to do church directories with the directory itself hosted online. The families will pay a reasonable session fee and then will receive the digital images which they can have printed where ever they choose. I plan on using chroma key and then inserting backgrounds in post production. I will need to process about 5-10 images per sitting and normally I would have an average of 25 sittings per day. I would anticipate most families will not print anything larger than an 8x10, while some will want larger prints.<br> <br /> At present I have a Nikon D70s, although if the response is positive this could get an upgrade quickly, along with my studio lighting. I am looking at delivering the images within 48 hours, either online, or by photo CD. With this volume and time constraint would it be best to shoot JPEG Fine and how would this affect families' desire for enlargements? Keep in mind I would anticipate most will either use a department store lab, or their home inkjet printer.<br /> Comments and thoughts would be appreciated. I've done directories in the past, both on my own and working for others, so I know how the industry works. I'm looking to blaze a new trail.</p>

<p>I've been away from photography for about a decade, so I have a lot to catch up on, but in the past you didn't even know what shutter counts were. What was important was the overall condition of the camera. A camera exposed to the outdoors, especially one that has been around a lot of salt air, has a lot less life left than a studio camera used for portraits, weddings and illustration work.</p> <p>I'm actually thinking about getting a D90. At the price point I can end up with 2 at some point. When I was shooting professionally the motto was to have a backup for everything. Even brand new equipment can fail out of the box. I have actually had dead batteries in a fresh package.</p>