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  • in reply to: I wanted to charge $ until I found your site… #18686
    Bagga_Txips
    Participant

    Space heater, good idea.  Especially if you get one that can be a cooler in summer too.

     

    That 24-70 lens.  Why?  because it is probably magnificent.  Why not?   Because f1.8 and f1.4 are more useful than f2.8 for focussing, though much less useful for portraits.  Because having 2 smaller primes includes redundancy, one can fail and you can still use the other.  Because you already have 50mm covered I believe, so need the long end much less in your smallish room.  (btw I suggested 2 lenses, but anticipated you only buying one of them.)  Because zooms rarely, if ever, give as good results as a prime in the same price range, or even much cheaper primes.  And there it is, my main misgiving – that 24-70 mil lens is 2,000 dollars.  That’s really splashing out at an early stage of the career path.  Buy it when the business has earned it, not before.   (I had a DTP business years ago, complete with a laser printer worth about 2500 dollars.  I gave really great product.  I sold about 1,000 dollars worth of product in the first year…  Lost more than that on reselling the printer at the end of the year, having learned that I was a poor businessman.)

     

    You are using the biz to subsidise your dreams.  If that lens is the dream, and you can afford it, buy it.  But…  2k dolares! Ai caramba!!

    in reply to: I wanted to charge $ until I found your site… #18665
    Bagga_Txips
    Participant

    The III is better I believe.  And get a set of triggers to go with them.

     

    in reply to: Famous Yogi Photographer…Less than Impressive #18664
    Bagga_Txips
    Participant

    He’s not very good at horizons…

     

    in reply to: I wanted to charge $ until I found your site… #18662
    Bagga_Txips
    Participant

    I live in China, where a lot of the stuff is made.  So YMMV.  However, it is amazing how prices vary so widely here.  Some stuff is dirt cheap, for example I get brand new Pentax lenses at prices close to the low range of used prices in the US.  And then I might have to pay double the US price for a smartphone that is actually made in China…

    Anyway, to get back on-topic.  Pentaxforums.com has several threads extolling the virtues of the Yongnuo 560 mk II and mk III flashguns.  They are not as whizz-bang as Nikon guns apparently, and they are not fully automatic – they may even be manual only for all I know.  BUT, they seem to be dead cheap, and I think manual only is a good idea for studio work anyway.  And while I was checking them out on the Chinese amazon site, I found some nice portable LED panels made by Yongnuo that could be a nice low-heat way to provide continuous light.  One sec, I will check US amazon….  Yep, over 20 pages of Yongnuo stuff to drool over, I must not look, I must not look…..  50 dollars for a small panel, but don’t forget the battery pack costs too, and may well be heavy.

    Such panels are probably nicer for doing baby shots, because they won’t be so hot and disturbing.   Sometimes you might need the heat to keep the baby warm of course.   A varied array of light sources may create havoc with the white balance, you are gonna need to be careful.  Or b&w only.  The rest of your gear sounds very useful for your needs, at the moment, but maybe a nice 40 mm f2.8 at $277 or the 35mm 1.8 at $199 might be a useful lens to add to your collection.  But stand well back using these lenses, you don’t want the dreaded bignose effect to show up.

    Glaring omissions from your list include a really good tripod, and, sad to say, the most expensive, and in my opinion the most necessary addition – at least one extra camera body.  If you still have the D90, splendid.  800E on the tripod, all set up in advance, D90 with 35mm f1.8 around your neck.  You look the real deal, and you can prance around impressing the hell out of mom, swooping back and forth to take candids as you go.  BTW at this point we should think about the new Sigma Art lenses.  They seem to be built using the big-SUV ethos, so they are enormous and heavy, but they are cheap and are getting a good rep, and it seems that those not in the know equate enormity with professionalism, so the customer might swoon over the fact that you are blessing them with all your supergear.  (I, on the other hand, love my tiny Pentax  lenses, I carry 4 primes and a fisheye zoom everywhere atm, my gear weighs about 3 kilos in total)

     

    And so on.  And now you meet a real stumbling block.  You may well be thinking of going semi-pro to help you buy that item of gear you dream of owning.  And here we are, proposing that you have to spend even more money on gear you will need to get to become semi-pro, BEFORE you can start saving up for that dream item… Sigh.

    in reply to: I wanted to charge $ until I found your site… #18650
    Bagga_Txips
    Participant

    When I say gear, I don’t just mean the camera.  To offer a professional service one needs a damned sight more than just a good camera. Tripods, lights, flashes, filters, reflectors, umbrellas, a second camera body.  To paraphrase Matrix:  We need lenses, lots of lenses.  I agree that an 85 or 135 is a good early buy, preferably with a wide fastest aperture – the 85 f1.8 would be cool, especially as the 85 f1.4 is twice or thrice the price.  A 50mm f1.8 would be useful too, as some shooting sessions might be in more enclosed spaces that wouldn’t suit the 85.  The 135 is also very expensive, and to begin this career path it would be adequate to crop the 85 to get similar results.

    As for Pentax being at least two steps downgrading, I’m not too sure about that, even though I agree that the D800E is a super camera. much much more than adequate for the purpose.  Tis a pity the appropriate and necessary lenses to match that camera will be so very expensive.

    To the OP, this is a major step, and needs a lot of prior investment of time spent in both research and building your portfolio.  But decades ago I would have been happy to begin my portfolio with shots as good technically as many of yours are.  Good luck, and if you get rich you owe us 10% ok?

     

     

    in reply to: Shots from "To Kill a Mockingbird" #18646
    Bagga_Txips
    Participant

    Very nice indeed, but often too dark.  The blacks are good, maybe too black, but does the histogram or even the shot show a truly white white?  In any tricky lighting situation like this maybe it’s a good idea to bracket a bit?

    in reply to: I wanted to charge $ until I found your site… #18644
    Bagga_Txips
    Participant

    Apologies in advance for any hurt I might cause!  Most of my suggestions are from all the reading I have done over the years, and a bit of experience of paid shooting.  But not to a profitable level, because I was never brave enough to do what you are thinking of doing.  So well done to you for that.

    First, lets consider that girl in a hat.  I don’t really think it is too bright, there are few if any blown-out or overbright areas in the shot.  However, there is a very narrow range of greys on the face, the most important part of the shot maybe.  I hope you are shooting in RAW, and if you are it may be possible to improve the pic by playing with colour sliders in your postprocessing software, to put a bit more contrast into the face.  Also, maybe including a tiiiiny bit of the eye further away would have added to the shot somehow.  I wonder how many shots you took of this pose?  This one is fine, but a dozen more from 1 inch higher, 1 inch lower, and so on, might have helped.  The thing that detracts from the shot, in my eyes, is the shadow below her chin?  How many light sources were you using?  Portraits often need 2 or more, and in particular don’t use on-camera flash.

    You mention resulting edits – do you use postprocessing software?  It’s often very expensive, but an excellent free one I use as my default is Faststone Image Viewer.  People often comment that my b&w conversions are nice, yet all I did was press a single button!  (Gray Scale)  PP suites like Photoshop and Lightroom are expensive, overcomplicated, and give you several more ways to get it right, and 1000s more ways to get it wrong…

    Let’s talk about your portfolio on Viewbug.  First, it’s in the wrong place!   I assume it’s free, but it, and others like FB, Flickr and so on are places where we can post shots and get oodles of praise from our pals, or as shown in YANAP from people who have no idea about photography and may even dislike a shot that was perfect.  Your portfolio would be better on your own website, so you could have full control of it’s content, and to show a level of professionalism.

     

    Now let’s look at its content.  It is too small!  It suggests you have only taken 65 shots that you are proud to show to other people.  The portfolio will be even smaller after my suggestions!  Your website might be better if it was in sections:  People, Pets, Babies, Scenery spring to mind after a quick look.  Remove:  butterflies, squirrels, ducks, fireworks… bla bla bla – you see where I am going with this?  You must be VERY critical of your own work.  Only the best will do, and don’t bother trying to sell shots that people can get/steal for nothing off the internet.  You may sell such shots, but mainly by including them as cutaways taken during someone’s half-day or day long session or wedding.  I suggested babies as a category.  This could be very profitable, but the shots you show are often very similar.  Take lots more shots for any category you choose to specialise in.  Take them now – maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.  Don’t choose categories that are too wildly different.  Few people would trust a wedding photographer who also specialises in insect macros, sports photography, and forensic medicine!  For people and babies, that you seem to be good at, you might have to offer or even beg to do free sessions for people, with them paying for materials, in order to boost your portfolio.

    You wanted to be paid for a gig as second shooter.  No way that’s gonna happen, based on your portfolio.  Not the quality, which is ok, but the extent.  The guy was doing you a favour allowing you to be there, take shots, lots of shots, and learn from him/her.  You are effectively at a stage where any form of internship is a godsend, grab every opportunity.

    Webites and online resources to look at.  YANAP, of course, will show you nearly everything you shouldn’t do!  I don’t know your gear, but I love Pentax gear, and pentaxforums.com is the most helpful and supportive website for photographers I have ever encountered.  So good in fact that some people have changed from Canikon to Pentax just because of the website,  Other sites include theonlinephotographer.com, strobist, and googling for instructional videos is very useful too.  photoinf.com, slrlounge.com.  The list is endless.

    Now some questions.  What area of photography do you love most?  Or more inportantly, what area do you do best  They are not necessarily the same.  Also, don’t forget that you are no longer taking shots for the joy of it – you are doing it for commercial reasons.  This will impose its own restrictions and requirements, and may even suck all the fun out of your hobby.

    What gear do you have?  I have some suggestions, but they are worthless without me knowing about your equipment.  Fwoarr!  Can you list it here, I will bookmark this, and return later.

    I have probably forgotten loads, and some of what I say maybe obvious, or even wrong!  Such is life.

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)