[Vee]

joehomeowner, the stuff he posted on his business page is hardly the worst of it.  His personal page has quite a few interesting concert albums.  I’ll respect his privacy on those albums being that they’re on his personal account.  Anyone can fall ass-backwards into a good photo, on occasion.  What I hear on this website, time and again, is how anyone with $500 in their pocket can buy an entry-level DSLR and start charging money as a pro-photog without taking any care to learn the craft.   This guy posted a price plan on his FB the other day:

“If anyone is holding a concert, event or wedding, please be sure to contact Shutter Photography or myself to book you an amazing and professional photographer at a very good price.

Concerts…. $75 plus processing fee
Events… $150 plus processing fee
Weddings… $550 plus processing fee

Dependent on the location of the shoot, a fee to cover transportation costs may be required.”

I’ve seen people take fantastic photos with inexpensive or minimal equipment.  I’m trying not to come across as snobby about this because I’m really not.  On the contrary, it bothered me, the arrogance with which he responded when I posted my status asking for advice regarding the purchase of a 5D3.  After telling me his D40x served him well, he said, “Then again, we have different styles of photography.”  Made me wonder what he was trying to imply about my photos…

[Vee]

If my memory serves me well, I don’t think he even shot those photos.  The other day he thanked someone else for being his second shooter for the concert because he was busy taking shots from the balcony.

[Vee]

https://www.facebook.com/shutterphotography2014

The guy who started this page posted an ad on his personal FB with his price points.  It makes me want to squeeze the top of my nasal bridge as this is giving me a headache.  Is it me or do other people get the impression that he shoots in Auto?  When I posted a status last month asking for opinions on the Canon 5D 3, he chimed in about how his D40x has served him well and he’s planning to upgrade to a D3200.  I never thought I’d be the kind of jerk who puts someone on blast but something about this knob irks me.

[Vee]

CC I want to be friends with you, now more than ever :)!

This is very helpful and I’ve bookmarked it on my browser.  Which light would you say has been the most valuable and most used in your collection?

 

[Vee]

Whatever photos seem like they were reasonable in the beginning were definitely ruined by her terrible editing skills, in post.  If people want to pay for that, that’s their hard earned dollar.

[Vee]

Thanks!  I never thought to push Henry’s for a price match.  I’ll have to do my research, although, the reason I got the 135mm is because it was on sale for $999.99.  I’ll post some ads for my old stuff and hopefully get $700-$800.  Again, I’m not trying to be a greedy a-hole.  I’m sure anyone here can understand the sting of investing in new gear and wanting to recover some of the money.

[Vee]

Cameraclicker, that’s awesome!  I didn’t even know about the show.  I’ll definitely have to ask the sales guy about it next week when I go to pick up my new lens!  I might sell back to Henry’s, as a last resort, but they low balled me very hard since they would still want to make a profit on everything.  If I don’t get a decent offer on the stuff, I might just keep it for my kid.  She’s been bugging me for a DSLR and seems to be taking an interest in photography. 🙂

 

EyeDoc, I’m not trying to be greedy.  I’m going based on looking up current retail prices on my gear and giving a discount to factor in the fact that, while it has been used, everything is in perfect condition.  There isn’t a single scratch on anything and all 3 lenses are squeaky clean.  I know other photographers would have zero use for the stuff but the T3i is still a pretty hot item with the average camera user, around here.  Depending on the retailer, the stuff I’m selling fetches $1100-$1200 pre-tax ($1400+ with).  Maybe I’ll try asking $900 flat for everything unless that’s still unrealistic.  I really, really don’t want to sell it for any less than $800.

[Vee]

Cameraclicker, I’m surprised you remembered that.  I’m keeping my flash but I’m selling the following:

– Canon Rebel T3i body
– Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens
– Canon EF-S 55-250mm f4 lens
– Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens
– Canon LP-E8 battery (selling 2 of them; I had a spare)
– Canon camera bag
– Hoya Pro 1D UV(0) 58mm lens filter
– Tripod with carrying bag

I would like to get around $1000 for everything.  That’s why I threw in my 50mm even though it’s compatible with the 5D.  I’m not desperate for cash but it would be nice to have a little something extra to buy some nice flash triggers.  I actually checked with the Henry’s salesperson who helped with my new purchase and he said I could get about a grand if I sold my stuff privately.  Henry’s (here, in Toronto) only offered me $300 for everything which is why I posted on Kijiji.  I know this gear isn’t the best but it’s served me well and I used it so gently that everything could pass for new.

[Vee]

Thanks so much for the input.   I appreciate it!

I’ve been shooting RAW since I got my rebel.  I figured if I was going to learn, it was best to learn properly by shooting RAW in manual mode.  I have Lightroom 5 as well as Photoshop CS5.  I usually use LR for batching, light corrections, straightening horizons and cropping.  I didn’t know that the Rebel viewfinder wasn’t 100% accurate, before.  It does explain certain things, though.  As for CS5, I prefer it for retouching.  I get a lot of lag retouching with LR so I’ve been using plearn.com and Julieanne Kosts videos to learn more about masking and colors.  It’s always a fear of mine, knowing where to draw the line with post processing.  I hate the idea of over-processed images but I’m not always sure about my choices.  Currently, my computer monitor is not calibrated.  I know it’s one of the stupidest mistakes to make with respect to color management.  I’m not sure what the best way to calibrate it is but that’s definitely on the agenda.  Some times I use my iPhone 5 to review the images because someone told me Mac products are more accurate.  They come out slightly warmer on the phone than in the laptop.

I have one inexpensive flash, however, I didn’t use it in any of the posted images.  For one, I’m only now beginning to understand the relationship of aperture and flash power.  I took some family photos over the holidays with the flash unit on my camera but it was pretty ugly looking and I don’t want to spend that much time working on light corrections in post.  I tried to use the on-camera flash to trigger the speedlite but my experiments did not turn out like Zack Arias’ on DigitalRev’s channel, haha!  I’m working on finding a good, inexpensive flash trigger.

I didn’t think about it, before, but I actually quite like the photo of my daughter that you pulled the exposure back on.   I didn’t realize how bright it was until I saw the darker version.  I was relying on my LR histogram to make sure I didn’t blow out the highlights but I definitely see the difference.  The eye strangeness is definitely genetic.  She inherited my good fortune of having slanted eyes that make it seem like they’re looking in different directions, under certain angles.  To be honest, I didn’t notice that right away, either.  It’s a good thing to start paying attention to.  I didn’t have studio-level control over that light.  It was a little beam of light that came through the window onto my front door.  I tried to expose for the highlights in her face and it seemed okay on my viewfinder but it was much brighter when I downloaded the image.

Thanks for the tip for testing lens sharpness.  I do have a tripod but I probably haven’t used it as much as I should have.  I don’t stage my shoots as often as I probably should.  I’ve been guilty of finding light and using the “stand right there for a sec” method.  That’s probably gotta stop.  My current lenses are not the best for quick focusing.  Often, even when the image is sharp I find color fringing during my 1:1 inspections.  I can’t stand that.  I’ve been thinking of getting the Canon 135mm f2 (when the money’s right) since I heard from a few sources about how sharp it is.  I’m a little intimidated about committing to that focal range.  I used my telephoto (with a lens hood) more often in the beginning.  I’ve enjoyed using the 50mm much more, lately, but a good 50mm is expensive.

Usually, I save low resolution copies for use on social media.  I uploaded the high quality ones on Flickr but maybe I was wrong to assume Flickr could handle that.  Do you recommend sharpening after saving the low res copies?

I’ve never seen Ansel Adams pre-dodging/burning images.  I think his images are amazing, especially given the technology he had available.   I think my comment about how many photos I take came across snootier than I meant it to.  If my paycheck depended on getting the shot, I suppose I would do whatever I had to.  Being a photography newb, I think it forces me to think more without justifying that I’ll fix things in post.  The other method definitely makes sense when you may only get one chance to get a certain kind of photo.  I do appreciate all the advice.  It’s definitely given more things to think about!

[Author]

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