More, larger lights to make things as even as possible. Distance to the background as well. Having it 2 feet back and having it 6 feet back makes a big difference. I used to have a 20x20 infinity wall and it was great for no shadows on the back.
I would want to go back in time and shoot for 1970’s playboy.
What camera? What lens? What RAW converter? Is your monitor calibrated? Do you have a filter on the lens? Is your raw converter importing to a specified white balance or a certain preset?
It could be any of these things. Without more info we are just guessing. Posting a screenshot of an example picture in your raw converter where we can see the settings would take a lot of the guesswork out.
To make the court bright you can adjust the yellows by bringing the luminance of them up in Lightroom and desaturating them a bit. He also adds a bit of contrast, crushes the blacks a bit, and adjusts the overall saturation. He also seems to shoot a bit to the right so you will want to overexpose a smidge.
Anyone who tells you that you can’t take photos with an XSI is wrong. You most certainly can. It will be exceedingly more difficult, but not impossible. Just remember your exposure triangle. Keep your shutter speed above 1/1000, aperture as low as it can go, and the ISO as high as need be. Yes if you are shooting indoors the photos will be noisy, but that’s ok. You can take some of that out in post, and what’s left will never be seen by anyone but you.
You need a large format view camera. The bellows kind, and a couple of lenses. At least a 5x7, or even an 8x10 if you have the cash.
The ability to keep lines straight and perspective correct is why I say a view camera. And I say large format because I believe in the old adage, go big or go home.
Or you can be boring and just get a Canon full frame camera like the 5DSR and a few tilt shift lenses. They are the best you can get if doing architecture as they will help with your perspective correction.
Set up a small darkroom and do them yourself. That’s one way, and if you shoot enough it’s more cost effective.
If you are doing black and white, The Darkroom does actual darkroom prints. You can find info on their website.
Any camera needs light and contrast to focus. If you are short of either of those the harder it is for the camera to focus on an object. To fix this you either increase the light hitting the sensor, either by using a lens with a larger aperture (a 50 1.8 let’s in around 12 times as much light than the kit lens at 45mm), or increasing light on the subject, or finding a spot with more contrast.
Now the M10 isn’t the best focusing camera, but when taking night photos you can always zoom in and focus manually to achieve better focus. if there is a bright point in the scene you can use that as your focusing point instead of your actual subject if they are on the same focal plane. Using a tripod and the self timer to avoid any shake are good things to do as well.
As others have said, Lightroom is a pig,and 8 gigs is way too low. 16 is better, 32 better still cause then you can have other stuff going on as well.
As a beginner you start by finding small local designers and asking for some of their designs to shoot. You show them what you have done so far, usually friends or local models, and if the designer likes your work they will usually say yes because it’s free advertising for them. (Yes you do it for free). You then reach out to the local modeling agency (more likely a model mill) and ask if they have any new talent in need of portfolio images. If they don’t, then you will have to hire one or two for the shoot at their current rates.
You will want someone tall, and slim, usually a sample size so size 0-4 who has some inkling as to what they are doing as you probably don’t have a lot of experience directing models, and you are paying by the hour. You will need to hire hair and makeup people as well. Those people get the shit end of the stick all the time so don’t try to take advantage of them, pay their rates.
Building a career in fashion is extremely difficult, and a lot of it is being in the right place and knowing the right people. You start by making contacts in the business, being professional, always showing up on time, and delivering the images quicker than expected. I started by making contacts first in the pit at the local fashion week, which because of my work led to me being an official the following year, then I had access to more designers and models. I became the head photographer a few seasons later and I was shooting paid gigs for a lot of the designers, but it’s pocket money, not big bucks because they don’t have advertising budgets to pay you out of. I even shot for a few major retail brands, but because of my location I was never going to shoot the really big stuff. It was all for local advertising like a new store opening in the city so they wanted something shot that was recognisable in that city. I know people who moved to the major cities believing they were going to be flooded with business only to come home a year or two later broke and disillusioned. That’s why I stayed local.
Unless you live in NY, or LA your chances of ever working with a major brand is almost nil unless you develop a massive social media presence that makes them want to work with you over their established photographers, and that’s like trying to make it to be a quarterback in the NFL. Only so many spots and a lot of people wanting those spots.
So do it, but do it for fun, not as a business.
You’ll want the 4800. 2500px on 36" is only 69ppi, which sounds nice, but would look like shit unless you were standing 10 feet away from the print. 4800px on 36" is 133ppi, which while not ideal, is a lot better than 69.
The lightroom trial is free and would give you the time to do what you need today, but it’s only $10 a month for both Lightroom and Photoshop along with 20gigs of storage and a free website to show your work. It’s priced so low that people don’t bother really pirating it anymore.
If you are really struggling financially then try the GIMP and RawTherapee. They are free and you can do a lot of things with them.
Don’t steal software. It’s not worth the risk to your computer and data.
I use the free website service that Adobe gives me with my subscription. It works great for me and the domain name only costs me $15 a year, but it’s optional so you aren’t forced to have it.
They still shouldn’t be that expensive when you break it down to a per use basis. They usually cost about the same or less than a single roll of film in most cases. They should last like 50 or more rolls if you take them out of the camera between rolls. You could get rechargables, but unless you buy questionable ones off of eBay they are going to be more expensive than the lithium ones.
Whatever ISO it takes to get the photo. Subject matter and final output make a difference as well.
1: Get a 24-70 to go with the 70-200. You will also want a macro lens for the detail photos.
2: Learn how to bounce flash, use a diffuser, as well as gelling and balancing flash with ambient. Strobist is a good resource, and there are lots of vids on YouTube to help.
3: Make sure you are ready for doing one time events. There are no re-do’s. You have to be confident that you can get the shot in any lighting while under a lot of stress. Second shooting for an established wedding photographers is probably the best advice I can give though. There you will learn how a wedding works and the flow of events as well as what things are needed and what are not.
4: That’s up to you. If you don’t know what others in your region are charging you need to do more research.
I shoot comedy shows. Twice a month, I get $60 CAD to head across town to shoot a 1-1.5 hour long comedy show. 8 comedians, I deliver 10-15 edited photos of each to the host before 4PM the next day
You are blowing your brains out charging so little. You drive an hour, plus 1.5 hours of shooting, plus a couple hours of editing, plus your mileage, gas, insurance, power, software subscriptions, gear wear and tear, taxes, etc you are making like $8 an hour. That’s less than half of what someone working at Tim’s gets.
Here’s what I’d want to propose to him: - At the lower-level shows: - $70 - Larger shows - $100 for the shows at the new venue - The individual comedians would need to pay $10-15 for their photos on delivery
Still way too low to me. You can’t assume the comedians will purchase a thing so you need to get all your money up front. If a performer does buy something consider it gravy. For a larger venue and show I can’t see doing it for less than $250 for a 1.5 hour show, and even then that’s what I would consider inexpensive. Even at $100 per hour you should be able to make a little money, but still not much.
You should sit down and add up all your costs including the per shot costs of your new gear (cost of gear ÷ average shutter life + 25%) then add in how much you want to make over and above that per hour and include all of your travel, editing, and communication time.
You are right. It was very expensive to buy, that’s why they were pirated so much. A lot of people also seem to think they need LR or C1 when they really don’t. They are professional tools and were priced as such. Photoshop elements, Gimp, or even Affinity Photo are way cheaper, and still have more features than the average person taking photos of the family or vacation needs.
The direct competitor for Lightroom is capture one, which costs more than LR and Photoshop combined, but I think does a better job on the files. If you want free then you get what you pay for. Each manufacturer has their own RAW converter for free, and some are better than others. There are a bunch of others, but I can’t say which is any good.
So three days at your day rate, plus expenses, plus 2 days travel time, which I would charge half rate so that would take it to 4 days. My day rate is $1500, so for me it’s $6000 + expenses, which I would book myself. Since others also say it smells of scam, it’s most likely a scam. Unless you are a world famous photographer and she has way too much money there is no reason for her to hire you instead of a photographer at the destination. If she is local and you can meet with her to discuss it all and get paid the deposit in cash or EFT after the contract is signed then sure, maybe she does just have too much money, but if she is not local then I would be very wary of dealing with her.