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Question:
Hi,Garry,
My name is Ron, and I am starting out in wedding photography. Could you share your techniques on taking a silhouette photo. I am interested in your one photo of the two hands holding wine glasses. Thank you.
Answer:
The silhouette photo of the two hands was taken in the studio. The background was white seamless paper - two flashes were used, one on each side aimed directly at the background paper, no light was falling on the hands. For any silhouette image the background must be at least three stops brighter than your subject.
For the hands the meter reading for the background was 1/125 sec.@ F22. I shot the image at 1/125 sec @ F16 in order to overexpose the white paper by one stop. Since there was no light falling on the hands they remained black - the glasses being translucent allowed the background light to expose the wine in the glasses.
If I am creating a silhouette outdoors, I do this at sunrise or sunset. With my subject being backlite by the sun and sky, I expose for the sky which then makes the subject a silhouette.
Hope this answers your question.
Question:
Hello Garry:
I came across your website while browsing through the Stock Photo library
and I must say it was one of the better websites I've seen in quite a while.
It was well laid out, informative, loaded fast, all the links worked, and
best of all I appreciate the fact that you take the time to answer other
people's questions. So, here's the situation I have been pondering which
has led me to your site.
I've been an amature photographer for a few years now, but as an
overambitious 22 year old student I couldn't help but wondering how
realistic it is to pursue a career in photography. The things I've been
trying to find out about are the steps that pro photographers take to become
pro photographers. I've looked into some colleges in Ontario that offer
courses in photography, but they aren't the areas I'm interested in pursuing
(ie studio, photojournalism, portraits, etc.). Having looked at your
website and your work on the Masterfile site, the landscape and scenic
photos you take are exactly the type I enjoy shooting most, so that's what
I've been concentrating on. I realize that the big money is in people shots
but they don't interest me all that much. In fact, I'd rather do what I
like to do and make less money at it. But I digress.
For now I'd like to get some opinions on my work to find out where I stand
realistically. Do you do portfolio critiques or do you know of people who
do that sort of thing? Any advice, suggestions, experience you can offer
would be invaluable to me. Thanks in advance for your time.
Answer:
Let me start off by saying, you can make big money with landscape and scenic photos, but not every one does in fact there are very few that do. It is the most competitive of all of the fields in photography; everyone that takes photographs takes scenic photographs no matter what their specialty is.
Most of the successful landscape photographers that I know have never had a "formal" education in photography or even apprenticed with a photographer. I started photography as a hobby while working at a scrap steel company. What all of the successful photographers have in common, is a love for photography and we are driven (obsessed) with it.
I read as much as I could about photography, I took out every book in the library! But I just didn't read, I also went out and practiced taking pictures, and then tried to determine what I had done right as well as the mistakes that I made. I took a couple of week long photography workshops, they gave me the opportunity to ask a professional photographer questions that I had about my photography and learn first hand from a professional. From my discussions with other photographers this is also how all of them learned photography.
What makes a successful landscape photographer successful? It is the fact that his vision and style of photography are uniquely his, this is something that colleges can't teach, in fact they do almost the opposite by making them conform to certain rules and styles. Which is fine if you want to become a studio, wedding, and portrait photographer.
The only time that I review portfolios is during the workshops that I conduct. I don't have enough time to do this during the rest of the year when I am shooting to make money. I don't know of any other photographers that would either, my guess would be that if you found someone that would take the time to look at it, they have far too much spare time on their hands - which would me wonder how successful they are and is their advice really worth anything.
I hope that this gives you some encouragement for a career in photography!
Question:
Hi Garry, I am looking forward to making a career change ,from construction to photography. I have no formal or informal training, I'm as green as they get, however I do have dreams and goals of becoming an accomplished photographer. My wife is a computer graphic designer and we would like to start our own business. Leslie is currently seeking employment in her field to gain more knowledge and experience, while I learn how to take pictures. This is why I'm contacting you, I found your site through the Ottawa camera club's page and was quite impressed!! Any advise, comments, or direction to employment/training would be highly valued and appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
Answer:
What you are asking for is something that can not be easily answered in an e-mail. What I can tell you is that before becoming a photographer I worked for a scrap steel company. I started photography as a hobby, during that time I read as many books about photography that I could get my hands on. I also took a couple of photographic workshops and was taking photographs all of the time. Becoming a good photographer is something that does not happen overnight, there is the technical as well as artistic sides to photography that must be learned. My best advice is to get out and practice what you have read or have learned from workshops.
Question:
Hi Gary, Your question and answer pages are very helpful. Thanks so much
for making the info available and taking the time.
My question. As a semi professional photographer, looking to move into
the business more fully, I realize the need to purchase a computer
system to alter and store some of my 35mm transparency files. Can you
recommend a good computer system to start out with for a digital
darkroom? I still plan to use traditional film.
Answer: This was answered in January 2000.
I started using Adobe Photoshop about 2 years ago. The computer that I bought then was a PC Pentium II at 266 with 64MB of ram and a 6.4G hard drive and a 100MB Zip Drive and a 17" Trinitron monitor and a 16Mb video card. It is still the computer that I use today, last spring I bought another 128MB of ram to decrease some of the time with large files. This fall I bought a CD-R to store the images that I had altered as cd's are much cheaper than the Zip cartridges. I also bought the Nikon LS-2000 scanner, I had been using a friend's. Before I bought the scanner I tested every other scanner on the market and the Nikon won hands down.
If I were to buy a new computer today (I will probably buy one this coming fall) I would get a Pentium III at 600 with 384Mb of ram (you need lots of ram when you start working with multiple layers - you could get by with only 64Mb of ram for starters but make sure you can add more later) and a 19" monitor with a 32Mb video card. Having said that, the computer that I am using now works just fine, except when I start working with a file size greater than 100Mb it really slows down. Last week I was working with an image and because of all of the layers that I had the file size was around 250Mb, it took 15 minutes just to open the image.
Most of the pictures that I alter are studio/concept images which just can't be created with the camera. I have "fixed up" some landscape images, removing telephone wires and poles or fixing processing flaws on old slides (that is why we do our own processing now).
Hope this answers some of your questions, no doubt you'll have more, so just ask!
Question:
Hey Garry,
Read your past replies about the Jobo CPP-2's. How much to get fully set up at this? Any other options? Am going forth into the realm of professional from serious amateur. Also need to add to my Nikon lens. My complete kit includes two Camera bodies, FE 2, 801S, and three lens: 24mm F2.8, 35 to 70mm lens, 105mm
macro F2.8. Obviously I need some type of telephoto! Anything less expensive than the Nikkor 80 to 200, F2.8? I have always believed the person behind the lens is what makes it happen. Firm believer in less equipment.
Last questions Garry. Sorry if I have been a bit of a pest. Really
appreciate all you have given me
Answer:
Regarding processing, if there is some way that you can make a water bath that will hold the temperature constant then you wouldn't need the Jobo, and you could use stainless tanks and reels. The two most important variables in processing E-6 is the temp. and agitation (which you would do manually - it might take a couple of tries to get the right number of inversions of the tank and how frequently). Apart from that the Jobo CPP-2 is the cheapest way to go.
Yes you need a telephoto lens. You're best bet would be to look for a used Nikkor 80-200 F4 manual focus lens. It is 1 stop slower than the F2.8 autofocus, it doesn't weigh as much, it uses 62mm filters (cheaper to buy than 77mm filters). It will work on the 801, it won't autofocus and you can't use the program exposure modes (which you shouldn't be using any ways. But you can use aperture priority as well as manual exposure, and manually focus the lens. Whatever you do don't buy the cheaper 70 - 200 (I think that is the range) Nikon autofocus lens, the image quality is terrible. Or keep your eyes open for a used 80 - 200 F2.8 autofocus lens. Hope this helps with your lens question.
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