MT Shooter!

Please check your PM's. Thanks.

Ed

Joer! I have only used it with my D800 (full frame) as the Rogue Safari attaches via the hotshoe. I use my D300 for APS-C smaller files. Going over the shoots where I used it, there was definite vignetting at 28MM but it's minimal around 38MM. I use the Nikon 28-300MM F3.5 G lens. Here's a shot around 34MM! You should have no problems for the focal lengths and distances you desire.
Best wishes. Ed

Hi! I noticed you live in Brunswick, Georgia and its location may be hard to get to. The closest cities seem to be Jacksonville and Savannah. There are travelling models but they go where the demand is, larger areas with a concentration of photographers and clients.

It often pays to attend a model "workshop" or shootout that has a number of models where one can network and meet with potential subjects. Even though I live in NYC where there are weekly model shoots and quite a few models passing through, I often attend other workshops from Washington, DC to Boston especially if they have themes such as retro pinup, body painting or ink. In October 2012, I was in Death Valley for 7 days attending a 3 model workshop. I will be attending a workshop with 3 models in Philly over the Memorial Day weekend. At the shoot I will be trading business cards, talking about their rates, etc and show previous work on my tablet; they now know me and will contact me if in my area. All roads lead to the Big Apple, at least photographically!

FYI: http://www.modelmayhem.com/forums/thread/12
http://www.modelmayhem.com/forums/thread/11
http://www.modelmayhem.com/casting/result/female-models/us/new-york/all?fm_action=Search&show_advanced=0&search_type=casting+for&m_search_type%5B%5D=0&cc_country=US&cc_state=4114&cc_city=&search_mile_range=

These are 3 areas of Model Mayhem that I search when I'm looking for a model. It takes time especially for one starting out.

Have you Google'd or contacted any local art schools or other artists in your local area?

Hope these tips help. Best wishes. Ed

Hi! I have one of these: http://www.rogueflash.com/collections/mainproductpage/products/rogue-safari-dslr-pop-up-flash-booster
as well as several of the Better Beamers mentioned above. This accessory is more compact and made for a APS-C built-in flash via the hot shoe. I have used it successfully with a Nikon D800. Minor adjustment to keep it centered prevents slight falloff and vignetting of the light. Hope this might be useful to you. Ed

Hi all!

Yes, check out Meetup.com. This website facilitates people and their interests both educationally and socially on a local basis throughout the US and internationally. There are about 100 photography or related Meetup groups in the metro NYC area and over a dozen that organizes model shoots, clothed and otherwise! I belong to most of the model groups as well as run my own: www.meetup.com/NYPhotoSafari where we as a group travel around metro NY and photograph as well as socialize and network with each other.

Also check out photography clubs where activities include model shoots. Twice a year at our Manhattan, NYC club: www.parkwestcameraclub.org/index-2.html of which I am President, we schedule an outdoor fashion shoot usually in Central Park as well as an indoor nude figure shoot at a hired studio. Models are hired through my contacts or www.Modelmayhem.com. Besides Model Mayhem there are other model websites as well. Craigslist is useful too.

Best wishes. Ed

Another take on this contentious subject, Harlan Elllison the writer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE

Best wishes, Ed

How big, how often and how many prints will you be printing? Printers need to be used regularly otherwise the heads dry out and you can waste quite a bit of ink revitalizing them. Personally I save up my images and have a marathon print session, sometimes over several days to use up the ink in the tanks. As I print I can tickle the color balance or density and make some variations or identical prints all at once. If you don't expect to print regularly, then a lab might be the way to go.

As an example, you can pick up the Pro-100 for $250 or so with the current rebate and free shipping and I feel this is a great deal from B&H (or a similar dealer.) These are also available from Craigslist for $120 and up, new in unopened box minus the bar code that Canon buyers used for their rebates when camera, lens and printer packages were offered last year. You will probably have to pick it up.

Basically buyers got a free printer and a free 50 sheet box of 13x19 paper and a few bucks back. At a Foto-Care (store) here in NYC the new Canon printers were demo'ed and free prints made, I bought one at the special 1-day price plus an instant rebate as well. Since then I've picked up 2 more printers through Craigslist as backup machines and for their ink sets which alone go for $120.

At the last few annual NECCC summer conferences, see: http://www.neccc.org/ held in July at UMass Amherst, Canon provided a free 13x19" sample print of your prepared image file. Normally I use Epsons but the results from the Canons sold me as I had printed that image many times and now had an A-B comparison.

Best wishes. Ed

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory

Hi all!

Back in the day, my custom photo lab provided duplicate color slides as well as color and black and white conversion negatives. We started with the Bowen Illumitran to do the work. Basically as Hunakai mentioned, a compact copy stand with a built-in light source, however, the light was tungsten balanced and you had to add Kodak color compensating filters to fine tune the color balance. Beseler, a competitor to Simmon Omega who made, besides cameras and lenses, darkroom equipment, came out with their version. Using T-mount adapters one could use a variety of cameras and lenses but high grade enlarging lenses with their flatness of field worked best.

Why would someone use one them today? This machine allowed us to do hundreds of thousands of slide dups and conversion negatives quickly over the years. It could easily copy half frame (APS-C) sized original slides and negatives up to 4x5" with its built-in color head, moveable slide and film holders. We were able to copy slides in their 2x2 mounts or full frame without its cardboard holder, crop, correct color balance, make slides from negatives (with the right film), use tungsten or daylight film (with built-in flash), correct contrast with pre-flashing. We had a second one as backup and the cost was under $800 each. They paid for themselves after 160 slide duplicates. I still have them in storage!

Now I have a Nikon Coolscan 5 for the occasional slide I run across and the scanning takes more than a few minutes especially if you use Digital Ice3 software to remove dust and scratches. Multiple that time by several hundred or thousands of slides and you'll be at your computer for awhile!

When we had to make giant enlargements, we used 4x5" or 8x10" film and exposed them under the enlarger to get internegatives. The hardest job was one where the client wanted a 20x24 color print from a super 8 movie frame! We had to use a shorter than normal lens and cranked the enlarger all the way up. Long exposure to utilize the best aperture of the lens.

Link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/222197201/beseler-dual-mode-slide-duplicator-model?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_high-electronics_and_accessories-cameras-other&utm_custom1=28812158-bbf6-b349-a226-0000111f7ce0&kpid=222197201&gclid=Cj0KEQjw3M6oBRDnnIywo5i287ABEiQAXRm7S2Y4_LDnMCzsATUqpAY6Cc3kNKZVw0Mpr7w9ZklSKhAaArMg8P8HAQ

Best wishes all!

Ed

SqBear!

There are only 2 images as I eliminated your original image to minimize the bandwidth of my reply.

Ed

SqBear!

I have a variety of editing software besides PS, PSE, LR but one of my favorites is Nikon Capture NX2. It uses Nik U-point technology and you can make small area corrections such as the shadows in your image without making masks or trying to correct globally. The corrections I made took about 10 minutes. The third image I did a small color correction for skin tones with PS. U-point technology can also be found in the Nik plugins software.

I also found with my Speedotron strobes is to use one large head and umbrella very slightly right and above the camera position. This way the shadows will fall straight backwards and downwards. I know, I also learned from the school of hard knocks!

Best wishes. Ed

Shadow Corrections


Small Skin Tone Correction

Hi all! I have 2 of these lenses and they were the "kit lens" with a number of Nikon's AF film cameras. I got mine: one with a silver barrel on the N75 (silver body) and the other with a N80 (black). I used them on my D50 body, my first serious digital camera. Before then I was using a 4 MB Nikon 4300 P&S and got great 16x20 prints which look great to this day!

Drawbacks: Plastic construction including the mount, "G" designation which KR calls "gelded:" no focusing ring. There is also a F3.5 version; I'm only speaking about the F3.3 version.

Lightweight, cheap and sharp! Several days ago another hogger in a thread about buying a backpack mentioned how he buys cheaply extra packs from Craigslist and this lens when he can find them. He said he's had 8 of them.

From the East coast: best wishes, stay warm and "Gung Hay Fat Choi!"

Ed

Jim!

Is this camera and lens still available? If so, I can pay by Paypal immediately.

My bona fides:
Pres, www.parkwestcameraclub.org;
Organizer, www.meetup.com/NYPhotoSafari

I have purchased equipment from two hedgehoggers:
David Phares and Joe West

Thanks for your consideration.

Ed Lee

Hi! I second and third earlier suggestions for the Canon Photo Backpack 200EG, see: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=canon+eg200&tag=mh0b-20&index=aps&hvadid=3527181939&ref=pd_sl_zp2oweijk_e

I have 3 backpacks, 1 larger (also heavier) and more expensive Lowe pro and 2 of these which I use most of the time. When I use the Lowe, the end result is a backpack twice as heavy and several inches deeper than the smaller and lighter Canon. Lowe: bigger to hold more, padded better to protect your equipment. Canon: slightly smaller size, less padding, not as deep but fantastic price, currently $37.95 (I paid $39.95 each a while ago!)

BTW, on the Amazon page, there are several Canon backpacks listed with different photos. They are the same item, the first one is has a tight drawstring and the lighting is different causing the vertical panels to look brighter while the more expensive listing has a loose drawstring and darker green panels. The darker green is correct color. Get the less expensive one. Best wishes all. Ed

Hi Tigerpaws!
Since you are from CA and perhaps your photo group, why not approach Death Valley from the west via Bakersfield and first visiting Lone Pine, CA, see: http://lonepinefilmfestival.org/
and Alabama Hills, a fantastic area for images and the "backlot" for over 300 movies and tv shows, both westerns and others such as "Gunga Din." Travel on to Stovepipe Wells and then Furnace Creek where the Visitors Center is located.

I visited the Death Valley and Las Vegas area twice both in 2012 and 2014 in early October when the weather is more temperate. The first time with a dozen other photographers for 7 days and last October in a group of 7 shutterbugs from Park West Camera Club for 11 days. Since we were from the east coast we first flew to Las Vegas as our initial base.

In 2012 the group drove from Vegas to Furnace Creek, on the way hitting the Amargoso Opera House, see: http://www.amargosa-opera-house.com/. I recommend taking the short tour of the Opera House. At Furnace Creek, go to the Visitors Center to pay for a car permit or use your National Parks and Recreational Lands Permit (formerly National Parks Pass, Golden Eagle, Golden Age and Golden Access Passports) which is only $10 for a senior lifetime pass. Only one person in each car needs a pass. Such a deal!

On the way to Furnace Creek and our accommodations at the Ranch (not the Inn!), we visited Badwater (lowest point in North America, 282' below sea level), Dante's View (overlooks Badwater area 5000' below and Mount Whitney in the distance), Natural Bridge, Devil's Golf Course, Artist's Palette Drive and Zabriskie Point. After 3 days there we moved on to Lone Pine and Alabama Hills, visiting Stovepipe Wells Village and Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and Mosaic Canyon on the way.

In 2014 I revisited the sites above and those bypassed the first time as well as the more distant sites and "ghost towns" at Beatty and Rhylolite. This time spending more time shooting at each site, picking optimum time of the day and exploring further away from the roads and trails. For example, we shot at the Sand dunes both at dawn and sunset and did the same at Zabriskie Point. So many subjects and so little time!

Some links are: http://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g143021-Death_Valley_National_Park_California-Vacations.html

You're a captive audience at Furnace Creek Ranch and any other motel within Death Valley as they are concessions. We stayed initially in Las Vegas, Pahrump and Lone Pine where the rates are reasonable. We did stay at Furnace Creek for several nights as we were lucky and able to get reservations.

I had a great time and many, many wonderful images and can't wait to go again. Best wishes. Ed