Can you cite a source for this statement? We know that lens performance falls off away from the center area, but this is the first time I have heard that there is a fall off in sensor performance.

1/(1.5*1.5)=0.444!

Question: Are you shooting Auto White Balance?

Here's another option - at least if you can deal with shooting candids. Bring in a Pro to do the formals, the ceremony and the posed shots of bride, groom and families, then he leaves. You handle the reception, people dancing and enjoying themselves. The only must get shots are the first dance, the bride & father dance, then the groom and his mother; later the garter ceremony and throwing the bouquet. Until the bouquet is caught, you are on your good behavior - NO BOOZE! Then make up for lost time!

First, I must compliment you on an insightful piece. Though I’ve been involved in photography 70 years, owned a studio and a lab, worked in a camera store, have made a living photographing weddings, and events, and sports; reading your work I was able to glean new information, particularly concerning the construction of strobes. However, my “gleaning” might have been more fruitful, certainly easier, had there been more effort put into editing your treatise.

As a lifelong “Creative Speller”, I have much empathy for anyone struggling with the rules of English, and I could see that you made an effort – probably using a “spell check” program. That would explain why it took me several minutes to figure out the “... inadequate convention of the heat, generated my modeling lamps away ..”

Again, I do not want to take away from your effort here. Rather, what I want to point out to all posters is that your written words, just like your photos, need “post processing”. When you have finished your statement, reread everything you wrote, carefully and out loud, several times before you hit the “send” button! Ferret out those misspelled and respelled by spellchecker into wrong words, and delete anything that might be demeaning, or offensive, please. Wait! Stop! Read it one more time, carefully! And, if it’s more than a simple paragraph long, certainly anything as long and complex as Ed has created here, print it out, and read the hard copy, c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y!

I hope I haven’t beaten a dead horse here. And. Ed, I really did enjoy what you wrote.

Thank You. Dick Wilber

Common studio portrait set up is four flashes. Very common to use three or more for table tops. I sometimes shoot "candids" with a single very powerful flash in "extreme bounce" (aimed at the ceiling behind me) mode, and more with that and a second fill flash. Lots of reasons to have multiple flashes.

So offended I didn't pay any attention to the content of what you said!

I agree most hardily!

A couple decades ago, one of the photographers in our camera club was jazz drummer Glenn Davis, who worked with pianist Marian McPartland, among others. After one club outing I was reviewing some of the resulting prints; one was Glenn's of a beach area, an unassuming area I had been over and not seen a picture (not unusual), a photo of low dunes with beach grass, of undulating sand waves. "Damn," I thought, "the drummer's picture has rhythm!"

I always new that all the visual arts translated well into photography, but I then learned all arts work the same way!

There's a reason the locals call it the "Jersey Gestapo".

There is no simple answer. I always preferred the muslins. But, I would eschew use of a single muslin for background and floor. At some venues you could do with the existing floor, it'll contrast but, if it looks OK ... If you insist on a matching floor (many studios do for prom shots), use a separate 10' x 10' for each. That will cut your replacement costs in half. You need to make sure you've "Gaffer Taped" both securely at the back of the set up, so a gap doesn't appeared where they meet. It's simple with a little practice!

Interesting thread. When I started getting interested in better photography, maybe four decades ago, I was told B&W was the only way to go. But I never saw "in Black & White"!

On a trip backpacking in the Rockies, I took half color slide film, half black & white negative film. Back home I had the Kodachrome processed, as I went about developing and printing the monochrome film in a makeshift bathroom darkroom. And I did come up with some good black & white prints: black blacks, white whites, good contrast. And as I looked at the best of them, I could visualize how green the foliage would have been, how blue the skies, and lamented how much I would have preferred those shots to have been in color. Until I was 100% digital (I did convert some digital images to monochrome for a client), that was my last foray into black & white photography.

But today, with the ability to view the scene monochrome in Live View, and to record it both as a B&W and full color, I may give it another go. There is, after all, a good deal of photographic insight that can be gleaned from shooting black & white.

This is a two way street. Photographers have been known to disrupt venues, damage property, etc., etc. But not very often. And tripods can get in the way; inappropriate pictures taken in these venues have been published; and so forth.

Once upon a time, the National Park Service had a problem with movie companies and came down hard on anybody with "professional equipment", but these have since been eased (in most parks). Those initial restrictions were copied by some other organizations, like your PA county park. Many believe any method to raise revenue is legitimate.

Then there are the real concerns of some venues. Our tripods can be a hazard to the passage of other visitors, and those spikes on their feet can be destructive; plus there is real concern about repetitive strobe flashes damaging delicate artwork. (And those in charge cannot be asked figure out which flashes do what damage.)

I photographed a lot of high school and college sports in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. I always checked in with the school, the refs, and the coaches. I can only remember once being refused my (always reasonable) request for access (an ump wouldn't let me stand on a baseball field, in foul territory, forcing me to shoot through a chain link fence)! But just showing up on the sidelines and starting shooting might have caused consternation at any of the schools. (At some schools I became pretty well known, so my only concern would be the refs.)

The only other time I have ever been denied my every wish were at Longwood Gardens (south of Philly) where tripods were not permitted, and in front of a government building in Taipei, Taiwan, where a military style policeman sternly warned me away when I raised my camera. Today, here in America, I understand the same thing will occur if you attempt to photograph the White House or certain facilities considered terrorist targets. And I know that you are risking camera confiscation if you attempt to photograph police "controlling" a "demonstration" in certain jurisdictions! (And that isn't legal, but it happens.)

Getting back to your County Park, it sounds like some county official heard of someone else charging a fee, and thought that was a great idea, without having the slightest idea who would be affected, how it would work, or even if it was legal!

I have always felt that if it's private property, it's their right; but if it's public property, then it's for public use, even by photographers (following appropriate rules), but sometimes the authorities think it is their private property (owned by the public)! And I always believe that if I am on the public common (like the sidewalk) I can photograph anything I can see (except the White House and ...).

From DP Review's write up: "An AF module developed for full-frame means unprecedented frame coverage on the APS-C D500, in this case with cross-type sensors available out to the literal edges of the frame. Furthermore, Nikon is introducing Auto AF Fine-Tune, which appears to use Live View (focus at the image plane) to automatically calibrate (at least the center point of) the Phase Detect AF module for any given lens 'with a few button operations'. This should help address arguably one of the biggest shortcomings of DSLRs relative to mirrorless cameras: the fact that the AF module is only a proxy for focus and, therefore, prone to inaccuracy. "

You are magnifying the Circle of Confusion with the rest of the image! Therefor, you are decreasing the Depth of Focus by a corresponding factor. The depth of focus is determined by the entire lens system!

This isn't that difficult.