Need your opinions

Need your opinions

So I did my first outdoor event at a festival on Sunday. Well over 800 pictures. I had 1200 at first but I had alot of repeats and some didn't come out too good. not even post processing did any good.

check it out: www.dacubanskillz.com (under Festival Primavera)

I only used my flash unit 3 or 4 times but the rest was with natural light and with some adjustments with the shutter speed, aperature, exposure, etc, I was able to get my pics done correctly.

I exchanged my business cards with a few managers so they can checkout their artist's pictures on my page. I gotta get my name out there and this is a start.

Camera: Canon Rebel XTi
Lens: Canon EF-S 17-85MM f4-5.6 IS USM
ISO: 200 and 400
Aperature: I started off wide open but then changed it. I used 7.1 to 10 throughout the day.
Shutter: Varied throughout the day cause of the weather. 1/30 to 1/60
Flash: None (except for 3-4 pics)

I'm no pro but I think I did better than the other company who was there taking pictures. Their pics are all blown out or even too dark. They didn't use the sunlight to their advantage when taking pics of the artists.

I take photography a little more seriously now. But when I saw what others have done for the price they have, I jumped into action and got my own background, stands, lights, etc. I beat their price and give better deals and now I'm making some cash doing this on the weekends. i got people wanting me to go to their production studio to take pics, I did my first family portrait this weekend that I'm working on and I'm doing other things. Plus its fun to do!! I had a ton of fun on Sunday until an issue came up that I had to help with, but other than that, it was cool!!

With a non-telephoto lens, I would still recommend using a flash when possible. If you are doing this for money, a flash is a must. without it, you will experience blurriness especially on moving subjects. Get the 580 II flash. The clearer the picture, the more your images will be sellable.

As far as other people's pictures coming out too dark, that probably because they were all using flashes. if you want to keep the nice ambient lighting but still bring out the subject, boost your ISO more and keep the shutter around 1/60 or 1/50 and take the picture. it will take the background image using ambient lighting and still capture the subject with the flash and make him/her look sharp. Also as the day goes by, the sun sets and the lighting changes. You probably had to do a lot of adjustments in order to keep up with good pictures.. if you used the flash, your images will stay more consistent and becomes easier for post production.

Possible lens to get for the future, 24-70L f.28 zoom and 70-200L IS f2.8 Zoom. Just about any professional will tell you that you need it for overall purposes.

As far as the images themselves...I would probably say upfront shots would have been better. the majority of your photos are all side profile and doesn't really portray the energy given out by the singers and the band. also you'll eventually realize when selling images to people, It's best to pick out only the very best images. What I do is say i take 1000 photos, I will shrink it down to about 200 photos, show it to my clients (if they want to see) and eventually shrink that down to 50-80 images that I'll actually give to the client. If you give them too much, they will love that you took so much but when it comes down to actually using the images, they will struggle with choosing which image to use.

Like Gen said, If you want to take photography a little bit more seriously the built-in flash won't just cut it. Aside from what he mentioned, just make sure you have enough memory cards, battery(for your camera and flash).

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. My boy was able to get me into another outside event in June which I'm gonna try what you said. I have the 580ex II (which is what I used) and a telephoto lens. But the lens isn't the greatest. But it doesn't hurt to try.

I tried the flash and I didn't like the way it came out. There was no where to bounce it off of so I had to do it straight on and they came out way too bright and i tried messing with the ISO and shutter speed. Since I didn't have much time to decide what to do, I just did the no flash thing and used the sunlight. i did have to adjust my settings a few times, but not many. I know the very last pics I should have used the flash cause it was getting darker out but I didn't have much time to snap pics cause I had to go deal with some things.

The pictures I put up aren't really for sale. What i do gets put up for others to see. if they use it, then cool cause it has the logo on it. But if they don't want the logo on it, then I'll work on the pic and then we can talk about prices and rights. The gigs that I do get paid for (more private ones) don't get posted on the net because I'm working on a site that has just the more serious pictures and the ones I put work into. The cheesy site I have now is just for people to see things like I said before.

I also do what you said. I only give people X amount of pictures to look through and then they can choose from there. the portrait session I just did on Saturday worked just like that. I did about 350-400 pictures. I narrowed it down to about 175 pictures and i worked from there. The photog that did my wedding gave me 700 pictures and I had to choose from all of that. Needless to say i agree that it is overwhelming.

Any other advice you can think of? I appreciate the comments and suggestions!

You posted while I was responding but I do have an external unit. I agree the onboard flash doesn't cut it. I tried it and it didn't work right with the pictures. I eventually got the external flash and it worked wonders but then had issues with shadows so I ended up getting a Flash bracket so I can flip the flash unit when I do vertical shots which has helped alot.

I currently have 3 memory cards that do the trick for me. I have two 2GB Extreme III's and one 4GB Extreme IV card. I will get more 2GB cards in the next few months. Anything more than 4GB can be a disaster should the card get corrupted somehow, IMO. I think 4GB is even pushing it which is why I may stay with 2GB.

I have a battery grip with 2 batteries for the camera which lasted me all day and still has some juice for more pictures. I also have 2 sets of rechargable batteries for the flash (I'm actually looking for a better set of batteries..if you have suggestions on a brand, please let me know). I carry both sets with me when I go out. The last thing I need is for the batteries to run out of juice and then I'm stuck with an external flash that can't do anything.

Here are two samples of what I was talking about when I referenced the other guys pictures..maybe its easier to understand what i was saying.




If he was using a flash, it shouldn't have looked like that. Even with me not using flash, it didn't come out that dark. I did get some red from the sun but it was a bit clearer on my end.

If you don't have anything to bounce off, you could always use a bounce card or a lightsphere.

Reminds me that I need to get more stuff for my camera...a flash & a couple of lenses..

I was able to get into a show on Friday. I took my telephoto lens that came with the camera. I was really disappointed to a point. I was able to get some head shots and some shots of the guys on stage which looked okay. But the lens was sooooo slow. I eventually gave up and used the 17-85mm lens I have and it was much faster but not as close as the other lens. I def gotta invest in a new telephoto lens cause the one I have does not cut it for the things I do.

REchargeable Lenmar or Sanyo Eneloop batteries are good.

I'm gonna look into that! Thanks!

Drunk, I'm taking your advice. In school I have free use of the equipment room. So I reserved the Cannon 5D and the 24-70L 2.8 lens. I have a concert on Sunday so I'm gonna try it out then. Unfortunately they don't have the 70-200L lens. so we'll see how it goes.