New Tools Being Added.

Talked it over with the wife and I have about another $1,500 - $2,000 for
photography tools.
I am thinking
Better Tri-pod.
Photoshop
580 EX II flash and perhaps 1 slave or remote flash.
I would rather stay closer to $1,500

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor photography?

Thank you

Tom

On Oct 7, 12:54 pm, "Just Shoot Me"
wrote:
Talked it over with the wife and I have about another $1,500 - $2,000 for
photography tools.
I am thinking
Better Tri-pod.
Photoshop
580 EX II flash and perhaps 1 slave or remote flash.
I would rather stay closer to $1,500

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor photography?

Thank you

Tom

A fast zoom or prime lens? A monopod for where tripods aren't allowed,
e.g., museums?

"Just Shoot Me" wrote:

Talked it over with the wife and I have about another $1,500 - $2,000 for
photography tools.
I am thinking
Better Tri-pod.
Photoshop
580 EX II flash and perhaps 1 slave or remote flash.
I would rather stay closer to $1,500

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor photography?


Tuition?

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor
photography?

Absolutely! Try this.

http://www.geocities.com/ritaberk2007/lt1.htm

That looks a lot less expensive that the $20US I paid for my diffuser for
the 580EX II I bought. Where were you with this 3 weeks ago?

Rob

"Just Shoot Me" wrote in message
newsb8Oi.201$q42.100@trndny06...
Talked it over with the wife and I have about another $1,500 - $2,000 for
photography tools.
I am thinking
Better Tri-pod.
Photoshop
580 EX II flash and perhaps 1 slave or remote flash.
I would rather stay closer to $1,500

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor photography?


There are a few things that I have bought that were inexpensive but
overpriced that helped my indoor photography a lot and you may consider if
you don't have them already.

1. 18% grey card:
http://www.adorama.com/DKGC.html?sid... ard&item_no=7

There are more expensive ones and fancier ones but this will do. You get
two 8x10" cards. Cut one into reasonable sized convenient pieces and put
one in each camera bag, or your jacket pocket when you go out. Often you
can use this to find the exposure for tricky situations, and most
importantly to set the white balance for the situation, even weeks after you
took the picture if you can find the same lighting conditions and remembered
to shoot raw. Use the full sized one for your subject to hold during
portraits or for longer distances. Correct white balance is critical to
getting good colours.

2. 2 axis Hot shoe bubble level:
http://www.adorama.com/JDDAL.html?si...vel&item_no=10

This one works quite well for me to get images straight in the camera when
using a tripod and also to level the tripod itself properly when doing
panoramas on uneven ground so that the image doesn't tilt as you rotate the
tripod head even if it is straight at one position. You can mount it in
different ways to get the two axes of interest like for copy work when you
have the tripod inverted and the camera should be exactly straight down.

3. Remote shutter release for your camera wired or wireless. This helps
almost as much as the tripod to avoid camera shake from pressing the shutter
release or from not having to be behind the camera to take the picture but
not have to wait for the timer. You can fire it whenever from a significant
distance then.

4. A cheap flash diffuser like a Stofen or generic brand to get the "bare
bulb" effect. Perhaps the green and gold models if you don't get #4.

5. Some cheap flash gels to match incandescent and fluorescent lighting for
when you want to use fill flash and colour balance after with your grey card
so you don't end up with different colour casts in the foreground and the
shadows.

6. A linear polarizing film to put in front of your flash.
This is more for macro work where you will dominate the light with your
flash(es). This way you can use a circular polarizer on your camera and use
a mirror to set the camera polarizer angle to block the direct reflection of
the flash. Now when you take macro pictures this way only the diffuse
reflected light will enter the camera and you can go much brighter and
eliminate hot spots. Look up cross-polarized flash for more info.


Photoshop is a good idea. ACR does an excellent job of fixing chromatic
aberrations and vignetting if your lenses have some. The lens correction
filter does pretty good job of fixing barrel/pincushion distortions. This
could save you from needing to buy better lenses.

Rita Ä Berkowitz wrote:
Just Shoot Me wrote:

Talked it over with the wife and I have about another $1,500 - $2,000
for photography tools.
I am thinking
Better Tri-pod.

That's always a good investment especially if you have some long lenses.

Yep.

Photoshop

Talk to Bret and see if he will e-mail his keygen for CS3.

Oh, that sounds not very legal . . .

How about Bibble and The Gimp for touch-ups?

580 EX II flash and perhaps 1 slave or remote flash.

550 or 580 EX I will do just as well, unless you have a
weather sealed camera.

One 580 is a good idea. You can save a lot of money by buying used Nikon
Speedlights on eBay.

However, you often get what you pay for, so check before you jump.

Get a few PocketWizards or cheap Chinese eBay remotes.
PocketWizards are the best. See www.strobist.com for all your flash ideas.

You get what you pay for, sometimes less.

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor
photography?

Absolutely! Try this.

http://www.geocities.com/ritaberk2007/lt1.htm

Try bouncing the flash off the ceiling or even off walls.
That's even cheaper and has a much larger reflective area, giving
much softer light.

-Wolfgang

"RichA" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 7, 12:54 pm, "Just Shoot Me"
wrote:
Talked it over with the wife and I have about another $1,500 - $2,000 for
photography tools.
I am thinking
Better Tri-pod.
Photoshop
580 EX II flash and perhaps 1 slave or remote flash.
I would rather stay closer to $1,500

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor
photography?

Thank you

Tom

A fast zoom or prime lens? A monopod for where tripods aren't allowed,
e.g., museums?

Thank you Rich but right now this is not for fun. Its hard enough being
able to get what I need.
after that tho I will be looking into another lens.

Tom

"Rita Ä Berkowitz" ritaberk2O04 @aol.com wrote in message
...
Just Shoot Me wrote:

Talked it over with the wife and I have about another $1,500 - $2,000
for photography tools.
I am thinking
Better Tri-pod.

That's always a good investment especially if you have some long lenses.

Photoshop

Talk to Bret and see if he will e-mail his keygen for CS3.

580 EX II flash and perhaps 1 slave or remote flash.

One 580 is a good idea. You can save a lot of money by buying used Nikon
Speedlights on eBay. Get a few PocketWizards or cheap Chinese eBay
remotes.
PocketWizards are the best. See www.strobist.com for all your flash
ideas.

I would rather stay closer to $1,500

Very easy!

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor
photography?

Absolutely! Try this.

http://www.geocities.com/ritaberk2007/lt1.htm
Rita

I love your little gizmo and will try it. Not really comfortable with Ebay
and will look into the pocketwizards and the other link.

Thank you

Tom

"Tony Polson" wrote in message
...
"Just Shoot Me" wrote:

Talked it over with the wife and I have about another $1,500 - $2,000 for
photography tools.
I am thinking
Better Tri-pod.
Photoshop
580 EX II flash and perhaps 1 slave or remote flash.
I would rather stay closer to $1,500

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor photography?


Tuition?


Adobe Photoshop CS3 One-on-One Essentials.
Maybe a book on flash photography - there are lots of web pages on the
subject.
perhaps a book on indoor photography if there are any.
Rec.photo.digital.slr-systems

"default" wrote in message
news:fXbOi.1617$Da.912@pd7urf1no...
"Just Shoot Me" wrote in message
newsb8Oi.201$q42.100@trndny06...
Talked it over with the wife and I have about another $1,500 - $2,000 for
photography tools.
I am thinking
Better Tri-pod.
Photoshop
580 EX II flash and perhaps 1 slave or remote flash.
I would rather stay closer to $1,500

as far as the flash goes, some of you suggested different gizmo's.
Are there any that I should look at as a must have for indoor
photography?


There are a few things that I have bought that were inexpensive but
overpriced that helped my indoor photography a lot and you may consider if
you don't have them already.

1. 18% grey card:
http://www.adorama.com/DKGC.html?sid... ard&item_no=7

There are more expensive ones and fancier ones but this will do. You get
two 8x10" cards. Cut one into reasonable sized convenient pieces and put
one in each camera bag, or your jacket pocket when you go out. Often you
can use this to find the exposure for tricky situations, and most
importantly to set the white balance for the situation, even weeks after
you took the picture if you can find the same lighting conditions and
remembered to shoot raw. Use the full sized one for your subject to hold
during portraits or for longer distances. Correct white balance is
critical to getting good colours.


I have read about these things. at this point I have no idea how I would
use them.



4. A cheap flash diffuser like a Stofen or generic brand to get the "bare
bulb" effect. Perhaps the green and gold models if you don't get #4.

after i get the flash I will look into these.


5. Some cheap flash gels to match incandescent and fluorescent lighting
for when you want to use fill flash and colour balance after with your
grey card so you don't end up with different colour casts in the
foreground and the shadows.

that is a big problem for me.



Photoshop is a good idea. ACR does an excellent job of fixing chromatic
aberrations and vignetting if your lenses have some. The lens correction
filter does pretty good job of fixing barrel/pincushion distortions. This
could save you from needing to buy better lenses.

looking at the price I wish it wasn't such a good idea.

thank you for the great post and will comment more in the future as I look
into EVERYTHING ELSE .

Tom