The Photography Thread

[Alastair]

Ta very much! He's the lead singer - one Eddie Pistolas (seriously!) Good work on getting in on the online magazine. Are they paying you? I really have no idea how to make money from live gig shots - I love doing them, but monetising it is a mystery to me.

Al, sadly it's not that simple, though I did double check to make sure. I certainly wouldn't put that past me. It's on, and the red LED lights up to let you know that it's receiving the signal, but it just doesn't trigger the flash at all. The insides look fine too.

I would honestly be AMAZED if he's getting paid at all, even expenses, it's a ****ty industry to try and make money from and everyone takes massive liberties.

Try the receiver on a different flash. One of mine refuses to work on one of my flashes but works fine on the other two, it's really strange!

Like the effect on the background trees on your portrait.

[Ish]

Great portrait Magnakai - very nice.

Crumpler bags are great aren't they. My laptop lives in a Crumpler rucksack and its been on my back while I've been cycling in some horrendous weather and has always kept the insides bone dry.

[funkydan]

Good luck to Dan with getting a big gig. I've given up with music as I found it was super hard work for no pay and I didn't even get to enjoy the gigs as I was focusing too hard on the shots.

Well, I'll see how it goes, but I'm really into it at the mo. I just shoot bands for the first three songs and then hang back and enjoy the show

Good work on getting in on the online magazine. Are they paying you? I really have no idea how to make money from live gig shots - I love doing them, but monetising it is a mystery to me.

Thanks mate. No, not being paid but will get a pass with a +1. If I'm honest, I don't know how to get paid from it yet either but I'm going to keep at it. Either I can sell shots of the bigger bands to the media through the online mag or I keep following bands that are on the cusp of making it, become their official photographer (could happen with a few of my friends bands some of which are very good) and sell my work that way. There's also online picture libraries who will buy photos as well. It's not easy, but it's what I want to do - at the moment, I'm just enjoying it and having a laugh, but I will push it as far as I can.

I would honestly be AMAZED if he's getting paid at all, even expenses, it's a ****ty industry to try and make money from and everyone takes massive liberties.

Yes you are right Al, I'm not yet being paid, but I'm gonna try my damndest (is that a word? It is now!) to make it work. The way I see it, I have nothing to lose and am combining my two fave things, live music and photography. Al, that's fair enough if you've tried and been bitten in the past and just got fed up with it yourself, but I don't feel that way at all and will pursue it for as long as I can Don't crush my dreams dude...I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself

On a different, had a bit of a strange one tonight - I was checking my emails tonight and had one from this woman. She'd emailed me through my website (www.funky-photos.co.uk) which is currently nothing but a holding page! Anyway, to cut a long story short, her friend is having her Hen Do next July and wants a kind of Paparazzi affair with a photographer following the Hens around from them getting ready until the bitter end of the evening, and they've asked me to provide a quote!! I'm gonna do it as it sounds like a giggle and I'll get paid to follow around a bunch of drunken (possibly quite good looking) ladies for a night - dunno what else to say

[Richard.John]

Out of interest, does anyone take note of their flickr stats? I mention it as I noticed that my LEGO Ferrari set was consistently the most viewed day by day. Odd, I thought, as I haven't posted it on multiple groups or given it a million tags. Anyway, it seems that most of the traffic comes from search engines as I discovered that my pics are on page one of Google's image search for LEGO Ferrari's. Amazing what you discover, and the places your pics are floating about.

[funkydan]

I'm always checking my stats - it becomes an addiction! It's also a helpful way to see if anyone is using your images without your consent, not that anyone nicks mine, but good to know the facility is there.

[Alastair]

I'm not trying to piss on your parade Dan. If you think your shots are good enough to earn you some cash then get on it.

I would suggest that the way forward is to find agencies that the press use, get accepted with them and then upload in a timely fashion i.e, within an hour of the gig finishing. It's the only way you'll be at all competative amongst the other togs that attend the gigs.

[funkydan]

I'm not trying to piss on your parade Dan. If you think your shots are good enough to earn you some cash then get on it.

I take it you're not convinced?

I am still learning, we all are, and people seem to enjoy the gig photos I take. I'm currently just enjoying myself, getting into gigs for free, and if it happens to bring in a few quid - great, if not, I'm really not fussed. I'm more interested to see what I can do and achieve

[Alastair]

I take it you're not convinced?

I am still learning, we all are, and people seem to enjoy the gig photos I take. I'm currently just enjoying myself, getting into gigs for free, and if it happens to bring in a few quid - great, if not, I'm really not fussed. I'm more interested to see what I can do and achieve

You've got completely the right attitude mate. I'm not as much of a muso as you so I wasn't even enjoying the gigs that often. If you can enjoy the music and shoot it then it's pretty much a win win isn't it. Money isn't the be all and end all

[funkydan]

Thanks dude, I'll just keep snapping away

[spagmasterswift]

I really need to get out and about this weekend, been so slack lately...

[Taka]

Anybody use Aperture on the Mac for processing photos? I've always been a Photoshop man myself but I've recently considered giving it a go after hearing about how similar tasks are made much simpler in Aperture. Is there a place for both or is there really only room for one?

[Garf]

I have Aperture on my Mac as well as Elements 6. Aperture's main trick is the ability to organise your photos, with the added bonus of some processing stuff as well.

To be honest, I do most of my processing in Aperture these days, and rarely use Elements at all, unless it's more heavy duty processing that is needed.

There is definitely room for both as they are really intended for different things, but as I say, the PP in Aperture is normally enough for most things (for me anyway)

[Ish]

Likewise. I use Aperture and Photoshop CS3 but I do the majority of my work in Aperture, only really resorting to PS for oddball tasks. Its also worth considering LightRoom - similar idea to Aperture.

Two other tools I've found useful are LightZone and I've started to use NoiseNinja recently too.

[Ginger Tosser]

I tried Aperture, but it ran ****e on my MacMini. So tried LightRoom and found it much more suited to my Mac. Both app do much the same, but I really like the editing tools in LR2 though. The one issue I have with Aperture (or was on the older versions) is the lack of non destructive editing on Raw images.

[Garf]

Been having a play with Poladroid tonight - nifty little app that makes photos look like old Polaroids.

http://www.poladroid.net/ if you're interested..