sixothree

I bought a 12Gb CF card recently and I am shooting RAW + high quality jpeg at the moment. Previously, I was using RAW only with a 2Gb card. RAW is definately the way to go, but the jpeg files are smaller and that lets me get preview copies off the CF card. They are quicker to download and they are ready to view immediately, which is useful if I can use my laptop during a shoot.

My previous experience in photography was with film in B&W, where I would develop and print my own work. That has helped a lot to learn quickly, but there is a lot to learn on working with colour and PS.

This article on using curves in Camera RAW may be interesting to you. When I sent in my set to SG, I tried converting my RAW files using Camera RAW at first, but I got much better results with Canon's own software, DPP. The skin tones were much better in DPP than in CR and Capture One LE. However, that may reflect my inexperience rather than the best posible from the software.

Having sarted to appreciate how much there is to learn about PS, I bought Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers recently. It's a great book, written in a easy to follow style. If you can browse through a copy at your local bookshop, its well worth checking out.

Good luck with your set and with your job hunting too.

I shot this set with Tragique in February and it was accepted and published quicker than I expected. It was my very first SG style shoot and the very first time I used my lighting gear apart from practice shots in my flat with a badminton racquet as the "model".

You will notice some issues with focus on some of the shots. My camera was repaired before the shoot and returned by Canon with a autofocus problem, which became apparent during the shoot. I sent in all of the shots and SG used some images that I did not expect to see published. My camera is fixed now, but it's such a shame that I had problems at that time. Tragique was great as a model and I am very pleased with the shots that turned out as I planned.

Best of luck with your sets.