Questions about lens,studio and pricing!

Hey everyone!
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Last year I bought an EOS 550D DSLR. Before that I used regular digital cameras. When I got my 550D I was stunned with the IQ and all the settings you could change to have it set your own taste. I bought it with the stock lens, 18-55mm F3.5 IS. Now I've reached a point where I want to improve my pictures more and maybe start shooting as a hobby/financial income on the side.
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<p style="text-align: justify;"]In june we're have a dog show that my family every year manages. I have an idea of having a phot booth taking pictures for the exhibitionists. So I have some questions for you.
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<p style="text-align: justify;"]1. Lens: I've been reading on the The digital picture everyday trying to understand all words and what the difference between lenses are. Its a big djungle, I can tell you! I've been looking at the 70-200mm f 2.8L IS lens. It's quite an investment buying this lense. But also alot of people recommend the 24-70 f4.0L IS lens aswell, it was my initial lens that I planned to aquire. I want an allround objective but also suitable for portrait and sports. Do I really need the f 2.8 or can my wallet have some relief and stay at f 4.0 ? :)
<p style="text-align: justify;"]2. Portable studio: What lights do I need to shoot with? What background is suitable? Dogs come in all different shapes and colours so a neutral colour would be best I think? I'm gonna shoot outside under a big tent with grass, I dont want them to stand in the grass either so what should I use as "floor" ?
<p style="text-align: justify;"]3. Price: I'm planning to make a little profit and PR by shooting at the show, Is 25 bucks to much to ask for a A4 sized portrait? Or should I lower myself?
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<p style="text-align: justify;"]Thats all I guess, maybe some strange questions but maybe you can help me.
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<p style="text-align: justify;"]Ragnar

2. Don't forget about your "ceiling" as well. One time I was taking photos at an outdoor pottery sale event under a tent. I was just starting out then and didn't realize that a *blue* tarp tent will give your subjects *blue* hair!! Made for some interesting looking photos though... If you're looking for studio setup outdoors, a *white* tent as a scrim can be greatly beneficial. You don't want squinting people...and [&amp;] (just found this icon and I just had to use it haha) *EDIT &lt;------- The "dog" icon doesn't work!!


3. I was at the Titanic Exhibit in Indianapolis State Museum and they were taking photos of people on green screens and superimposing them onto the central staircase (You know, the one where Kate Winslet comes down all nicely dressed up and Leonardo DiCaprio is all gawky eyed at the bottom of the staircase? [;)]) We had the option of buying the 4x6 photo at the very end, and it cost us..$8?

Just wanted to point out that Canon dosn't have a 24-70 f4.0L IS.... I think you may be refering to the 24-70 f2.8L (note that this lens does not have IS). This would be a common general purpose lens on full frame cameras more so than on crop sensor cameras (like your 550D). It would certainly be a good lens to consider if you are planning to upgrade to a full frame camera in the near future. Otherwise, one of the more commonly recommended lenses for crop sensor cameras is the EF-S 17-55 f2.8 IS. Alot of peole on here consider this to be the best general purpose lens for crop sensor cameras. Good focal length range, relatively fast appature, IS, excellent image quality.... You might also consider the EF-S 15-85 f3.5-5.6 IS. This lens sacrifices the wide appature for more range of focal length....it is is both wider on the short end and longer on the telephoto end. Image quality is also excellent. BUT in my opinion this would be more of a outdoor lens as it does not have as wide an appature for shooting in low light conditions. It all depends on what you are looking for and need.... Since you are planning to set up lighting, technically you could use either lens, but the wider f2.8 lens would probably give you better background blur to isolate your subjects. Actually, on this note, you may want to consider a fast prime as well....maybe one of the 50mm lenses....


As for lighting, this is a very broad topic which I am just starting to get into....I`m sure someone else on here can give some sound advise on how to approach the lighting for this project.


For pricing, ask whatever you think you can get! [:D] Seriously, it depends on your market and what they think they are worth to them.


Good Luck!

Ok, good answers for me. the 8$ picture would be hard to beat:) I guess my estimate on around 25-30$ is not totally wrong.


Im sorry about the misunderstanding, I edited my post quite poorly. I meant the difference between the 70-200mm f2.8 and f4.0.


I'm planning to upgrade to a full frame body in the future awell but waiting on a new release since the 5d mark 2 is around 2 years old?

Maybe the thought they were in a Avatar inspired studio :). I will be using a tent with a white "roof".


Whoa, thats dirt cheap. But yeah as I stated earlier around 25$ maybe is a okay price?

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Originally Posted by TakahiroW4047

2. Don't forget about your "ceiling" as well. One time I was taking photos at an outdoor pottery sale event under a tent. I was just starting out then and didn't realize that a *blue* tarp tent will give your subjects *blue* hair!! Made for some interesting looking photos though... If you're looking for studio setup outdoors, a *white* tent as a scrim can be greatly beneficial. You don't want squinting people...and (just found this icon and I just had to use it haha) *EDIT &lt;------- The "dog" icon doesn't work!!


3. I was at the Titanic Exhibit in Indianapolis State Museum and they were taking photos of people on green screens and superimposing them onto the central staircase (You know, the one where Kate Winslet comes down all nicely dressed up and Leonardo DiCaprio is all gawky eyed at the bottom of the staircase? [img]/emoticons/emotion-5.gif[/img]) We had the option of buying the 4x6 photo at the very end, and it cost us..$8?
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Haha if only "Avatar" was out then it might have made things less painful.


Well it was $8 for a 4x6, and even Wal-Mart jumps prices from $0.19(4x6) to $2.84(8x10), so I don't think you're too far off (I would never get anything printed there by the way). It's just a matter of whether I would want to carry around something so big and fragile in one hand while having a dog pulling me everywhere by the leash in the other.


Maybe a smaller size, say 5x7 would get you more customers, just from the ease of carrying it around. I'd shoot for a slightly lower price of course, but overall it may be offset by more customers and less ink you'll have to buy?? [*-)] Just my 2cents. Good luck!!

Ok, thats some good advice, will certainly look into to those options.


I went to my local retailer, rajala in Malm