Where do you purchase your photography equipment?
They are usually competitively priced and provide excellent customer service. We order based on which company has availability.
What cameras do you use?
To see a list of all the equipment we use and/or recommend, visit What's in My Bag or office.
Canon 5D MKII – our current camera: It is incredible at capturing low light, high ISO shots with almost no noise.
Canon G11 is our Point and Shoot camera. As P&S cameras go, this is a great one.
Why did you go with Canon?
When starting out with digital, Canon just felt right. We have stayed with Canon ever since.
What lenses do you use most?
We have upgraded through time. We did not start with L series lenses. My current favorites in my lens lineup:
- Canon 35L 1.4
- Canon 50L 1.2
- Canon 85L 1.2
- Canon 135L 2.0
- Tamron 28-300
- We also have the Canon 16-35L 2.8, Canon 24-105L 4.0, Canon 70-200L 2.8 IS II, and the Canon 100 2.8 Macro. These are great too - but we love L Primes.
To see a list of all the equipment we use and/or recommend, visit What's in My Bag or office.
What lenses do you recommend if I am on a limited budget?
Since we shoot Canon, we can only recommend lenses for Canon. Our favorites prior to purchasing "L glass" were the Canon 50 1.8, 50 1.4, and 85 1.8 prime lenses. I also really liked the Tamron 28-75 2.8 zoom lens.
To see a list of all the starter equipment we use and/or recommend, visit What's in My Bag or office.
What do you think of the Tamron 18-270 lens that you used for the Fall/Winter 2009 Tamron ads featuring your photography?
You can read full details on my blog about this shoot and impressions. It is an amazing travel lens and is so versatile. The vibration reduction works really well and let me hand hold at extremely low shutter speeds. As long as there is enough light around, this is a fantastic lens. I own its full frame counterpart, the Tamron 28-300 and love it for when I am on the go.
What external camera flashes and studio lights do you use?
We own the 580ex and 580ex II and a few flash modifiers. For a studio setting we have 3 Alien Bees lights, a Lastolite hi-lite backdrop, a Westcott softbox, and a few umbrellas.
To see a list of all the studio equipment we use and/or recommend, visit What's in My Bag or office.
What type of reflectors do you use?
I own 2 Sunbounce Reflectors that are amazing. I use these in studio and on the go.
To see a list of all the reflectors we use and/or recommend, visit What's in My Bag or office.
What is your most used MCP action set?
Actually I use a big batchable action custom made from many of my sets. I change it occasionally as my style or needs shift. The main actions I use inside it are from the MCP Fusion, Complete Workflow, Quickie Collection, and Bag of Tricks. When I need retouching, I turn to the Eye Doctor and Magic Skin.
When it comes to blogging, as you may have noticed, I use the Magic Blog It Boards frequently to show before and afters and to display groups of pictures. These save me tons of time.
What camera bags do you use?
Jill-e Jack Bag for a main camera bag
Shootsac to carry while shooting
To see a list of all the camera bags we use and/or recommend, visit What's in My Bag or office.
What do you use for white balance?
We have a number of white balance tools, but I usually default back to my Lastolite Ezybalance in studio. When outside, we often just adjust white balance in Lightroom and occasionally use a lens cap with built in white balance.
To see a list of all the white balance tools we use and/or recommend, visit What's in My Bag or office.
What type of computers do you use?
Mac Pro desktop and Macbook Pro Laptop
To see a list of our computers and monitors and other office equipment we use and/or recommend, visit What's in My Bag or office.
Do you prefer use Photoshop on a Mac or PC?
We got off to a bad start with our 1st Mac in mid 2009. We got a "lemon" instead of an Apple. The hard drive crashed and the computer died in one week. After much stress and frustration, we got back to work on another new Mac Pro. The two things we do like about Macs are the Time Machine backup system and the low risk factor for viruses. The verdict - Photoshop runs very similarly on both. It really is up to you.
How do you back up your pictures?
Time Machine that backs up to an external hard drive and a mirrored RAID drive. We back up our most important business data to Mobile Me, should something happen to all hard drives at the same time.
What type of cell phone do you have?
iPhone – LOVE IT! Fun and functional. So many great photography apps, plus the internet is at my fingertips.
Do you use a mouse or Wacom when editing?
A mouse. We've tried Wacom tablets and always end up selling them. But many do LOVE them.
Do you calibrate your monitor?
Yes – this is essential. We currently have the NEC2690 monitor with calibration for my Mac. This monitor is incredible. For my laptops we use Spyder Express. It was inexpensive and works great.
To see a list of all the software we use and/or recommend, visit What's in My Bag or office.
What professional print lab do you recommend?
I use Color Inc. for my printing. I love their quality, but even more-so, I love their customer service. I highly recommend calling them, as they can walk you through the set-up, upload and ordering process. They can also answer questions you have on bleeds, printing, how to prepare your prints, calibrating with their printers and more. Make sure to tell them Jodi at MCP Actions sent you.
What plug-ins and software do you use besides your own actions?
Adobe Photoshop (currently using CS5) and Adobe’s Lightroom 3
Noiseware by Imagenomic – this reduces noise in our images and gives them a beautiful smooth look.
Autoloader – this script speeds up our workflow by allowing us to zip through my photo editing using our personal batch action. It opens one photo at a time into Photoshop and runs our big batchable action, allows me to tweak the photo, then it saves and it opens the next.
Do you know everything about Photoshop? Where do you go if you get stuck in Photoshop?
We love Photoshop. Learning Photoshop is an ongoing process for us. While it would be incredible to say we know everything about Photoshop, nobody does. We've even stumped industry leaders, like Scott Kelby, with certain questions. We are very strong in Photoshop as it relates to retouching and enhancing photos. We do not utilize certain features in Photoshop as they relate to architecture, science and graphic design.
When looking to learn new information, the main resource we use is NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals). They have a wonderful help desk for members, as well as video tutorials.
We also post questions to Twitter, Facebook and photography forums. Just because you teach does not mean you cannot learn...
What forums do you belong to and which are your favorites?
I belong to dozens of photography forums but due to time, we rarely get to visit all of them on a regular basis. The main forums we participate in are Click In Moms, Bloom Forum, and Beyond Just Images.
Who do you use for your monthly newsletters?
We use Constant Contact when sending my monthly newsletters.
What are your favorite Photoshop and photography books?
We have a lot to recommend. One great place to start is Amazon, as it often has reviews of the books by readers.
We would have to say that Understanding Exposure is the book we recommend most for photographers just starting out. As for Photoshop, it depends on your learning style.
To see a list of all the books we recommend for photography, Photoshop and even marketing, visit What's in My Bag or office.
