Expert: Don Wood - 9/25/2006

Question
I have a friend who recently asked me to take some pictures for her musical portfolio. I have a little background in photography, but most of my experience is limited to taking casual photos for friends and family. She can't afford to get her pictures professionally done, and I want to help her out, but am scared of doing anything with the shots that could be dentrimental to her carrer. Do you have any advice for getting a professional look with a Canon PowerShot digital camera?

Answer
I would use the maximum resolution you can. On my Nikon, I have various levels of taking pictures ranging from the lowest rez to RAW rez. You will want to take pictures which will yield an 8x10 without any pixelation or noise. This means that your pix might have anywhere from 1 meg to 2 megs of information per pix. Obviously you will want a large memory card to store the pix until you can download them to your computer. You will want to have the best printer you can get, probably one with at least 3 different color tanks plus the black tank. If you don't have that good a computer, make a test print on the one you have and examine it thoroughly for pixellation, color rendering, and other possible problems. If you are dissatisfied with your results use a professional photo lab that has the capability of printing digital images. Other than these provisos, you can probably do the job at least until she gets more experience and needs the expertise of the professional photographer. She will need the services of a manager to help in her career. Good luck in your shoot. Do the best you can with the equipment you have. She will probably need a number of situations, some with stage lighting, some with outdoor, some with mixed lighting, some with mood shots. If you have further questions, let me know in this venue.
Don