35mm will it work for web photo's

[Bill Babler]

Guys I have a very good 35mm SLR Nikon that I purchased about 6 years ago with a varity of lenses.

Here is what I want to do. Take both broschure quality photo's and also completely rephotograph all of our lodge rooms for display on our various internet websites.

Do I need to purchase a digital camera and the appropreate lenses all new or will I just need the correct lenses for my SLR?

What steps would I have to take to reduce the resolution of these film photo's to make them come up quickly on the web? I'm sure I would then need photoshop or some other program to adjust this for my computer.

I am in a pickle as this stuff ain't cheep. Thought about professional photography, but with constant updates and the price of the pro, I could buy my own equipment, so I want to get what would be best.

Please take a shot at this Thanks Bill

What whould you do?

[Randall]

take your pictures, scan the prints onto your computer, if you have a photoshop type program, you can resize the photos to whatever physical size you want (file size will change as well). my photography professor told us to save it as a jpeg as well... somebody correct me if i'm wrong but i remember it being because the file sizes are smaller with jpeg.

my avatar was taken by a 35 mm. and i just scanned and resized it to fit.

[ckjacks]

You can do this a couple of ways in my opinion.

1. Use your SLR and then get a nice scanner. Just get a name brand one that has a good resolution. Randall's right you should save them as jpegs because they are the best for this kind of stuff. Also if you want photoshop go to there website (adobe.com) and you can get a 30 day demo of photoshop pro for free. Then, later you can get a basic version for well under $100, the pro is over $500 I think. But, you should only need the basic stuff to resize things. Also, you can use photobucket.com to resize images if you would like to go that route.

2. Buy a digital camera. If you are going to be constantly updating and changing this would be the best route. It would also be the fastest route. Digital cameras have come along way over the last couple years as far as price goes. You can get a great camera for under $400 (We just got a Sony DSC H2 for less than $300, 6mp and 12x zoom) You could look to see if there is a digital SLR that would work with your lenses. Digital SLR's start at about $500 without lenses.

[Flysmallie]

Bill,

Most places that develop film will also put the photos on a cd for you as jpegs. If you have Microsoft Office you can use the picture manager to resize and crop the photos. This option wouldn't give you all the bells and whistles of a digital and photoshop, but it would be the cheapest and simplest option.

The biggest benefit about digital is you can see the pics right now and adjust and retake if needed. Plus your not spending time and money on developing.

[Rolan Duffield]

Bill:

Lots of good information for you above. Many current digital cameras have a single zoom lens that can cover wide angle views to telephoto. Example 38mm to 380mm. These will do a lot of jobs with a single lens that comes with the camera.

You may not need to change the image resolution providing the pictures are relatively small such as those used in most brochures. Check with the people who print your brochures and ask them what they recommend or require.

Then again, I'll be glad to help take those pics. Just give me a call.

Rolan

[Thom]

Another way to resize pictures is to get them developed onto a disk and download them into your computer. Email them to yourself by using the windows sidebar. select all and then click email photos. It will then ask if you want to resize the pics. Click the box to resize and then email to yourself. It will give you a 800/600 resolution. This will print out a decent photo. 35 MM cameras are about equivalent to an 8 megapictle digital camera.

I would seriously consider to purchasing a 3.2 megapictle camera. I will give good enough pics for most anything up to 8x10. My digital will take 6 meg pics but I usually set for only 3.2. Plenty for most everything.

You can buy a decent 3.2 camera for about 100 dollars and even less.

[WebFreeman]

If you're already comfortable w/ your 35mm, get the photo cd when you get it processed. The quality will be better than you can scan at home. You probably already have the software for resize for the web site and whoever does your brochures could use the digital pics as well. I'd think you get much better pictures from your Nikon than you could w/ a point and shoot digital, esp. if you are comfortable with using it and it's features.

[LostMyWife]

Bill

Your 35mm will do everything you need. I suggest you use 100 speed film inside the lodge and 400 speed outside.If you are going to photograph the lodge, use a wide angle lens. Your pictures will look better because of the size of the field that you can get. I looked at the shots on your website. A wide angle lens would have increased the depth of field of the inside shots and given the pictures a more panoramic view. The same could be said for the shots off the deck, as well as the views from the front of the lodge. Also, pick a time when the shadows do not fall across the pictures outside.

Take a lot of pictures, with both speeds of film. Use various levels of flash, but try and direct the flash up rather than forward or use a diffuser so the flash does not bleed out the details inside the lodge.

BTW, your lodge looks FANTASTIC.

LMW

Have the pictures put on disk when you have them developed. Then take them to someone that is good with Adobe Photoshop or some other similar software package. It will be well worth the money for the time it will save you and the results that you get.

[Bill Babler]

Guys, thanks so much for all your help. I have also spoken to seveal pro's with several doing nothing but interiors and to a man or woman, they are all using Nikon Nikkor 10.5 mm fisheye lenses for all of their close up interior photography. No distortion at a 180 degree field of view.

The durn camera is not the problem, this lens is $700.00 Guess I'll spring for one as it seems to be my only option.

I need my photo's as crisp and clear as possible for the lodge.

Also Phil took the interiors with a 12mm fisheye so that is pretty wide on the angle shots.

Thanks again guys, really appreciate it.

Have any of you purchased anything over the web? Prices seem to be very good for the same equipment they sell at Lawrence Photo..

[WebFreeman]

You might be able to rent the lens, though I guess it would pay for itself w/ a few guests.