with this sort of "cup full" attitude you 're in the wrong perspective to gain any help from any of us.
i think you are wasting your time and our time if you post threads asking people for help and then
calling their comments idiotic.  if it's adulation rather than help that you wanted, why not come right out and say it.

finally, if you are find  magnum's comment idiotic, oh believe me, compared to some reviewers like Atilla, magnum's a pussycat.

i don't think magnum was being ignorant, but rather being honest. you seem to be in a big hurry to get good without the effort. the old saying still applies, for earning a masters or learning the ropes of any skill, it's 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. you seem to get it the other way around.

no one here is out to offend you, just being realistic . remember we were there before.
you need to apply yourself more, and stop taking every word we say personally. it isn't about you, it's just means you have to make the effort to work at it. one session does not make you a pro.
paying a "pro" to set up your lights does not make you any better either, only poorer.
i hope you understand what we are all trying to tell you.
o you think i am wearing a mask?

Quote from: tillencik on April 13, 2009, 13:44

I take a ton of pictures of family members and pets, which are useless as stock.

Not at all. Family and generation images in a natural environment are sought after in stock. You just have to "direct" your models well, so they look cheering and happy, or inclusive and caring. Just go to any stock site and look for "family" and check the best selling shots for ideas.

Everybody has to start, but you might try some easier subjects before people shots, where you have to divide your attention between your cam and the people. Your cam mastering should be automatic in people's situations. Or you can try all possible settings in the environment when the models are not there yet, then just keep those settings. Look carefully at the histogram and zoom in to 100% on the LCD (if your cam has one) to check for lighting and focus. If not, just halt the shoot, and look at a laptop at 100%, then adjust if necessary.

You also need some basic digital photography tutorials, like cambridgeincolour and Photoshop tutorials. There are many online if you Google for it.

There are a lot of good stuff, how to handle/guide models, and Photoshop tricks on Youtube too.

Quote from: tillencik on April 12, 2009, 16:45

There's no way for me to select the model and change the background without making it look like crap.  Each time I try in photoshop it looks terrible.

tillencik, You can pretty much do anything in Photoshop if you spend a little time and know what you're doing, however it helps to have the information there in the first place, on this shot all I've done to your image is adjust the colour balance and played with the levels, took about 15 seconds, one side of her face is overexposed which means it's never going to be perfect, but if you were prepared to spend some time on it you could get a reasonable result.

Next time just set your background lights one stop more, and move the light on the right side of her face further back (or lower the power) and the reflector on her left closer. Look up portrait lighting using the 'butterfly' or 'rembrandt' techniques on Google, shadows are a good thing they add definition.