Hey, anybody want to list off any tips, advice and suggestions to help people get the most from this forum?

Every now and then, a thread goes off topic, due to issues of etiquette, use of search functions, etc.

So to start us off, here's mine:

Every new question, is probably (statistically speaking) not new to the forum.
Therefore, if you try searching the forum berfore posting a question, you may find that your question has already been asked and answered.

looking at your post, you've got 18mm to 300mm (that equates to 24-450 in terms of fov on film 35mm)
if you're cropping lots, you need to re-evaluate how your composing your images at the taking stage.

now for low light. shoot raw look at raw converters and noise plugins, all covered extensivly in nthese forums

look at the 50mm1.4 to start, then decide if you nedd a new body or more fast primes.... they got you covered for everything from wide angle to telephoto.....

happy shooting!

oh, forgot something rather obvious...
you could use a peice of black foamcore/matboard cut to the same size as your light tent's front panel, and cut a hole in it for your lens.
a large square reflection sometimes works well with some subjects......

if you are worried about the tripod...leave it behind.
bring a manfrotto superclamp and ballhead, and or a bean bag.
now go out and use ANY stable surface....
that ought to force you to come up with some interesting angles/compositions.

perhaps a plate of glass will help, placed between your subject and lens.
glass will reflect any color light, even the white off the light tent.
it depends what angle the light hits it at.
also
move your light source around.
try different camera/subject positions.
you may be able to reduce the black holes on the subjects that way.
another way to reduce reflections would be polarizing your lightsource, and adding a polarizer to your lens.

Eevrybody learns differently.

some people enjoy taking courses.
some might do just as well going to thier local library.
there are no magic secrets to photography.

if you think you can learn on your own...just grab your camera, and start practicing.

We've actually had people we liked, (others not so well liked, (no names being mentioned on purpose)) that simply started asking questions on these forums.....then we watched those progress to professional quality work in very little time.
You'll find everybody here very willing to teach and help (even to some unusaul individuals that insulted, confronted, and antagonized, members of this forum every step of the way, (again no names :twisted)

so if you're eager to learn, try things out and ask questions, you'll get lots of help here for free that you'd have to pay for elswhere.
Try the search functions.

I'm glad to hear sombody found that usefull!
another easy one for web use is to lay your stuff on a good flatbed scanner, use some empty film canisters or blocks to hold a peice of colored foamcore over the scanner, and scan your jewlrey in.
the shots above are certianly good, but there's always room for improvement, esppecially for commerce.

well Nathan, the motorcycle does tend to distract one from the the photography. But is good for the soul.
Come into a corner at 150+km/h, and spot a deer, you won't get much chance to grab your camera, but you might just see Jesus. I like to use Him as a braking marker!

You want to convince the world you are insane? Start by saying "I'm not crazy".
You want to convince the world you are a fool? Start by saying "I predict....(the future)".
I say somebody has to go through as many years of BACK predictions this guy has made to get an estimate of how accurate he is. Then discard it. Because that will only tell you how big a fool he is. The future, could hold anything. Look at how many experts predicted the death of Apple?

Nathan, your reasoning is sound. Also your logic is sound.
One could play it safe and grab the 16-45 (I did) and spend more for the 50-135. (again I played it safe and bought the 501.4 and 100mm macro and use my feet for zooming.)
Just buy the lens you need, try to order the 16-50 at a place that has high turnover, or only special orders to ensure you don't get an old stock item.

ps... Ferrari's are expensive to buy, own, and maintain.
I got a $3,300 dollar Yamaha motorcycle that can out accelerate the Enzo, anywhere from 0-250 km/h.
I buy Pentax, shoot Pentax, and manage to scratch out a living. Sure I could spend more on cameras (or performance toys)...But what I got gets me there.....

'spider... voodoo? I don't know.... maybe you could try inviting Nathan for coffee and swap lenses while he's off to the head?