I'm gonna focus on number four.....

your snooted light is aimed in such a way that you have hard directional light spilling onto her face, bringing out every flaw in the skin....careful aiming of this light will seperate your subject from the background, and highlight the hair....the spill should be avoided, (in general). this light should, to start, be metered and equall in intensity to your key light..(to start, from there you may increase or decrease up to one stop, to account for lightness or darkness of hair/bald heads).

your key light should be above the camera, and aimed to which ever side of the face you want (ie set up for "Long" or "Short" lighting). When beginning a shoot this light should be equall to your backlight/catchlight. since this light will be softer, (umbrella/softbox) you'll want it as close to your subject as possible (just outside the viewing area of your lens). the further the light source is from the subject, the harder the light becomes!

Meter for your highlights!!!!

your fill light should be at or below your lens to start, and be half the intensity of your main/key light, and the same distance!

be careful in placing lights to avoid lens flare.

one shot with a grey card for post then your model!

kudos for taking an interest in your model, and trying for a natural response! that is important!

In all a good start under near-impossible conditions.....give yourself credit...
I'd find it distracting to work with the audience and time constraints...and so would the model!

I picked this tip up off the web..tried it and it seems to work!

apply the black and white filter to your images before applying any levels/curves filters to adjust your contrast/ tonal range.....

then remove the black and white filter and adjust your color image.
full article here:

http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/2007/10/adjusting_your_raw_files_in_bl.html

50mm 1.4's, 85mm soft focus, 10-17mm fisheye, 28-70 f4, 28-200.
love 'em in that order. use the 28-200 most followed by the 28-70. 50mm's close third.

that's why the price was so low.
hire any idiot that'll take a min wage, no benifit, just shy of full time hours dead end job, to service your customers and bank on the odds that the customers are dumber than your sales reps....seems to work for big box chain stores....

Any pro shops in your area? Probably cost a little more, but they'll treat ya better!

my pentax 28-200 is made by tamron, with pentax specs and coatings.
easy to see why it performs as well as it does....the 18-250 is the best performer in it's class....with pentax coatings it will certianly be a fine and versatile optic indeed. I'll buy one for sure.

ok here's how I do it:
select an image(s) in iWeb. (Mac).
drag it and drop it into an open page (I have a .Mac account).
click "publish"
open my web browser to my web site.
click on the image to open it. command (or right) click the image to copy its image address.

go back to pentax forum (Post comment/reply) and click the "Img" button paste the url into the box, click the "Img" button again.

click the "Submit" button.

done!

Now if only people were required to pass an IQ test before being allowed to drive a car, buy a gun or have kids....

do you have a .Mac account? I posted a how to on another thread earlier...

How to photo a fish tank:
here's my 2 cents....
(may not help with the curved glass, but good advice none the less.)

set two lights (I prefer strobes) above the aquarium one on each side of the aquarium, pointed down 45degrees. Each light aimed towards the farthest end of the tank (top off the tank). (gobo the lights if nescessary to prevent lens flare).

set up a black backdrop infront of the aquarium, to cut out reflections. (I use black curtians on a backdrop stand) cut or open a slot to put your lens through the black backdrop.

try to set exposure, and color balance manually and aim for a f-stop of f8 to f16.

how about supply and demand, and increased competition, driving r&d funding and rapid model releases forcing the development of 35mm to progress at a faster rate, resulting in higher resolution lenses getting to market?

there was some testing a few years back that showed 35mm lenses had in fact surpassed medium format.

now for getting higher quality prints, from negatives, medium format is more forgiving, and gives you more to work with. the higher cost of equipment, better skilled photographers, higher demands from customer, and better skilled printers and labs, yeilding consistantly higher quality prints.

on the subject of better skilled photographers, i'm speaking in gerneralities here as very few people start off in photography with medium format. remember 35 covers wide range of users, not just pros.