Hey Lily,
Here's one that may be right up your alley.
Years ago I opted (and still recommend) to get photoshop elements, instaed of photoshop, and use the savings to buy a whack-load of plugins.
There's nothing in there that photoshop can't do, but it's way easier and faster to play around with these!
http://autofx.com/

getting sued doesn't have to mean you did anything wrong. It means somebody wants to sue you. sometimes the cost associated with "Proving you are right" is higher than any benifits you may have made. That alone is reason enough for somebody to sue you thinking you'll give'em something for nothing to avoid the lawsuit.
Bottom line: Best Defense is to not be there. Don't use anything you don't have permission for. Talk to a lawyer. Show (as in Peddle) your project to some publishers (with images noted as to which have permission, and which don't and why) and see what kind of free advice you get from them. (you were talking self publish right?).

I'm trying an experiment this weekend.

I'm shooting a wedding for a local businessman (who's business has recieved international attention (even the Jay Leno mentioned it on the Tonite Show)).
(Sorry can't say more....).
Will be shooting at a Euro Styled fine food restaruant, with impossible lighting...dark as a cave on one side (candle light) and a two story wall of windows on the other, exposed to sunlight. (even sounds impossible! even if I get bright overcast daylight in the restaruant, there will be dimmed light and candles in the art gallery enclave.). no usable cielings, reflective surfaces everywhere. VERY demanding clients! The restaraunt owners also own a magazine, that caters to very upscale clientele, and some of my biggest competitors are regular contributars! (make you or break you type job...no pressure! lol).

Gerri will be shooting the k10 with 50mm 2.8 macro and 28-70 f4 af 360 flash....with the ds2 and 10-17 fisheye.

I'll be setting up 2 video cameras, and using a canon g5 with the canon 420ex flash (similar spec to the 360 pentax, tried and ture....) as well as the pro one.

My proxcimity to the vid cams (one with shotgun mic, and one lavalier set up) means the mic might pick up the noises from the slrs, hence the reason for using the nearly silent canons).

I'll let you know the percentage of duds we get on each system, and if the pentax fairs noticibly different than a camera/flash combo I know from experience can handle tough lighting scenerios!

Toy Story 2....Pixar.

Sadly most of my best material is Childrens tv-centric.

don't get me started.....

to quote Mr. Potato Head:
"I'm a married spud, I'm a married spud, I'M A MARRIED SPUD"....
heehehe
seriously...nice shots.
I'm more partial to using a much shallower dof.... but that's a personal preference.....

And DAMMIT Pete, I don't want to hear any comments about how the Canon soft focus lens is sharper than the Pentax!!!
javascript:emoticon('')

I love my old manual 85mm soft focus.
what odd or special lens do you love?



ds2, 85mm, 1/4000, f2.2, iso 200
image resized for humanitarian reasons, but otherwise unretouched.

100% certian my 283's havent fried my ds2 or k10...hope that helps.

highest rated lens in it's class.
If they allowed flash at the church, you wouldn't really need to use anything else.

in the film days, I used an mz5 with pentax 28-200. 800 kodak goldmax (pentax af 500ftz flash)
a super program with 28mm pentax Iso 200 film kodak gold (viv 285 flash with difuser.)
a super program with 85mm soft. agfa portrait 160 (Ringflash)

covered every range you'd need and all light conditions.

Honestly, use the 50 at the church. the 18-55's got you covered for the before and after ceremony shots (ie group shots, park portraits etc.)
a wide range zoom will do you no good, unless you got a second body, and a holster styled hip bage to carry it in. You start swapping lenses during the ceremony, you'll miss an important shot. Zoom with your feet.