Here is your Friday News Round Up, a group of useful blog posts that we have read throughout this week that might be worth the read for you on this Friday afternoon or throughout the weekend. So take a second, get comfortable, get a cup of coffee, grab your favorite Apple product, and enjoy these articles from out in the photography community and beyond. Also included at the bottom of this post are links to the posts that we have had on the Pictage Blog this week, just in case you missed them. Enjoy! From the Community Camera Dojo- “Photoshop CS5’s Lesser Known Enhancements” Photoshelter- “Your Photography Blog Ain’t No Online Journal” A Photo Editor- “iPad- Magazine Savior, Portfolio Replacement or a Complete Waste of
Archives
#1 Way to Simplify Your Workflow- Shoot Less
The more you shoot, the more you edit. The more you edit, the less money you make. Many of the photographers I know have a love/hate relationship with editing their work. The truth is, for many photographers, editing and processing images is one of the most burdensome aspects of their photography. It’s not uncommon for photographers to take 2-3 months, or more, to finish processing an average wedding. In fact, a while back (when this blog first started), I posted some stats about how photographers spend their time. I posted the following chart, and the results are pretty interesting to me: On average, photographers are spending more than 15 hours a week on editing images. That’s 50% more time than they even spend shooting. Who wants
Your Wedding Photography Business with The Youngrens
In this video shot at WPPI, San Diego PUG Leaders Jeff and Erin Youngren share their background as a photography business, their tips and tricks of a wedding day, and how their love for people has impacted their business and Pictage User Group.
Photoshop Tutorial- Part 2 – White Point and More Levels!
Hey Pictagers! I’m back again! For those of you that didn’t get a chance to read my last post, Part 1 of this tutorial, we have been talking about levels, what they mean and how to use them. One thing I realized after writing Part 1 is that even though I talked about the white point of an image, I didn’t quite explain what it is, how to find it, and how it helps you regulate the levels of an image. The simple definition is that the white point of an image is what is recognized as it’s brightest point. Sometimes that’s your subject, but sometimes it is something else like the sky, a bright window or a light fixture. With a well exposed image this won’t
How I am Making the Transition from Shoot and Burn
“That means I’m a photographer right?” Let’s go through the check list… Camera – check Artistic flare – (so they tell me) check Love of photography – check Desire to capture memories, moments and freeze love in time so it can be revisited again and again – check and check That means I’m a photographer right? Sure, if by photographer you mean, a person that sometimes holds a camera and presses the button on the right. But not necessarily in the business of being a photographer. And therein lies the difference. When you get to this point, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep going, nor does it mean that you haven’t got a chance, or that you are audacious for assuming you can start out.
3 Tips for Building Your Business
1. Shoot For Free. No, not forever. But free work DOES always lead to paid work, in one way or another. Shooting for free in the beginning of my career eventually led down the referral line to help me book weddings over $10,000 for their photography collections. You have to start somewhere. Shooting for free gives you the time and experience to build a portfolio and gain the confidence in your shooting to ask for the right price. Also, shooting for free starts with offering to second shoot for others. Start networking with others like at your local Pictage User Group or in online forums, and you’ll discover photographers who need additional shooters for their weddings. This is the best time to watch and work
Senior Portraits For Your Photography Business
I absolutely love senior sessions, or what we like to call “Graduate Sessions”. I seize the opportunity to work with young, fashionable high school seniors and implement some of my more creative/crazy ideas with them. Most of all, because I know they want to be set apart. At this age they want their photos to be different-maybe even a tad better than their friends. So we find that seniors seek us out to accomplish this for them. Not only that, but they want products that are different and creative. This is very exciting for me, because I love coming up with new product lines to offer to our graduate clients! I approach each one of my photography sessions as an opportunity to build trust with
Photoshop Tutorial – Part 1 – Levels
Hey Pictagers! My name is Tim Edwards and I’m the Pre QA Supervisor here at Pictage which is just a fancy name for Retouching Supervisor. As part of our new revamped blog, I’ll be taking you through some lessons on the basics of Photoshop. For many of you with Photoshop experience, some of these lessons will be nothing new. But for those of you who aren’t Photoshop wizards yet, I’ll be guiding you through some tips and tricks to help you get the most from your photography. This week let’s talk about LEVELS. Levels adjustment is the foundation of all image enhancements. It can’t make your bad images great (ie: blown out or badly underexposed shots) but it can definitely make your good images better.
5 Tips to Becoming a Successful Wedding Photographer (Tip #1)
1. It’s not easy. Make sure you love it. It all starts with the foundation. Let’s back up and start at the beginning. Possibly, let’s back up to before you even get started—or maybe you’ve already started, but you’re not full time and are considering taking your business to the next level. It seems simple, right? I have a digital camera and a computer, so I can be a wedding photographer. Think again. I can’t tell you how many photographers have started out this way, only to be in tears a year or two later because they are being crushed by the mountain of work that’s on top of them. If you love wedding photography, be sure to take steps to prevent yourself from ever
Why We Don’t Do Wedding Photography “Packages”
Michigan Wedding & Lifestyle Photographer Jason Aten recently shared a post on his blog, catered toward potential clients, but that can be helpful for photographers and brides alike as Jason shares his own studio’s commitments to their clients when forming specialty commissions. Thank you Jason for re-working this post and sharing with our community! Weddings are significant. They are significant, for so many reasons, but for me – they are significant because there is nothing quite like two people committing, to each other, the rest of their lives. They are significant because of what they represent, and they are significant because – for our clients – they are the beginning of a journey. They are the beginning of a story. I believe that an event