The Pictage Blog

Written by Jared Platt

Jared is a professional photographer and photographic educator. He studied photography at Arizona State University where he earned his undergraduate and masters degrees in Photography. He teaches college photography courses as well as workshops for professional photographers and provides online education for photographers and photo enthusiast throughout the world.

There are lot of different ways to review images in Lightroom, but the best way is only available to those who have a secondary display. Having two monitors cuts your Lightroom selection time to about 1/4 the time you would ordinarily spend, and that’s after cutting your workflow time in half with my other recommendations. If you don’t have a second monitor, it is worth the price to go out and get one.

Using a Secondary Display in Lightroom from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

For more photography lessons and tips, go to www.jaredplatt.com.

Throughout the rest of 2010 Jared Platt will be touring the country offering Lightroom workshops. To learn more and to attend The Lightroom Workflow Workshop, go to www.thelightroomworkshop.com and watch the video below.

The Lightroom Workflow Workshop Tour 2010 from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

Conquer your workflow demons with Jared Platt as your instructor. The Lightroom Workflow Workshop Tour began in Phoenix, Arizona and will soon head to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Syracuse, Los Angeles, Vegas, Cincinnati, Louisville, Miami, Jacksonville, Orange County, San Diego, Raleigh, Nashville, New Orleans, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and more.

Come learn how to cut your workflow time in half or more and win some great prizes and get free product and services from our sponsors. And learn Adobe Lightroom 3.0 in the process.

The Lightroom Workflow Workshop will pay for itself on day one!

www.jaredplattworkshops.com

Here is an article recently posted on the American Express Open Forum for Small Businesses. These are the five tips for small businesses on growing your business from Dina Kaplanm, co-founder of Blip. TV, a video sharing platform for independent web shows.

Blip. TV was founded five years ago, and in that five years has grown from serving primarily a small group of video bloggers to thousands of users who now use the site to host their own shows and upload produced videos. In that same time Blip. TV has grown to having 96 million video views a month.

You can read the whole article written by Vadim Lavrusik on the Open Forum here.

1. Don’t Try To Be All Things To All People

Kaplan said that when Blip.tv was just starting in 2005, the company went after a discrete market. “We didn’t try to be all things to all people,” she said. Blip.tv targeted a group of people who were producing original shows for the web and saw an opportunity to make their experience better. They saw a problem that could be fixed. The market they chose was very small, she said, but one that they knew would grow.

2. Learn From Your Customers

Once the company identified their target market, they studied it. They spent time with key users who were producing original video for blogs. Kaplan said it was just a handful of people at that point, and they hung out with them, got beers with them, and did a lot of listening to learn exactly what they were looking for in a platform that would host their shows.

“We did a lot of listening and built tools that would make their lives easier,” Kaplan said. “As the market grew, we did more listening and adapted the platform to the needs of the producers of video content.”

3. Hire Experts

Kaplan stresses hiring as one of the most important aspects to growing your business. At the beginning, the founders are doing everything, but it’s important that as you grow you hire experts in the different fields your business requires. Use your personal network, friends, cousins, a professional contact, and go to industry events and meet with people in your field.

“Hiring sets up your company to be much larger than yourself,” she said. “Give it all you got. You will benefit from good recruiting.”

She also noted that the reputation and culture of the company is important in hiring. People talk, and if your company is a good place to work and has a great environment, treats its employees well, people will hear about it, she said. One of the things that Blip.tv has done is give all of its employees free lunch every day. “Sure it costs a lot of money, but it brings our company together,” she said.

4. Engage and Connect With Your Community

Connecting with your professional community is not only important in hiring, but in doing business in general. It can generate leads, partnerships, and opportunities that you may not have known were available.

Kaplan said that some time should be spent with your “head down” focusing on the product, and a good chunk of the time should be spent with your “head up” meeting with people in your industry, communities of professionals, companies and other entrepreneurs.

“You should spend some of your time learning from other people and making connections,” Kaplan said. “Your business shouldn’t exist in a vacuum.”

5. Don’t Obsess Over Funding

According to Kaplan, companies often obsess on the funding, often at the expense of the product. She said business owners should focus on the product and market, and if the product is a great idea, the money will follow. She thinks focusing on building the product, especially for Internet companies, is the first step and then looking for revenue or funding should follow.

Written by Kerry Garrison

Kerry is a orange county based wedding, portrait and commercial photographer who has come out from behind the lens to create Camera Dojo, a website and companion podcast that helps photography enthusiasts hone their skills. Whether he is writing tutorials, doing product reviews, or working on the podcast, Kerry believes in paying-it-forward to give back for all the help he got from other photographers when he was getting started.

Kerry knows his way around the camera and offers his unique perspective about learning the craft of photography and making the most out of the tools and equipment you have at your disposal. With years of teaching experience under his belt, Kerry can take difficult or complicated topics and explain them in a way that makes it simple for anyone to follow and yet detailed enough to help teach the topic properly.

Kerry is also starting a Learning Lightroom Workshop tour, for more information, check out http://cameradojo.com/workshops.

Kerry lives in southern California with his wife, two kids, two cats, two dogs, plus lots of camera gear.

I have been a huge fan of the Lensbaby selective focus lenses since I got a Lensbaby 2.0 years ago. I then starting using the “Franken-Lens”, the Lensbaby 3G, and now I use the Lensbaby Composer with its different interchangeable optics. For years now I have wanted to use a Lensbaby lens to shoot an entire wedding from start to finish.

While the Lensbaby lenses are generally used very sparingly for a few portraits and maybe a few detail/ring shots at any given wedding, certainly nobody would want to do an entire wedding with one. Part of it is that us wedding photographers strive for perfection, this is not really a strong point for a Lensbaby as its purpose in life is to distort perfection by causing a smearing (smudging + tearing) effect that is amplified the further you get away from the focus “sweet spot”. This smearing effect adds a dream, surreal look to many images.

Secondly, a wedding is a constantly moving and rather dynamic shooting environment that is already pushing the photographer in terms of composure, lighting, posing, group management, and camera settings…adding manual focus into that equation will slow you down to a relative crawl.

So we know that the heavy selective focus and shallow depth of field may not suite everyone’s tastes (especially not for every image) and that manual focus is a pain, then why do this? Mostly because I wanted a challenge and shooting an entire wedding with the Lensbaby presented both a technical challenge as well as an artistic challenge.

I want to point out that I don’t consider myself to be an artistic person. I consider myself to be a technical shooter. I know the elements that make a good image, I know the lighting that makes a good image, and I know the composition that makes a good image. Understanding these elements and how they work has let me develop my style. Using a Lensbaby requires much more thought, you really need think about the overall image. How will you set the focus point, then work to get a good spot focus, its actually a lot of work, and not really the side of my brain that works the best.

Even though I have several years of experience with the Lensbaby Composer, I was going to shoot more in one day than I have shot with all of the Lensbaby lenses I have ever owned combined. I already know that the percentage of “keepers” is much lower than normal because focusing can be difficult, especially with moving subjects and low light conditions.

Finding the Right Wedding

Now I would never suggest to a wedding client that I would like to shoot their entire wedding with a strange lens that is going to do some weird things to their images. A wedding client expects most images to be sharp and focused. Finding the right situation is exactly why I never did this project sooner. About a week or so earlier I was chatting with fellow wedding photographer Chris Diset and we were chatting about personal projects. His current project is a collection he is working on that are all shot at 1/8 shutter speed. When I told him about wanting to do the Lensbaby project, he immediately invited me to do it in conjunction with a wedding he was going to be shooting. This is why I always encourage people to network and become friends with other photographers, if I avoided being friendly with other photographers, this opportunity may never have presented itself.

The Techie Details

As I have already talked about, the challenge of shooting with the Lensbaby was most certainly the reason why I wanted to do it. Chris hooking me up with the wedding provided the when. The final piece is to talk about the how.

First we should understand a little more about a Lensbaby Composer. Unlike a regular lens, you have a fixed focal length (about 55mm) and a fixed aperture (selected by physically changing discs inside the lens) which I had set at f/5. Since I was going to be using a Canon EOS 50D, this means I would be using an effective focal length of about 88mm due to the crap factor of the 50D’s sensor. You can also move the lens around to adjust where the sweet spot of focus will be. Getting the focus spot where you want and then getting your focus dialed in can dramatically slow down your shooting.

The biggest hurdle is getting the focus right. This is really a challenge in the best of conditions and even with the f/5 aperture disc, the depth of field is extremely shallow so people walking towards you or away from you can be exceptionally difficult to stay in focus. In this situation, a taking several shots quickly while making fine adjustments to do a “focus bracket” will certainly help improve your odds of getting a good image.

When the shot doesn’t call for moving subjects, a simple way to get a clean shot was to switch to Live View mode, dial in the focus and take the shot.

Even with all the tricks I could muster, and with deleting obviously bad images in-camera, when it came time for processing, only about 25% were considered “keepers”. This would normally be a horrible percentage but considering the challenge, I was actually pretty pleased.

The Results

I am quite pleased overall with most of the images I decided to include in the collection and it does represent an actual wedding from beginning to end. The comments have generally all been very positive. I knew there would a handful of “Oh, I would never shoot an entire wedding with a Lensbaby” which means they didn’t get the point of the project. I never intended that these images would make up the only images taken at a wedding. I most certainly took a second shooter position in getting the images as that was the most appropriate and responsible thing to do for the most important images of someone’s life.

Why not an _________?

The most common question is “why not an iPhone?”, well…for starters…I don’t own an iPhone and I wanted a real challenge. The iPhone is just like any other point & shoot camera being mostly an automatic camera. It also would allow me to use additional lighting as needed. The Lensbaby presented a very unique challenge without the benefit of much of the automatic features. Certainly another challenge, and one I may do, will be to shoot an entire wedding with a Holga. With very little control (fixed focal length, two aperture settings, fixed ISO, fixed shutter speed) you either really need to know what you are doing to get a good exposure or get really lucky. At least with the Lensbaby I had the advantage of being connected to a modern day DSLR with internal exposure metering and much more control over different settings.

What Did I Learn?

If you put a lot of thought, energy, and time into a personal project, I would hope that you walk away from it with something more than images. The Lensbaby forces you to slow down, it forces you to be intentional in your shots, to be methodical in what you are getting. You certainly don’t “spray and pray” or you will end up with tons of bad images. There is no zoom, if you want a tighter shot, you walk closer. Unless you are swapping out aperture discs, there are no aperture settings, if you want more or less depth of field you have to move closer or further.

I feel going through this exercise will certainly carry over to my regular shooting as I strive to, as the Lensbaby slogan goes, see things in a new way. The exercise of really taking the time to get as good of a shot as possible is a lesson many of us need to learn.

Written by Lindsay Weidenhammer

Lindsay Weidenhammer is an Ohio wedding and portrait photographer and the owner of Lindsay Weidenhammer Photography, LLC. She has been shooting for several years, and loves both the creative and the business elements of the industry. In addition to Lindsay’s job as a photographer, she is a military officer and has undergone more than 4 years of professional leadership training. She is passionate about making every photo shoot a great experience for her clients.

Clients choose a photographer based on two main reasons: they like the photographer’s work, and they like the photographer’s demeanor. However, these initial reactions can be diminished if a client has a bad experience before, during, and after a photo shoot. The best way to create a positive experience with every client is to have professional standards by which your business is run.

From my own practice, mistakes, and peer advice, here is a list of 8 vital ways to ensure “professional” is part of your title as a photographer. Note that none of these items have to do with image style, posing, or creative lighting, so they are all very simple to master right away!

1. Dress Professionally
When a family or a couple arrives at a shooting location for their session, more than half of the time they are dressed up for the occasion. There is a strong principle in the academic world that teachers should always be more formally dressed than their students. The same principle holds true for photographers and their clients. While a business suit is not usually necessary, “business casual” is a good rule of thumb. Avoid jeans, t-shirts, flip-flops, sneakers, casual shorts, or anything that would deter your reputation. Remember, as a photographer you are selling your personality and your skills, and the way you dress will either build or break your client’s confidence in your abilities.

2. Communicate Correctly
Most of the time your first contact with a client will be over the phone or through e-mail. Use a spell checker, read your response before your send it, ensure you have answered all of the potential-client’s questions, and respond in a timely manner. In this technological age, clients expect to have their inquiry answered within 48 hours, however I always use the 24-hour rule to show clients I am eager to serve them.

3. Ensure Business Legitimacy
Stay current with the legal aspects of business in your state. Take a class at a local college about business law, and learn the technicalities of contracts and how to create a business model. Register your business with your state, purchase a vendor license for your area, and most importantly do your taxes. Record all business dealings by tabulating income earned and purchases made, while also keeping track of miles traveled to each shoot. I use a simple excel spreadsheet to keep my data ready for tax time. However, in addition to annual taxes, sales tax should also be paid at the appropriate interval. Different states and different business types (LLC, INC, Sole Proprietorship, etc.) all have different timelines for when sales tax is due. Learn the law and thank yourself later.

4. Cull Images Thoroughly
Does your reflector show in the corner of the image? Are the client’s eyes halfway closed? Is the image only sharp at 200×300 pixels? The best method of dealing with a “mistake” photo is to delete it before the client ever sees his or her proof images. It is much better to give a client 75 final images in perfect condition, than 125 images with poor quality images intermixed with the good ones. No client is interested in seeing 10 images that look almost exactly identical, or an awkwardly posed picture, so take no prisoners and edit brutally!

5. Create a Services Timeline
Let your client know upfront how long it will be until they receive the link to their Pictage gallery. Explain how they will receive the link by email, and share with them your turnaround time for products like albums or image discs. A good rule of thumb is to “under promise and over deliver.” If you normally take 1 week to get a client’s images posted online, verbally estimate 1.5 or 2 weeks to the client. That way, if you run into any holdups, the clients won’t get impatient. Further, if you proceed to post the client’s gallery early, they will be happily surprised. A happy client is much more willing to buy prints and recommend you as a photographer than a disgruntled client.

6. Be Verbally Respectful
During a session, don’t make rude remarks about religion, politics, or anything that might offend your client. There are many subjects to talk about that can build a personal relationship without having to talk about things that are inappropriate in the workplace.

7. Keep Branding Consistent
Every successful modern company has a logo, a functioning website, a simple way to contact the business, and description of services offered. Ensure your photography branding is consistent throughout your blog, your website, and your emails. You don’t have to purchase a high-end custom website, but a consistent website marketed to the audience you want to photograph will work just fine. For example, if you business colors are blue and yellow, you should avoid using a purple flower image as your blog background. Further, if you shoot mostly babies and children, don’t use hard rock music as the background music on your website.

8. Invest in Yourself
By applying items 1-7, the professional aspect of your business will be improved. However, a client’s main motivation for hiring you is to obtain beautiful photographs. Always pursue a greater knowledge of your camera gear, your signature style, and the current photography market. As photographers, we sell our skills, personality, and business finesse – always seek to create better versions of these three pillars!

Written by Jared Platt

Jared is a professional photographer and photographic educator. He studied photography at Arizona State University where he earned his undergraduate and masters degrees in Photography. He teaches college photography courses as well as workshops for professional photographers and provides online education for photographers and photo enthusiast throughout the world.

Lightroom is my preferred platform for viewing, selecting, editing and delivering images, but occasionally, I need to open images directly into Photoshop, or view a folder of images in Bridge. In either case, the XMP data is the key to making a seamless workflow for that kind of circumstance. This Lightroom lesson explains how to use XMP data to allow a synchronous interaction between Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop Camera RAW.

Using XMP Sidecar Files to Sync Lightroom with Bridge and Photoshop Camera RAW from Jared Platt on Vimeo.

Don’t miss the Lightroom Workflow Workshop and PUG Tour coming to your city soon. We start in Pittsburgh in July and are traveling across the country throughout the rest of 2010. Go to www.jaredplattworkshops.com for more information and to book your seat now. Learn how to cut your workflow in half and get a lot of great gifts from our sponsors, including the chance to win an iPad.

See you all out on the road.

Written by Heather Essian of Heather Essian Portrait Arts

Heather is passionate about helping others discover their unique gifting and giving them the encouragement to pursue what they love!  Creativity is simply a part of Heather and always has been. From her days sketching while in grade school, to her first darkroom photography class in college she’s known all along that her longing was to create.  Her love of people and relationships is what has drawn her to photography.

Heather and her husband, Jim, currently run their photography business out of a gorgeous boutique style studio in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The creative products she offers takes her boutique photography studio to a unique level in a highly competitive market.

Join Heather at Pictage U Atlanta, Family & Kids. A two day intensive conference focusing on the world of family and kids portrait photography taught by professional photographers who own successful family and kids portrait photography businesses, like Heather.

I remember when I first started offering Canvas Gallery Wraps in my first year of business.  I could never see myself as a client purchasing an $800 canvas print, it sounded so expensive.  I really wanted to sell them to my clients instead of the traditional photo print because I loved the way my work looked on the beautiful canvas! But I questioned if clients would actually pay that much for a picture.

I also loved to design and sell coffee table books to my portrait clients.  The books took me a long time to design.  I realized I wasn’t making very much money for the hours I was putting in.  I wasn’t serving my business well by not charging enough for my work. But I just couldn’t see selling a book for $500.

There’s a huge temptation to run your photography business in fear.  Fear that you may never make a sale; fear that your client will secretly think you’re way too expensive; fear that you might go broke.  These are all valid fears. But a thriving business can’t exist in fear!  We should stop self-reflecting and begin running our businesses. I wish someone would have set me straight my first year of business.  We do this to make a living. Yes, we do this because we love it, but it’s important that we not exhaust ourselves running a business that’s not very profitable. People have hobbies because they love what they do.  People run businesses to make a living and to hopefully do well with it.

With all of that said, here are some thoughts on how we best use our products.

:: FOUR REASONS WHY PRODUCTS CAN HELP TAKE YOUR BIZ TO THE NEXT LEVEL.

1.  Packaging counts.  How you present your work is what sets you apart from your clients’ SLR capabilities.

Prior to viewing and ordering, your client may not see your work and what they can do at home as all that much different.  I mean you and I know your work is very different, but they assume that they can almost do just as good and can save some money in the long run.  So to justify your professional pricing you must present your work in a creative, professional way that automatically sets you apart.  Everything you give them – from your business card, to your pricing sheet, to how you package their order will testify to your value.

2. Be creative. When you take advantage of the unique wholesale products that are offered to us as photographers you seize the opportunity to sell yourself as a specialized artist.

What will make your $30, traditional, 5×7 print look reasonable and affordable is your $225 16×20, ¾ inch standout print.  When you showcase, emphasize, and accentuate your unique enlargements, design books, and other creative products, you are essentially helping to define yourself as an artist and not a JC Penny, or worse just another person who owns an SLR. 

3.  Go big.  Your clients are trained to think that 4×6 and 5×7 prints are the only real print options that should go in their home. Why? Because this is all that they can really accomplish on their own.

When they come to you and see that you not only offer small print sizes but you gear your business towards large prints, and specialized products, you have them thinking big. Thinking big means more profit for you. You help them to see the possibilities of their photos.

4. Free advertising.  Your products can be a great advertisement. 

When you offer creatively designed cards, whether it be for Christmas Cards, Birth Announcements, or Save The Dates, not only can you display your best work, but you can include your website on the back of these cards.  This will act as free advertisement for your business.

:: IT IS IMPORTANT TO APPROPRIATELY PRICE THOSE “SPECIAL” PRODUCTS.

We love the idea of offering these different products, but the most important thing is how you price them.  Remember: this is what sets you apart so charge what the products are worth, not what you think you would pay.  No fear, remember?!

Special print products generally take more time.  For me it takes longer to be sure that the image will wrap just right around the canvas frame.  It takes me a long time to edit and design a coffee table book.  I can’t just place the order like I would for the simple traditional prints. Not to mention the changes clients tend to make to custom designed products.

And last, if you’re going to offer a single product that includes more than one photo consider the idea that they’re getting a lot out of one product.  Price accordingly.

For example: Our custom-designed coffee table books are a popular product that we offer. Because of the design time involved and the number of photos received in one product, we charge significantly for the book.  Our coffee table books are not available for purchase unless a certain order amount has been reached.  This way our clients can’t order all the photos they wanted and more in just one product. Why purchase a 20×24 Canvas print if I have all the photos I want in a pretty book?

So remember, when running your business you’re the boss. Don’t let intimidation stop you from trying out new products, and don’t let fear drive your pricing.  You decide what you’re worth.  You are an artist – set apart from any other person with a camera – so create and be creative.  Utilize the creative pre-designed templates available to us as photographers to help save time, and take your photos to the next level.  We currently offer templates on our Art Is website at www.art-isdesign.com.

Written By Christopher Lin of Lin & Jirsa Photography

Lin and Jirsa Photography is an Orange County, CA based wedding photography studio specializing in creative lighting, photojournalism, and unique post production.  The team consists of 3 brothers (two Lins and a Jirsa), who have combined their backgrounds in photography and graphic design with their passion for documenting love stories to create a unique product and service.  In addition to shooting, the team provides insights, tutorials, and tips on their photography education site SLR Lounge.

Many of you have asked us to put up an article on how to texture photos. The fact is, that there are many articles on the web that show you how to texture photos, but it is tough to find high quality articles that give you practical examples and directions that you can apply to your photography business.

This article will walk you through step-by-step on how to texture your photographs using Photoshop, and we will also give you the tools and knowledge to know how to play around and create your own unique style of texturing. So, let’s get started!

Process Your Image

1. Select Your File - Before we get to texturing, we need to first select a file that is correctly processed. This means that you have already color corrected the image and made it look the way you want. While we use Lightroom for this process, many of you may be using Aperture, or Photoshop for your color correction.

Below is our final color corrected image that we will be using for this tutorial. Don’t mind the plug, I will heal it out of the final image.

Applying the Texture

1. Start With a Vision – Before I start, I usually have an idea of what I want my image to look like. For this image, I am thinking that a nice vintage scratched look would look really nice against the solid colors of the wall. I also want to give the image a slightly desaturated look but retain the green tints of the wall. So I am going to use one of my favorite scratch textures from my texture library, then I am going to apply some vintage effects to finish the image.

2. Load the File – First, start by loading your image into Photoshop and make sure you are editing in 8bit RGB mode. To change the image mode, from the menu simply select Image –> Mode –> RGB and 8Bit Channel.

3. Import The Texture – Place your first texture file (File –> Place –> Choose Texture File). Make sure that your texture files are in a printable resolution that matches or is close to your image resolution. Otherwise, you will need to stretch your texture to your image size which will reduce its print quality significantly. For this tutorial, I am going to use one of my favorite bread-and-butter scratch textures as seen below. As a little bonus, promise to share or help promote SLR Lounge and you can download the full resolution texture by clicking here, or on the image below.

Note - The image below is print resolution and is 11.2MB in size, so depending on your connection, it may take a while to download.

4. Resize The Texture – Once the file is placed, resize the file if needed to cover your image as shown in the image below. Once the file is placed and sized, you can hit enter so that it places the file in a new layer of its own.

5. Name the Texture Layer – Often times, I use more than one texture layer in an image. Thus, naming each layer is helpful so I know which layer I am editing. To edit the image name, simply double click on the name in the Layers palette, type the new name in (in our case “ScratchTexture”), and hit enter as shown below.

6. Changing the Blend Modes – You now should have two layers in your file, your texture layer and background image layer. However, currently we cannot see the background image layer as the texture layer is fully opaque. So, what we need to do is change the blend mode which is found on the pull down menu right below the layers tab as shown below. The blend mode listing is actually separated into different types of effects. Changing the blend mode of a layer will basically affect how that layer’s pixels interact with the layer(s) beneath it. Below is a  brief explanation of the three most common and practical blend mode sets.

i. The first set of modes beginning with “Darken” are all Darken Modes that will darken the layer(s) beneath the blend layer in different ways.

ii. The second set of modes beginning with “Lighten” are all Lighten Modes that will lighten the layer(s) beneath the blend layer in different ways.

iii. The third set of modes beginning with “Overlay” are Contrast Modes that will both darken and lighten aspects of the image. Typically resulting in mixing the blend layers colors with the layers below.

7. My Favorite Blend Modes – My favorite blend modes are the Overlay and Lighten blend modes. This means that while I do often use other blend modes, the Overlay and Lighten blend modes are two modes that are difficult to use incorrectly.

8. Applying the Overlay – For our image, I am going to use the Overlay blend mode. So I have selected it in the blend mode drop down list. You should now have an image like the one below.

9. Adjusting the Opacity – Now, while our ScratchTexture image is blending with the image below, it is much too strong at the moment. So I am going to adjust the Opacity of the texture layer to 65% to lighten the effect a bit as shown below.

10. Rasterizing the Texture Layer – If you notice in the image above, the icon next to the texture layer’s name has a little Smart Object paper symbol inside of the image thumbnail. This means that the file is not directly editable in Photoshop because it is linking an outside file to save on space. However, we need to be able to edit our texture layer, so we need to rasterize the layer. To do so, right click the layer and select Rasterize Layer. Once rasterized, the Smart Object icon should disappear.

11. Removing Areas of Unwanted Texture – Many of you may have images where you don’t want the texture to cover certain parts of the image. For example, you typically don’t want textures to cover skin as it will turn your subjects into 500 year old statues which they may not appreciate.

Those of you that are familiar with Photoshop might think it would be best to create a layer mask and paint out the areas where you don’t want the texture to show. However, you would be wrong in doing so. Why? Because our texture layer not only applies texturing to the layers below it, but it also changes the tones and hues of any layers below it. So, if you were to mask out part of the texture, that area would have a tone/hue that doesn’t match the rest of the image as illustrated below.

As you can see in the image above, the areas that have been Masked out show a completely different hue and tonal quality as the areas underneath the ScratchTexture texture layer.

So, rather than masking out the texture layer, I am going to give you two options which will remove the texture but retain the tone of the area. Both of which require the texture layer to be editable, which is why we rasterized the layer in Step 10 above.

12. Removing Unwanted Texture with the Smudge Tool – Removing the texture with the Smudge Tool (“R”) gives you a little more control over how much texture stays in a certain area. However, it is my least favorite method because of two reason: The first is that the Smudge Tool is very demanding of your computer’s processing power. In fact, when dealing with large resolution files, it may be nigh impossible as your computer can constantly freeze as it is trying to process the command.

The second reason is that it takes time to get it to look the way you like. Nevertheless, I will teach you both methods so you can decide which you prefer on your own. Select the Smudge Tool (“R”) which looks like the pointed finger as shown in the image below.

Now, on the texture layer (ScratchTexture in our case), smudge away the area where you don’t want the texture to be. You can increase/decrease your smudge brush size by clicking ] and [ respectively.

13. Removing Unwanted Texture by Averaging – Removing the texture by Averaging removes all control over how much texture detail you retain in an area. However, it is quick and easy on your processor making it my preferred method. Averaging will simply take a selected area of pixels, and average all the colors in that area. Doing so will make our image retain its tone, but lose the texture in averaged areas.

i. To start, select your image layer and using your preferred tool, select the area that you don’t want affected by the texture. I am going to use the Quick Selection Tool (“W”) and select the dress as shown below.

ii. Next, select your texture layer once again (ScratchTexture in our case). Now, the selection area of the dress (or whatever you are selecting) should still be selected. Now, click Filter –> Blur –> Average and viola! The texture is removed over your selected area as shown below.

iii. To see exactly what the Average function did to your layer, hold Alt and click on the eye icon next to your texture layer to see just that layer and this is what you should see. You can see that our selection area has been averaged to a single color.

Thus, we have retained our tone, but removed all of the texture detail. Hold Alt and click on the eye icon to bring all layers back into view.

Adding Your Finishing Touches

As I mentioned earlier, I want this image to have a vintage look. We have done the difficult part, but we are not quite done yet. Here is what I am going to do to the image from here.

1. Adding a Vignette – I want to add a strong vintage vignette to the image to not only make the image feel more warn, but to also bring focus into the center of the image. I am going to do so by clicking Filter –> Distort –> Lens Correction and applying a Vignette with the following settings.

Amount: -85

Midpoint: +19

2. Adding Warmth – I like the warm look of vintage images. So I am going to add a Curves adjustment layer by clicking the half black/half white circle at the bottom of the Layers palette as shown below.

i. To add warmth, simply increase the reds while decreasing the blues. You can keep the greens the same. Here is what my Curves looks like after my adjustment.

3. Desaturate the Image – Next, I want the colors to be a little less vibrant, so similarly I am going to add a Hue/Saturation layer adjustment by clicking the same menu as we did to add our warming Curves shown in step 2 above. I am then going to adjust the saturation to around -20 to -30. Nice, I like the final image and I am going to call it good! You can see our before and final after image below.

Here is our before

Here is our final image after our Photoshop texturing tutorial

Enjoy Your Handy Work!

While I wanted to give you a concrete tutorial to work with, keep in mind that this is all preference and very subjective. Play with your settings, try different blend modes, adjustment layers, etc. This tutorial should have given you all the knowledge you need to go out there and start developing a style of your own!

Written by Andrea Hanks

Andrea Hanks is two years into her photography business and is experiencing first hand the benefits of building vendor relationships for her young business. She is based out of Salt Lake City, Utah and currently working on making L.A. a secondary market for herself.  She is also developing a second site for her fashion, celebrity, and commercial type photography.

As a new photographer, I can attest to the difficulties that exist when trying to establish myself in a market full of very experienced and talented photographers. This is especially true when working on establishing vendor relationships.  Here are five tips I have found that have really helped me in this endeavor.

1. Target Vendors.

When choosing vendors I want to build a relationship with; I do NOT use the shotgun approach.  I look for vendors who have a similar vibe as my business.  I work very hard on building my brand, the look I like to portray, and also who my target clients are.  I then gravitate towards vendors who compliment my work.  A little obvious but important when building a relationship is to know the vendor’s products and use their services when possible.

2.   Don’t Expect Anything!

The best way to approach a vendor is to set up a face to face appointment.  I am selling my personality and style just as much; if not more, than my photographs.  There are a lot of very talented photographers with great images, but meeting in person gives me an advantage.  Emails are easy to send but they are easily deleted and forgotten.  A meeting is a fantastic way to find out more about a vendor’s business and what they look for in a preferred photographer.  I never expect them to throw roses at my feet just for showing up.  Vendors I want to work with typically have several photographers they already work with.  Since I am in it long-term, being second place to established relationships isn’t all that bad.  People and businesses don’t change overnight so I don’t expect them to for me.  I work on building the relationship a little bit at a time; sooner or later, opportunity knocks and I am the first one at the door.

3.   How Can I Help You?

The best question I can ask a vendor is how I can help THEM grow their business.  I sometimes offer my photography services at no charge for an event or for advertisement materials.  This gives the vendor an opportunity to see more of my work, how I interact and work with clients, and it shows that I have a vested interest in them.  Another technique I use is when working with a bride; I gather the names of the vendors used and send them images from the wedding.  I also like to spotlight a vendor on my blog and facebook page with sincere things that I really like about them along with images I have taken for them.

4.   Refer

When clients meet with me to talk about their wedding plans, I find out which vendors they have booked and which ones they are still looking for.  I carry business cards of my vendor partners and of vendors I want to partner with.  When I promote my vendors, it helps build my credibility with my client and it helps strengthen my relationship with my (potential) vendors.  Shortly after our meeting, I send an email to the vendor and let them know the name of the client I referred.  It doesn’t really matter if my client books the vendor (although it is awesome when they do), what matters is that the vendor knows I am working for them.

5.   Thank You

After meetings with clients, any referrals sent my way, or interactions with the vendor I thank them.  Hand written notes are awesome-handwritten notes with a gift card or other goodies are even better!

photos by Andrea Hanks

Written By Rebecca Wilkowski

Rebecca Wilkowski is a San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer and photojournalist. She is a certified green photographer and one of only 11 photographers in the country approved to be part of Green America’s Green Business Network.

Even though Kermit the Frog might disagree, being green is getting easier.

What does it mean to be green? It’s pretty simple, actually. A “green” photographer is one who has assessed the impact his/her company has on the environment and who chooses to use environmentally sustainable and socially responsible practices in an effort towards lessening this impact.

Why would I want to go green? American’s current interest in things environmentally friendly is booming: BPA-free water bottles, eco-friendly yoga mats, solar panels on homes, and hybrid cars have become common place. With over 155,000 professional photographers in the United States, the photography industry is simultaneously experiencing it’s largest ecological footprint in it’s 200-year history. By going green, not only are you opening yourself up to a new segment of customers who are looking to hire eco-friendly vendors, but by implementing some simple energy and cost saving steps, you’ll be helping the environment and your bottom line.

What steps can I take to be more eco-friendly? Going green may be easier than you think. Even small steps can have an impact. Here are some simple suggestions:

• Recycle - Think paper, cans, glass, plastics, batteries ink cartridges, paper, mail, and office supplies. It’s all fair game!

• Reduce Waste – Use only what you need. Offer online galleries in lieu of paper proofs. Deliver contracts, invoices and receipts as PDFs.

• Reuse Materials – Reuse packaging and envelopes. Print on both sides of office paper. Use rechargeable batteries and solar powered battery chargers. Consider purchasing recycled, used or re-furbished computer hardware, office machines, camera equipment and office furnishings.

• Choose eco-Friendly Products – Many office items come in high quality, eco-friendly versions including paper, pens, envelopes, paper towel, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies.

• Save Energy – Use the standby mode (or turn off) electrical equipment when not in use, install dimmer switches and CFLs, keep the thermostat below 70 degrees, install low flow toilets and faucets.

• Cut Your CO2 - Got a destination wedding or event? Purchase carbon offsets to lessen the footprint of your travel. Use public transportation, carpool, or ride a bike to run errands and meet clients. You’ll be surprised how the good fresh air and sunshine will make you feel. And, you might even get there quicker!

• Shop Local – When you shop locally, not only are you reducing the pollutants and other expenses involved in the long-distance manufacturing and shipping of products, but you are also doing your part to support the local economy.

• Don’t Be Trashy – Before you toss old or used items into the trash, consider posting them websites like Freecycle.com or Craigslist.org, or donating them to charity. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

• Save a Tree (or Maybe a Forest) - Reduce unwanted mail with www.stopjunkmail.org. Pay bills online. Choose to have your magazine subscriptions delivered electronically. Purchase recycled paper products.

• Choose eco-Friendly Vendors – Does your lab offer eco-friendly products or paper? Are your frames made from sustainable materials? How many of your vendors are employing green practices?

• Ask Questions – Do you really need to purchase a new item, or can it be rented or bought used? If you must buy new, is the item available in an eco-friendly version, or from a local retailer?

• Create Partnerships – Connect with other local/green-certified, businesses. These relationships often lead to lucrative referrals.

• Get Certified – Many local, national and industry-specific organizations are available to certify green businesses. Certification not only recognizes you for your achievement, but it also sets you apart from your competition

• Keep on Learning – Going green doesn’t happen over night. It’s a result of thoughtful choices and changing one’s habits. For tips on how you can be more eco-friendly, check out National Geographic’s Green Guide or attend the annual Green Festival in a city near you.

• Donate to an Environmental Non-Profit: Whether you choose to donate your time, or a portion of your earnings, organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Urban Forest and Greenpeace are just a few of many great organizations you can support.

Where Can I Go for More Information?

Green America – A national nonprofit consumer organization, promoting environmental sustainability, social justice, and economic justice.

Green Chamber of Commerce – Supports the development of sustainable business practices and advocates for a green public policy.

Bay Area Green Business Association – Just one of many city and county-specific organizations that certify green businesses.

Green Bride Guide – Everything you need to plan a green wedding.

Greener Photography – Certifies and educates professional photographers.

Emily Engle is the Community Development Manager at Pictage and runs a Los Angeles area Wedding and Portrait Photography business, Emily Photo.

First, I’ll start off with a confession.  My name is Emily and sometimes I shoot and burn.  Anyone else out there with me on this one? I know, I know, its not easy to admit in this community, but I know a ton of photographers do it. Why do I sometimes shoot and burn? Honestly sometimes after dealing with all that comes along with selling and processing an Emily Photo wedding package, it’s nice to do a 2-hour shoot, burn a disk and be done.  Done in just a few hours, ahhh doesn’t that sound great? For me, this model doesn’t make sense for my wedding or portrait clients, but for a child’s birthday or anniversary party, it works great!

I’ve been booking more and more of these filler gigs and I began to wonder, is this worth my time?  I’m making $300 maybe $400 for a few hours on a Saturday.  That’s nice, but it is my Saturday after all. I wondered how could I maximize my benefit? I was at a two-year-old birthday party a few months ago when it came to me.  As I shot frosting covered faces, little toddlers making friends, and families enjoying each other, I realized I’m photographing some pretty important portraits of these people.  This could be the beginning of something great with these families.

At a typical birthday party I would pass out business cards to those who asked and I would post on Pictage, but no one was contacting me and no one was visiting my event.  I decided to make a change that made a big difference.  I started posting on Pictage a week or two before the clients get the disk.  Not only that, I made it clear to my client, why I was doing that.

1. Delaying the disk – This made a big difference because if the client is really excited about the photos, she wants to show them ASAP.   She (or he) is going to pass that Pictage link on to lots of people.  I try to release the event when the client’s at work so they can share with their co-workers too.
2. Communicating about why – Just like I do with my wedding and portrait clients, I spend some time explaining why they’re going on Pictage and why there’s a delay in the disk.  Once they understand that you don’t want your name on Walgreens prints, they’re much less likely to post all the photos on a photo-sharing site.  I found a Usage Rights document on the Pictage forums that I now send them. Also, if you offer the pre-registration credit, let them know that everyone that views the event gets $5 or more off any print order.

Why is it so important to get them to my event on Pictage? First, the interface makes me look more professional, it fits by brand. Second, Pictage produces high quality prints for clients that meet my standards. 

Some of these parties produce print sales and some don’t at all, but the key to getting any and all guests to visit the site is capturing their email addresses in the “guest list”.  Two days after my last birthday party was released I had 83 guests in that event, a week later it grew to 111 and still continues to grow!  I’ve been doing this from the beginning with weddings but from a shoot and burn one-year-old birthday party? I’ll take it.  Depending on how many events I shoot, I can get hundreds of email addresses for my mailing list each month, people pay a lot of money for these things!

There are many ways to use these contacts, here are a few things I do –

1. Give them all a $5 Pictage print credit to nudge them to get a print or two.
2. Add them to my master email list for newsletters, mini session notifications, and seasonal offers.
3. Send them a special offer like 20% off a sitting fee during a slower month.
4. Send a simple thank you for viewing.

Whatever I do, I stay relevant.  I try to keep my name, my brand, and my photos in the back of their minds.

I encourage you to post all your events online, view the guest lists, and capture those emails.  If you’re not getting a ton of guests, think about why.  Try delaying a disk, or passing out event cards. 

The new Pictage Interface makes it easy to dig deeper too.  You can sort by role type (mother, cousin, grandma, etc) and target market them for certain campaigns. You can also sort by who spent the most money and possibly offer them a thank you credit or special offer.  There are a ton of options so definitely check it out.

How do you best use your guest list?