Imagine if a restaurant told a farmer give us your crops for free, it will be good exposure.  The farmer would laugh in the owner’s face.  So why don’t photographers?  Because so many don’t even value their own work.  And then they wonder how to make a living as a photographer.  Well guess what?  You’ve done it to yourself.  You have devalued your work and created a trend where what you do is not worth paying for by these companies.

Some will say it’s just my hobby.  I’m doing it for fun so why should I charge?   Suppose some decided to do your job as a hobby and didn’t charge.  Your employer got rid of you because she could get someone to do it for free.  That’s what happening.   Or the I’m not good enough to charge.  If someone wants your photos, you’re good enough to charge.

News outlets are doing he same thing.  Submit your photos of the news.  We’ll even give you credit.  And people flock to send them photos.  So the news outlet has less and less staff photographers and stringers, because they don’t need to pay for photos any more.

Photographers just say no to free photos.

Now I know maybe 3 or 4 photographers in my local area might actually follow thru, But there will sadly be over a thousand that won’t.   And worse yet, some of them are very talented, just giving it all away.  Starving artists.

Keys to boudoir video are going to be lighting, camera angles and posing. Even the process of editing video takes a different mindset. We will see how this trend takes off, but we’ve already seen the websites for places like Playboy and Maxim are relying heavily on video. Clients will see this as the next big thing.

Check out the future – boudoir videos.

Is this the next big thing?  It will certainly be something that will become the trend according to the experts.

You can learn more at the website for My Life on Hold

Here is a short teaser.

Young college student plans on riding 4000 miles on her bicycle for the Ulman Cancer Fund this summer. You can donate to support. Sharing is caring.

http://4kforcancer.org/profiles/katrina-farrell/

I once again had the opportunity to help Flash of Hope produce photographs for these families. Please support them http://www.FlashesOfHope.org

© 2013 Copyright Dean Farrell, DeanFarrell.com, Flashes of Hope

Great  photographs take time to create, retouch and print.  It is not like a DVD or shirt that you can buy a few days before.  The best photographers book up early so don’t miss your chance by waiting too long.  The photo labs start having backlogs.  Everything takes longer.

So contact your favorite photographer now to get those photos in time for the holidays.

http://www.Orcatek.com

UFOria TV is the ongoing saga of a paranormal investigation team, woefully inept and socially challenged.  The group is lead by an equally dsyfunctional producer, Linda Wright, who spends a lot of time and money chasing everything from werewolves to witches,  anomalies to aliens and vikings (yes, we said vikings) to vampires.    This is the show that debunks the debunkers,  out paranormals the paranormals and actually makes you wish there was something under your bed.

UFOria TV

Don’t look behind you, because they’re really good at hiding.   If everything you see on this show isn’t true, then may Bigfoot never be found.

I find this event to be a great place to network and learn new techniques.   Every retoucher has their own way of doing things.  Ask five retouchers to create a result, and they will do it in 5 different ways.

My goals is to always learn two things.  One is how to create a higher quality result.  The other is how to streamline my workflow.   I am sure I will learn things for both.

I find that attending every 2-3 years is perfect for me.  Some go every year, but I find that I get more out of it if I don’t go as often.

Some people complain about the use of Photoshop on photos today.  And yes there is plenty of bad Photoshop to be seen.  But a lot of what is done, is what was done before in the darkroom.  Most people had no idea how much some photos were changed.  Skin polish, wrinkles gone and more.  Now it is just easier to do digitally.

And of course the vendors will be there.  A chance to see products first hand and ask all those questions.  And if you are thinking of buying some, wait until the show, as they almost all have show specials where you can save a lot.

On more than one occasion I have discovered a new product of interest.   Now people who know me, know I am not a fan of relying on lots of plug-ins.  But I do own a select few, mainly to save time.   Which is why I am always excited to see what is new.

And of course plug-ins won’t be the only things vendors will be showing.  Right now you can get an exhibits only pass for free, so don’t miss out.

Hope to see some of you there.  Maybe we’ll run into each other.

Original in B&W

Then I add solid color layers.  I set the blending mode to color and then simply paint the mask to show the color where I want it.  I use a separate color layer for each element allowing me to change the color of each as needed.  I will also adjust the opacity to fine tune the color.

The end result is something like this:

Hand Painted Ballerina

To save time I will invert the masks to black first before I paint in the color.  I find a soft edge brush works  best.  It can be very time consuming as you work on small details.  This example wasn’t too bad.  The eyes and lips were a bit tougher, but nothing I wasn’t used to doing.

Typically it takes a few hours to create this look, but I find it to be worth the effort.

Dean Farrell – Orcatek.com