Doug Gordon is one of our favorite photographers for three simple reasons, none of them being his George Costanza-esque boudoir photo mind you.

First, Doug is simply outstanding at what he has coined as “flow posing,” a system of seamlessly moving from one pose to the next creating a string of 30 – 50 different unique poses all within a few minutes.

Second, Doug is an amazing businessman. He knows what clients want, and how to deliver a product that every client will always love.

Third, Ok… I lied. The third reason is Doug’s sexy boudoir photo. In case you missed it, I will pause a moment for you all to enjoy and let the visual delight sink in.

… Ok, moving on…

This year, Doug’s lecture began with a nice intro along with 15 – 20 minutes of inspirational goodness. Below are some of my favorite quotes that he used in the motivational portion of his lecture.

1. “Our clients know what they look like. Are we showing them who they are on the inside?” – What a poignant line. I mean, how often do we get caught up in making clients look good in front of the lens, while forgetting to really show their personalities through the emotion and story of the photo? While I believe it is it is our job as professionals to make our clients look great, I also think it should be just as important making sure that we are able to capture their personalities through those photos as well.

2. “Commitment is realizing there is no expiration date.” – If you are truly committed to a goal, it doesn’t matter how many times you fail, nor does it matter how much time you take. If you are truly committed, you will do whatever it takes to succeed at your goal.

Here are some notes on Doug’s shooting style:

Favorite Lens: 70 – 200mm F2.8 IS
Shooting and Exposure Mode: Aperture priority using spot metering (metering under the subjects eye)
Composition Style: Wide open apertures at F2.8
Light Modifiers: Doug Gordon’s Torch Light and a standard reflector
Posing Style: Posed photojournalism (i.e. posing that recreates natural moments)

For anyone that has seen Doug’s lectures or videos, you will notice right from the word ‘go’ that Doug strives to be different from other photographers. He strives to be different by doing the following:

1. Creating photos that sell themselves – What does that mean? Well, simply shoot shots that client’s will purchase! When it comes to framing a picture, you will be hard pressed to find a client that frames a nice detail shot of the table centerpieces. Rather, create shots that clients want by finding Grandma or Grandpa and shooting a nice shot of them with the couple, creating beautiful father/daughter moments, etc.

2. Your work is your reflection – What do you let go out of your studio? Do you edit everything the client sees, or just some? Whatever goes out of your studio is a direct reflection of it; make sure that reflection is a good one.

3. Sell through sizing – Doug is all about creating unique size prints not only to create unique images, but also to ensure that clients purchase both prints and frames through their own studio. This enables Patken Photography to increase their revenue potential significantly.

Forgive the shot above, it is a shot of a video projection since we were sitting a mile away. Anyway, describing Doug’s flow posing system with words is like trying to recreate Van Gogh’s Starry Night with a fat black Sharpie marker. It’s just cumbersome, time consuming, and it really wouldn’t do the original masterpiece much justice. So, instead I want to discuss a little bit of his methodology and then simply tell you to try to catch Doug on the tradeshow floor at his booth #214 to see him work his magic.

Doug believes strongly in systems, and frankly, I couldn’t agree more. In Doug’s own words:

1. Systems create consistency
2. Systems create a guarantee
3. Systems always tell the story
4. Systems start with the flow

Doug, you are definitely preaching to the choir here. We love systems, systems for shooting an engagement, couples session, wedding, etc. While we allow ourselves room for complete creativity and artistic control, we have systems in place to ensure that we achieve a consistent product with each and every shoot.

For those that have not heard of Doug Gordon or his flow posing system, his class will be a virtual photographic epiphany taking you to new levels of comfort when it comes to posing and creating unique shots. For those that are familiar with Doug and his flow posing system, perhaps through previous lectures or DVDs, you may find that the majority of the lecture content has not significantly changed. However, towards the end of the new lecture/DVD, there are a significant number of new poses (probably numbering around 50 or so new poses).

So, for the novice, and the veteran, we rate Doug Gordon as a definite must see. Be sure to catch him at the tradeshow where he will be re-performing his flow posing system, as well as selling his products at booth #214.

– Pye

Related posts:

1. WPPI 2009 – Platform Speaker Notes – Doug Gordon
2. WPPI 2009 – Platform Speaker Notes – Ryan Schembri
3. 9 Must See Speakers at WPPI 2010

With WPPI around the corner, it seemed like an appropriate time to write up a quick article and ask all of the photographers out there to take a step back from shooting, technique, artistry and anything else for just a moment to talk a little bit about what we call “absolutes.”

Most of us, at some point in time in our careers (regardless of whatever that career may be), will fall into the trap of believing in absolutes. What are absolutes exactly? Absolutes are preconceptions or beliefs that there is only one way of accomplishing a task, regardless of what that task may be.

I don’t know why it happens, nor do I know when it happens, but I know that it does happen, and it happens often. At some point, we start believing that there is only one correct way of vacuuming the floor, reaching our career goals, achieving an A-grade in a class or even driving our cars… well, actually, there really isn’t more than one correct way of driving your car. But, that is neither here nor there, I think you all get my point.

When it comes to photography, we photographers who believe in self expression and creativity fall into this trap just as often if not more than others. Which, in my honest opinion is quite ironic given how we are constantly trying to seek out new methods of self expression.

At WPPI, each of you attendees are going to be virtually bombarded with education. Often times, you will even here things like, “if you aren’t doing (fill in your favorite statement here) then you are not doing it right or you are not a professional.” While there may be some level of truth to certain absolute statements, they always need to be taken with a grain of salt. If you have been doing your thing, and you have been successful at what you are doing, don’t let someone else convince you otherwise.

I remember at a WPPI lecture back in 2008, I heard a speaker in a serious tone state, “If you aren’t shooting with a light meter, you are not a professional photographer.” Immediately, I tuned out the rest of his lecture as I was hung up on that simple, yet completely flawed statement. I mean, how many of us professional photographers are completely comfortable with using our in-camera metering? I think the vast majority of us, including many of the greats such as Dennis Reggie, Joe Buissink, Jessica Claire, Jasmine Star, Mike Colon, and many more don’t walk around with light meters in their hands.

However, this photographer truly believed that his statement was accurate and without flaw. He wasn’t trying to be mean, or sound condescending, he was simply caught up in one of his own absolute preconceptions.

The problem with absolutes and any other strong preconceptions is that we carry around in our minds and they restrict us from learning and growing as photographers. If you go around thinking you need a light meter to properly shoot any scene, then how many potentially great shots would this absolute prevent you from capturing? If you insist on always using natural light only, then you are going to miss out on truly learning lighting and how to create amazing shots from nothing, a la Jerry Ghionis.

Truth is, often times these absolutes and pre-conceptions are typically defensive stances that we take to prevent ourselves from having to step outside of our comfort zones.
Here are some other absolutes or pre-conceptions that I have heard throughout my career as a photographer, and my opinions about them:

1. The only time of day to shoot outdoors is 30 minutes prior to and after sunrise/sunset – Truth, if you live in the same world we do (regardless, please say you do), only 1 hour in a 24 hour day falls within the “golden hour of photography.” Not to mention, if you live in LA during half the year this golden hour is during our golden hour of hellish traffic. So naturally, most of our shots will be outside this one hour window. I love shooting with direct harsh sunlight, and you can learn to love it too. A lot can be done with that type of lighting if done correctly. Each one of the shots below was shot at some other time well outside of the golden hour.

First two shots were taken in open direct sunlight.

Shot in semi-open indoor locations using diffused light from mid-day sun.

2. Using artificial light (flashes, video lights, etc) in a scene isn’t as good as using natural light - Truth, artificial light is not any better or worse than natural light, but rather it is different. Artificial light, when used properly can create amazing effects that you can never achieve otherwise.

2 Flashes used plus sun to achieve a 3 light effect.

2 Flashes with a dragged shutter.

2 Flashes used.

3. If you don’t know how to use off camera lighting, you can’t take great shots - Truth, just because you have and know how to use the crazy lighting setups doesn’t mean you have to! An images subject and statement of emotion is far greater than any composition or technical effect. Look at the 100 most influential photographs of the last century, how many of them were shots with setup lighting and perfect compositions? We love natural light, and we don’t miss an opportunity to use it. Check out some of our natural light shots below:

4. Professional imagery always follows strict composition rules - Truth, some of the best and most interesting images break every rule possible. Check out some of the shots below for some of our examples.

This shot below breaks a lot of rules, by placing a blurred out subject in front of the frame in a dominant position over the actual focused subjects. However, it was intentionally done to create a strong “voyeuristic” sense to this faux candid shot.

90% sky, 10% ground, 100% dramatic.

Cut subject just above the waste, typically a no-no, but it works as it brings focus to the cool back-lit-lighting effects in the top of the frame.

5. You must have a $3,000 professional camera body with $15,000 worth of glass and accessories to shoot professional images – Truth, give me a Rebel, a 50mm and I would feel just fine delivering a professional product to our clients. Does it help having a 5D Mark II+ (or D700+) camera with L lenses, absolutely. But, I will take lighting, composition and technical expertise over hardware any day.

6. Wedding photographers are not “true” photographers – Truth, a truly good wedding photographer needs to be a master of virtually every type of photography. Detail shots, venue shots, head shots, portraits, family portraits, etc; each of these areas of photography has it’s own set of rules and techniques, each of which a wedding photographer must master to truly be great at his/her craft.

7. I am strictly a photojournalist, posing is unnatural - Truth, posing and setting up your shots can create very natural faux journalistic moments. It will all depend on your ability as a photographer to help setup and pose those shots in order to create those journalistic reenactments. Check out some of our posed faux journalistic work below.

8. My work isn’t yet worth $5,000 or $10,000 per wedding – Truth, you are right. Yup, if you think your work isn’t worth $3,000 or $5,000 or $10,000 then it isn’t. Who in their right mind would pay you that much when you don’t believe that you are worth that much yourself? You define your image and you set your value. If there is uniqueness, artistry, quality and value behind your product, people will make the investment, regardless of the price.

9. Wedding photography is an easy part time job with a full time income – Truth, wedding photography is a full time + time + time job with the potential for a full time income only after several years of hard work and dedication. Don’t forget that being a photographer, regardless of what type of photographer, requires you to also handle sales, accounting, management, legal, admin and every other possible area that comes along with being a business owner. Expect 60+ hour work weeks for your first few years while earning far less than you would at a typical job. But, don’t get me wrong, it is rewarding, and there is awesome potential.

10. It takes a gorgeous venue to get gorgeous shots - OK, there is no doubt that having a gorgeous venue will give you gorgeous shots, we all know that. And, I’m not going to post pictures here just in case a client with what we would call a “less than gorgeous” venue happens to stumble across their shot in here. However, let me just say this, there is beauty in every single venue that we have shot. It may not be in the wide angle shot that shows the entire venue along with its pasty taupe walls and drab carpet, but it is there somewhere. I have never been to a single wedding where there hasn’t been beauty in at least the details. Find the angles and the details that bring out the beauty in each location, and your clients will love you for it.

There are so many pitfalls out there, this is just a short list of some of the more common ones that we have heard, or hopped into ourselves. Hopefully you will come away from this article realizing that absolutes can only restrict your potential and growth. When it comes to photography, there are truly an unlimited number of ways to come up with a truly unique and professional product. Find the method that fits you, and allow yourself to grow outside of it when it becomes necessary.

Please share your opinions, beliefs and thoughts about this topic below by commenting.

Related posts:

1. Business – A Day in the Life of a Wedding Photographer

If you are trying to tackle WPPI alone, you will probably be overwhelmed by the shear number of master, platform and trade show classes available. In fact, those that are experienced at WPPI know that often times the golden nuggets of information can be few and far between. However, they are out there, and they are what makes WPPI so valuable to us professional photographers.

So, while there are many excellent platform speakers, we wanted to share with you a few of our favorites who are guaranteed to provide you with some great information that will help take you to the next level. Be sure to also check out our guide on 3 Tips to Help You Get the Most of WPPI.

If you are new to WPPI, then here is a brief description of each class type.

Master Classes – Master classes are fee based classes with limited registration slots
Platform Classes – Platform classes are free to all registered WPPI members and are first come first serve in regards to seating. So, if you want a good seat to some of the popular platform speakers, be sure to arrive early!

Tradeshow Classes – Trade Show classes are brief lectures that are given at certain times throughout the convention on the trade show floor. Typically seating is very limited, so be prepared to stand for some of the more popular speakers.

Regardless of if you are a first time attendee, or 10 year veteran, these are speakers who we never miss. Year after year these speakers provide golden bits of information that will truly help take your studio to the next level.

1) John Solano and Brian Marcus – I stumbled into John and Brian’s platform class by chance back in 2008. It was towards the end of the convention, and I had just walked out of a fairly uninformative platform class only to go into John and Brian’s class next door. Within 10 minutes I felt as though I had struck gold. John and Brian are masters of photography and lighting and they don’t hold back on amazingly useful and practical information. Their class was full of tips and tricks on how to achieve professional results using simple lighting techniques and tools that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Year after year I have attended each and every one of their classes only to learn more and more. You may also be able to find John and Brian at the Nikon trade show booth.

2) Jerry Ghionis – Fashion photographer turned wedding photographer, Jerry Ghionis is simply the undisputed kind when it comes to turning ordinary (and sometimes plain offal) to the extraordinary. Each and every year, Jerry shares tips, tricks and his artistic vision in how he creates his amazing art. Jerry’s platform and master classes will blow your mind leaving you wondering, “how does he think of that?” It is a staple class each year simply because it will get you to think outside, and I mean waaaaay outside the box. Jerry can also be found at his I.C.E. Society booth on the trade show floor as well.

3) Jasmine Star – If you have read some of our previous posts, you should know by now that we are big fans of Jasmine Star. Jasmine’s talents stretch so far beyond photography that it would be difficult to describe exactly which areas we draw inspiration and guidance from. However, this year Jasmine’s classes are going to focus on marketing effectively without spending gobs of mulah. Which in my opinion is awesome because she is clearly an expert in her marketing and brand image as she has launched her studio from obscurity to being one of the best photographers in the world in only a few short years.

4) Doug Gordon – Doug is a master poser, or rather, posing master. Doug has created a style of posing known as “flow posing” which is learning the process of taking a couple from one pose seamlessly to the next in a matter of seconds. Using his flow posing technique, he is able to shoot 20 – 30 unique poses in a matter of just a few minutes. We love watching Doug work and we always learn new things whenever we watch the man do his thang.


5) Chris Lalonde – If you want to start thinking outside of the box when it comes to post production and Photoshop skills, then Chris Lalonde is the man to see. Simply put, Chris is a masterful artist not only behind the lens, but also behind the computer. His Photoshop and Lightroom classes have repeatedly taught me new techniques and how to think outside of the box.

If this is your first year at WPPI, then there are a few speakers that you really cannot miss. These speakers will help you understand and open your mind to widely different styles of photography and styles of shooting.

1) Dennis Reggie – Known as the father of “Wedding Photojournalism” Dennis is the premiere source to learn about any and everything regarding journalism in wedding photography. Dennis is known throughout the industry as being the world’s top Wedding Photojournalist and his style of natural imagery will help you to get passed all the technical mumbo jumbo that we photographers can get caught up in; and rather focus on the imagery and the emotion expressed within.


2) Joe Buissink – If Dennis Reggie is the father of wedding photojournalism I would have to say that Joe Buissink is his son… not in a literal sense of course, as that would just be strange. But, I think you get what I mean. Joe is the other name that first pops into our minds when we hear the term wedding photojournalism. Plus, since Joe and Dennis are good friends, it’s a total hoot and informational smorgasbord when they teach along side each other.


3) Jesh De Rox – Jesh is the founder, or at least one of the founders of a style of wedding photography termed “experiential weddings.” Jesh is an amazing person full of insight and emotion which he uses abundantly in his imagery. There may be some of you who may think that his style or classes aren’t for you, however, you would be doing yourself a major disservice by not attending. Jesh’s style of fine-art photography and his style of experiential client service will get you to think of wedding and engagement photography in a completely different light.

We hope you enjoyed this article, and hopefully we will meet some of you at WPPI 2010!

Related posts:

1. 3 Tips to Get the Most Out of WPPI 2010
2. WPPI 2010 – Doug Gordon Flow Posing Platform Notes
3. WPPI 2009 – Platform Speaker Notes – Doug Gordon

WPPI has tons to offer amateurs, professionals, and even hobbyists. So much, in fact, that it’s easy to be distracted, sidetracked, or simply overwhelmed. Here are a few quick tips to help you navigate WPPI 2010 and get the most out of your experience.

1) Split up for the platform speakers When it comes to platform speakers, the content presented can be invaluable or even career-changing. On the opposite end, many of the speeches are a true test of the strength of your morning coffee and attention span. By going with others, splitting up, and sharing notes over meals, you can mitigate the risk of wasting that time slot and increase the amount of information you receive each day. There are many golden bits of information that are given, but you will need to divide and conquer to gather them all up.

2) Set Goals and Priorities in the trade show and if possible split up assignments. If you simply wander around the trade show, you can get caught up in a conversation and lose half the day. Without goals and priorities, you can also see a million great ideas and products but forget them the second you leave Las Vegas and get back to the pile of work you have waiting for you back home. With so many vendors and potential partners in one room, it’s important to prioritize. For example, are you looking for a new album maker? What qualities are you specifically looking for? With all the competition in one room, you can literally compare their products side by side and come up with the best fit for your studio.

We typically run with a crew of 4 to WPPI so our approach is to split up. Each person is given an assignment, like albums for instance. That person would then focus on gathering information, testing samples, and taking notes. Each night after sifting through all the junk, we each present the top three products or solutions for our respective assignments.

3) Approach the industry leaders. There are very few industries in this world in which the innovators and leaders of the industry are so accessible. After each lecture, almost every one of the top wedding and portrait photographers are available to chat. It’s really a matter of having the courage to approach them, ask the right questions, and even ask if you can assist or second shoot for them. It was after a platform lecture that I was able to find my first mentor John Solano, whom I owe much of my success as a wedding photographer.

We hope this short article helps you out in one way or another. On SLR Lounge we love to share the notes that we take during the platform speakers. Although we weren’t able to get them all up on the site, you can check out a few from last years lectures here. Also, we’ll be sure to share more notes this year as well so stay tuned. If you would like to contribute your own notes to SLR Lounge, we would love to feature you on our site.

For more information on WPPI and all it has to offer, check out their official site http://www.wppionline.com/

Related posts:

1. 9 Must See Speakers at WPPI 2010
2. WPPI 2010 – Doug Gordon Flow Posing Platform Notes
3. Wallpapers – “The Urban Triplets” – January 2010

Karson Photography All Rights Reserved

Tell us a little about yourself and your studio? Our studio is Karson Photography and it is located in a little avante-guard artist community called “The Old Village of Park Circle” located about 5 minutes outside of Downtown Charleston S.C. We are both a photography studio and an art gallery. The gallery is host to several shows a year highlighting local mastered artists as well as our art photography. Karson Photography is owned and operated by myself, Kip Bulwinkle (lead photographer and business manager) and my fiance Liz Bartoccini (photographer and graphic designer). We both are College of Charleston graduates with degrees in Art and Biology. Our photographic concentration is weddings however we do also shoot commercial photography, that is my background since most of my mentors when I began photography were commercial shooters. I think having the creative eye for art as well as the detail eye for commercial photography is what makes our “look” unique.

Where’s home and why do you like it there? Home is Charleston South Carolina. Charleston is where I was born and raised. In my college years I would put all of my belongings into storage, pack a few things in my truck and traveled across the U.S. experiencing what our country had to offer. On return home I was able to see Charleston thought the eyes of a traveler and fell back in love with it each time. Same thing would happen when I would travel abroad. Coastal Charleston is just the perfect place for me.

How would you define your photographic style? We define our photographic style as “The Art of Capturing Emotion”. That is a lot easier said than done. Liz and I pride ourselves on presenting our clients with works of art that capture the beauty of human emotion.

How did you get started in photography? Liz got her start early in life when her father gave her his 1967 Mamiya-Sekor 35mm that he used to capture images in Vietnam during his service as a Navy Corpsman. She started shooting everything in her surroundings concentrating on the details and their arrangement. This eye for detail shows through in her photography today.
I got my start when, in an artists group, the leader of the group saw some of my pictures from Europe and asked if I wanted to assist him in photographing a wedding. I promptly replied “No, I want to be an artist, not a photographer”. Yeah, yeah, I know how that sounds but I was young and stupid. His reply to me was, “Well, I will pay you.” So, I found myself shooting a wedding on Sullivan’s Island, SC and fell in love with the art of photography.

What is your favorite lens and why? Favorite Lens. For weddings 70-200mm 2.8 hands down, perfect for our style of photography. For fun 50 mm 1.4. It’s light, fast, great low-light capability and it captures what you really see, it tells the truth.

Where do you turn for inspiration? Inspiration.., I’m inspired by the world that God has blessed us with. I’m inspired by relationships and the emotion that are evoked by humans interacting.

What’s your favorite and least favorite aspect of the job and why? Favorite aspect: Relationships Least favorite aspect: Paperwork

If you child or relative wanted to become a photographer, what would you think and why? If my child wanted to be a photographer, that would be great! My parents allowed me to pursue whatever path I desired as long as I followed one rule “Be the best at it you possibly can be.”

Mac or PC? Mac. Mac. Mac.

If you had to do one thing differently it would be…. What would I do differently: Hmmm, don’t know that doing things differently would have changed where I am now. I think we are where we are supposed to be.

The hardest part of your job? The hardest part of my job is self promotion. Argh, I hate sales. The whole money part is just so cumbersome.

A website and/or blog you visit often and why? Hah, I’m kind of a lurker and never make blog comments, so now I’m tipping my hand, but, I love Zack Arias, Jose Villa, Jerry Ghionis, and of course SLR Lounge

What is your favorite computer/editing accessory other than your computer and why? My speakers are my favorite accessory. I work much better to certain types of music depending on the style of shoot I’m processing. Music is the key to emotion

What has been your best photographic experience (wedding or non wedding) and why? My best photographic experience was on my trip to Alaska photographing from Homer, AK to Denali National Park. My words cannot describe the beauty. Here are some of the images: www.karsonphotography.com/art

Do you shoot what you feel is best for your clients or do you allow some to clearly define what they want? Shoot 50% for the client and 50% for the artistic experience. Clients like to see the clean shots, it gives them peace of mind. Then they order prints of the creative shots, the ones they couldn’t have asked for because they had no way of describing them, the images that were made in the moment from the pallet of emotion that the client displays for us during the shoot.

What is one effective way you market your business? Networking: whether in person or online

If not a photographer, what would you have been? Probably a writer – a travel writer

Do you make time for personal photographic work? If so, what do you enjoy photographing? Yes, you must make time for personal photographic work to keep the creativity flowing. I love nature.

What would you like to be doing in 5 years from now? Traveling on a sailboat with my family photographing the world around us.

Are you looking for assistants, second shooters, or shooting partners? If so, how can they contact you? Not looking for second shooters or assistants. Liz and I are a well oiled machine when it comes to shooting weddings. We cover everything and know what the other is thinking. That’s pretty hard to beat.

Related posts:

1. Photographer’s Interview – Kelly Melissa Brown
2. Photographer’s Interview – Timothy Riley
3. 5 Inspirational Wedding Photographer Blogs to Follow

Literally 98% of our editing occurs in Lightroom using RPG Keys. Lightroom is extremely powerful making Photoshop necessary only on a handful of images in each wedding. This article will help you understand basic post production/color correction in Lightroom, an essential skill for today’s photographer. Keep in mind that post production is a very stylistic subject, what looks right to some may not to others. This article shows you how to color correct based on our style and preferences.

Below is an example of one of our RAW images taken directly from our Canon 5D Mark II. The image has been “zeroed out” meaning that all default Lightroom settings are set to 0 so you can see what it looks like in its pure RAW form. While it may look under exposed, this shot was actually nearly perfectly exposed, however in RAW form, everything will tend to look dark and murky until post produced.

Metadata – Canon 5D Mark II, EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/200 sec at f/2.8 at ISO 100

One quick note, if you are shooting in JPG mode, your camera will apply a default set of post production settings to your image file at the time of shooting. We shoot RAW simply because it is a more powerful file format, don’t let anyone tell you differently. A RAW file contains all of the tonal detail your camera has to offer, where as a JPG does not. This means that you can do much more in post production to a RAW image before affecting image quality than you can with JPG.

Also, regardless of whether you shoot RAW or JPG, your camera applies post production settings to each shot when you are previewing it on the camera LCD. So, don’t be surprised when images loaded onto your computer don’t look the same.

To get to the final image, I am going to perform a number of steps (using my workflow sequence), each described in detail below.

Step 1) Brightness +60 – I am going to start by raising Brightness to +60, this will give me a baseline to be able to add my other effects like Contrast, Blacks.

Step 2) Contrast +80 – Since the image exposure is close to correct, I am going to start by boosting Contrast to begin helping the image to pop. Now, I want to balance Contrast w/ Blacks to get the right pop. If I use too much contrast, skin tones can be too candied and contrasty, if I use too much blacks, I will kill detail in the shadows such as the hair. So I am going to start with +80 then fine tune if I need to after I add in my Blacks.

Step 3) Blacks +11 – Now I am going to bring up my Blacks a bit to make sure the black levels are truly black, and not a deep grey. You should see something like the image below now.

Step 4) Brightness +84 – Once I have adjusted my Contrast and Blacks, I can tune in the final brightness level. I am going to want to raise brightness a bit since Contrast and Blacks darkened the image.

Step 5) Temperature 5050 Tint -4 – Temperature and Tint often will affect the Brightness/Exposure of the image, so if you make a large change in Temperature you will need to adjust the Brightness/Exposure of the image. If the Temperature is way off to start with, I would recommend that be your Step 1 before adjusting Brightness. However, here we are just making a little adjustment to warm up the image slightly. Color temperature is a very subjective area, some people produce their images so skin tones are more yellow where as others border on the pink side. I prefer that my skin tones look very natural, with just a hint of warmth (yellow) to give them a nice sunglow.

Step 6) Clarity -25 & Recovery +50 – Now, since this is a close up shot of faces, I want to smooth out the lines and highlights on the fathers face. To do so, I am going to first bring my Recovery up to +50 which is going to tone down the highlights a bit, then I am going to reduce Clarity a bit which is going to smooth out the lighting as well as the lines on the father’s face, ultimately making him look younger. Be careful with Clarity, if it’s too low you will be killing too much detail, and if it’s too high you can end up showing too much detail and even outlining objects with black shadows.

Step 7) Lens Correction Amount -100 & Midpoint 50 – The final touch is to bring in a little artistic edge burning by applying a Pre-Crop Lens Correction vignette. This will bring focus from the outside of the frame into the subject, as well as provide a nice burn affect on the outside colors. Remember that Post-Crop and Pre-Crop (i.e. Lens Correction) Vignettes are different. Lens Corrections simply burn down or brighten the edges of the frame, where as Post-Crop Vignettes will add a black or white vignette to the frame.

Viola, you are done! Your image is now color corrected (in our books at least). While this may take you a bit of time the first few times, you should be able to get quite speedy at this process. With the aid of RPG Keys, we can produce over 500 image like this one per hour!

If you found this article helpful, we would ask that you let us know in the comments below. We are currently considering developing a full course and workshop for photographers on basic, advanced and artistic post production. So, let us know if you would be interested!

Related posts:

1. Post Production – Efficient Lightroom Workflow – Step by Step Instruction
2. How to Automate Photoshop Actions in Lightroom Using Droplets – Part 3 of 3
3. Post Production – How to Apply Textures to Images Using Photoshop

Ben Chrisman – http://www.benchrismanblog.com/ – We look to Ben’s blog for his unique style of wedding photography matched with his even more unique style of post production. Ben has an amazing ability to find and create unique frames for his subjects that create an intimate voyeuristic quality as well as draw the viewer’s eyes right into the subject of the image. You will find Ben often throwing the typical restrictive rules of photographic composition to the wind as he creates stunningly dramatic images with his creative usage of negative space. We also love Ben’s ability to create dramatic compositions using off camera lighting with a mixture of under exposed backgrounds to enhance the atmospheric lighting in each scene. On the other side of his artistry is his dramatic post production style. Ben’s signature mixture of warm color temperatures and deep blacks creates uniquely intimate and dramatic imagery.

Heather Waraksa – http://www.heatherwaraksablog.com/ – One look at Heather’s blog and you will wonder if her images are frames taken from big time Tinseltown movies. To us, Heather’s style of wedding photography is best described as rogue Hollywood movie producer shaken with a heavy dash of fashion photographer. We love every bit of style this New York photog paints into her imagery. Along with her typical color popping photos, much of her post production style consists of fashion inspired cross and vintage processing techniques.

Jasmine Star – http://www.jasminestarblog.com/ – Jasmine is uniquely open with her life which makes her seem more like a childhood friend that grew up next door, rather than a big time photographer. We love Jasmine and her ability to not only take amazing photographs, but also write inspiring stories and articles. In fact, at times we find ourselves sneaking peeks at her blog for the writing in and of itself! Don’t let her writing fool you though, Jasmine is a uniquely talented photographer who’s style of imagery can be described as being refreshingly candid and natural. We love her ability to truly capture the emotion within each moment. We especially adore Jasmine’s ability to take amazing portraits. Describing Jasmine’s post production style is like talking about fresh produce from your local farmers market, it is natural, clean, fresh and crisp with color.

Jerry Ghionis – http://www.jerryghionisblog.com/ – When I think of Jerry Ghionis, I think of a man with style from head to toe. Jerry’s image from his logo on his website, to his hair style screams fashion. You will often catch Jerry recreating photographic stills inspired from classic Hollywood films. But, what truly makes Jerry – Jerry, is his unique background in fashion photography allows him to create amazing works of art behind the lens. In fact, I think most professional photographers including those on this list would probably agree and give Jerry a sincere nod at his ability to create something from nothing, literally. We are truly inspired at Jerry’s ability to walk into rooms that look as though they were taken straight from the set of a post apocalyptic movie, and yet turn it into a work of sheer beauty. His ability to see something when there truly is nothing is unmatched. While you do need to attend his lectures, workshops or purchase his products to truly witness his creative genius, you can get a peek at his inner monologue through his blog. Jerry’s style of photography is essentially defined by his unique fashion flair that he shows off throughout each and every one of his engagement and couples shoots. His post production style is very natural with just the right balance of contrast and blacks to make images pop.

Del Sol Photography – http://delsolphotography.com/blog/ – We love Del Sol’s natural and candid wedding imagery, but we totally heart their creative abilities when it comes to engagement, trash the dress and couples shoots. I mean seriously, what other togs out there are taking brides under water for shoots!? Not many, that’s for sure. The Del Sol team’s technical skills and creative abilities truly are something to envy. Their style of photography is quite edgy, using a unique mixture of scenes and environments to create truly unique imagery. In addition, these guys are masters of the strobes as off camera lighting plays a large part in their photographic style. Their post production style typically boasts a high contrast look brought out with natural colors from the image.

I hope you enjoyed this article, if so, please share the love and feel free to comment and add additional insight below!

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers. Also, authors of Lin and Jirsa Blog

Related posts:

1. Apertura Photography – Photographer Feature
2. Business – Wedding Photographer Expectations
3. Business – A Day in the Life of a Wedding Photographer

And while we may be experts at photography, we may not be as knowledgeable at finding the correct hosting solutions for our websites. While there are many different hosting companies out there, three commonly used amongst photographers are Bluehost.com, Godaddy.com and Bludomain.com. This article will discuss the costs and benefits of each solution. For those of you that simply want to know if there is a clear cut winner the answer is a strong “YES.” Bluehost.com is the best hosting solution, period. However, you will need to read on to find out why!

Pricing is probably one of the largest components in comparing hosting solutions, thus it is the first item that we are going to compare between the three hosts.

In comparing yearly hosting costs, Bluehost.com and Godaddy remain quite competitive while Bludomain is quite a bit more expensive. While this difference isn’t huge when spread throughout the year, per month you are looking at roughly $7 with Bluehost, $6 with Godaddy and $9 with Bludomain.

It is important to note that Bluehost.com hosting packages include free domain name registration for a single domain for as long as you own the hosting account. Both Godaddy and Bludomain will require you to renew the domain each year.

See the table below for a quick overview of each Key Feature.

Hosting Space – Bluehost.com is the only solution among the three companies that offers you unlimited hosting space for your website. While 10GB and 3GB of space respectively are by far enough to store a website, you will run out of space if you try to host large files on your server. What types of files might you want to host on your server? Well, you may want to allow clients to download their images from your site, or perhaps you wish to stream online videos, or just have a temporary spot online for storing a large file. Having unlimited hosting space with Bluehost.com will allow you to host anything you wish on your site without having to worry about space.

Monthly Bandwidth – Given the fact that we photographers have very bandwidth intensive sites, you will want to find a hosting solution that has quite a bit of monthly bandwidth. 300GB is definitely enough for most new photographers, however you will begin to eat through this fairly quickly when you start to grow. Below is a rough idea of how quickly your bandwidth can go.

The Lin and Jirsa Blog (which is by no means as big as those like Jasmine Star, Jessica Claire, Mike Colon, etc) receives approximately 17,000 page views a month (as of the time this article was written). Each page of the blog loads on average 2MB worth of content. 2MB worth of content is simply the amount of standard information loaded from landing on any blog page. This means that we are using 34GB worth of bandwidth on basic browsing alone. However, this is not including streaming slideshows/videos. Each slideshow and streaming video is roughly 25MB worth of bandwidth. So if 3,000 viewers a month watch a single streaming video, we have now used another 75GB worth of bandwidth. So, you get the idea. While 300GB will be enough for now, if you expand your business, you will eventually need to upgrade.

Email Accounts – To be honest, you will probably never even use 100 email accounts, let alone 2,500. So while there is a difference here, it won’t be a difference that will matter to most of us. However, there are some advanced features that are included with Bluehost.com email accounts that you won’t find with Godaddy or Bludomain. These include: forwarding, auto-responder, and 3 web based email solutions to view your email accounts.

3rd Party Applications – Godaddy and Bluehost.com include most popular 3rd party website applications that are available for push button installation. These 3rd party applications include blogging platforms like Wordpress, PHP frameworks like Ruby on Rails and Cake, and much more. These software packs allow you to get more into advanced web functionality without necessarily having to know all the nitty gritty details on your own.

We recommend that all photographers use Wordpress as their blog platform for its abilities to manage posts, customize appearance and optimize for search engines. So having a Bluehost.com or Godaddy hosting solution will make the Wordpress installation quite simple and straight forward. We even have tutorials for installing and customizing your Wordpress blog (click here to view these tutorials).

Bludomain hosting is not intended to host anything other than your Bludomain template portfolio site. Thus, you will need separate hosting to contain your blog and or other websites.

Multiple Domain Hosting – First, what is multiple domain hosting? Multiple domain hosting means that you can have multiple websites all running off the same hosting account. Yes, that means that if you have a blog, a website, a portfolio site, a learning site, etc all of them can be hosted on one single Bluehost.com account rather than having to sign up a new hosting account for each domain. This feature is only available with Bluehost.com and is by far one of the biggest perks and incentives to have a Bluehost.com account. If you have 10 websites, you can host them all through a single Bluehost.com hosting account for only $7 a month rather than $60 a month with Godaddy or $90 a month with Bludomain. Yeah, it’s that awesome.

Streaming Video and Bandwidth Throughput – While Bludomain reports unlimited bandwidth, and Godaddy reports 300GB of bandwidth on their base account, you need to be concerned with bandwidth throughput. This means that even though bandwidth is unlimited per month, they only allow a certain speed of download at any one time. Thus preventing you from being able to stream video and slideshows through your own site. Bluehost.com is the only host among the three that won’t restrict throughput, allowing you to stream anything you wish from your site with their basic account.

Since Bludomain hosting is intended solely for your portfolio site, you won’t be able to use the site for much else. And while Godaddy does allow you to add bandwidth allowing for streaming video, you will need to upgrade to a $30 a month account to do so (for each domain).

By now it should be clear why we support Bluehost.com hosting solutions so heavily. We pay only $7 a month for a single Bluehost.com account that hosts each and every one of our domains, allows for unlimited bandwidth and storage space along with online video and slideshow streaming. For the price and the features, it is a definite no brainer.

I hope you enjoyed this article, if so, please share the love and feel free to comment and add additional insight below! We would love to see links to your slideshows.

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers. Also, authors of Lin and Jirsa Blog

Related posts:

1. Install Wordpress with Godaddy Hosting Services
2. Installation of Your SLR Lounge Photography Theme
3. Service Review – Create Stunning Shows w/ “Show It Web”

“The Urban Triplets” is our shot of the month for January 2010. I (Pye) shot this image while in Canton, China shooting a Chinese wedding back in 2008. As many of you know, I speak Cantonese/Mandarin, so I was able to turn my work trip into a vacation as well.

I stayed for about a month and each and every night I went on a run to help me burn off the countless calories I was cramming down my face each and every day. If you all are familiar with areas like China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan you know that the food is simply amazing, cheap and amazing! So, every night I would run up and down the stairs of our 26 floor apartment building to compensate for my gluttony.

Most nights, I would reach the roof and peer off the railing only to see the gloomy haze filled sky blanketing everything past half a mile to a mile in distance. However, one night during my stay I was so impressed by the “relatively” clear skies, that I made the 20 flight run back down to our room to grab my camera and tripod as well as the 20 flight run back up to the roof.

I spent about two hours that night shooting from various roof tops in the vicinity. This shot is an HDR shot of what I called “The Triplets” which were three massive apartment buildings built just behind one of the largest streets cutting through downtown Canton. The mixture of tungsten lighting from the street and remaining daylight could only be captured with three bracketed exposures that were later combined into an HDR shot.

I have many more shots from this trip, so stay tuned. We will share more.

Click here to download the 1920 x 1200 resolution image (3MB file size)

I hope you enjoyed this article, if so, please share the love and feel free to comment and add additional insight below!

By Pye of Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers

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If you’ve found this article informative, please consider donating below:

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If you are looking for an investment to significantly increase your workflow efficiency, than look no further. RPG Keys will without question improve your workflow efficiency significantly. Now, when I say significantly, I am not talking about a 10% or 20% improvement. I am talking about cutting your post production time in half or even more once you get used to the entire system. Many of you know that we have been working on creating a review for the RPG Keys by Tim Riley. We have been taking our time because we wanted to collect a good amount of data to support our final review, which we have now completed!

While the results are no surprise to us, I think all you photographers out there will be quite surprised.

Click here for the official RPG Keys Website

Before we discuss the workflow process, testing procedures, or even the features of the RPG Keys, let’s talk about exactly how much quicker can we post produce by using RPG Keys. The numbers below include the amount of time used for culling, i.e. sorting, as well as developing the pictures.

Ave Time Per Photo
Without RPG Keys: 18.65 seconds per photo
With RPG Keys: 7.6 seconds per photo

These averages were based on approximately 30,000 total photos in each sample set. Meaning by using RPG Keys we are roughly 250% more efficient than without! Much of the improvement in overall time is based upon the change in the overall workflow which I will discuss below.

First off, lets take a quick look at how it works. Here are some of our favorite functions of this keyboard.

From the picture above, we see the bottom portion of the keys where 90% of the magic is going to happen. You will notice that the center section of the image above contains virtually all of the primary Lightroom adjustments centered around a Last and Next button. This allows you to keep your left hand on navigation keys while having access to every necessary adjustment without moving your hand. This center section is available in both Library and Develop modules.

Our favorite button, probably has to be the Paste Last/SYNC button which allows you to copy the settings from the prior photo to the current one. This means that as you go from one photo to the next, you either Reject the next photo, or you Paste Last which copies over your post production settings from the previous photo. If your images are consistent in exposure and settings, then you can just fly through each photo without making additional adjustments.

On the left side of the keyboard you will notice the Blue presets labeled from 1 – 24. These are Library module preset shortcuts, while the Red presets on the right are Develop module presets. You will note that each button has a 1. /2. //3. Meaning that if you hold /OPT2 while pushing a Red or Blue preset, you will activate the /second option, or //third option if you were to hold //OPT3. So, while there are only 8 buttons, you can have up to 24 Library and Develop presets to instantly activate.

Keep in mind though that if you are in the Develop module and you press a Library module preset, then you will need to wait for Lightroom to switch modules, then you will need to press the button a second time to activate the preset.

This shot above shows the top of the RPG Keys keyboard showing the additional commonly used functions which are available in any module. Rather than having to access the regular PC keyboard for functions such as Escape, Undo/Redo, Black and Whiting and more, you can just simply press one of these buttons without moving your hand far from the center navigation area.

Now that we have covered the basics, let’s get on to the details of our testing and workflow.

For our review, we used RPG Keys on 10 different full wedding shoots and compared the efficiency results to production times on 10 typical weddings prior to using RPG Keys. We are big efficiency nuts, so yeah, we do keep track of all this wacky data =). For our testing we used the standard 58 key Lightroom and Photoshop Combo Keyboard which sits at about 8” wide, 9” deep and 1.5” thick at the top and around .75” thick at its base. The keyboard definitely has some size and weight to it making it feel quite sturdy.

Our computer used for all testing was a Dell XPS PC with the following hardware:
Processor: Intel Core i7-920 2.66Ghz
RAM: 12GB
Hard Drive: 1TB Western Digital
Video: 512MB ATI Radeon HD4670
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium

Standard Workflow – Our standard workflow prior to RPG Keys would be to first cull (rough edit) the photos by rating them from 1-3 stars. This rating consisted of the following:
1 Star – Trash photos that will be deleted
2 Stars – Photos that are OK and may be needed in the future, but are kept in case they are needed, such as a mediocre shot of a grandma that may be delivered if a client asks, “do you have any more pics of my grandma.”
3 Stars – Photos that are deliverable and will be post produced
4 Stars – After the 3 Star photos are post produced, they are increased to 4 Stars to show completion.
5 Stars – 4 Star shots that would be used for portfolio, blog, slideshow purposes.
So, once we initial rate all the photos from 1 – 3. Then we would go back through, delete all the 1s, and develop all the 3s. Thus, we are doing 2 passes to complete the photos.
RPG Keys Workflow – Our workflow with RPG Keys is significantly different from that of our prior Standard Workflow.

Rather than rating first, all the photos in the wedding are selected and then flagged as “keepers.” From that point, we are now just “rejecting” images that will not be delivered and post producing those that will be. So, with this system we are only doing a single pass to cull and produce the images.
Once the images have been completed, we would make a quick pass through the final post produced images and mark any blog, portfolio or slideshow images with 5 stars.

Overall Pros
- 100 – 250% increase in post production efficiency.
- More time focusing on your business
- Your sanity
- Great product support through RPG Keys
Overall Cons
- $600 Price tag for the full 58 key Combo Keyboard
- Designed more for function than form

Having the actual Lightroom functions mapped to keys makes RPG Keys already immensely useful. However, the additional workflow changes of being able to cull and produce in a single sweep is what really improves overall efficiency. The reason that it is not possible to do a similar single pass workflow without RPG Keys is due to the fact that all of your functions to rate, flag, and edit images on a standard keyboard are so far apart that you are better off focusing a single pass on culling and sorting functions, and then another pass on developing the actual photos. Attempting to both in one shot would mean that you would spend much of your time just moving your hands around the keyboard and swinging the mouse around to use all the functions necessary to cull and produce the images.

While RPG Keys does have a fairly heavy price tag for the full 58 keys version, it is an investment that you cannot afford to skip. (RPG Keys does also come in smaller setups which are less expensive than the full 58 key keyboard) We estimate that in the course of one year, we save approximately 275 hours or nearly 7 work weeks worth of time for every 30 weddings we shoot. What would you do with 7 more weeks of time each year? When you compare the amount of time saved to the cost of the investment, it simply is a no brainer. If you have questions, or if any of you have used RPG Keys and would like to comment on their experience, please add your thoughts or questions in a comment below.

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers. Also, authors of Lin and Jirsa Blog

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If you’ve found this article informative, please consider donating below:

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Related posts:

1. Post Production – Efficient Lightroom Workflow – Step by Step Instruction
2. Post Production – How to Apply Textures to Images Using Photoshop
3. Photographer’s Interview – Timothy Riley

*Note: The legality of using these songs is not the focus of this article. Please consult your lawyer or do additional research before using these songs.

1. Ben Harper – Forever
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here

2. Jason Mraz – Lucky
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase:Click Here

3. Colbie Callait – Bubbly
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here

4. Joshua Radin – I’d Rather Be With You
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here

5. Train – Soul Sister
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here

6. One Republic – Stop and Stare
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here

7. Joshua Radin – They Bring Me To You
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here

8. Jack Johnson – Better Together
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here

9. Craig David – Unbelievable
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here

10. Kalai – Divide Me
Wedding Slideshow Example: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here

I hope you enjoyed this article, if so, please share the love and feel free to comment and add additional insight below! We would love to see links to your slideshows.

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers. Also, authors of Lin and Jirsa Blog

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If you’ve found this article informative, please consider donating below:

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Related posts:

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In order to deliver a complete wedding photography product, you’re going to need lenses that allow you to capture each of these aspects with artistry and creativity. In a perfect world, we’d have the finances and manpower to haul every available lens to the venue; but in reality, we’re limited to a handful of accessible, high-quality, and versatile lenses.

Here is a subjective list of 6 must have lenses for any given wedding. It should be noted that we, the authors of this article, have a bias for shooting wide open (low apertures) in most situations. Also, we list Canon lenses, as the authors of this article shoot with 5D Mark II’s, but each lens listed should have an equivalent for every other brand name DSLR producer.

1. 70-200mm f/2.8L Zoom Lens

This is my favorite lenses. It creates a beautiful bokeh (blur) at f2.8, and the compression you get when you’re zoomed in from 150-200mm gives your image a look that’s hard to achieve with any other lens. It also allows you to get in close on the moment without disrupting the moment, such as the following image:

It also allows you to capture candids, from the tears at a wedding ceremony (pictured below) to the laughs at a wedding reception.

2. 50mm f1.4 Lens

This is another one of my favorite lenses. It can save the day when the light starts to drop and allow you to bring out the backgrounds. It also, makes you less reliant on your flash, creating a softer, more natural look for your subjects, as illustrated in the following outdoor dance floor picture.

The 50mm also allows you to create stunning portraits, as the low aperture creates the shallow depth of field that makes your subject pop off the page and softens your subject’s skin.

3. 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

This is a critical lens for smaller spaces. For example, a tea ceremony in a Chinese wedding is commonly held in a living room. The 70-200 would be too close for this situation, and the 50mm would not provide enough versatility, as you typically don’t have too much room for movement.

4. 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

If your bride and groom are spending thousands of dollars on the details of a wedding, they are sure to appreciate you capturing the event in detail. With the 100mm Macro, you can capture detailed shots with the same quality and detail as product advertisements in magazines. Add in your touch of lighting and creativity, and you get ring shots like the one below.

5. 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye (Note: This is for full-frame sensors. For crop frame, research 8mm or 10mm fisheyes)

The fisheye is important for capturing the moment with a unique perspective. This perspective pulls everything from the edges into the center and creates a surreal, ultra-wide view of a venue or ceremony site, as pictured below.

Using the fisheye to capture dance floor shoots at a reception or, for example, an Indian Baraat (as pictured below) creates a interesting and exciting image, as the distortion on the edges focuses your attention on the subjects in the middle, yet the composition of the frame still allows you to see the smiles and emotion of the crowd.

6. 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens

Sometimes the 24-70mm lens just isn’t wide enough to capture everything you want. The ultra wide angle helps you capture your surroundings, such as this shot of our wedding party in the streets of San Francisco.

Venue and landscape shots are also a great addition to your wedding day coverage, as it sets the scene for the day and allows you to take full advantage of amazing scenery.

Honorable Mentions:
1. 85mm f1.2L II USM
This is a great lens, but not a necessity if you’re happy with the results from your 70-200mm.
2. 24-105mm f/4 L Lens
The major advantage of this lens is its versatility. But, as stated before, we are partial to lower apertures, and sometimes the f/4 just isn’t fast enough, nor does it create our desired bokeh.

I hope you enjoyed this article, if so, please share the love and feel free to comment and add additional insight below!

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers

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If you’ve found this article informative, please consider donating below:

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We’re proud and excited to announce the new SLR Lounge Photographer Wordpress blog theme. With the thousands of blog themes out there, why would we feel the need to create another one? There simply isn’t much out there that met all of our needs as a photography studio running a photography blog. So we decided to create our own photography blog theme and put in some awesome features and a sleek design, ideal for any type of photographer. Best part, our photography blog theme is professional and free!

Cost: Freeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Download: Sign up above to download the photography blog theme (recommended) or click here for the direct link
Standard Example: Click Here
Customized Live Example: Click Here
Installation Tutorial: Click Here

Custom Installation + Installation Help: Don’t have time to set up your photography blog theme? Our team of designers would love to help you customize and set up your blog. The cost will depend on your desired level of customization, with rates starting at $200. Email contact@slrlounge.com with an explanation of your needs.

Here are just some of the key features:

1. Single column with large images – We’ve taken out the sidebar so you and your fans can focus on the display of large, stunning images. I mean shouldn’t a photography blog theme focus primarily on your photography!?

2. Sleek Typography – We’ve utilized a typography with style & consistency.

3. Widgetized Footer - Typical Wordpress themes have a widgetized sidebar, taking up precious room on the side of your page. Instead, we’ve moved the widgets to the bottom of the page, allowing your viewers to navigate your page based on tags, recent comments, recent posts, and any other widgets you chose to install.

4. Twitter & Social Bookmarking - We all know the importance of social bookmarking for spreading awareness of your studio and establishing a stronger relationship with our fans. These features allow you to connect via the most popular communities by displaying your most recent Tweets and linking to RSS Feeds, facebook, and Stumble-upon. You can also customize these buttons to link to any site. So all you photography socialites need look no further for a photography blog theme that will enhance your social image!

5. Drop Down Menus – These menus are important for the overall navigation of your site; and they are easily customizable.

6. Simple, Reliable Commenting System – If you’ve experienced the frustrations of the inconsistencies associated with AJAX, you’ll appreciate this simple, intuitive, and reliable commenting system.

7. Borders – This subtle design feature makes your content pop off the page.

8. Tutorials – Although we will not be able to address every question, we’ll provide a vast array of resources to help you implement your photography blog theme, including Adobe Illustrator template files for creating your banner and your background and Wordpress installation instructions. We’re constantly working on these resources; and they can be found by clicking here

So what are you waiting for? Click Here to download

Related posts:

1. Installation of Your SLR Lounge Photography Theme
2. Service Review – Soft Tofu 2.1 Wordpress Blog Theme by Tofurious
3. Install Wordpress with Blue Host

1. Post-produce EVERY image– There are surprisingly a lot of studios out there that only post produce a few select images from each event. Make sure you finish your art by post producing all of your images, not only in your portfolio and blog, but also the images in proof books, slideshows, albums, etc. To draw on a popular analogy, a photographer showing non-post produced images is like a chef serving raw food. The ingredients are there, but it’s just not finished. Post production doesn’t have to involve extensive Photoshop work, simple color correction and contrast, exposure, and other adjustments are all that some images need to stand out. If it’s the time it takes that’s keeping you skeptical, software like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom will help speed up your workflow.

2. Register Your Business Online – Registering your business on photography directories, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Google Maps, and other online resources is important, not only as a means of advertising your services, but also as a way to legitimize your business. Most non-business owners don’t understand the ease of registration, and therefore a business on these directories appear very legitimate, a prerequisite to appearing high-end.

3. Remove Compressed Images Online – Facebook, Myspace, and other online communities and websites are great ways to market your studio and establish a following. However, use links to your blog and website rather than directly uploading to these sites, as the compression of file sizes results in a average-to-low quality display. To go back to the food analogy used in the first point, presenting images in low quality format is like a chef serving food cold. The essentials and the idea are there, but the product isn’t living up to its fullest potential.

4. Upgrade the Blog – First off, if you don’t have a blog, consider starting one for reasons beyond this article. Secondly, make sure you’re using an impressive, custom blog to maximize the effectiveness of the presentation. For example, if you’re using standard displays for Blogger or Wordpress, consider downloading and customizing a theme that displays your images in a large format, displayed over a custom background with custom fonts and colors. It takes a bit of time to set up and learn to use these custom blogs, but the time and effort pay off when you’re able to update your fans and clients with your work, presented with the look and feel of your brand.

5. Remove Low-end Images – Any images that appear anything other than high-end should be removed from the public eye. To subscribe to this point, you may have to remove some great shots with your portfolio, but it’s important to remember, anything that appears low-budget can damage the perceived cost of your services, and therefore affect the perceived value of your work.

6. Flash Portfolio – Consider upgrading to a Flash Portfolio, with a large display of your work, a smooth transition from image to image, and a nice song that matches the tone of your work. Photography these days is more than just the product, it’s about the entire experience. If you can get your client to feel the emotion in your images, you’re that much more likely to get the sale.

7. Clothing & Apparel – In our modern world of online shopping and email communication, it’s easy to overlook some traditional aspects of any client-serving industry. Appearing high-end in person is just as important as appearing high-end online, especially in such a referral-based industry. Be conscious of style, trends, and high-end fashion. Also consider buying sleek camera cases and bags, such as the Pelican cases and the Shootsac.

8. Use Official Company Documents – From Contracts to Product Catalogs, everything you send to your client should be presented with a professional, artistic, and branded approach. First off, the mere existence of these official documents adds credibility to your studio; and secondly, the branding and design of these documents can give your studio that high-end, consistent look.

9. Upgrade your Equipment – I realize some third party lenses perform just as well, or even better, than their official brand name counterparts. Furthermore, I believe strongly that a photographer should control his equipment, not the other way around. However, if your client happens to know a thing or two about photography, she may not want you shooting her wedding, corporate event, family portrait, etc with an entry level camera or third party lenses. In an industry where client perception is so important, making sure your client feels like she’s hiring the best photographer with the top-of-the-line equipment is a key to success. If you’re strapped for cash, consider renting your lenses, from anywhere from $15-$50.

10. Google Yourself – Many professional photographers these days have turned their hobby into their passion but have only gone knee deep by keeping their day job. These days, our online profiles are our personal brand, and we have to make sure we are delivering a consistent message. Furthermore, even if you’re part time, you never want to appear part time. For example, if the Google search results for Dave Spectrum return Dave Spectrum Real Estate and Dave Spectrum Photography, with clear relations between the two businesses, there may have problems. Other cases I’ve heard of are photographers being associated with political organizations, religious groups, and other institutions that may alienate certain demographics for their photography studios.

I hope you enjoyed this article, if so, please share the love and feel free to comment and add additional insight below!

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers

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If you’ve found this article informative, please consider donating below:

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Related posts:

1. Top 10 Ways to Market Your Photography Studio Online
2. Business – Marketing Your Photography Studio
3. Business – The “Long Tail” & Wedding Photography

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This week, we had the opportunity to interview our friend, Timothy Riley, a wedding photographer based out of Portland and Augusta, Maine. Besides being a great photographer, Timothy is an entrepreneur and innovator, as he came up with the brilliant idea of RPG Keys, a tool that dramatically increases the efficiency of photographers’ workflow around the world.

Check out his websites:
RPG Keys: RPG KEYS.

Portfolio: www.rileyphotographic.com

When were you established?

RPG KEYS = Oct 2008. Riley PhotoGraphic = 2000

What type of photographer are you? I.E. do you focus on weddings, commercial work, head shots, venues, food, portraits, seniors, or do you cover the whole gamut?

I shoot weddings to put food on the table, but I adore portrait work. The one-on-one time I get while shooting high school seniors and babies is the best part of my job. While weddings are great, it’s the ability to be creative in a portrait shoot that I love.

How would you define your photographic style?

Mixed! I am happy to be flexible and offer any style to make my clients happy. I realized about three years ago that it’s all about the client; make them happy, and you’re going to book five of their friends. So when it comes to style, I try to be flexible. But, when given the opportunity, I prefer to bring a bit of edgy fashion photography into my weddings.

How did you get started in photography? At what point did you decide to do this professionally?

I was shooting weddings while putting myself through graduate school (Masters degree in engineering & BS in Geology). Then, while working as an engineer, my boss told me I had to work 7 days a week for 6 to 8 months. I quit the next day. Now I work 8 days a week—EVERY WEEK—but I love my job and I get to spend time at home with my family.

Everyone says word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising, but that doesn’t really help new photographers getting into the industry. How would you recommend new photographers get those first few gigs to get them going?

Get out the flame thrower! I booked 10 weddings at my first bridal show. Shoot a friends wedding and display the images at a wedding show. A $500 investment could pay off big!

How long did it take you to get established and to the point where you were at least substituting your wages in Corporate America?

3+ years

If you had 60 seconds of advice to give a newly turned professional photographer, what would that advice be?

Keep your day job while turning pro. Put $4k in advertising the first year. Save all the revenue from your first year and put it in advertising in your second year. If you don’t advertise, your phone may never ring no matter how good you are. Even after 6 years, we still find that if we don’t put money into marketing, we will do fewer jobs the following year.

Where do you turn for photographic inspiration? Which photographer’s do you follow and admire?

Tough question… Our company is owned by two brothers. Me (Tim) and Chris Riley. Our styles are different and we seem to inspire each other to create new and exciting images. It might be a bit of competition from our younger years, but it still inspires us.

Obvious question, Canon or Nikon and is there a why?

Canon. When I got into photography Canon was a better system. Now it seems to be a 50/50 split and I already own the Canon equipment.

What do you enjoy most about your photography business?

I enjoy the business side of this line of work most. The challenge of keeping our revenue numbers above the previous year’s numbers is always a challenge. On the creative side of things I enjoy portrait work the most. If I could make a living only doing portraits, I would be a happier man. 

What do you least enjoy about your photography business?

Having just had my first child, I think the time away from home is the most tough. Travel sounds so fun, but after a while, it is hard to leave home for a weekend.

What is the biggest misconception in the photography industry in which you specialize (i.e. commercial, fashion, weddings, food, etc)

No clue.

Are you looking for assistants, second shooters, or shooting partners? If so, what are you looking for in said positions?

Always! We have just found a second shooter who is amazing and really fun to work with. I also have a super office manager who does my editing, but if I could hire a second manager for a month it sure would help us get some extra work done.

Do you make time for personal photographic work? If so, what do you enjoy photographing?

Not often enough. When I do have time, I enjoy landscape photography. I am about to try a new (new to me) process in which I will print a few images on canvas and then take a texture gel to the print with a brush. I have seen others do this with amazing results.

Second most obvious question, Mac or PC and why?

Both! PC first and now MAC. Owning RPG Keys requires that I have and use both platforms so I can offer the product to a wide audience and deliver tech support. The RPG KEY product was first designed for PC people and later for Mac users. (Shameless plug )….. Cut your editing time in half by trying the RPG KEYS for 30 days! If you don’t like it, send it back for a full refund. Many people have cut their editing time by 80%

Give us your favorite line or jokes you might use to make your clients feel at ease when in front of your lens.

At a wedding just before family formals… “Okay folks, I am the only thing between you and the bar… so play nice with me and you will all have an umbrella drink in your hand in 20 minutes”

Where can we find you on a Friday night at 9 p.m.

Spending time with my wife. She is the real secret to my success.

What online or offline learning resources do you use to continue your photographic education?
DWF (Digital Wedding Forum).

How many weddings/portrait sessions/or events do you shoot each year and where do your clients fit in the budget range?

Between my business partner and me, we normally do about 50 weddings and 200 portraits a year. However, the numbers are less this year due to the economy and the focus on RPG Keys.

Take us through the process of what you do to win over a potential client? How do you schmooze them?

I try to make a connection with each client. The moment we find something in common, I immediately see them relax a little. Then we spend most of the time talking about what they want and ways I can make sure they get it. My best advice is to leave the ego at the door and offer ways to make sure they get just what they want. Scheduling meetings over drinks also helps brides relax a little.

How do you differentiate yourself from other studios?

Personality. We actually advertize the fact that we have fun with our clients.

What do you tell people who are simply looking for budget “turn-and-burn” services?

We used to turn these people away. Now we offer to shoot their wedding on a non-peak date such as mid-week, on a Wednesday or Thursday. All of our clients see our price list well before we meet them, so price is not very often an issue.

What is one effective way you use to market and personalize your studio? (SEO, bridal shows, online pay per click advertising, print advertising, etc)

BRIDAL SHOWS! As a guy these are a little painful and expensive, but they work for us! If you are just getting into the biz and your prices are low, you can clean up at a bridal show.

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers

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If you’ve found this article informative, please consider donating below:

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Related posts:

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Welcome to Part Three of our three part series on our Photoshop Actions and Automation tutorial series. These tutorials will go through the following:

1) How to Create a Logo Watermark in Photoshop

2) How to Create a Photoshop Watermark Action

3) How to Automate Photoshop Actions in Lightroom (Current Article)

So without any further delay, let’s jump right in to Part Three of our series and finish the last step in fully automating our watermark process.

In Part One and Part Two of this tutorial series we taught you how to create a logo watermark in Photoshop and then create an action so it is a push button process. Well, now we are going to make it even easier. After learning this tutorial you will be able to export straight from Lightroom and have the images automatically stamped in Photoshop without you doing anything!

This process is done by creating Photoshop droplet and then importing and using that droplet as an export setting in Lightroom. Before you get started, make sure you have completed the Photoshop Watermark Action from Part Two of our series.

1) Select create droplet – First thing we are going to do is load up Photoshop and click File –> Automate –> Create Droplet from the main menu as shown below.

2) Adjust your droplet settings – Once the Create Droplet window pops up, start with a location to save your droplet file by clicking the Choose button under the Save Droplet In text. I choose the desktop since we are going to be dragging and dropping it to a new location shortly. Then, choose your action Set and the Action you would like to automate. For me, I saved the Logo Watermark Action to the Default Actions Set, so that is what I have selected. Make sure the rest is set to default as shown below then hit Enter. You should now have your droplet file saved to your desktop as a .exe file.

1) Open up Lightroom – Open up lightroom and pull up your Export Window by right clicking and exporting any image as shown below.

2) Find the After Export pull down menu – Scroll to the bottom of the Export Window where you see the Post-Processing option. If you click on the After Export pull down list, you wil see the option “Go to Export Actions Folder Now” as shown in the image below. Click on that option.

3) Open the actions folder – Once you have clicked the “Go to Export Actions Folder Now” it should bring up a window that displays the Export Actions folder as shown in the image below. Now, all you need to do is simply drag the droplet you created into the Export Actions folder.

4) Select your new droplet on export – At this point, you can go back into the Lightroom Export Window and click the same Post-Processing –> After Export pull down list and viola! You should see your newly imported droplet in the list.

5) Export with your droplet - When you select that droplet as your After Export option, it will automatically export your files and then run the Photoshop Action Droplet for you!

I hope you enjoyed this article, if so, please share the love and feel free to comment and add additional insight below!

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers

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If you’ve found this article informative, please consider donating below:

_______________________________________________________________________________

Related posts:

1. How to Create a Photoshop Watermark Action – Part 2 of 3
2. How to Create a Logo Watermark in Photoshop – Part 1 of 3
3. Post Production – Efficient Lightroom Workflow – Step by Step Instruction

Welcome to Part Two of our three part series on our Photoshop Actions and Automation tutorial series. These tutorials will go through the following:

1) How to Create a Logo Watermark in Photoshop

2) How to Create a Photoshop Watermark Action (Current Article)

3) How to Automate Photoshop Actions in Lightroom

So without any further delay, let’s jump right in to Part Two of our series and create our Photoshop Action of our watermark.

In Part One of this tutorial series we taught you how to create a logo watermark in Photoshop. However, as you may have noticed, the process is quite time consuming, especially when you do it for every blog entry. No worries though, we can create a Photoshop Action to automate the entire process to just one simple click!

Automating a process by creating an action is quite simple. However, there are a few extra steps you need to take in order to ensure that the action works consistently. So, for this tutorial we are going to use the How to Create a Logo Watermark in Photoshop tutorial and add a few steps to ensure that your action works consistently.

Starting a New Action

1) Starting a new action set - The first thing we want to do when we create a new action is to decide which Action Set the action will go in. An Action Set is simply a folder that you use to organize your different actions. To start a new Action Set click the Create New Set button as shown below in your Actions pane.

2) Start the new action recording – Actions are simple to make, an action simply is a recording of whatever you do in Photoshop. So, how do you create the action? Well, just like you create a cassette tape recording, hit record when you want it to record, and stop when you want it to stop. So, we are going to start the recording of our Action by clicking the Create a New Action button as shown below.

3) Name your action – Name your action based on what it does. I am going to call this action “Logo Watermark Action.” Once we hit the Record button, our action will be created and the recording will start.

Anytime the recording is active, you will see the red recording button illuminated at the bottom of the Action Pane as shown below. (Keep in mind that you can start and stop the recording anytime you want, simply select the Action that you wish to modify, and press the Record button, or hit stop when you want to pause)

Tips Before You Begin Recording

1) Start from the beginning – Once the recording is started, you can begin recording each step that you want to be contained in your action. Remember, when you want an action to work everytime, you need to do a little more than usual. We are going to first start with the image resize since not every image will be sized appropriately.

2) Record it perfeclty – When you record an action, you need to record it perfectly as it will record everything you do. If you mess up or duplicate a process or something, then your action will not work the way you want. This process can sometimes take a few tries. So, during the  process remember that if you duplicate a process or mess up, you can either hit stop and delete your last step and begin recording again; or you can delete the action and start over. It may take you a couple tries to get your action so that it is working consistently, but you should quickly get the hang of it.

Loading and Resizing The Image

1) Loading the image - Before you begin recording, first load your desired image into Photoshop. If you have already started recording, just hit the Stop Button, load your image, then hit record. You can either use your own image, or you can use the image in this tutorial by clicking here. Here is our starting image.

2) Resizing the image – Ok, your image is loaded now we are going to hit Record and begin resizing the image. We need to resize this image to a size that will fit our respective website. This size will vary for everyone, however for the Lin and Jirsa Photography Blog this size is set to 850px wide. This is what the recording button looks like when it is turned on.

3) Resizing settings - To resize the image, from the menu bar click Image –> Image Size and then set your size in pixels. Remember to also set the resolution to a screen resolution setting of 72 pixels/inch so that your files are not huge. Set the rest of the options as shown in the illustration below and hit OK.

Once you have completed the resize, you will notice that the image resize step now shows up as recorded under the Action that you are working on as shown below.

1) Changing the foreground and background colors – We need to add one step prior to creating the background bar, we need to set the colors. The difference from our previous tutorial is that in order to make sure the colors are set appropriately we are going to have to change the color first so that it registers it in the recording.

So, click the Foreground Color and set it to any color other than what it is current set to, then hit ok. Now, it should have registered the color change in your recording. Now, change the Foreground Color back to white and hit OK. Why did we do that? Well, because if you set your foreground color to white when it already is white, Photoshop does not record anything because nothing changed. So, we have to change the color, then change it back to register the change. You may also be wondering, “well, if white is already selected, why do I even need to do this step?” Well, because we want this action to work consistently regardless of the circumstances. The Photoshop Foreground and Background colors default to the previous documents settings. So, if you try to run the action after the color palette was changed, then the background box will use whatever Foreground Color is selected at the time. Make sense?

Ok, let’s keep going and do the same thing with the Background Color. Do the exact same thing as you did to change the foreground color, except this time you should change it back to its final color of Black rather than White as we did with the Foreground Color. At this point, you should see all 4 color changes registered and recorded in your action. See the picture below.

1) Drawing the background bar - From here until we place the logo, we are going to repeat what we did in Part One of this tutorial series. So, lets draw the background bar by selecting the Rectangle Tool (U).

Draw in a white rectangle across the bottom of the image as shown below. Size the height of the rectangle as you see fit, but make sure it covers the image from left to right. See the example below.

2) Adding a mask - All we need to do now to our bar is add a Radial Gradient Mask that will make the bar fade out from the center. To do so, on your Layers Palette, select the rectangle Shape layer that you just made and then click on the Add Layer Mask button as shown below.

3) Selecting the layer and tool – Now, with the mask layer selected in the Layers Palette, select the Gradient Tool (G) as shown below.

4) Choosing a radial gradient – Once you have selected the Gradient Tool we need to set the type of gradient to a Radial Gradient. This will make our gradient fade out from the center point. So, choose the Radial Gradient option in the top option bar as shown below.

5) Set your colors – You shouldn’t need to change the colors again, however if you want to be certain that the colors will always be set correctly at this point, then repeat the 1) Changing Foreground and Background Colors step above.

6) Draw the gradient – Now, proceed to draw the gradient from the center of our rectangular bar, and click and drag until you reach the edge of the image as shown below.

Once you release your mouse to set the gradient, this is what you should see.

1) Adding the logo – Now, since we are recording an action, we need to make sure our logo file comes from the same place every time. So, I would recommend that you create a folder somewhere on your computer or desktop that you will never change or move. Place your logo file in that folder and leave it! Now, place that logo into the file as shown in 2) Placing the logo file below. You can use your own logo, or if you would like to follow along with this tutorial you can download our logo by clicking here. Keep in mind that your logo needs to be a .png file with a transparent background. Here is our logo below.

2) Placing the logo file – Add the logo to the image by clicking File –> Place and select your logo file then hit Enter.

3) Moving the logo – You will notice two issues after the logo is added, the first being its size and the second being its placement. So, first, let’s move the logo into its approximate final position. Since the logo is already centered horizontally on the page, you want to make sure you hold down Shift as you left-click drag the logo down. Holding Shift will constrain its movement to make sure it goes straight down. After you have moved the logo, your image should look like this.

4) Using the transform box – Our logo is still too large, but you will notice that the Transform Bounding Box is still available since we haven’t finished placing our logo image. If you have already placed the image, simply press Ctrl + T to bring your transform box back.

5) Resizing the logo – To resize the image you are going to click one of the corners of the Transform box while holding Shift + Alt and then shrink it down to fit within the rectangular bar you created. The reason we hold Shift + Alt is because we want the resize to constrain to proportions (Shift) and we don’t want the image to move as we resize (Alt).

6) Making micro-adjustments – Once you have resized the image, you may need to make some small shifts up and down to make the logo image vertically centered on your rectangular bar. To do so, simply press Up and Down to shift it around. Once you are done, hit enter to finalize the Place function and viola, you are done! Here is our final image.

1) Final touches – For the final step in this action, we are going to save and close the file. Why? Because I want to be able to run this action repeatedly without having to do anything manually. So, I am going to have the action save the file, and then close the file so that I can go directly to the next image.

2) Saving the file - On your keyboard, hit Alt + Ctrl + Shift + S or simply go to the menu and click File –>  Save For Web & Devices. Now, I use the following settings on exporting web sized files, however, feel free to change the settings as you feel appropriate.

3) Choose a stable location – Click Save and save the image to a specific location that won’t change. For example, I have a specific folder on my Desktop called BLOGEXPORTS. This folder never changes, and this is where all of my images go after I run my Watermark Logo Action. You can choose whatever location you like, but keep in mind that the action will record the location and it will put all future images using this action in that same location.

4) Close the file – Hit Ctrl + W or click from the menu File –> Close in order to close the current file you are working in. Dismiss any popups asking you to save the file you are working on, you don’t need the PSD files.

5) Stop the action – We are done! So before doing anything else, hit the Stop Button on the action to make sure nothing else is recorded.

To make sure you did everything correctly, test your action by loading an image, selecting your action, and hitting the Play Button (next to the Record Button). If it all worked correctly, you should have your newly stamped image in your designated export folder!

I hope you enjoyed this article, if so, please share the love and feel free to comment and add additional insight below!

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers

_______________________________________________________________________________
If you’ve found this article informative, please consider donating below:

_______________________________________________________________________________

Related posts:

1. How to Create a Logo Watermark in Photoshop – Part 1 of 3
2. How to Automate Photoshop Actions in Lightroom Using Droplets – Part 3 of 3
3. Post Production – How to Apply Textures to Images Using Photoshop

Welcome to Part One of three on our Photoshop Actions tutorial series. These tutorials will go through the following:

1) How to Create a Logo Watermark in Photoshop (Current Article)

2) How to Create a Photoshop Watermark Action

3) How to Automate Photoshop Actions in Lightroom

So without any further delay, let’s jump right in to Part One of our series and create our watermark.

Watermarking your images is one of the best things you can do to improve the brand recognition of your photography product. Watermarking not only prevents your images from being used without copyright approval, it also allows your brand to be seen anytime someone views your images.

If you already have a watermark design for your images, then go ahead and skip to Part Two of this series where you can learn how to turn your watermark into an action. For everyone else, here is a step by step tutorial on how to create the Lin and Jirsa Photography watermark bar in Photoshop.

1) Loading the image - First, load your desired image into Photoshop. You can either use your own image, or you can use the image in this tutorial by clicking here. Here is our starting image.

2) Resizing the image – We need to resize this image to a size that will fit our respective website. This size will vary for everyone, however for the Lin and Jirsa Photography Blog this size is set to 850px wide.

3) Resizing settings - To resize the image, from the menu bar click Image –> Image Size and then set your size in pixels. Remember to also set the resolution to a screen resolution setting of 72 pixels/inch so that your files are not huge. Set the rest of the options as shown in the illustration below and hit OK.

1) Drawing the background bar - Now that our image is appropriately sized, let’s continue by drawing the background bar. To do so, set your foreground color to white and select the Rectangle Tool (U).

Draw in a white rectangle across the bottom of the image as shown below. Size the height of the rectangle as you see fit, but make sure it covers the image from left to right. See the example below.

2) Adding a mask - All we need to do now to our bar is add a Radial Gradient Mask that will make the bar fade out from the center. To do so, on your Layers Palette, select the rectangle Shape layer that you just made and then click on the Add Layer Mask button as shown below.

3) Selecting the layer and tool – Now, with the mask layer selected in the Layers Palette, select the Gradient Tool (G) as shown below.

4) Choosing a radial gradient – Once you have selected the Gradient Tool we need to set the type of gradient to a Radial Gradient. This will make our gradient fade out from the center point. So, choose the Radial Gradient option in the top option bar as shown below.

5) Set your colors – Make sure that your Foreground Color is set to white, and your Background Color is set to black as illustrated.

6) Draw the gradient – Now, proceed to draw the gradient from the center of our rectangular bar, and click and drag until you reach the edge of the image as shown below.

Once you release your mouse to set the gradient, this is what you should see.

1) Adding the logo – Our final step is to simply add your logo to the image. You can use your own logo, or if you would like to follow along with this tutorial you can download our logo by clicking here. Keep in mind that your logo needs to be a .png file with a transparent background. Here is our logo below.

2) Placing the logo file – Add the logo to the image by clicking File –> Place and select your logo file then hit Enter.

3) Moving the logo – You will notice two issues after the logo is added, the first being its size and the second being its placement. So, first, let’s move the logo into its approximate final position. Since the logo is already centered horizontally on the page, you want to make sure you hold down Shift as you left-click drag the logo down. Holding Shift will constrain its movement to make sure it goes straight down. After you have moved the logo, your image should look like this.

4) Using the transform box – Our logo is still too large, but you will notice that the Transform Bounding Box is still available since we haven’t finished placing our logo image. If you have already placed the image, simply press Ctrl + T to bring your transform box back.

5) Resizing the logo – To resize the image you are going to click one of the corners of the Transform box while holding Shift + Alt and then shrink it down to fit within the rectangular bar you created. The reason we hold Shift + Alt is because we want the resize to constrain to proportions (Shift) and we don’t want the image to move as we resize (Alt).

6) Making micro-adjustments – Once you have resized the image, you may need to make some small shifts up and down to make the logo image vertically centered on your rectangular bar. To do so, simply press Up and Down to shift it around. Once you are done, hit enter to finalize the Place function and viola, you are done! Here is our final image.

This process is quite time consuming if you were to do it on say 10 image for a blog post. So, in our next article, we are going to teach you how to automate the entire process to a single click of a button! Click here to read our article on How to Create a Photoshop Watermark Action.

Feel free to add your thoughts and insight to the comments below. If this article has been useful, please spread the love!

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers

_______________________________________________________________________________
If you’ve found this article informative, please consider donating below:

_______________________________________________________________________________

Related posts:

1. How to Create a Photoshop Watermark Action – Part 2 of 3
2. How to Automate Photoshop Actions in Lightroom Using Droplets – Part 3 of 3
3. Post Production – How to Apply Textures to Images Using Photoshop

Welcome to part two of our landing page tutorials and templates. Hopefully, most of you will have read part one “The Photo Stack” – A One Button SEO Ready Landing Page CSS Template as it is a primer to this guide. To see a preview of this landing page, click here.

Each template guide (Part 1, 2 and 3) is organized into two main parts. The first portion is a simple customization and installation guide that will get you up and running in less than 1 hour. The second portion will go into more depth and detail regarding CSS for those of you that are interested in learning a bit more. Keep in tuned as Part 3 will not only include a 3 button design along with a text area, but will also include an advanced editing section solely on SEO preparation.

For those of you wanting to learn more about CSS and SEO, we highly recommend that you read Part 1 “The Photo Stack” as this article will build upon previously discussed topics.

So, without further adieu, let’s jump right in to steps 1 – 5 which are the customization and installation of the landing page.

The first thing you will want to do is download the files for the Photo Stack landing page by clicking here.

The files are organized into the following:

/design_files – These are the files used in the design process. We used Adobe Illustrator to create the layout, and thus we have included the .AI file in case any of you want to take the editing one step further and customize the design further. There is also a screenshot so you can quickly see the template design without loading it in the browser.

NOTE – there are no files in the /design_files folder that are actually used by the website. So you don’t need to upload it when uploading your website to your server.

/images – These are the image files that are used by the website code. You will need to upload these to your server when you have finished customizing your site.

index.html – This is the actual landing page itself. It contains all of the content of the page. It is named index.html because it is going to be the first page viewed when a user types in your website URL.

splashcss.css – This is a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) file that is used to stylize the index.html page. It basically defines the look, placement and location of elements, colors, etc inside of the index.html file.

Before you can upload your landing page, we need to customize it so it is for your studio rather than for Lin and Jirsa Photography! Don’t worry though, we are going to walk you through each step, and once you finish you are going to revel in your new HTML editing skills!

i. Open the index.html for editing – You can open the index.html file in any standard text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad, or a code editor such as Adobe Dreamweaver. If you do open the file in Notepad or Wordpad, just make sure that you don’t change the file extension (.html) when you save the file. It should always read index.html

ii. Understanding the web page structure – To avoid repeating previously discussed material, please see Part One to get an understanding of the web page structure.

iii. Customizing the <head> section - There are three areas you are going to customize in the <head> of the document. Each are marked in the index.html file by comments. Comments are descriptions and explanations in the code that are marked so they are not displayed by the browser. HTML comments are denoted by anything that goes within the <!– and –>. The three areas you will edit are discussed below:

Title (Line 10) – The <title> tag is a short piece of text that will be displayed on top of the browser window and is the most important tag within the <head> of your document for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). So you want to make sure it is brief, descriptive and under 70 characters in total length. To edit this section, simply place your title text in between the <title> </title> tags. An example could be “Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography and Engagement Photography.”

Meta Description (Line 13) – Yet another tag for SEO, the <meta name=”description”> tag is mainly used by search engines as the little bit of text copy that describes your site. For example, in Google, if you typed in Lin and Jirsa Photography, the text description that shows up below each search result is pulled from the meta description tag when declared. So, it is important that this section contain a brief little summary of your studio and services. Google only reads the first 150 characters, so we advise you keep it under 150 characters in length. To edit this section, simply place your text between the ” ” marks after content =

Meta Keywords (Line 16) – While not as important today for SEO as it was in the past, the <meta name=”keywords”> tag is used by search engines to categorize what your site is all about. Today, search engines such as google place much more emphasis on your site <title> along with the actual content contained in your site in order to properly categorize and index your website. In this section, you want to place about 10 keywords or less that describe your website and studio services. For example, “wedding photography” , “wedding photojournalism”, etc. Remember, less is more. If you exceed 10 keywords, search engines may ding you for “spamming” keywords. To edit this section, simply place your keyword text between the ” ” marks after the content =

Ok, good news, you are almost half way there already! We just finished the <head> of the document, and now we just need to edit a little of the <body> of the document and then we are done!

iv. Customizing the <body> section – The only thing we need to change in the <body> of the document is the URL link that will point to your site, but we are going to need to change it in 4 places. If you desire, you can also change the text portion of the links as you go through this portion to fit your site better.

Line 63 <a href> – <a href> is an HTML tag that stands for an Anchor Hypertext Reference, or otherwise known as a link/URL (yeah, seriously, why didn’t they just call it a link to begin with?). Currently, all of the links point to a dummy location which is http://www.YOURSITEGOESHERE.com. I wrote it that way so that it would stand out =). So, as most of you have guessed by now, you want to place the link of the site that you want this portal page to link. To do so, simply replace the http://www.YOURSITEGOESHERE.com with wherever you want it to link.

Line 73 – Same change as above, this time it applies to the second button.

Line 81 – Same change as on Line 73, this time it applies to the text “PORTFOLIO.” Once you finish editing the HTML link you can also edit the text to better fit your site. Simply change the text in between the <a> </a> to whatever you deem appropriate.

Line 88 – Same change as on Line 81, this time it applies to the text “THE BLOG.” Once you finish editing the HTML link you can also edit the text to better fit your site. Simply change the text in between the <a> </a> to whatever you deem appropriate.

Now, all of your links should be pointing to the right location.

OPTIONAL – On each of our landing pages we included a tiny link in the footer that gives SLRLounge and Lin and Jirsa Photography a little bit of link love. We mention it here because we don’t want to seem sneaky by hiding things from you. The link text is very small and virtually unnoticable, so we ask that you keep the link on the site. However, if you must remove the link, then we ask that you add the following code snippet to any one of your sites. You can do it in a blog entry, or on a remote resource page somewhere on your site, it really doesn’t matter. This will help us to keep providing you with these free, professional tutorials and resources for free. Here is the link code:

<a href=”http://www.slrlounge.com” target=”_blank” description=”Wedding photography tutorials, tips and resources”>Photography Tutorials, Tips and More at SLRLounge</a> a website by <a href=”http://www.linandjirsa.com” target=”_blank” description=”Los Angeles Wedding Photography”>Lin and Jirsa Los Angeles Wedding Photography</a>

Great job! We are now done editing our HTML and the only thing we have left to do is customize the images and change the colors if you desire.

v. Customizing the Button and Logo Images - Obviously you don’t want to use our pictures and logo for your site, so here is how to change it. Be warned, this is so easy that it might just confuse you.

Replacing the Logo – To replace the logo, simply create your logo and size it to 180×54 (180 pixels wide by 54 pixels tall). Save the file as logo.png and replace the current logo.png file contained in the /images folder. Viola! Now your logo is on the site.

NOTE – If you save the logo file as a .jpg you will need to change the code on line 78 to read images/logo.jpg rather than images/logo.png. Otherwise your image will not be displayed.

Replacing the Button Images – There are two images for each button. The image defaults to a light black and white version of the image and then switches to a nice color version when the mouse is moved over the button. So, in order to replace the images we need to change both of them.

To replace the black and white version of the first button, simply create a light black and white version of whatever image you like and size it to 100×100 (100 pixels wide by 100 pixels tall). Save the file as “front-picture-image-bw-light.jpg” and replace the current version of the “button-one-image-bw-light.jpg” file with your new one!

Next, take your same design file and make it a color version with the same 100×100 dimensions and save it as “button-one-image.jpg” and replace the old file with your new one.

Do the same steps with the second button images named “button-two-image.jpg” and “button-two-image-bw-light.jpg” and replace the current files with your new ones.

vi. Customizing the Background Colors – There are two main background colors on the site, to change them, simply open the stylesheet.css file and do the following:

Changing the <body> background color – Most of the CSS attributes that you may want to change will be placed at the top of the document. To change the background color of the <body> of the document, simply replace the hexadecimal color value on line 46 with the color of your choice.

Changing the rectangle background color – If you are going to change the <body> background color, you probably want to go ahead and change the background color of the #rectangle_area container as well so that it matches your new color scheme. To do so,  simply replace the hexadecimal color value on line 52 with the color of your choice.

Step 4 -Revel in Your Awesomeness

That’s right, you just customized your own landing page by editing HTML! You can preview it by double clicking on the index.html or loading it into your preferred browser.

Now that we are done customizing, all you need to do now is upload the site! If you are unfamiliar with this process, keep reading.

i. Connect to Your Site - Connect to your site by using your browser web admin panel, or using an FTP software. If you need FTP software, we recommend using FileZilla as it is quite reliable, and best of all FREE! You can download it by going to Downloads.com or by clicking here. Your FTP connection information can be found in your server’s control panel, or by calling your hosting company.

ii. Upload the Files - After you have connected to your site, simply upload everything but the /design_files folder to the servers root directory. Usually, the root directory will be the default directory that your FTP will connect to. Make sure that you keep the file structure the same though. The images need to be within the /images folder and the index.html and splashcss.css file need to both be in the root directory.

iii. Check Your Homepage – If everything went well, then you are live! Go check out your site by typing in the URL to your homepage.

No explanation neeeded here, you should all know what this dance is since we did it in Part One.

OK, so for all of you interested in getting a little more into CSS, this section is for you. Now remember, we are building on what we discussed in Part One, so make sure you are caught up before reading on.

In Part One we discussed the basics of CSS and how it applies to HTML tags, so let’s get a little more advanced and start to discuss placement and positioning of CSS elements in Simple Green. While there is a lot about CSS that we haven’t discussed, knowing some CSS attributes and positioning along with HTML tag organization will give you a good basic foundation and help you get started creating custom sites of your own.

The first step in writing out the CSS to a newly designed webpage is to block out the major elements in the page. Now, we aren’t going to go over every item in the CSS file, but we are going to cover all the major elements. The illustration below will show you the major block elements of our Simply Green landing page. For a larger version, please download the Simply Green files and look in the design_files/ directory.

Each design is separated into major block pieces. The easiest way to block out a design is to start with the largest element and work your way down. So, let’s start from the top with the body of the document.

i. The <body> – The body of our page is going to contain the entire site. Therefore, it makes sense that the body of the site fills the entire browser window. So, we have set the following attributes in the our Simply Green CSS file on line 66.

body {

width:100%;

height:100%;

}

Setting the width and height both to 100% will allow the body element to fill the entire browser window. In addition, any additional attributes (such as the background-color set on line 46) that we set in the body element will apply through every child element contained within.

ii. The #page_area – The next thing we are going to define is the #page_area of our document. This is the element we will use to define the general area of the page, mainly the width and height of the actual page content as shown below (line 77 of the stylesheet.css file)

#page_area {

margin:auto;

width:480px;

height:100%;

}

Setting the margin to auto will ensure that the #page_area element will be centered within the body element. In addition, since the body element is set to 100% width, the #page_area will always stay centered regardless of the size of the window.

iii. The #content_area – Within the #page_area parent element is the #content_area child element. Now remember, the terms “parent” and “child” are only relative. While #page_area is the parent of all the elements within, it is still the child of the body element.

The #content_area element is going to contain our portal area content. Therefore, we are going to need to define the size, as well as give it a background as shown below (line 88 in the stylesheet.css)

body {

width:100%;

height:100%;

}

#content_area {

width:480px;

height:200px;

display:block;

background-image:url(images/content-background.png);

position:relative;

float:left;

}

There are a few attributes shown here that we haven’t discussed yet. I will give a brief explanation here, but I encourage you to read each item in more detail at W3Schools.

display:block; – Setting the display to block simply means that the browser will treat this element as a block element meaning any elements afterwards will be displayed below, rather than on the same line. It is similar to saying “I want a hard return after this line of text” forcing the next element down onto the next line.

background-image:url(images/content-background.png); - I wanted to have a nice little rectangular button area with rounded corners and a drop shadow as shown below:

So, I needed to use an actual image for the background since there is no way (presently) to create that look with CSS alone. So, the background-image attribute simply assigns a background image to the element. However, remember that the background will only be revealed to the extent of the content within. Meaning, if you asign a background to an element without a set height and width, the background will only be shown to the extent that the content within fills the element (this will make more sense when you start practicing with the background-image attribute).

position: relative; – Setting the position to relative means that its positioning will be in relation to whatever element it is contained within. It simply makes custom and unique positioning more simple and customizable. Using relative positioning allows you to use floats, which are described next.

float: left; - Once you have set the position to relative, you can use floats to position an element in a specific spot within the element. Floating an object left, means that it will be left-aligned to whatever object is directly in front of it.

iv. #rectangle_area – Now, because I wanted to have a rectangle with a different color inside of the #content_area I created another element within called the #rectangle_area. To do so, we simply set the color and size of the element as shown below.

#rectangle_area {

margin:20px;

width:440px;

height:160px;

position:relative;

float:left;

background-color:#D8EFE0;

}

Hopefully, you are beginning to see the pattern here. We are simply defining each element according to our design. It is going to be the organzation of the HTML that will give our design form as you will see shortly.

v. Buttons and Logo Elements – The only other major elements in our design are going to be the positioning and sizing of the button and logo elements. Most everything will be the same as our previous elements, so I am only going to discuss the noteworthy portions below.

#portal_button_one {

position:relative;

float:left;

margin:20px 0px 0px 10px;

border:1px solid #fff;

}

#portal_button_two {

position:relative;

float:left;

margin:20px 0px 0px 0px;

border:1px solid #fff;

}

There are two noteworthy items in our button elements. Each are discussed below:

margin: 20px 0px 0px 10px; – The margin attribute is simply used to create a margin between it and its parent element. It is shown in both button elements in shorthand, each item defines the top right bottom and left margins in that specific order. So, for button one we specified that we wanted a 20px top margin, no right or bottom margins and a 10px left margin.

border:1px solid #fff; - The border attribute simply applies a border to the element. Again, it is shown here in short hand which specifies that we want the border to be 1px in thickness, styled as a solid line (as opposed to a broken or dotted line) and set to the color white (#fff).

#logo {

position:relative;

float:left;

height:90px;

margin-top:50px;

margin-left:10px;

}

The logo element uses attributes we have already discussed. It is worth noting the long hand margin attributes. The same attribute could have been set by using the shorthand version as such:

margin: 50px 0px 0px 10px;

While we have discussed how to define the CSS elements according to our design, you are probably noticing that we really didn’t define anything that has to do with the actual positioning of each element. Why? Because this step actually comes in the organization of the HTML code itself.

Now, remember that all we need to do with the HTML is simply place each child container in its parent container as shown in our blockout image. So, if we were to remove all the actual text and image content in the HTML file, this is what the organization of the containers within the body would look like. Just an FYI, I have removed all the containers that we haven’t discussed to keep it simple and straightforward.

<body>

<div id=”page_area”>

<div id=”content_area”>

<div id=”rectangle_area”>

<div id=”portal_button_one”>
</div>

<div id=”portal_button_two”>
</div>

<div id=”logo”>
</div>

<div id=”portal_button_one_text”>
</div>

<div id=”portal_button_two_text”>
</div>

</div>

</div>

</div>

</body>

Before analyzing this snippet of code, let’s talk a bit about what we are looking at. We discussed HTML tags in Part One as different elements that had a specific purpose, some are predefined, others are custom, however all of them can be styled with CSS.

You know that the <body> tag is simply the HTML tag telling the browser where our page content begins and ends. We stylized our <body> tag in our CSS to ensure that it fit the entire browser window.

Next, a <div></div> tag is simply a container in HTML. What does it contain? Anything you want! It can be text, an image, a script, anything really. Each <div> container is given an “id” which is assigned to the CSS attribute that defines its respective style.

So, let’s talk about the organization and how it all comes together.

Our highest level parent object is the <body> which is also the HTML tag that defines the content area, so it makes sense that it comes first. Next, we place our page_area container within the <body> because it is the first child element of the <body>. Within the page_area container, is the content_area container followed by the rectangle_area container. How does the browser know that these elements are contained within eachother? Well, its simple, because we didn’t end one container before starting the next.

We opened the body tag, then the page_area div, then the content_area div, then the rectangle_area div before closing anything. This means that each container is contained within the prior and each container has the styles and attributes applied to them as defined in our CSS file and assigned with the “id”.

Now, inside the rectangle_area div container is where our buttons and logo are actually placed. So, you will notice that the portal_button_one is started first. Inside, is the button image and content. Then, portal_button_one is closed and portal_button_two is started. These elements are placed right next to eachother since the CSS defines their positioning as floating left. This means that when button one ends, button two will be placed right next to it left aligned. Then, when the container for button two is closed, the logo is placed next to that.

From there, we begin to close each container begining with the last first. So, we close the rectangle_area div container, then the content_area, then page_area, and last the body. So, by organizing how our div containers are placed within one another, as well as assigning sizing and attributes in CSS we can flesh out an entire design and get it ready for the web!

Hopefully this all made sense, if not, read a bit more at W3Schools practice with some simple sites, and you should be up and sprinting in no time!

Those of you familiar with SEO will note that there isn’t all that much on the flash page to prepare for SEO! So, our final article, Part 3 of this template series will be a three button landing page with a heading and text area for you to keyword up. In addition, this tutorial concludes the CSS training portion of the template series. The final series will have an advanced section that teaches you strictly about preparing your landing page for SEO. So, stay tuned!

If you have any questions, or comments please list them below in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Website Tools – Part 1 of 3 – “The Photo Stack” – A One Button SEO Ready Landing Page CSS Template
2. How to Create a Photoshop Watermark Action – Part 2 of 3
3. Understanding SEO (That Search Thing) – A Basic Starting Point for Photographers

Build Links Over Time
Remember that spreadsheet I strongly suggested two seconds ago? Use that spreadsheet to document all of your links, dates, text used in the links, usernames and passwords, contact emails, etc. Plan out a link strategy before you begin the process so you can focus on critical links first and figure out your keywords relative to the site where the link will exist. Search engines value sites more that have a consistent stream of activity, whether it’s fresh content or links coming into the website. Space your links over time because it tells Google that you are not “spammy.” Guess what will happen if you get 50 links in one day, and then no new links for the next month. You may rank high for one day, then disappear into oblivion, or you may even get blacklisted (probably not, but I don’t risk it).
Submit to Easy Link Sources
Cherry-pick easy links from free website directories, local search sites, and business listings. It takes only a few minutes per listing and some appear at the top of search results and can outrank your existing site (like Google Local or Yelp). Be prepared to get contacted by some of these sites that want you to upgrade or buy advertising, so setup a unique email address for those listings. The amount that these listings help your search rank is not overwhelming, so take this into consideration and don’t spend huge chunks of time on this step.
Check PageRank Before Requesting a Link
Lots of people know about PageRank (PR), which is a Google indicator of how important a page is on a scale of 1-10 (you can see PR with Google Toolbar from toolbar.google.com). The point is that Google does not value all links equally and your task is to get links from pages that matter. A link to your site from New York Times (high page rank) is more valuable for your search optimization than a link from a friend’s blog. It is not worth any effort to be linked from a page that has zero PageRank. Typically this is because Google does not find the page valuable (and can sometimes devalue who it links to) and search engines rarely crawl those pages to even see the links and give your site credit. The problem I see most often is that photographers find a site with a high PageRank homepage, and think they are getting value from a link from deep inside this site. Remember it is the PAGE where your link will appear where you want to check the PageRank. It takes many links from PR 1 and 2 pages to start impacting your search rank, but only a few links from PR 5+ pages to see a noticeable change.
Link to Deep Pages
Search engines do not like controlled activity. Example: a photographer establishing a bunch new links in a short amount of time that all point to its homepage. In reality, the most popular sites will have real users linking to many different pages of the site, and not just the homepage. When building links, it is best to link to multiple pages to avoid being seen as spam-like activity. Impress Google by mimicking human nature and link to subpages of your site, like galleries or blogs.
Use Multiple Anchor Texts
Search engines look at the words in the hyperlink (called anchor text) to understand what the website will be about. It values these words more than the words that are on the site itself, because these words span many other websites and are less likely to be manipulated. It is very important to use highly searched keywords within the links that point to your website. For example my blog might have a link to my main website that says “San Diego Wedding Photographer” instead of “www.mydomain.com” because I want Google to know my site is about San Diego wedding photography. If you read the previous tip, you will understand that the normal process of linking would not produce the same anchor text in all of the links pointing to a site, so change your keywords slightly from link to link to “act natural.” This will also help you rank for similar keywords that users might be searching.
Build Profiles in Communities
Do a search to find forums and communities for photography or your specialty and start a profile. Put your website in your profile and in your signature (remember to use quality anchor text, and different anchor text in each forum). Every time you participate in the community with a post – your name will link to your profile (which will link to your site) and your signature will link to your site. All of these links; and you only have to set it up once. You will get great value from your new network at the same time.

For more tips from Zach Prez, Check out his e-book, Photographers SEO Book. It provides a step-by-step guide for improving your search rank. It provides a simple formula for finding your key phrase, an optimized splash page text example, plus a list of places where photographers can get free links.

Good luck and if you have any comments or additional ideas, please list them below!
______________________________________________________________________

Written by Zach Prez, author of Photographers SEO Book (Edited by Lin and Jirsa Photography)

Related posts:

1. Understanding SEO (That Search Thing) – A Basic Starting Point for Photographers
2. Optimize Your Images for Search Engines
3. Top 10 Ways to Market Your Photography Studio Online

For this entry, we asked our Photography SEO expert and friend, Zach Prez, author of Photographers SEO Book to share some insights on how to get started on SEO in the photography industry. Enjoy!

Search engine optimization can provide your website a constant stream of new photography clients. SEO for short, has been my home for many years, as I’ve helped many photographers improve the search engine ranks of their websites. This first post starts very general for beginners with simple background. I’ll explain a little about SEO, the two basic techniques (Yes, just 2… I told you I would make it simple), how search can help your business, and how to get started. Feel free to ask specific or more advanced questions at the SEO Q&A web page or check back for future posts.

SEO Defined: Search Engine Optimization is the process to improve your sites ranking and placement on popular search engines. SEO involves making minor adjustments to your website in an effort to appear higher in search engine results. I’m talking about the non-paid, sometimes called organic, links that appear down the middle of the search results page. The paid sponsored links that sometimes appear at the very top or right side of search results is a different subject called SEM (Search Engine Marketing or Google Ad Words). I use “search engines” and Google interchangeably. Google captures over 60% of the US searches, and if your site ranks high in Google it also typically rank high in the other major search engines. Do yourself a favor and focus solely on your rank in Google. To get there, learn a little bit about how it works.

Google’s ranking process uses an algorithm that is extremely complex and in many areas compeltely secret. Furthermore, it is always changing. But, the fundamental principles are commonly known. Two basic SEO techniques take advantage of these principles are 1) text on the page and 2) links to the page.

1) Text on the Page – Keywording Page Content

The goal of keywording your page content is to match your page text to what Google users might type into a search. Google returns the best results by looking at what a user typed into search, then finding web pages that use those same words. If you are a San Diego based commercial photographer, then placing the keyword term “San Diego Commercial Photographer” throughout your site content is key to being recognized as such by search engines. Google looks for words from the search phrase in a number of places on the web page including:

• The URL of your site (domain name)
• Your site title, description, and keywords (meta data)
• The text words on your site

So, now we know that when a user searches for something like “San Diego Commercial Photographer,” Google looks for web pages with that specific keyword content. This keyword comparison makes up the minority portion of the search engine ranking process. However, developing the appropriate keywords within your content should be the first thing you approach when optimizing your site for search engines.

2) Building Backlinks – Quality Links From Other Sites to Your Page

The ranking portion of Google’s process looks at the links (commonly referred to as “backlinks”) coming into your page from other websites. Google ranks sites higher that have lots of links pointing to it, since it figures that sites that have lots of external references must be of higher importance and value than those that don’t. Some factors that go into how well your site ranks include:

• The number of websites linking to your site
• The popularity and importance (otherwise known as Page Rank or PR) of the websites linking to your site
• The link text used in the link anchor tag itself

Building quality inbound links is defintely the more difficult and time consuming portion of our two basic steps to SEO. A few link ideas to help you get started include getting listed on partner websites, local websites, directories, etc.

The above is plenty for the average photography business, but by no means comprehensive or in depth. To give you an idea of a more ideal and complex search optimization strategy, take this social media illustration.

Add a blog and forum to your website, as well as Twitter page where you can promote and invite others to join, comment, and contribute. Interlink your sites appropriately in addition to writing articles or blogs for others websites (that link back to yours). Put buttons on your pages that make it easy for users to share and save your pages via social media bookmarking sites such as Digg, Stumble Upon, Delicious and more. Post your well-tagged photos and videos to multiple sources. Assuming you did the right keyword research ahead of time, all of these activities create web pages with many different content types that are rich in keywords and lots of backlinks – all the things that search engines love.

Before you get heavily into improving your sites SEO, it is important to go into it with the right expectations. SEO is a long process and in the best of circumstances can take anywhere from 12-18 months to begin yielding solid results if your industry is already full of online competitors (which photography is). In addition, if you want to yield results in a 12-18 month period, expect to spend a good month preparing your website content, and around 10-20 hours each week thereafter doing activities to seek out quality inbound links. Obviously, the amount of time that you put into this area will directly impact the amount of time it will take you to get onto Google’s first page of organic search results for your respective keyword.

Because SEO is such a time consuming process, this area of the business is often outsources to companies that specialize in this area. However, regardless of what you hear, never believe anyone telling you they can “Guarantee your site on the first page of Google’s organic search results within 6 months.” Any SEO professional will tell you that they can never gaurantee a specific deadline or time when your site will appear in the first page of organic search results. In fact, many keywords are nigh impossible to obtain a high enough search engine ranking to appear on Google’s first page of organic search results. It all depends on the industry, and how competitive are your targetted keywords. In general, the more broad your search term, the more difficult it will be to capture a high search ranking.

The very first search result gets 25% of the clicks! Search is such a competitive space that I would not expect any measure of search engine referrals without a top 10 Google rank. There are too many sites to rank in the top 10 without effort, so at least a minimal amount of optimization is mandatory if you expect users to find you, because they certainly aren’t picking up the yellow pages! Optimize your photography website once for search engines, and expect to spend time maintaining your search engine position for a long time. Imagine the value of promotion the first page of Google search results provides. Tens, if not hundreds or thousands of searchers are exposed to those free listings. Consider what your competition pays for banner ads, paid ads, or event booths. True, these can have ROI, but rarely do they offer the residual client stream that a high search rank will continue to provide. Your website link will appear long after you have completed the search engine optimization process – free advertising. Consider how much time, effort, and money you’ve invested in your website. Don’t let it become a billboard in the dessert. Invest a percentage of your time or budget toward website promotion so that your beautiful website can be found. In my case, I spend about 10 times more energy promoting my website than on the site itself. Many times you win a new client from the promotion alone (or search result title, as it were).

Get Started with SEO The best thing you can do is start simple, check your results, then build from there. Focus on developing one important phrase that you want to be found for in search engines, then experiment with some of the basic optimization techniques to see if you can improve your rank for that phrase. For example, use that phrase in text on your homepage and then after a week or two see if it made an impact on your Google rank. Then begin building quality links back to your site and check again to see what impact that has made. In some cases you may have a photography niche or a location that does not have a lot of search competition and your optimization efforts will quickly be fulfilled. Sometimes phrases too competitive to rank for and you may have to settle for something more unique, or in a less populated location.

If you’re looking for additional information, you can check out Photographers SEO Book. It provides a simple formula for finding your key phrase, an optimized splash page text example, plus a list of places where photographers can get free links – everything you need to get started without a heavy investment.

Good luck and if you have any comments or additional ideas, please list them below!

_______________________________________________________________________

Written by Zach Prez, author of Photographers SEO Book

Related posts:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Backlinks!
2. Optimize Your Images for Search Engines
3. Top 10 Ways to Market Your Photography Studio Online

Search engines work mainly off of text and links.  Because of this, search engines have a hard time reading images.  They can do it, but not effectively in all cases.  There are things you can do, however, to help your images show up on the search engines.

Why would I want my Images on the Search Engines? Of the hundreds of millions of searches that are done online each day, about 15% are exclusively for images.  Think about that.  If you are a painter, photographer, or other image based artist, your work could potentially be seen by hundreds, or thousands of people each day if you know what you’re doing.  Copyright issues aside, you want your images to show up where people are looking, so you can attract more customers, gain notoriety, and make more money!

Name your files – Most people save their images with file names like “photo1235.jpg.”  When they upload the file to their website, whether it be a blog, Flickr, Etsy, Imagekind, or other site, the image file shows up as “www.site.com/photo1235.jpg,” which doesn’t tell the search engine anything about the photo.  Name the file with descriptive text.  If you are a wedding photographer, try something like “John_Smith_Wedding_Banquet_Hall_Name.jpg” and you will find your file being read and understood by the search engines.

Use Alternative (Alt) Text – Most sites with a visual editor, like Flickr, Wordpress, or Imagekind, allow you to plug Alt text into your photo.  If you know what keywords you want to show up for online, then this is the place to plug those keywords.  Again, similar to the file naming, you might try Alt=”Los Angeles Wedding Photography Bride & Groom Photo”  Limit your description to 50 characters.

Talk about the images on your page – Search engines will often pull information on images from the text around the image.  If you are posting an image, make sure you talk about it a little bit.  For example, you might post a photo of a wedding dress on your blog, and in the blog post put a paragraph describing who wore the dress, who designed it, and how you shot it.

Bigger & Better is better – Larger images rank better than thumbnails.  Google claims that they can check the quality of focus and exposure in photographs and scanned images.  In other words, better quality work is recognized by Google.  Remember to balance your file sizes.  Larger images may rank better, but a slow load time will kill your rankings.

Color, size, and type filters - The search engines are getting smart.  If you are selling prints or other products with your images, this is especially important.  Make sure you use color (R,G,B, etc) and size specifications (600×400, 150×150, etc) in your image descriptions (on page and alt/file names).

Have a social media presence – Sites like Flickr, Picassa, Imagekind, FolioTwist, Facebook, and Myspace are huge sources of traffic by themselves.  People search for images there.  Pick one or two of these sites according to your style & genre and create a presence there.  Make sure your social media pages point back to your main website so you can let people know you are a professional.

Leave questions or success stories related to image optimizing in the comments below.  Have a great day!

Cory Huff works for a search engine marketing firm in Portland, Oregon and also runs the website TheAbundantArtist.com where he teaches artists of all kinds how to sell art online.

Cory Huff
801-809-0237
Follow me on Twitter: http://Twitter.com/agoodhusband
How artists can make more money: http://TheAbundantArtist.com

Related posts:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Backlinks!
2. Understanding SEO (That Search Thing) – A Basic Starting Point for Photographers
3. Top 10 Ways to Market Your Photography Studio Online

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!

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. 

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.

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

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!

If you guys have any other comments, resources, ideas, etc, share them below in the comments section.

By: Lin and Jirsa Wedding Photography, Los Angeles and Orange County Wedding Photographers
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