Recent Sessions
Just wanted to make a quick post and share some photos from this weekend’s sessions!
Happy Monday! 
I’ve been more swamped than normal this winter. Usually winter is the slow time for photographers, but so far this winter has consisted of a whole lot of sixty degree days that are more like springtime. No complaints about that here!! However, there has been less time this year for mentoring, and even less for my photographer related Blog posts. On the agenda today – actions!
Disclaimer: I know that a lot of photographers use actions, and use them correctly for beautiful consistent images. If you’re one of those photographer, I’m not talking to you in this post. If you’re one of those photographers chances are 99.9% that you will agree with every word here.
Moving on – an action is a series of post processing steps that are saved into..well..and action. You open the image, hit play, and all of the steps are applied to the photo right in front of your eyes. Pretty cool right? Not always. Action makers often advertise that you can totally almost WIPE OUT your workflow time by purchasing their actions. Hit play and a finished image will appear before your eyes. I could explain to you why this is not true. I could tell you that most photographers, myself included, use only the actions they themselves have created and saved, and that they still tweak them for every single image. I could also explain to you that different parts of processing apply to different parts of the images so there is no way that an action can work with only the press of a button. I could tell you all of that and more, but the face remains that humans are a visual species, so I think that I will just show you instead. I know that we all remember the gorgeous Jen and Lenny -
This photo was processed either completely by hand, or with the action that I created out of my normal processing steps. I couldn’t tell you which because the results are identical. Even when I run my personal action I stop at every. single. step. and tweak to where it needs to be, sometimes eliminating a whole step in the process. Now for some “ready made, time saving, image creating” actions. The first is the popular vintage – I’m not a fan of vintage in most cases – and this will probably show you why.
The top image is the action ran just how most advertisements tell you too – hit play, watch it transform, and save. Not to attractive is it. I can guarantee you that my clients were not yellow in real life so why on earth would I want to make them that way?! In the bottom photo, I adjusted parts of the action, removed other parts from some areas, and all around fixed the image. It took me about as long as it would have by hand, except it cut down on how many places I would have to click on. You can see that they are now the correct color and that the image has a slight vintage feel without being overwhelming. Onto the second example.
How about that first image?! Alot of people just starting out think that the more contrast and saturation the better!! As you can see here that is simply not the case. In the second image, I again went in and adjusted all the different steps in the action, and removed a few again as well. Looks much better don’t you think? 
So many people that start out in photographer want to achieve Depth of Field in their portraits. Depth of field is that pretty background blur that draws the focus right to the subject of the images. This is done in camera, when shooting the image. It is not a post processing trick. Sometimes the photographer does is subtly, as in our example image, and sometimes they add more DOF as in the image below of the gorgeous Chelsea. 
There are several actions on the market that claim to give you the ability to add DOF in post processing. Some aren’t too shabby if used correctly, but they don’t even come close to matching the gorgeous blur created by the photographers skill with their camera. Regardless, they are out there and people will use them. Often the results turn out like the top image below.
You can see that in the first image, the whole picture looks out of focus. These kind of actions are not meant to be applied and left alone. In te second image I have used the action correctly and softened only the wall behind the subjects.
I may sound like I am slamming action makers – I am not. Most of them are photographers, and I love supporting other photographers in any ventures that they undertake. I don’t think they are intentionally misleading anyone at all. What I do think is that when they put the ads out there, they are aiming for their target market. Who is their target market? Season photographers that fully understand post processing and are just looking for a way to speed up the process a little, or a simple way to apply the occasional varied process to their photo. They WANT you to know what you’re doing before you buy. A good rule of thumb is that for any action you purchase, you should already know how to do the steps without it. If you already know how to do the steps then you will have a clear understanding in how to tweak them as needed. Action makers will appreciate that. After all they are running a business as well, and they sure don’t want photos that look like the befores in these examples representing it. Their business is to speed your workflow – not create it for you.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with actions by any means – but also don’t be afraid to really delve in and explore Photoshop. It’s amazing what you can learn by simply wondering what a feature does, and clicking on it to find out. That’s why they undo button is there – so put it to work. 
As always, thanks for reading along, and if you have any questions, drop me a line via the contact tab!!
It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged! I can’t wait to share some images with you soon, but today this post is all about some exciting changes! The first and most obvious is a little change in the menu bar up there. You will see that there is now a link for a “wedding site.” I love all of my portrait clients, and I love all of my wedding clients, but the relationship with each type of client is very different. Following this train of thought, I wondered why I would try to lump two very different relationships into one site. This blogsite will continue to be the main face and focus of my business, but now for brides who happen to drop by looking for more information on wedding, they can click right to that site and find what they’re looking for. Likewise my portrait clients can still have access to all the information and goodness they’re used to right here. A note for the wedding site - it is a flash site, so may not be viewable on all mobile devices. We’re working on that nifty HTML5 to rectify that for the apple users.
There will also be some exciting changes coming to the way we proof images! I can’t give all the details on that yet, but if you are one of the clients who is already booked for spring, you will be among the first to find out!!
I hope you all have a great Monday!
Who doesn’t love a styled session? I can’t think of a better way for the subjects personality and interests to come through in a photograph. I really hope to incorporate more of these in my work in the new year – they are one of my faves! Check out Chance and Haley’s picnic complete with authentic vintage picnic setup.
I hope you all have a wonderful week!!
I am in love with the amount of urban sessions I have been doing lately – they really are one of my favorite types of portraits. When Colleen (who also happens to be my cousin) wanted urban style photos on her trip home for Christmas, I was thrilled because this style really matches their personalities. Thankfully the day warmed up a bit so we didn’t freeze, we were able to convince the kiddos that photos taken in dirt could still be pretty, and Tate mastered the art of kneeling for a portrait.
I hope you guys love your sneak – I can’t wait to show you the rest!
How about them model poses?
I hope you all have a great week!
I’ve been busy with holiday sessions and orders, and I have been neglecting the part of my Blog dedicated to other photographers and the industry in general. I have, however, been keeping up with the questions and comments from the readers of that section. The example posts are by far the most popular, and so it seemed like a good day to post one.
Here is the finished version of the image we will be looking at.
This version is a fully processed image with an urban theme, which is the theme I get the most questions about. It also happens to be one of my favorites. Knowing how to manipulate and set your camera, and not relying on auto functions is key to any good image. We have discussed that a ton, so I won’t go into it again on this post. Here is that same image straight out of the camera. (SOOC for future reference)
I’ll bet there’s not nearly as much work done to it as you thought is there? I get tons of questions on how to create images in Photoshop. My reply is always the same - you don’t create an image in Photoshop, you create it with the camera. Just as a painter knows the right mix of paints, or a musician knows the right key and notes, a photographer must know how to read the light, and how to use both the light and the camera to create the image that they want. Photoshop is merely an enhancement tool. It can not correct and out of focus image. It can not enhance quality or detail that is not already there. Heres a side by side comparison.
Let’s also take a look at the Black and White conversions that everyone loves. I myself, even with a love of color, adore a good black and white. Lets see the difference between a normal everyday conversion (which is what basic photo software offers) and a correctly done, basic, professional black and white image. The one on the left is the greyscale conversion and the on the right is the professional black and white.
Quite a bit of difference huh? Black and white images were the first images ever captured, since color film wasn’t invented until long after black and white film. And images taken on true black and white film only have black, white, and a mix of the two. There is no gray option, and that is the goal to accomplish with digital black and whites as well. You can see the difference in Caleb’s face in the two images – the one of the left is a shade of gray, and the one on the right is a true mix of black and white.
Here is a quick recap!
I hope this helps, and if you have any questions leave them in the comments or drop me an email with the contact tab!
I <3 this girl! She’s smart, she’s beautiful, and she’s fun. Anndd…she helps me play practical jokes . OH, and she dances like she doesn’t have a care in the world. Enjoy the sneak!!
I hope you all have a great week!!
Caleb is a trooper – for real. I drug him to all kinds of old buildings, through tons of mud, and made him sit in the weeds. Through it all he smiled, joked and had a good time. He also helped remind me why I love to shoot outside year round. Now – I’m looking forward to more winter sessions, including snow session – anyone game for that?
Enjoy the photos!!
How awesome are this boys’ eyes?!
I am madly in love with this wall. Really.
Happy Friday! I hope you all have a great weekend!!
When this time of year hits, I start to mix in studio sessions with outdoor. The only time we can really shoot outdoor now is during the day since the sun goes down at around 4:30 every day, so those options are limited. I enjoy getting out my studio stuff once in awhile and changing things up a bit, so I was glad to go to Wendy’s house and hang out with her, her daughters and her grandbabies. Aren’t they beautiful?! Here’s a quick sneak!
Happy Wednesday!!
I could spend most of this Blog telling you how much I love this family – and still wouldn’t be able to explain it. I’ve known them since I was tiny, so I was super excited to take Lizzy’s photos. She is one of the happiest babies I have photographed – even when she was exhausted she didn’t cause a stir. She simply went to sleep. And, as you will see….she was even cooperative while asleep!
Diane, Kayla, Melinda…I hope you love the sneak – I can’t wait to show you the rest!
Happy Cyber Monday everyone!!!