Related Posts

• 
  Sky Swap Tutorial/Edit

  Here is a video showing my thought process behind a sky swap set and how to work the action.

   If you are looking for the Sky Swap Set... you can find it HERE

  If you are looking for the Buy Everything Set for $99... you can find that HERE.  (know that if you click this link and it is a dead link, that means the sale is over). 

• 
  Create an Easy Watermark in Photoshop

   

   

  Watermarking your images in Photoshop can be important to keeping your work safe.  Here is a very fast tutorial on how to create a watermark in a about 2 minutes.  Don't forget to use the code   PUREROCKS to get 20% off your order!  Get your actions/presets HERE!

   

  
  Save
  Save
  Save
• 
  Selectively Sharpen in Photoshop ACR

  Make those macro shots pop, by selectively sharpening in Photoshop!

  Learn how by watching this quick video!!

   

• 
  How to photograph your Christmas Tree

  The holidays are coming and with them come a lot of photo ops. Want to take them up a notch? How about getting a little star burst on your Christmas tree lights or Menorah candles? This is a fun little trick that will give your holiday photos a little extra sparkle.

  It is important that you have a tripod for this, as we will be working with longer exposures. You will also need a camera where you can control the exposure, like a DSLR or a bridge point and shoot.

  Now, in a semi-dim room with candles or Christmas lights lit, position the tripod where you would like it. Now we fiddle with the exposure. My usual starting place is f/16, ISO 200, shutter speed 15 seconds--see why we need the tripod? I also will put my camera on a 2 second delay, so when I hit the shutter, it isn't affected by any movement of the camera when i push the button.

  (If you do not own a tripod, you can also set your camera on a table or s chair or the arm of a couch. Just make sure that wherever you place it, it will remain 100% still, and is also 100% safe!)

  The critical part here is the f/16. (Go higher if you want or can! Mine were shot at F22) You need to be able to close your aperture as tightly as it will go or very close. (Some lenses can close up to f/32, some only go to f/16. The point is to close it up tight.) Fiddle with your shutter speed and ISO to get the right balance of light, but keep your aperture closed. Depending on your camera, you may have to have a longer shutter speed, if your camera can not handle higher ISO's well. It is the high aperture that gets you the star burst, so this is pretty much non-negotiable.

  Another key point is to use the self-timer. Even if you have your camera on a tripod, when you hit the shutter button, there will be just a tiny bit of shake or movement. If you use the 2 second self timer, that allows you to press the shutter and move your hand away from the camera, so nothing is touching it while the camera is taking the picture.

  

  Below is a pull back shot of the tree lights, with the up close shot being above. (In this small size, the full shot won't have the same punch with the lights as it would in a larger image.)

  

  

  

  My settings for the image above. :)

  Using the technique above here are pictures from last Christmas

  

• 
  Why We're So Committed to Blogging

  Owned Content.

  If this is a term you're not familiar with, get to know it. 

  For the last 3 or 4 years, Facebook has made us all so complacent. We could post an image and get a ton of immediate positive feedback. It's pretty exciting and more than a little addictive. Back when we started our photography business, the way to reach clients and be found on the web was though a good website and a well-kept blog. But as Facebook crept in, the blog got more than a little neglected. 

  But little did we know that all of our hard work was only going into a black hole. We didn't keep control of it. It was not helping us move up in Google searches. It was not getting Pinned on Pinterest. A lot of photographers (most that we've spoken to) fell into this trap too. We blogged a little here and there, but mostly we just added our content to Facebook. 

  Good for Facebook, bad for us. 

  All of our lighting diagrams, and action recipes and posing ideas were just...gone. Poof. Well, not anymore. Now that Facebook has tightened it's algorithms (and before anyone says anything about it being free...it is not. We've paid long before now out of a sense of fairness), we are moving the equivalent of almost 4 years of thoughts and ideas to our blog. Slowly and surely we are planting our flag here. 

  Yeah, we'll post on Facebook and Google+, but amazing tutorials will live here. We have dedicated days and days to blogging and putting our most popular content here and we will be adding often. If you are looking for great info on getting started as a photographer, or on adding polish and professionalism to your workflow and in-camera work, check us out. 

  Thanks for stopping by.

• 
  White balance tool in RAW

  We mentioned using the white balance tool the other day when Crystal posted her delicious chicken recipe, and a lot of people asked about how to use the White Balance tool.  It is in different places in Adobe Camera RAW and Lightroom.

   

  ACR Location above

  Lightroom location below

  

   

  The use of both tools is exactly the same, but in this blog we will demonstrate it using Adobe Camera RAW for this tutorial.

  I shot this image of my chicken for our recipe tutorial on auto white balance and it is very orange, as often happens with indoor, tungsten-lit images.  I selected my white balance dropper and found an area that was neutral, in this case it was the white plate, and I clicked on that.  Done and done.

   

  

   

   Then the only thing I had left to do was increase the exposure a tad and lower the blacks a bit for some pop.  Often removing the reds of a very orange image will make the exposure seem darker, so be aware this can happen.

   

   
  For the image above, I found the most neutral area was the shadow on his white collar.  A quick click and correct color was restored.  The lovely part of this is that once I complete my edit for this image, I can then sync all of the edit WITH proper white balance for the same lighting and location.  It makes it very quick.  White balance is one of those things that moves an image from "snapshot" to "pro" very easily.

   

  

   

  Some things to note:

  I find the BEST areas to find neutrality (assuming I don't use a gray card shot--which I don't often have time for in a fast-paced wedding), is in the SHADOW of a white or gray item.  So within a fold of a shirt or crease of a dress.  The closer to 18% gray, the more accurate.  Blacks rarely work well for white balance, even though people consider black neutral.  Also, consider your whites.  Some wedding dresses have bluing added to the fabric to make it appear more brilliantly white.  Other dresses are more of a candlelight cream color.  If ALL else fails, you can use the white of an eyeball to get a ball park and add a little more yellow/magenta back, as needed.  Remember, once you get a good white balance for a particular lighting situation, you can often sync that setting to ALL of your images in that same scenario.  So taking a minute to get it right pays off.