Adding Warmth To Images Using Photoshop Actions

Sometimes your daytime photos fail to capture the depth and warmth that you remember seeing in person.  This amazing photo by Amanda of Sparrow Memories Photography is full of personality.  What an adorable shot. Amanda sent me her before and after and felt that while she loved the original, it needed an extra something.  Admittedly, her favorite MCP Photoshop Actions set is Fusion. She uses at least some actions from Fusion on nearly every edit.

Here are her steps for this image – the Blueprint shows how she got from the before to the after using actions in the Fusion set (which works inside Photoshop and Elements).

If you prefer your photo not quite this warm, you could definitely dial back the Magic Markers and not do the last One Click Color, but Amanda loves rich color pop and this is how she achieved it.

Thank you, Sparrow Memories, for sharing your edit with us!  MCP Fans – when you edit your photos, come share your favorites on MCP Actions Facebook Page.  Yours could be selected for a future Blueprint.

The Ultimate Pinterest Guide for Photographers

What is Pinterest?

Chances are good that you’ve heard of Pinterest. You may be active on it already or you may just be beginning your own boards. If you don’t know what it is, from the Pinterest site’s about page: “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.” Pinterest is a social media and social networking platform – a mix between Facebook and Flickr, even though it’s really its own new thing.

You can ‘pin’ pictures from anywhere on the web to ‘boards’ you make for certain subjects. Right now there is no way to hide boards or block users, so be careful what you pin. If you’re brand new to Pinterest, check their help page for information on how to pin, repin or even install pinning buttons into your browser toolbar.

I myself have both personal boards and boards for professional use. My personal boards include boards for planning my wedding, what I want my wedding photos to look like, photos that I just love, clothes and style.. etc. I follow people on pinterest who use their boards for recipes, kids’ crafts, home decor.. even workout routines!

Pinterest for Photographers

Professionally, I’m using pinterest to not only gather ideas for other photos I want to shoot for my clients, but I also use it for pinning my own photos to put into the pinterest world.

My boards full of other people’s photos are for shot inspiration, product ideas to offer my clients, and prop ideas for things I want to buy or use in shots in the future. Then for marketing my own work, I have a personal favorites board I pin my own favorite photos, and a bragging board to repin my own photos that have been pinned by other users. I even follow someone who uses her boards to show off her wonderful packaging and another photographer who uses pinterest for picking out clothes for her clients and ‘styling’ their sessions for them. If you want to find your own photos being pinned, go to http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain info). You can also add a ‘pin it’ button to your website so pinners can get to your photos easily.

Make sure to “pin” some of your favorite MCP Posts. If you’d like to add a ‘pin it’ button, the instructions are here. Note: If you have a wordpress blog, you need to edit the theme files and put that code where you need it in the Main Index template. This can break your site if don’t wrong, so be sure you know what you’re doing beforehand!

What to do with all that information?

1. Make pin boards for shoots you want to do. Want a Harry Potter styled session that could be the envy of Style Me Pretty if it were a wedding? Pin anything you find from around the web to bring it all together in one place where you can see what doesn’t ‘fit’ before you buy it.
2. Make a bragging board for everything people have pinned from your website. Not only can your followers see what you’ve shot, but this gives you the opportunity to put up a monthly blog bragging post linking the photos that people have pinned. Clients will love seeing their kids are so popular.  You could even host a photo session giveaway and allow people to enter via pinning a certain photo from your website.
3. Make a board for products you offer with prices. Clients could add this to their boards around the holidays for things they’re wishing for.
4. Create a coupon picture, then pin that and publish to facebook while you’re doing it. Your clients can use that coupon as well as share it by repining it.
5. Make a how-to board for pinning photos or videos of your own shoots. You can talk about what inspired the shot, how you lit it, how you set it up.. etc. I’m waiting to do this until Pinterest makes a user-blocking feature so I can keep other local photographers from knowing all of what I do.
6. Market your own photos by pinning things from your own site. Make sure you include your domain URL in the description. Most people do not change the majority if pin descriptions when repinning, so your website will go far! If you’re a wedding or pet photographer, this is doubly important because those photos really get repined a LOT.

This article was written by Heather Lickliter of Stylized Portraiture and Fairyography – Heather lives in Athens, GA with her fiance’ (John) and manx cat (Stumpy).

The Danger of Comparing Yourself to Other Photographers

There I sat at the end of October feeling drained and useless.  Shoot, shoot, shoot… edit, edit, edit is all that seemed to be going through my head.  Lacking inspiration and feeling like something was missing I started browsing blogs and Facebook pages of other photographers.

While surfing, I’d found my remedy, “I just need to go vintage! I love looking at vintage photographs and I love the look of film photography.”  I put together a vintage style shoot and I was excited and inspired.  I came home from the shoot and started editing them.  Something felt wrong.  Those pictures weren’t me.

I was trying to feel better about myself by imitating looks I liked.  It didn’t work and I felt more discouraged.  After some late night soul searching, I realized I won’t ever feel good about my work by comparing it to other artists and photographers.

Here are 4 ways I came up with to be more confident about my photography while still pushing myself. Try them and let us know what works for you.

1. Set Goals.  Setting goals for yourself and your business gives you something to strive for.
2. Evaluate those goals.  Evaluating your goals every few months gives you the ability to see if you are progressing.
3. Base your progress of YOU not others.  Comparing your 2010 images to your 2011 images is a much better way to chart progress then comparing your photographs to Jane Doe Photography’s photos
4. Keep it real.  I don’t think newer photographers know their style right away. It is fine to get inspiration from the work of others, without actually copying.  Stick to what feel right and fits you rather than trying to duplicate every detail.

This article was written by Kristin Wilkerson, a Utah based photographer. You can find her on Facebook too.