I had a really interesting discussion with my best friend this evening. He is a CFO, an accountant and a marketing major. He had been involved in some big and small companies and management of sales and marketing is one of his specialties. I was discussing some marketing issues with him. One of our topics was mailing lists. I have been shopping for lists to increase volume and change the mix our client base.

There are several things to consider:

- selecting an income requirement from the list co- does the potential customer have enough disposable income to afford us;

- if they have enough income, does their background lead us to believe they would purchase our services- good example is we have friends and family that are not picture people and they far exceed our income search criteria- why is this important because maybe certains parts of your newly purchased database are not picture time people

- time of the year- if they are picture people and they have the income when are you marketing to them ? does your proposed clientele leave the city for the summer months or do they leave in the winter months, do their kids goto camp for most of the summer, etc ?

- how long would it take you to make your own lists - if you want to build quickly and you are building images and portfolio as well- should you refocus and pay a list company

- how many times can you mail from the list and what is the cost

- what guarantee do they provide on the list for return of mail and wrong addresses.

- what is the minimuim purchase

Here is a great link on mailing lists - link - check it out

Have a great hump day - more to come- we expect to have the video issue resolved shortly and start posting them here on SML.

Ron@SML

As photographers we are always looking for new actions. It has become a bit of a disease, we are always looking for before and awesome afters. There are so many out there.

I always like to purchase actions from those who operate high successful businesses in photography. Why, how many images can you sell with a photo turned into a Rubic’s cube. There is alot of cute artsy stuff out there- there is nothing wrong with these actions BUT don’t expect to sell images from them.

Another issue is what looks good on a monitor might print aweful.

If you are in the business of photography, see what the big players are using in your line- most will tell you what they are using. If you can’t find try and replicate the action your self- you might develop your own look in the process.

What do I use for actions- Kubota (big big fan) , Criag Minelli, Design Aglow, Vgallery, my own, and what ever catches my eye with the intent of creating a salable image and doing it consistently and easily every time. I have other actions that I use for my own personal work or for cutesy stuff for the kids in our family.

Before you shell out $ 100-$ 200, check the vendor out and see if other commercial photographers are using these actions.

Have a great Tuesday !

I am pleased to announce that the vgalleryhaven.net (Vicki and Jed Taufer) have come on board as advertisers and Jed & Vicki have offered to write some posts.

Please welcome them on board.  I am a huge fan of the Taufers.  You can catch them on Ed Pierce’s recent videos or take an in house studio session at the vgallery.  I recently listened to Vicki and Jed on a marathon press seminar- very cool.   Both are very open and they built their high successful business from the ground up.  There are an inspiration to all up and coming photographers.

The Taufers sell materials such as actions and templates and we hope to demonstrate the before and afters using these templates and actions.

Ron@SML

A lot of photographers are always trying to recreate the black and white images we recalled from our film days.  From channel mixer, desaturate, grey scale conversion, purchased photo shop actions, etc..  Well, I saw this cool blog post by Jeff Revell.  Jeff did a post on his blog and a video on the New Nik Silver Ex.  I have not used it yet but it looks awesome.  Here is the link .

For 190 US on amazon, it looks great.

Have a great Monday !

Window light is a great free lighting system. No strobes and no power !

Place the subject to the far side of the window, this allows the light to wrap around the face. You can also use a reflector on the opposite of the subject to bounce more light.

In order to meter, I place the meter at the subject’s face and point the flat disk of the incident meter toward the light source. The camera is then set to the meter reading. This assumes that you have calibrated your hand held meter with your camera.

If your house has a window, grab a friend and try window lighting- you will be pleased !!!

Here is a quick tip to correct your photos when they are overexposed.

Hey, it happens.

Here is a quick tip to correct an overexposed image.

1. Open the image in photoshop
2. Create a new layer (Command J- Mac or Control J- PC)
3. On the new layer change the Blend mode from Normal to Multiply
4. You should see the image darken up
5. If the image, still needs more darkening - repeat steps 2 and 3
6. Keep repeating step 5 as needed.
7. You can reduce the opacity of the last layer if you need for less darkening

BEFORE

AFTER

If you use Photoshop on regular basis you might be aware of one of these tips. Any time you can speed up your use of Photoshop, that’s great. That means you are spending more time Marketing, Shooting and Selling.

Here they are. If you are using a brush and you find it to be too big or too small, instead of going up to the menu (above) and adjusting it. You can use this short cut. If you select the right bracket key, it will increase the size of your brush. If your brush is too big, click on the left bracket key- this will make it smaller.

Another element of brushes, beyond their size, is the hardness or softness of the brush. Again, you can go to the menu(above) but that is sometimes too slow. Here is another key board short cut. If you want to make the brush harder, press the shift key and the right bracket key on your key board. If the brush is too hard, press the shift key and the left bracket key on your key board, the brush will become softer.

All of these tips save considerable time if you are editing alot of images (i.e. like a wedding, or large family shoot, commercial assignment).

Have you ever adjusted levels to change the exposure of your image only to find you created a color cast like reddish skin tones.  I saw this tip and I wanted to share on SML.

1. create a new levels adjustment layer

2. adjust levels as you like

3. *key step*- change the blend mode of that adjustment layer to luminosity  - this changes only exposure not colour in the image.

Have a great Thursday.  Please check our new advertiser Graphic Authority, tell them Ron@SML referred you.

Ron@SML

This week our photographer site of the week is Sallee Photography.  The photographers are JB Sallee and DeEtte Salle. Here is their link. 

Check out their promotional video- very cool.

I will be attending one of their tour events in July and will be doing a post on them.

Have a great hump day !

Ron @SML

For portraits, one of the very important elements is what our clients wear to the photo session.  Clothing can make or break the look of the portrait.  This why alot of portrait photographers have clothing consultations in the studio a week before the session.  Some photogs make them manditory or they will not photograph you.  Other photogs have PDF’s on their website to show the good and bad (i.e. wearing the wrong clothing).

Why is this so important.  The main reason is that after the session is complete and the clients views the images,  they will not like the images.  They will not know why.  So are you going to redo the session in the hope you will make a sellable print.

That is is why it pays to have a clothing consultation in person or as minimum by telephone and have the portrait session go smoothly.

Have a awesome Tuesday !

Ron@SML