A Personal Touch

Long before I officially entered the realm of professional photography, I was into anything crafty.  If it was available at the local craft store, chances are I’ve at least dabbled in it once.  One of those hobbies that I had long ago was making my own greeting cards with rubber stamps.  I have shelving in my garage with my once well used supplies that are now covered in dust.  It was while browsing Etsy a couple of weeks ago with a search for “custom stamps” that I came upon Meagan’s store, Brown Pigeon.  To say that I was blown away by her custom stamps was an understatement.  But when I saw that she offered custom stamps which I loved because they’re all hand carved, a light went off in my head…….a custom stamp for my photography business.  I know, I know…..I’m not the first.  But when you find a great person to work with that will give you that authentic handmade quality you’re after in a product, Meagan is the one to go to.  I sent her my logo and within a few days, she had sent me a proof of what she had hand-carved.  To put it simply, I love it and I think it’s a great, yet small investment (only $35 plus shipping for my custom stamp-prices vary depending on size, amount of letters, etc.) to make my packaging stand out…..

(photo from my point and shoot since my camera’s sensors are being cleaned this week)

I plan on using my stamp on my chocolate boxes from DNL Photo Packaging, my kraft paper gift bags from Bags & Bows and maybe even make some thank you cards to throw into each box to add a personal handwritten thank you note!  If you’re interested in working with Meagan, be sure to head over to her Etsy store by clicking on her shop header below……she’s super quick and great to work with!

If you know of another great vendor that makes handmade products that other photographers can use, why not let us know so we can share with everyone!!!

Increasing your Sales

While surfing the web and checking out the latest news from Alltop photography today, I found this article which lists 7 clever ways photographers use coupons to increase sales from Photoshelter.com….

1) One-Day Discounts on a Special Theme
Sara Wolfram is a wedding and portrait photographer based in California. As soon as the coupon feature was announced, she set up her first promotion.

“I launched a special “Valentine’s Day Discount” for all my family photography clients, to help motivate the slower buyers that I’ve been waiting on for orders,” she said. “It was so easy – I didn’t have to worry about configuring anything in the PayPal/shopping cart area, I just filled in a few blanks in the Coupon area and… Voila! I sold $375 in photos in one day! I love it.”

2) As part of a follow-up “Thank You” campaign
Kevin N. Murphy, a portrait photographer in Seattle, jumped on the coupon feature as soon as he learned it was available.

“I emailed a client a 10% off coupon as a ‘Thank you’ because they had gotten in touch with me that day about their pictures,” he said. “Within an hour of emailing them the coupon code they had placed a $100 order!”

Murphy said that he had shot their portraits over a year ago but the customer never finished with the ordering process.

“I don’t think there was really any problem, but in a family with two kids something had always interrupted them,” he said. “The coupon was just the nudge they needed to complete their order.”

3) Reconnecting with long-inactive customers
Scott Indermaur is a freelance photographer in New England, and is often hired to shoot several events each year, yet these events rarely produce print sales from the participants. He used a coupon to change that.

“I sent out a coupon to about 100 people [via email] and I had and made a sale,” he said.

The coupon he created was good for 20% off and the customer said that she wanted to use the coupon again with another order next week.

“The images she wants are from 5 years ago and are not live,” he said. “So, I will make 2 older events live and extend her coupon (or issue a new one) for a week so she can purchase more.”

“I’m sure this sale would not of happened if it wasn’t for the coupon,” he said.

4) Making promo cards more “valuable”
Karsten Moran is a commercial and editorial photographer in New York City. For the past three years, he has been shooting the Trek Across Maine, a fundraiser for the American Lung Association of New England. This year, he plans to work coupons into the mix.

“I am planning on handing out coupons on the backs of Moo cards this year as an incentive and attention-getter,” he said. “I expect (hopefully) that the coupons will give potential print buyers an extra reason to hold on to the cards.”

5) Quick and easy one-off discount tool
“If I have a customer I want to give a discount to, for whatever reason, I can now deal with that online with a special coupon for them instead of over the phone,” Indermaur said. “Therefore, taking less time.”

Moran says that he uses coupons for this reason as well.

“I used it to provide a discounted reprint to a client,” Moran said. “It was convenient, and allowed me to reduce the cost of a single purchase, without reducing the retail value of my product.”

6) Pushing “pending sales” to complete the process

Joel Strickland is a commercial and automotive photographer in Melbourne, Australia. He saw the coupon feature as a way to convert those “Pending Sales” into completed orders. Within a week of the coupon feature’s availability, he created his first one.

“I sent a message out to all pending sales in my shopping card for a special offer for 50% price reduction,” he said. “I converted one sale through to a final sale, and I am hoping to use them more and more in the coming months.”

7) Incentive to build a mailing list
Adrian Young is a documentary and editorial photographer in Bangkok, Thailand. Part of his marketing efforts involve maintaining a mailing list. It can be a challenge to get people to sign up to receive emails, so providing incentives can help increase sign-up percentages.

“I have only had the coupon in place a couple of weeks now,” said Young, “Though no sales yet with the coupon, it has helped me see a rise in people signing up for the email list.”

Source- http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/03/7-really-clever-ways-photographers-are-using-coupo.html   Article written by Grover Sanschagrin

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Certainly something to think about until the temperatures rise and photographers in colder climates can photograph outside again!!

Photoshop Tip {Layers}

My tip for today may seem pretty simple, and really, it is, but it’s not something that I caught onto for quite a while.  Working in layers.  It’s one of the best things you can do for yourself whether you’re a photographer or graphic designer (like me).  Every change you make to the photo you are editing could be forgotten after a few more changes; I often found myself coming up with a great effect on a photo only to have no clue what any of my settings were.  Or even accidentally saving over my original because I didn’t duplicate that layer or better yet, duplicate the image!

Here are some instances where  I find layers so important – and I’d love to hear more!

*Skin smoothing (this one’s a must so you can mask out what you do NOT want smoothed)

*Color Balance

*Adjustment Layers (since I found these I haven’t used the flyout menu options for Levels, Curves, etc!)

*Working on eyes (I always leave this layer separate until I save a final copy)

What we mean by “Fonts Not Included”

I often wonder if people misinterpret what we mean when we say “Fonts Not Included” in our product files.

Simply put, this means, that we do not actually attach the font file to the product you are downloading. Fonts are protected under copyright. In most cases, you may already have the fonts that we use in some of our templates. In other cases, you may not. We try to do our best to list the ones we’ve used.

So, we actually LEAVE the words typed up there, if it’s something you can change, on the file. It just may state something like: Fonts Missing and lists them – when you open the actual file. If you have the font, great! It works just fine as if you are looking at our sample. If you don’t, it will ask you to replace it.

We tend to purchase fun fonts from companies like veer.com, and myfonts.com – but you can also do a Google search for the fonts we have listed in the product to see if it’s one we have found online, free to download.

So, don’t get discouraged! We just have a serious font addiction and between all us designers, we own so many. We also respect the font designer’s copyrights by NOT redistributing them. Besides, we know you’ll LOVE the fonts we use, so why wouldn’t you want to own them too?

The Magic Hours

Check out these amazing photos that showcase the wonderful light hours after and before the sun rises…..simply stunning!  Check them out here on the Reuters page….

Magic Hour Slideshow

Need to know the best time to shoot in your area?  Why not head on over to this calender here that lets you calculate the sunrise/sunset….

Sunrise/Sunset Calender

How about an example of making the light work for you?!  I took this photo of a recent senior about an hour before sunset.  By picking a shady spot in the road, I was still able to capture her without any harsh sun in her face but still have that magical glow that an impending sunset gives off.  The corn behind her gave off a perfect golden glow that I was looking for and I was soooo happy I was finally able to get this shot…..

You can find info like this and so much more by heading on over to the forums at Pink Ink where people share a wealth of information photography and business related!

Photoshop Tutorial – Liquify Tool

Most of us at one time or another have used Photoshop. I use it on a daily basis. There are so many tools in PS that it can be overwhelming at times. One tool that I have been wanting to try was the liquify tool.

You can find Liquify under FILTER on the top menu bar of PS.

I have been intimidated to try Liquify, but found with a few tips its not so bad.

I started with this picture

While it’s a beautiful image to start with I wanted to make it even better. First I cloned out the part of the counter to the left of her using the clone stamp.

Then, I used Liquify on her back to make it a little more “smooth”  So, I selected Liquify from the toolbar when I had the image open. Sometimes it can take a few minutes to open depending on what size your image is, so be patient. After it was opened, I used a small brush on the parts of her body that I wanted to work on. The trick to the Liquify tool, is going slow and doing it in small increments. It did take a while but here is the end result

I do realize that I am NO expert with this tool, but I think it turned out o.k for one of my first attempts using it. If you have any tips on using the Liquify tool please leave a comment below.

Thanks everyone!!

-Melissa

Business Marketing tip

The number one marketing tip I have is to sell yourself. This works especially well for wedding photographers. A lot of us that are just starting out photographing weddings may not have the vast portfolio or confidence that is needed to book a lot of weddings in our area. That is where your business side and personality really need to come out. If the couple genuinely likes you, they will book you. I always ask the couple if they would like to meet for a consultation. This usually occurs at the coffee shop. Relaxed atmosphere, however, I always dress nice and never casual. I bring album samples and portfolios. All of my material is consistent and clean – and me! That is the second business/marketing tip: Be branded! Clean, consistent, organized material makes everyone feel comfortable and helps to recognize you. It shows you have it together. When all of this is in place you need to let your personality shine. Don’t push the big sale, just get to know them. Ask to see the ring, ask how he proposed, ask what other vendors they are working with. All of this builds a relationship and trust. Take the time to get to know your clients – whether it’s newborn portraiture or a wedding couple.

Business Marketing Tip

The number one marketing tip I have is to sell yourself. This works especially well for wedding photographers. A lot of us that are just starting out photographing weddings may not have the vast portfolio or confidence that is needed to book a lot of weddings in our area. That is where your business side and personality really need to come out. If the couple genuinely likes you, they will book you. I always ask the couple if they would like to meet for a consultation. This usually occurs at the coffee shop. Relaxed atmosphere, however, I always dress nice and never casual. I bring album samples and portfolios. All of my material is consistent and clean – and me! That is the second business/marketing tip: Be branded! Clean, consistent, organized material makes everyone feel comfortable and helps to recognize you. It shows you have it together. When all of this is in place you need to let your personality shine. Don’t push the big sale, just get to know them. Ask to see the ring, ask how he proposed, ask what other vendors they are working with. All of this builds a relationship and trust. Take the time to get to know your clients – whether it’s newborn portraiture or a wedding couple

Photoshop Tip

Quick Photoshop Tip

How-to create an action that will place your copyright as a watermark on your photos

Under the actions palette you will see a series of small icons. To create a group of actions, click on the fourth icon which looks like a folder. You can name this group anything you’d like (I call mine Traci’s Workflow to save all my actions). Then click on the fifth icon, the one that looks like a folded square. This will create the action and once you name this step the recording will begin (before you click on this, make sure you have an image open). Follow these steps to write your action:

1. Open your copyright/watermark file.

2. Using the move tool drag the watermark onto the image. Where ever you place the watermark layer is where the action will place it each time you run it.

3. Adjust the opacity of the watermark layer if needed.

If you want to save and close your image continue with:

4. Save your file with File-Save As (or if you’re lazy like me, ctrl-s) in a different location than your original file (DON’T overwrite your original!!)

5. Close the file with NO changes.

You can now use the Automate – Batch dialog to batch process your watermark onto your images if you choose.

Yay for workflow!

*This is written with the assumption that you have a copyright file ready for use as a watermark*

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