Gettin’ in on the Action!

With one click of your mouse, you can completely change the mood of your photograph! All of the presets available in the store can give your photo that extra little something you thought it needed but don’t have the time to do yourself. The photo below is one of my favorite baby photos that I’ve taken to date using a couple of my favorite props….a basket from Target and a rug from TJ Maxx!! It’s amazing how one image can look so different with little to no effort. Need to boost the contrast? Simple! Want a little less Lens Vignetting? Done!! It’s so easy to customize each preset yourself for each individual photo!

So be sure to check out some of my favs in the store…..

Andie’s Road Trip Lightroom Presets (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these!)

Holly’s Vintage Lightroom Presets (I can’t get enough of that vintage feel lately and these are perfect for that!)

Holly’s Senior Lightoom Preset (great for those that want to see what presets are all about and a steal at only $1.99!)

And while we’re on the topic of Lightroom, why not subscribe to the forums here at Pink Ink and see what others are saying about Lightroom…….time saver or waste of time?!

Friday – PayPal Glitches

On Friday, PayPal appeared to be doing some maintenance that affected purchases. You may have had a purchase show up as FAILED. Please note that your order did not fail. We went in and manually verified all of these order statuses and have pushed them through on Sunday if the money was actually indeed received through our account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Baby Goods

In keeping with the theme this month – I’ve added a few new baby items to the store.

TO visit my store or to see the new products I’ve added, click here.

Senior Contest Winners!

Wow! We were OVERWHELMED with the entries and EXCITED at the same time. Talk about outside the box and serious inspiration for other photographers! You guys rock!

If you want to see all the images, please click here to view them in our new gallery (subscribers may upload and post comments in the gallery). Or, click here to view the slideshow images.

Winners – you will be contacted within 24 hours to be notified of the prize redemption process. Thanks!

Lots of amazing images came in for our last month’s photo contest, Outside the Norm High School Seniors. Blow us away! We’re pleased to announce our winner, but first, be sure to see all of the entries here in our new online gallery.

Congrats to our first place winner, Here’s their lovely image!

Come meet Chasity Furse!!

Your Name: Chasity Furse
Where You Live: San Antonio baby!
Your Site Address or Blog Address:
www.studio423photo.com
www.studio423photo.com/blog

Type of Pictures You Take…portraits and weddings

Describe your style: I so hate this question. My style is constantly evolving and I don’t know that I’ve found anything definitive yet. I shoot what I like and how I see things through my lens. I naturally am drawn to a more edgy, contemporary style with a bit of candid familiarity to it.

Your Camera…
Canon EOS 5d

Your Favorite Camera Equipment…
I **heart** my ProLens Wear bag right now and of course my 5d ….i’m not very in love with any of my lenses right now….i should shop for more right?

If you could only use one lens what would it be?
Grrr. See above answer. My 24-70mm 2.8 is my go to lens right now but I’m jonesing for a new lens I can fall madly in love and spoon with all night.

Your detail shot lens?
The thrifty 50.

How do you stay motivated?
Are we suppose to be motivated? :p
No, I spend a lot of time online finding inspiration which is a huge motivator in and of itself. I also have a network of photographer friends that inspire me and help guide me with business decisions. I always have a sense of urgency to get to the next level so staying motivated is pretty self inflicted as well.

How long have you been a photographer?
For as long as I can remember but I just started getting paid for it a year ago.

If not a photographer, then….
A big fat lazy bum.

Favorite photography add-on product?
Blurb books.
Cute.
Inexpensive.
Effective.

Your go-to camera shop?
B&H or Adorama for my new stuff
If I’m shopping used DWF Classifieds or Ebay.

Standby pose (the one everyone tends to want from you)? (buller…buller…)

What makes your job so much easier? No matter how crazy or difficult a shoot is when I proof with clients and they are overwhelmed by their images everything becomes easy again.

Which album company do you recommend? Finao or KISS hands down

If you could choose anyone to do a photoshoot of you/your family, who would your choose?

That could quite possibly be one of the hardest questions ever! Well, if it was of my family I’d need a great portrait photographer…which doesn’t solve the issue at all that it’s still the hardest question ever…but I’d probably be thrilled with any of the following

Brianna Graham
Jessica Strickland
Nichole Vann
Jodie Otte
Jeff & Julia Woods

Kate Mefford
Kelly Moore
Jael DeYoung

Magazine Must Have..
Star, OK, People….oh, and um Rangefinder

Guilty Pleasure…
I will openly admit that I totally keep listening to the Jonas Brothers & Miley Cyrus AFTER I’ve already dropped the kids off at school.

My weakness is…
I’m don’t know how to say no. That’s why it’s 1am and I’m still working on this interview.

My strength is…
I don’t know how to say no.

What Do You Do When You First Wake Up?
Hit the snooze and go back to sleep.

When It Rains…
You should carry and umbrella and wear your cutest wellies.

Who Do You Love?
Jesus

Favorite Pink Ink Product… Ok, well here’s the 2nd hardest question.
Probably my very fave is Holly’s Photographer’s Assistant. They were the first actions I ever purchased and I still use at least one of them on almost every single photo I edit….usually the trusty de-fog.
I also love the business & marketing sets that are available now. They rock.

Do You Read Your Horoscope? Never

Blog Addiction… Blogs are like my crack. There are so many I read that I can’t even keep up with them on a daily basis usually. A couple faves are:

Shutter Sisters
Becker-a rockstar genius
Jessica Strickland – for photographers

And I’ve always been a huge fan of 3191

Tattoos…
Just one. It hurt like a sonofa and it’s unfinished at that.

MAC or PC…
PC but a bright shiney apple is in my future

80′s Music…
bleck – long live Nirvana & Pearl Jam

What’s on your iPod?
Lil’ bit of everything

The Doors
The Beatles
Nirvana
Bush
Fiona Apple
Fuel
Foo Fighters
The Supremes
Norah Jones
Amy Winehouse
The eels

Morning or Night?
Definitely night

My friends say…
I don’t know, they usually talk about me behind my back.

Travel Dreams…
Greece
Venice
Poland
I’d also really like to see the Giant Ball of Twine…I’ve heard it’s amazing.

On my day off…
I’ll let you know when I finally get one.

One of your top 100 to do before you die?
Take a vacation alone.

Favorite homemade meal?
Greek pasta with mizithra cheese

May/June Photo Contest

Tomorrow we’ll announce our High School Senior photo contest winners, but wanted to get this up and posted for you to get working on this coming contest!

Beautiful newborns make our hearts melt. So, we want to see your beautiful newborns this month for our contest!

Prizes include:
1st place – A Cocoon by Marta Lockler!, $100 gift certificate to Pink Ink store and a 3-month membership to our subscriber area

2nd place – Nichole Van Actions gift certificate, $50 gift certificate to Pink Ink store and a 1-month membership to our subscriber area

3rd place – Free Portrait Party Start Pack from Holly McCaig, 1 month membership to our subscriber area

You have until June 10th to submit your photos to us at blogmixer@pinkinkstudios.com. One photo per person please. Image should NOT be full-sized – this should be what you would post on your blog and please watermark your images. Include your studio name in your email to us. There is no need to use Pink Ink Studio products in your photo and photo does not have to be new.
Winners and photos announced via our blog on June 15th, 2008.

Making Myspace work for senior photography

Using Myspace as a marketing tool can be a great asset to your senior photography business.  Most teenagers have a myspace or a Facebook.  So why not create one for yourself?  Go to www.myspace.com

and create a new account.  If you’re not web savvy, there are 1000′s of templates out there to use for free.  I am currently using one from LoveMyFlash http://www.lovemyflash.com/.  Also, add some cool music by going here: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music. Once you have your template set up, add photographer friends.  Then start adding seniors and their albums.  When you have an album published, send them the link and have them tag the photo.  This is a great way to have all of their friends see their senior pictures and who took them.  Voila!  Instant marketing.

Post bulletins as often as possible to keep your name out there.  It can be posts of specials, promotions, etc.

Another way to use Myspace in your marketing is to include in your packages a myspace sized photo.  Add your logo and again instant marketing.

I hope you all have enjoyed senior month!  There have been great posts here on the blog and great senior materials added to the store.  I just added this one today.

Behind the photo::Audra Little

Audra, of Audra Little Photography, has been busy shooting senior portraits this spring. Here’s her “story behind the photo” from a recent shoot.

Where were the shots taken? These were all taken at a place called Westgate, which is a
big new shopping area in Glendale, AZ.

What camera settings did you use? Aperture priority mode.. usually set at 2.8. I believe I
used ISO 400.

What gear (camera, lens etc) did you use? Nikon D3, Nikkor 85mm 1.4 lens (the perfect combo!!)

What was your lighting set-up? (or time of day,
direction of windows, etc.) Since we were there about noon.. the sun was very harsh. I opted for all shaded areas. I used natural light.. no flash needed with the D3

Why did you compose the shot as you did? We were having fun and I loved the background of the doors. At first she had her arms up and spread out and then she just put them on her hips.. I thought it showed her great attitude.

What post production work have you done on the shot? I always use Holly’s defog action and simple color pop. On one of the photos I used Holly vintage presets for lightroom. (Click to find these amazing actions and presets in the store. Some are also on sale until May 15…see the store homepage for more info)

What were you hoping to achieve with the shot? I just wanted some great shots that would show her
personality.

What do you love about the shot? I really love the background and the bright colors that come through.

What background or story was there when taking the shot (or before or after)?
The background is actually at an entrance to bar. The funny part is that we were asked if I was a
professional photographer because they don’t allow photos taken there. I told them I was a family friend snapping some photos.. they told me my camera was “pretty big” and I told them it was a “pretty big hobby!”. I did promise not to put any signs in the photos. I kept my word

*And the photos below were taken of Audra at another one of her recent senior shoots. Thanks to our very own Holly McCaig for providing these photos*

Thanks Audra and Holly!!

Before and After

Well, here is another addition of “Before and After”. This was a recent wedding I shot. The SOOC image is ok, but really could use some brightening.

The first thing I used was Levels to expose for skin tones.

Then I used the Dodge tool to brighten their eyes a little bit. I also used the Dodge tool on the dress, flowers, etc. Really use it to taste.

Then I used Curves to give it a little more pop. When using curves, also use this to “taste”. It can give a slight contrast boost, or a heavy one. I prefer just a subtle boost.

I didn’t like how you could see the tips of his fingers on her arm, so I took those out too.

I smoothed their skin a tad as well. I sized it for my blog and then sharpened it as the last step.

I hope these before and after posts are helpful. Sometimes it’s nice to see how someone else’s pictures come out of the camera, and then see how they edit them.

This was taken on a Canon 5D with the 50mm 1.2 lens @ 1.2.

Until next time!

xoxo

Melissa

Senior Contest

We’re so thrilled over this month’s contest entries! High School seniors (outside the norm) was our focus! A winner will be announced including 2nd and 3rd place prizes in our 15th newsletter. Be sure you’re subscribed!

Coming soon – you will be able to see these photos in detail in our new online gallery!

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