Newsletter/Contest
June 20, 2008 by holly
Filed under Announcements
Hey gang! So sorry that this post for the contest winners didn’t get up. BUT, as always, it goes out in our mid-month newsletter, so our winners were announced in it when we sent that out on Monday. If you aren’t getting our newsletter the you should! Click on SUBSCRIBE to get notified here at Pink Ink. You can click here to read this month’s news that was out Monday.
You’ll see our winner and info on this month’s contest as well as our sale information for the month!
June/July Photo Contest
Stay tuned for our Beautiful Newborn winner shortly today!
BUT, we’re pleased to announce this month’s contest – and pretty much everyone can jump on this one for sure!
Show us your gorgeous travel-related or scenery related images. Show us the country!
First Place: you may choose from one of four MCP Actions “Tell a Storyboard” Action Sets, $100 gift certificate to Pink Ink store and a 3-month membership to our subscriber area.
Second Place: $50 gift certificate to Pink Ink store and a 3-month membership to our subscriber area.
Third Place: a 1-month membership to our subscriber area.
You have until July 10th to submit your images to blogmixer@pinkinkstudios.com. Please send web-saved versions. No large files please. One per person.
We’re always looking for more donations to this fun monthly contest. Sponsors are put in direct
communication with our winners for complete control. They also receive a three-month banner
ad placement all over our website as well as become a lifetime member to our private vendor services
area of our paid subscriber forums.
We’d LOVE to feature you too! If you would like further details, please contact us at
vendors@pinkinkstudios.com today!
The Mid-Month Press – FYI
June 13, 2008 by holly
Filed under Announcements
Since the 15th is on a Sunday and it’s Father’s Day, our news month will be pushed till Monday, the 16th. Expect your newsletters in your inbox then! All sales, etc. will start on the 16th! 
H
Meet Courtney DeLaura!!!
June 13, 2008 by andie
Filed under Photographer Spotlight
Your Name: Courtney DeLaura
Where You Live: Knoxville Tennessee
Your Site Address or Blog Address:
www.peachtreestudio.blogspot.com
Type of Pictures You Take…portraits mostly
Describe your style: oh this is such a hard one. I think I need everyone else to answer this for me. What I strive for my style to be is clean, simple, and happy! What do you think? Does it match?
Your Camera… Canon 40d
Your Favorite Camera Equipment… I guess it would be my trusty 50mm
If you could only use one lens what would it be? Right now the only one I feel that way about is the 50mm I have – I am totally shopping for my next lens. Need to choose I will probably get the 85mm 1.8 but I dream of 70-200mm 2.8 and even dream more of the 50mm 1.2 oh my darling!!!
Your detail shot lens? again the trusty 50mm gotta love her!
How do you stay motivated? My kids and husband, also my constant need to learn, read, look.
How long have you been a photographer? Well as a kid I would drag my poor sister out the beach and make her lay in the tall grass, gazing up at the sky. Thanks Holly!
If not a photographer, then…. an event planner – pretty obvious i like to be around laughing happy people!
Favorite photography add-on product? storyboards. I love storyboards of children images in quick sequence – them laughing all in a row LOVE is a storyboard of three images.
Your go-to camera shop? B&H or Thompson’s here in town – usually for advice and opinions
Standby pose (the one everyone tends to want from you)? stand by, oh gosh I don’t know?? i like to keep it fresh. My senior clients love to go downtown and stand in door ways and scary alley’s They LOVE this one door way that has half circle they can sit up on. It’s hard to stay up there and it makes them laugh. GREAT expressions using that doorway
What makes your job so much easier? knowing it benefits me and the clients to be as silly as I want to be, I love to laugh and in this job I get to laugh with people all the time. I love to create an atmosphere of JOY and SILLY HAPPINESS!
Which album company do you recommend? Still waiting for my 1st album to arrive! I’ll keep you posted…
If you could choose anyone to do a photo shoot of you/your family, who would your choose? Oh my gosh, SERIOUSLY… how on EARTH could I ever choose. let’s see right off the top of my head I’d have to say . . . Lisa Lefkowitz http://www.lisalkids.com/
Magazine Must Have.. Oh I am a serious magazine JUNKIE. I need help – INTERVENTION. (oh me too!!!) The ones I love the best; Cookie, Nylon, Cottage Living, Entertainment Weekly.
Guilty Pleasure… Sad but true it has to be food – I really love some gooooood food. Sweets/cupcakes/ice cream candy. It’s sick how bad my sweet tooth is!
My weakness is… see above questions; magazines, sweet treats, coffee [doc says i have to cut back on the ol' caffeine but I can't I LOVE it so very very much]
What Do You Do When You First Wake Up? snuggle with one of my kiddies that has found their way to our bed in the middle of the night, then listen to husband making breakfast and coffee, then fall back to sleep for 15 more minutes!
When It Rains… I hate going outside. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest I’ve had my fair share of rain!!
Who Do You Love? the husband, the boy, the girl, the pups, the mom, the dad, the sister, the nephew, the bestest!
Favorite Pink Ink Product… Soo many wonderful products, how will i ever chooooose! I love holly’s eye sparkle. great for the little ones with dark dark eyes. Love the book templates also and seriously the portrait party info is AWESOME! I have so much how can I choose!
Do You Read Your Horoscope? heck yes and even my parents tend to tell me “oh your/our horoscope said….”
Blog Addiction… uggghhh again INTERVENTION. I love blogs and couldn’t possibly list all the ones I frequent but I do love the crafty blogs along with the photo ones. Here are a couple of my favorite internet spots [some are blogs some just websites]
http://nicolelarue.typepad.com/
http://www.rebeccathuss.com/index.php
Tattoos… Yikes, Never – not in a “yuck tattoos” way but more of a “It took me weeks to commit to an image for my business cards” way. I could NEVER figure out what I wanted on my body permanently.
MAC or PC… oh my goodness gracious i love my i mac
80’s Music… no thanks.
What’s on your iPod? hold on let me check… Into the Wild Soundtrack – LOVE adore Eddie Veder Rilo Kiley – both albums She & Him Volumne One The Everybodyfields – they are amazing live! Avett Brothers – again adore love want to see in concert Dub Side of the Moon Natalie Merchant Holopaw Fiona Apple and on and on and on…
Morning or Night? mornings for sure. kids at school, husband at work, dogs asleep next to me.
My friends say… That I am funny. And I have good bangs! Honestly that is what they say…
Travel Dreams… nothing to unique Italy Paris South of France ALL of France New York City
On my day off… I like to go the book store, thrift stores, fabric stores I guess I like to go to a lot of stores and get inspired.
One of your top 100 to do before you die? ohhh i don’t have a top 100 maybe I should and I would probably put get kissed under the Eiffel tower! CHEESY I know . . .LOL
Favorite homemade meal? well if I am not making it.. Lasagna – yum!!!
Photoshop tutorial::Baby’s skin tones
(I know I’m not as hip as Holly with her video tutorials, but hopefully you’ll get something new from this anyway, even if you do have to do a little bit of reading first).
Skin tones seem to be one of those things that are the most important, but sometimes the hardest, to get right in your images. It’s not a mystery, (like it always seemed to me at first) and there is more than one way to go about getting good skin tones without sacrificing color and contrast to the rest of your image. This Photoshop technique works well to remove redness (and yellow) from skin tones for a variety of reasons (blemishes, sunburns, etc.) but since babies especially can have uneven and off color skin tones, this technique works particularly well for them. At first I used to tell my clients that the images of their newborn would have to be in black and white – because I struggled to consistently get soft, light, and even skin tones in my newborn shots. I was so happy when I could start to offer color images that I loved and was proud to show my clients.
First off, the number one thing you can do to help (as with most problems) is to get your exposure correct. Shooting in RAW (if possible) is a great way to make sure you get the correct exposure, by adjusting the images later in your RAW file processor of choice. The image I have exampled was not shot in RAW (shame on me!) and sadly underexposed, so I had to adjust for the exposure first, by using a combination of levels and curve layers. After that, these are the steps I took to get the correct skin tone:
1. First, I openedthe Hue/Sat from adjustment layer pop-up menu at the bottom of the layers palette.
2. Then I chose Red from the Edit pop-up menu at the top of the hue/saturation dialogue box. This brings up the color isolation sliders.
3. I moved one of the outer sliders toward the other to make a single mass. Then I clicked within the red area of the skin to center the sliders I just moved.
4. Then I moved the Hue slider until I saw a radical change in the image. (It doesn’t matter which direction you move it, but I usually move it to the right).
5. Then I clicked on the (+)plus eyedropper at the lower right of the dialogue box then click on additional red areas in the image until the color covered the entire red area. To avoid an abrupt transition, drag the 2 triangle sliders away from the vertical ones to blend the colors.
6. Last, I adjusted the Hue slider, keeping to the right of center to shift the color toward yellow, until I got the color I wanted. Then I played with the Saturation and Brightness slider until I got the look I liked. (I tend to prefer a bright picture, but you can play with it until you get what you love).
7. If the image appears too yellow, repeat steps 2 – 6, selecting yellow this time.
8. If lips get too pale, use layer mask to bring back color.
Once I was finished with my tweaking, I ran my skin smooth action, smoothing out the little bumps and scratches on her face and hands.
Now you go give it a try, and let us know how it goes! You can post your images in the Friends of Pink Ink Studios Flickr group or anywhere else. Either way, just remember to link us up in the comments of this post.
new presets!!!!
June 10, 2008 by andie
Filed under New Products
I keep getting asked if I was going to make more presets…so I did…16 new ones! These I created using portrait images…they are perfect “everyday” presets…great black and whites, some color pop presets, and “Saving Face” gives skina pretty color. They are available for both Lightroom and ACR.
Also I have added a new storyboard. Keep you eyes out for a lot more new products.
To wrap, or not to wrap?
Don’t you miss the polls around here? I know I do!! So just for fun….we want to know what you (and your clients) prefer! Poll closes on June 14th.
Find this deco mask by Holly McCaig here.
