Black Friday Sale

Black Friday Sale Reminders – Discount amount and length varies by designer, discounts will be shown in shopping cart once checkout button is pressed and sales do not apply to previous purchases. Support Staff not available until Sunday to answer tickets so please read designer TOU’s. Happy Shopping and Happy Black Friday!

What’s New This Week

Our designers have added fabulous new products this week!

I big puffy heart Holly’s 4×6 2010 easel calendar template. Seriously … what a cool holiday gift for someone! Ooh and ahh over her sample, please. It’s always great to see a finished product.

Keep things simple … check out Kim Hill’s new borders. It’s an easy way to spruce up an image without going overboard.

Carrie added Accordion Square Mini Templates. These work great to show off multiple images from a session. You could even give one to your clients … wouldn’t that make their day??

Last but not least … Holly added these fun Grungy Photo Strips. They’re great for seniors and even your photo booth sessions.

On that note, everyone have a safe and blessed holiday. Don’t forget to check out our Black Friday Sale! Please remember our staff will be stuffing ourselves with turkey and pumpkin pie. Tech support will be closed until Sunday. More info in our forum.

Tech Support Holiday Closings

Pink Ink Studios Tech Support will be closed until Sunday. We have a ton of great information here and here and at the top of our store’s homepage.

We want to make sure you get the help that you need while we’re away, enjoying family time this Thanksgiving holiday. So, take a moment to do the following before submitting a support ticket to help speed up your request!

1 – Use Firefox over IE if you can’t keep items in your cart

2 – Login to the store and scroll down to the left and click on ORDERS HISTORY to review any orders you may have placed and need downloads for – be sure to download IMMEDIATELY to avoid your links expiring and make a backup!

3 – We have lots of FAQs in our forums if you’re already a member – we have to manually approve members due to spam issues, so new members won’t be approved until Sunday.

4 – Read the Terms of Use or Instructions documents in your product downloads to contact the designer directly about a design-specific issue. Please note that some of our designers will also be away for the holiday.

5 – Don’t forget the sales going on this weekend! Watch the blog this Friday!

6 – Help us reach 1000 fans on Facebook so we can start giving away gift certificates to our Fans!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Texture Tuesday

I apologize for this being a day late. Here is a texture I created for Pink Ink blog readers. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Floral texture

Studio Gear to Go

So you’ve been doing photography for a while now, taking just your camera, bag, and a few small props.  But what if you wanted to take the studio gear with you?  Have you thought about doing that but felt it was too daunting a task?  Well it doesn’t have to be.  Backdrop stands, reflectors, and drops are being made more portable and that means more possible business opportunities for you.  So let’s take a look at some products that will take your studio on the road.

Portable Backdrop Stand – Interfit makes a support system that breaks down and fits into a bag that can easily be slung over your shoulder.  The system consists of two tripod stands with a three-piece horizontal support bar and a travel bag.  Set up takes about 3 minutes.  Other companies that offer a similar setup are Savage, Da-Lite, and SP Systems.

Muslin Backdrops – When you are on the go, having backdrops that collapse small enough to fit into your vehicle are a must.  Forget the bulky, awkward rolls of seamless paper.  Muslins come in a variety of sizes and easily fold up to fit into a small bag.  They are light, too!  The only hitch with muslin is that it does wrinkle.  So steaming them the night before a shoot will help keep them nice and smooth.  And if you pack a travel size bottle of Downey Wrinkle Releaser, you can quickly refresh the muslin once you arrive and start setting up.  There are plenty of places to pick up muslin drops including Silverlake, Denny Manufacturing, and Backdrop Outlet to name a few.

Metal Clamps – Spring loaded clamps with a PVC coated handle are essential for holding your backdrops in place.  When you’re on the go, having 3 or 4 of these in your bag is essential.  These can be found at any hardware store for just a few dollars a piece.

Lighting & Modifiers – For truly portable lighting, you can go with just a flash.  But what if you want the more dramatic, studio look?  You can opt for off-camera flash or you can bring a strobe with an umbrella or a softbox.  One of the most portable softboxes on the market right now is the Westcott 50×50.  It opens and closes like an umbrella which truly makes it easy to fit in the car, unlike my 48″ octabox which I can’t even squeeze into the hatch of my Subaru.  The Westcott can be used with a strobe or with a flash, making it a versatile choice.  Of course, you will need a light stand to hold your strobe or flash, and Photoflex makes a nice selection of these at reasonable prices.  If you choose to bring your strobe instead of a flash, you’ll want to invest in a portable battery pack.  Alien Bees and Innovatronix both offer these.

Reflector – If you are using one light, you’ll certainly want to consider using a reflector to fill in the shadows.  Photoflex offers a lite panel kit that is truly portable.  The one I use has a corded collapsible frame, 2 fabric panels, stand and a carry bag.  It’s amazing how quickly this sets up and it takes up just a small amount of space in your vehicle when it’s in it’s bag. If you hurry over there, it’s on sale right now for 50% off.

So that’s really all that you would need to get your studio on the go.  If you have more room in your vehicle, you can certainly throw in a posing stool and some props if you need them.  Just make sure you leave enough room for your camera! 

How to Use the 4 x 6 Calendars

I hope to keep creating tutorials for products I design. You never know when they might help you out with other design issues that you’re having in Photoshop. I like to think that what we do here has a bit of a universal use. Be sure to click on the video to go to the full size version. Here, you can purchase the 4 x 6 Easel Calendars.

What’s New This Week

Kim Hill has a great Digital Info Card in her shop. If you’re giving your clients images on a disk, check this out  … very helpful!

Simply Plaid Backgrounds is a fun new set by Carrie. Spice up your albums or storyboards. Complete with plaids and coordinating solids.

Still time to grab holiday templates!! Holly added a few new holiday cards and her Jolly Good Time paper collection. Tara has a cute card … perfect for three images. Carrie is offering her Super Duper Big Holiday Card Pack … ten card templates. Definitely worth taking a peek!!

Texture Tuesday

Well, technically this is an overlay, but I have been very cold here in Northeast PA and wanted some snow overlay’s for my photos.

Enjoy!  Snow overlay

One Way to Alter Colors in Photoshop

This short, video tutorial, will show you how to alter colors of contrasting designs in Photoshop. Note, this isn’t going to work for textured files with variations of colors. But if you have something similar to work with, like shown in this tutorial, you can have a little more control over changing colors when not working with layered .PSD files!

Click the video to go to Blip.tv and watch full screen.

What’s New This Week

Wow! Kim Hill has been rockin’ it this week. Her store is full of new goodies. You know the saying “less is more”? She’s got some very basic wall templates that will allow you to create a custom piece for your clients. Lots of sizes to choose from. Check them out!

Heather has added a set of backgrounds that will catch the eye of seniors. Great colors in this set! These would work great in senior albums or as part of a wall template.

Looking to dress up your blog? You’ve got to check out these Blog Preview templates by Carrie.

Traci added a little flair to her shop … easily add sunflare to your images.

Don’t forget to check out our holiday templates!! It’s not too late to get your clients to wrap up their card orders.

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