I received late today my new wireless remotes from White Lightening.  Will be using them in studio this Saturday.  I had pocket wizards and they will not fire.  Don’t know why but I gave up on them until I find a depot to fix them.  The White Lightening pair is about $ 100.00 - you can’t go wrong.

I will give a review next week.

Have a great Thursday.

Today, there are alot of photos that either have used the Lens Baby or used a photo shop action to replicate the effects. I have a Lens Baby, the only problem is sometimes I don’t have it with me or I want to shoot the image with a standard lens but then later decide the Lens Baby effect would be enhance the image.

Here is the step by step process:

1. Make a copy of your background layer (Command j).
2. Go >Filter>blur>radial blur. Choose zoom method and best quality.
3. In the blur box pick a central point (in the baove example I used the model’s face)
4. You want an area of sharpness. Add a layer mask, choose black as the foreground color set to 100% opacity, and paint where you want the sharp point(s).

You can adjust the effect of the blur by adjusting the layer opacity and painting with the mask.

Good Luck with this technique !

As mentioned several times, Dave is a great instructor. A funny funny guy, who does not take him self too serious- but an outstanding legend in sports photography!!

My cool moment was spending time with Dave Black and Michael Phelps at the pool in Colorado Springs at Rich Clarkson’s sports workshop. This was about 5-6 years ago. I did not know who this young swimmer was. Dave leaned over to our small class, as we getting ready to photograph the swim team, and said “this kid is going to be a super star” Boy was he right.

If you want to be a sports photographer, you need to meet Dave and take a workshop with him.

Have a great Tuesday !

Ron@SML

Our photographer site of the week is www.jenniferloomis.com

Check out her family and maternity portfolio. It is beautiful work.

Have a great long weekend.

Ron@SML

So what photo assignments do you have going on this weekend.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Outdoor portrait ( family, indvidual), winter is around the corner

2. Sports Event (running race, football, baseball)

3. Summer Landscapes- fields of corn, oats, etc

4. Wedding - shoot some friends as a bride and groom to get posing, lighting, etc down pat

5. Photograph your local car show

6. Photograph a summer fair

7. shoot some summer stock images (people at bar-b-ques, etc)

8. wildlife photography

9. photograph texture for future projects (i.e. tree bark, walls, etc)

10. photograph some nice summer skies for future use in CS3.

Have a great Thursday.

Ron@SML

Here is the link as well  

Gift cards are growing in popularity at Christmas time and special occasions. As a photographer have you considered moving from the old style paper gift certificate to the plastic gift cards ?

Here is a link from Inc. Magazine that talks about gift cards (link).

Here is another link from CNW group that discusses gift cards-Canadians Enjoy Giving and Receiving Gift Cards

Another excerpt, from the above link

Mark’s Work Wearhouse commissioned the Ipsos Reid survey to confirm what
they already knew through their own research: Canadians love gift cards,
whether they are on the giving or receiving end. In fact, gift cards are one
of the top selling items at Mark’s, and the category continues to grow, year
after year.

Visa is also aware of this trend, in this businessweek article: “Gift Cards with a Personal Touch” - Visa is jumping into the create your own gift card.

You are probably wondering, this is all great information but how does it relate to photography. Would you like to get more people in your studio before December 25 and increase sales ?

Are you limited to the available time between Nov 14 and Dec 25 and are a lot of your clients busy attending Christmas functions and parties. How about selling them a gift card and then photograph them in January and February when it is quieter in the studio. Cash now, for services later, sounds good to me !
Here is the big tip, what if I told you that you could purchase 200 of these cards for $ 50, design your own gift card with logos and images, and three different dollars amounts. Caught your attention, anybody who replies to this post I will email them my contact.

If this idea makes you some money, remember your old pal Ron at SML.

Jed gave me their new eye lash tool.  If you have female clients that have very limited eye lashes, this PSD file will boost their lashes.  Take a look at the before and after.

How did I do it, I open my model file in PShop.  Then I open the lash PSD from Jed.  I dragged and dropped the lash file on the image.  Then I used (cmd) control T (free tranform) and sized the lash and position in the right spot.  Very easy to use.   Check out Vgallery and tell them Ron@SML sent you !

Have a great Tuesday !

Ron@SML

I always want to be honest and not sugar coat a product or service. I hate when others in the indsutry pump a product but don’t tell you the finer points. Last week I mentioned my heavy use with the SB 800’s.

Here is a big use with the SB 800’s is that they don’t always fire. The flash could be between you and the subject but sometimes the master and say Flash A can’t communicate. I usually rotate the red part of the flash to me (and the camera and the on camera master flash and the flash head to subject). Even after that adjustment, there are times when they don’t communicate.

What I am going to do ? I think I am going to use radio poppers, pocket wizards or the new white lightening triggers. I have been researching on the web and I am not the only one.

If anyone is experiencing this problem, please post. Sometimes when we are working with gear and it won’t work we think it is us. BUT sometimes it is the product.

Have a great day

Ron@SML

This week’s photographer site of the week is Ridout Photography - here is link

Have a great weekend.

Ron@SML