{Gear}

• Canon 5D {main camera}
• Canon 7D {pullbacks}
• 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS {main lens}
• 50mm f/1.2 {pullbacks}
• Lenshood – yes
• White reflector

{Settings}

• All shot in AV mode between f/2.8 and f/3.5
• WB – Auto
• Format – RAW

{Editing}

• Images culled in Lightroom
• All colors edited in Lightroom {no Photoshop! Doesn’t happen often, but I set myself a challenge}. B&Ws edited in Photoshop 4.
• Processing started with One Willow Presets Timeless Collection {‘Lyric’} and then tweaked for each shot, including dodging/burning on all images. Black & whites in Photoshop with Florabella’s ‘B&W Film’ from the Luxe II collection of actions. That little ditty always makes my heart sing!
• Poses inspired by Skye Hardwick’s posing guides

{Pullbacks}

Janie asking to see how mine were looking. A really useful part of shooting together - comparing composition.

Shooting with Janie - due to speckling from the sunlight and the trees, we were waiting until the moments she walked into the clean shade before hitting the trigger.

Posing with Emily - love the look on her face :)

I love these little shacks in the playground. This wasn't in shade, but it was so overcast that there were no problems. The catchlights are from the sky while the reflector kept her face evenly lit. This is ideal for me. I'd rather still have natural catchlights when using a reflector.

There are all these little lean-tos in the forest and I knew they'd be a good place to shoot. Gave us more options than just static posing and Emily had somewhere to place her hands and arms.

Daniel showed up shortly after we started shooting Emily. So here we are photographing him where he decided to plunk down on the path. I like to keep the parents behind me because when the interract, it keeps them looking in my direction.

Pretty straightforward portrait.

{Before & Afters}

LOVED the look on her face and chose this shot out of many because of it. When I was at her house helping to choose wardrobe the day before, I instantly pictured this shot when I saw that adorable hat. It frames her face so well and her little whisp of hair in the front is adorable. I wanted it to be one of the few B&Ws of the session because it's all about her eyes & soul here!

This was shot in full-on sunshine with no shade. Was just a perfect moment, really. Edited with lots of dodging & burning to make her stand out from the background as much as possible.

Slightly straightened and then edited with the One Willow presets mentioned above. The one I used for the whole session was 'Lyric'. This is my favourite shot of the whole session. Mostly, though, because of the 3 layers. The foreground in the doorway, the window behind her and then trees with juicy bokeh behind that. Makes it very interesting to me.

This is my second favourite image from the session. I love the jewel tones.

Daniel's images were processed with a different preset from the same collecion but I wanted his session to appear warmer. I did my best to remove the pole behind him, although I must admit I did lose patience for the whole idea. I should've been more mindful of what was in the background.

This little area of woods is amazing and the shots needed very little retouching. Although I minimised his red cheeks in some of the shots, I liked them here because he was smiling so big.

This is probably my favourite from Daniel's session. Straightened and recomposed, but still kept the dead-center composition because I think it says "this is me" and I use it at least a couple times in every session. As nice as a 1/3 or off-center composition feels to look at, a centered composition feels bold and rebellious for me at times and I love it here.

A. Excellent question! Portfolio building is one of those elusive things that JSO (just starting out) photographers get stuck in and sometimes can’t find their way out.

Portfolio building IS:

• Collecting the types of images you want to take professionally so you have something to show prospective clients
• Creating a body of work to show what you do
• A great time to practice without great amounts of client expectations/pressure
• Creating visual content for your website

Portfolio building ISN’T:

• Working until you think you’re ‘good enough’ to be a ‘professional’
• to be used as a bait-and-switch marketing tactic
• Meant to last years

The purpose of the ‘portfolio building stage’ of your business is simply to give you a portfolio. And what is a portfolio? Well these days, it’s a website. All you need to get you going are a few amazing images on your website to show what you are capable of doing and the style of photography a prospective client can expect to get from you. And you don’t need many! I like to say that all you need in your portfolio is ONE PHOTO. Realistically, you want more, but the concept is this: it really only takes one photo to show people that you know what you’re doing. So don’t get stuck in this phase for too long.

Some websites or marketing strategies might suggest that you use things like “you’ve been spotted” cards or “free session” marketing materials to bait prospective clients into booking a session with you on the pretense that you’re building a portfolio. Not a good move. Downright sleazy, in fact. By all means -use those cards- but not to pretend that they’re doing you a favor only to slam them with surprise prices in the end. If you’re offering them a free session with not-free prints, then just say that upfront and be clear about it. But portfolio building isn’t about building a client base or making money. It’s about building your body of work. Period.

On that note, don’t expect your portfolio building clients to become paying clients. After receiving what you are offering for free, they aren’t likely to ever pay you later on. Psychologically speaking, once you have shown someone that you can work for free, they will forever be locked into the idea that you should work for free. And this goes for their friends. If they know that you worked for free once, there will likely be a knock-on effect of lowered expectations. So by all means, expect to get some Facebook likes and exposure out of shooting sessions for free during your portfolio building stage, but don’t expect to receive a solid paying client base from those endeavors.

So if these sessions aren’t about gaining clients or making money -but rather- building your experience and body of work, then why not pleasantly surprise the people who have lent you their faces with a gift to say thank you? I’m not talking a whopping huge canvas. I just mean some web files or an 8×12 print.

Now, I’m not saying that you can’t make money while you’re in this phase of your business. Once you have a small portfolio of work, you can continue building that portfolio with portfolio-building-sessions at the same time as accepting paying sessions. More on that below.

This is what I recommend:

• Make a Facebook page and get a website going, even if it’s just on a blog platform like WordPress. This is like a soft opening of a store. The grand opening comes later.
• Set your pricing structure. Think that’s for later? No, it’s for now! I waited too long to purchase and devour the wealth of knowledge in the Easy as Pie Pricing Guide. Consider it part of your start-up costs and eat.it.up.
• Be confident. Don’t say you’re looking for ‘practice’ or offering ‘free shoots’, but rather say “I am currently building my portfolio”.
• Plan the photos you want to take and release a ‘casting call for models’ of a certain age and you can even be particular about their disposition. Exe: “Casting call for model needed. Age 3, girl, long hair. Must enjoy having her photo taken.”
• You can offer the session for free but be clear if prints are to be purchased or offer one free print (something small-ish). This can also be the perfect time to start practicing your in-home viewing sessions if that’s how you plan to sell your products once you open for business. But don’t use these opportunities as bait-and-switch opportunities.
• On your website, you may decide to post your status as ‘currently building portfolio’ and that discounted sessions are only available for those who fit the casting call requirements. Don’t allow this to look like a desperate free-for-all. Be calculated about who you shoot and make sure it serves your business, too. Not just the people you’re shooting.
• Place a date at which your portfolio building will end and state your future prices. You may want to expand your pricing slowly as explained in Easy as Pie. But always let them know what to expect in the future.
• When you’re ready to start trading, update your Facebook page and website to reflect that you’re open for business and “now accepting portrait commissions” or similar wording. Since your website & Facebook page have already been up and running since you first started building your portfolio, you will open for business with a few eyes on you and it. This will have built the excitement and anticipation for your grand opening so that when you start trading, people will be ready.
• Only choose ONE photo from each of your sessions to include in your portfolio. The absolute best of the best of the BEST. This will show that you didn’t just post a bunch of pics from one session, but rather that you’ve done many sessions with many different locations and types of people. By all means continue to release shots on your Facebook wall. But reserve your website and gallery for only the best.
• Only show the type of work in your portfolio that you intend on doing as a part of your business. If you are trading as a children’s portrait photographer, don’t just throw in a random dog picture just because you think it’s the best one you ever took.
• I can’t believe I need to say this, but…don’t put pictures in your portfolio you took with your camera phone. I’ve seen it done. Seriously. Just don’t.

Put on your business brain and make every decision based on your future goals. If your goal is to someday charge $500 for a session, work your way up to that but don’t take too much time. People really don’t need to see much to know that you know what you’re doing.

{further reading}

The FREE pdf “Beginner Bliss” from Easy as Pie author Alicia Caine is a massive help in this department.

I’m excited that Lightscoop have given me one lovely Lightscoop to give away to one lucky Elizabeth Halford reader! Entry for this giveaway are pretty straightforward:

1. Head over here and enter your details to be in the drawing
2. For an extra entry, Tweet this: “check it out: @ehphotograph is giving away a free @lightscoop here http://bit.ly/w39jWD” and then come leave a comment here to let me know about it.
3. For another entry, go ‘like’ my Facebook page and the Lightscoop page. Then come and leave another comment here
4. For another entry, go kiss a stranger then come tell me about it…no…wait…scrap that one

This Lightscoop is the standard color {non-warming}, universal fit variety which fits on just about every camera except Sony. They make another one for Sony cameras. More information about Lightscoops can be found here.

Ready? Steady? GO!

Terms: entering your details in the abovelinked webform to enter this giveaway means you will be included on the email database for both Lightscoop and Elizabeth Halford Photography. You may unsubscribe later if you desire. Winner will be chosen at random on Feb. 6th. Lightscoop will be sent to you, free of charge, anywhere in the world.

An entry level dslr with "big boy" 70-200mm lens and 580exII Speedlite. {photo courtesy of 4honor.blogspot.com}

This is a question I get often: “should I invest the money I’ve saved into a camera or a lens?” I think the answer is simple. Most dSLRS operate with {nearly} the same sensor, unless we’re talking the jump from crop frame to full frame sensor. Camera upgrades are merely bells & whistles. The lens has far more to do with the overall quality of an image than does the camera. Even the highest end camera is only as good as the glass attached to the front. Some other things to consider:

1. Lenses never decrease in value. Cameras do – so while a lens is a true investment, a camera is not.
2. You will still be using the same lenses a decade from now. Can’t say that for your camera.
3. Excellent low-light photography is made more possible by faster lenses than by better cameras.
4. When you look through your viewfinder, you’re looking through the lens, not the camera. The camera is a little darkroom in a box – the pictures come through the lens.
5. Don’t let camera companies deceive you: why do you think they throw so much more into marketing their new cameras than their timeless lenses?

In short? If you have some money to invest in your photography and can only afford the lens or the camera, go for the lens.

I get emails from folks saying things like “my friends say I’m really good – what do you think?” and I’m really not sure what they’re asking or how much criticism they’re able to take. Seems to me that if they’re already quoting their friends, they’ve bought into the delusion already. The delusion that any one person can look at a photograph and categorically say that it is either good or bad. Sometimes, I have consults with photographers who are second guessing their business/pricing/abilities because they don’t think they’re very good and I’m like “what?! You’re amazing!”

I remember seeing something once about how a photography forum user posted an image from the great street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. He asked for criticism and people jumped down his throat about how the composition, the light, the focus was all wrong and he was an idiot. Little did they know, it was a piece of work that sold for more money than some people make in a year and was a part of a collection of one of the most highly regarded photographers of all time. So what were they even talking about? Where were they in their understanding of good photography vs bad photography?

What does ‘good’ even mean? It’s all relative anyway. We live our lives on this grid of understanding. Everyone is in a different square on the grid. And depending on where you are, you will see things differently. So just like I can’t look at anyone’s photo and say “that’s bad”, no one can really look at it and say “that’s good”. We make these judgements based on our understanding of good and bad and a year or two down the line, that understanding will have changed as you bounce around on the grid.

In that same vein, don’t just take my word for it either. My judgement of what’s good and bad has come from my influences, my experience, my own preference and bias. I can look at an image and say “the highlights are blown”. That’s a fact. But I can’t say “…and because of that, this image is bad.” Just because something is technically bad doesn’t mean that it’s artistically bad.

I think its so important that we qualify the statements that we make about other people’s work and make it more clear that we’re speaking from our own opinions and understanding of what is good and what is bad. What do YOU think?

I get emails quite a lot showing me photos and asking me what I think. I don’t usually answer them because I never know where the person is coming from, what criticism they’ve had in the past or what they are really asking when they say “what do you think?”. Critiquing another photographer’s work isn’t easy. There’s a method to offering constructive criticism and I don’t take it lightly.

That said, participating in forums like Chic Critique {which is totally new to me} is a safe way to receive constructive criticism of your work from photographers who, not only know what they’re talking about, but know how to, not only look at an image, but see an image.

When critiquing an image, I come from all different angles. I talk about the composition, the settings used, the editing, etc. I also talk about what I love about the image. And I give tips for things to try in the future. Sometimes, I even edit the photo during the critique. I don’t rip an image apart and leave it for dead.

So what now? There are 10 slots available for active participants in my Chic Critique in March. And there are also a few slots for those who want to sit back and learn from watching everyone’s critiques without submitting their own work {you can dip your toe in!}

And if you’re not convinced that having your work critiqued by a professional can be beneficial, check out this video which shows you a preview of what you can expect if you sign up for my Chic Critique in March.

Specifically, it’s been said that I “whore herself out to the rest of the world as yet another tog who can teach YOU how to make loads of money!” And so there you have it. Someone accusing me of teaching because I can’t be doing {which, by the way, is 100% untrue}. So it seems that I have been a bit dense in making the same statement about university professors teaching photography and, in a broader sense, it appears that I was making that statement about all teachers.

So from the bottom of my heart, I’m so sorry for that. It’s never my intention to bully, alienate or single out others for my own personal gain. Forgive me, teachers!

One of the most baffling features of choosing a new camera {or understanding your existing one} is sensor size and type. Are you baffled by the terms CMOS or APS-C? I was! And as usual, there’s a plain English explanation for this in the world of techie-jargon.

First, let’s clear up some of the jargon. There are terms that refer to the sensor’s size like APS-C. Like you can see in the image to the right –> APS-C sensors in Canon cameras are slightly smaller than those in Nikon cameras. And of course, full frame is nearly the largest while medium format sensors are the cream of the crop. But then there are terms which relate to a sensor’s type or material used and these can often be seen in terms like ‘CCD’ or ‘CMOS’. Again, this refers to the material of the sensor and not the size. I read in one forum that asking the difference between APS-C vs CMOS was like asking someone to “define the difference between plastic and a centimeter”. Two completely different, incomparable, things.

{CMOS vs CCD}

So now that you’ve seen that fancy little graphic and explanation above, you know the difference between the terms that describe the size of a sensor and the type of a sensor. So now let’s talk about different sensor types. Neither is superior to the other. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

CCD – …stands for ‘charge-coupled device’. These sensors were invented in the 1960′s and weren’t originally formulated for recording photographic images, but rather, storing computer data. In the 70′s and beyond, CCDs began making their appearance in film and still cameras. One of the disadvantages of CCD sensors is cost. These sensors are considerably more expensive for various highly-jargon-related reasons.  And they are known to suffer from the slower way in which they read-out the information to solidify it as an image on your memory card. But of course, what they consider ‘slow’ is actually just the splittest of seconds. CCD sensors are renowned for creating the highest quality, lowest noise images, however, they consume 100x the battery power of a CMOS sensor.

Some cameras in which you will find CCD sensors are:

• Canon PowerShot compact cameras like the G1 {2000} to the G12 {2010}
• The Nikon d3000 DSLR has a CCD sensor while all of their others hold a CMOS.
• Nikon’s newest compact camera, the p7100 holds a CCD sensor.
• I’ve seen conflicting information about the sensor in Canon’s pro series 1DmkIV and 1Dx cameras. In many articles and forums, I see claims that this camera holds a CCD sensor. While Canon’s own website says they employ CMOS sensors in those cameras.

CMOS – CMOS stands for ‘complementary metal oxide semiconductor’. They are considerably cheaper to produce than CCD sensors and are the type of sensors found in mobile phone cameras but also in higher end prosumer models like the Canon 5DmkII. These sensors are sometimes called ‘active pixel sensors’ in contrast with the CCD sensors which are sometimes known as ‘passive pixel sensors’. The reason they’re called ‘active’ pixels is that each pixel on the sensor has its own amplifier. One of the benefits of this is that CMOS sensors are faster at reading the information gathered when you open your shutter and expose it to light. They are known to suck up less power from your battery, thus enhancing battery life.

Some cameras in which you will find a CMOS sensor are:

• The one camera in the Canon PowerShot series of compact cameras which uses a CMOS sensor is the G1x which was just released this month
• All Canon DSLRs hold a CMOS sensor.
• All Nikon DSLRs hold a CMOS sensor, apart from the d3000 model

{If it produces more noise, why CMOS in a DSLR?}

So now that we’ve seen that, basically, DSLRs have CMOS sensors while compact digitals have CCD sensors, you’re probably wondering why. I found it especially confusing to note that the same sensor type you’ll find in your mobile phone is the type you’ll find in your DSLR. Weird, eh? And that a full-frame camera is known for having less problems with noise while it holds a sensor known for producing the most noise.

This is why you shouldn’t judge a camera based on the sensor type alone. You also need to consider the size of that sensor. Because, for example, a Canon 5DmkII has a CMOS {more noise} sensor, but the 35mm equivalent, full-frame sized sensor {read this for a post all about what that means} means that there’s room for more pixels on the sensor. So while each pixel may produce more noise, they are bigger and there are more of them which compensates. Also, many DSLRs employ other in-camera methods for counteracting or reducing noise.

Just down from full-frame sized sensors {see the image at the top of this post} you have APS-H sized sensors like in the Canon 1DmkIV which will be replaced by the full-frame 1dx this spring. So then just down from that, you have the size APS-C and these are the size sensors you’ll find in, for example, a Canon 7D or 550D {known as T2i in America}.

{Conclusion}

You might still feel confused about sensor size and type, but at hopefully now you know more than you did before you read this!

{further reading}

• -This- is a pretty awesome PDF called ‘CCD vs CMOS: fact & fiction’. Beware, though…it’s kinda technical
• CCD vs CMOS -a very detailed article about how they work-
• A FABULOUS plain English video to explain the new backlit CMOS sensors

Note: There are lots of printing companies but I just used the three biggest ones for my location {Europe}. I didn’t realize that Photobox isn’t available in the USA. It’s kind of equivalent to Snapfish which Americans use quite a lot.

{BUILDING}

Building the three books took completely different turns. I didn’t utilize the built-in templates from any of the companies. Instead, I used this album template from Vol25 in Photoshop and uploaded the pages.

Photobox has so many different book options and ideas

Apple – With Apple, you have to have iPhoto which means that you have to be on an Apple computer. Once you import the photos you want to use into iPhoto {or you import the JPGS of the album pages you made in Photoshop like I did} then you can build your book in just a few clicks. You just highlight all the images you want to use in your book, click ‘book’ and it guides you through the whole process. A few things I noted:

• Apple has loads of really great themes all ready for you to just pop your photos in. All of the book companies do, but in browsing through, theirs appealed to me more.
• Building a book was very easy and enjoyable
• …however as you can see here there are very few size and cover options.

Photobox – Building a book with Photobox takes place all online. They don’t have any software you can download so you have to first upload all of your files into an album and then build your book. This takes a lot of time, but with the other methods of book building described above, the uploading takes place at the end. So either way, you’re waiting for an upload at some point in the process. Of the three, I found Photobox to be the most time consuming to figure out. However, the biggest benefit with working with Photobox was that I could pop the whole two-page spread I’d made in Photoshop into the book at once. Whereas with the others, I had to insert each page separately. Other things I noted:

• There didn’t seem to be any reasonable way in which the image files organized themselves when I wanted to drag them into the book. So the pages were jumbled and not in the order I wanted them in.
• On that note, I wanted to double-click on the files so I could see them bigger to read the text and verify that it was the one I wanted to use. Because I couldn’t view the files larger while building, I had to keep toggling back to my Photoshop in order to view the images large enough to read the text.

All the options from Blurb for building your book

Blurb – Blurb gives you quite a few methods by which you can build your book. From tools for the beginner {I would recommend downloading their Book Smart program} to the super technical Adobe InDesign option, Blurb has many many ways to create a book. You can even make a book with Blurb from within Lightroom 3 and Ligitroom 4 beta! Far out! Some of the things I noted when building my book with Blurb were:

• They have many awesome book size and orientation options. I went for a more bookish shape with Blurb where the other two were more like photo albums
• Built-in copyright page at the beginning of your book {which you can remove if you want}
• Of the three methods, Blurb had the clearest guides
• Blurb had an undo button for when I made a mistake!

{PRICE}

The books were 52 pages.

Apple – The Apple book cost £50. Regular paper. I didn’t remove the adorable Apple logo. Who’d wanna do that? :)

Photobox – And with Photobox, the book was £61.47. With Photobox, you often get BOGO deals and so I also got one for free! I added matte premium paper and paid a couple pounds extra to remove their logo. Photobox also accepts PayPal – yayy!

Blurb – With Blurb, it was £34.83. Regular paper. Logo stayed put. Blurb also accepts PayPal which is very convenient for me.

{FRONT COVER}

click to enlarge

So now to how the book looks.

Apple – the Apple book came with a dust jacket and matching printing on the book itself which I thought was a wonderful element. The printing doesn’t wrap all the way around the spine, but it looks like it does from the front.

Photobox – The Photobox cover stops before it gets to the spine which is a bit off putting.

Blurb – The Blurb cover I chose was image wrap, although it doesn’t exactly wrap. It, too, stops at the spine and then continues at the back. But it still looks fab from the front.

{BACK COVER}

click to enlarge

The back cover of my book is very important to me. It’s the last impression a reader has and I think sets the tone for how they remember your book.

Apple – The back cover of the Apple book had to be blank. Boo! The only option they had was to place an image in the center of the back, but there wasn’t an option to have the whole thing accommodate my back page template. So I chose to leave it blank.

Photobox – The back cover options with Photobox were much the same as with Apple. There were no whole page full-bleed options to just pop in your whole back page image. As you can see, it kind of stops near the bottom where the huge PhotoBox logo is supposed to be, but I paid extra to have that removed.

Blurb – Yayy! Blurb let me put whatever I wanted onto the back so I got to use the actual back cover file I’d created to match my book.

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{INSIDE PAGES}

click to enlarge

Well this is the most important part to me – how the images actually look. In the comparison to the right, you can see that…

Apple – The the image printed by Apple had all the moody contrast that it was meant to have. The shadows were exactly right, nothing weird going on there.

Photobox – I don’t know what they’re thinking here. When I do a print comparison between Photobox and anyone else, Photobox always {sadly} loses. The highlights are blown, there’s no contrast, the shadows are lost. It’s harsh. Triple yuck.

Blurb – Nothing strange with the Blurb printing that I could tell. Much like that of Apple. A tiny bit brighter, but not to its detriment.

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{SPINE/BINDING}

click to enlarge

I think that the binding is the main place that gives away a book’s quality {or lack thereof}. I’m always judging a book by its spine!

Apple – The Apple spine and binding were very good quality. Very much like an actual hardcover book store book. There’s some stitching, but on closer inspection, the pages are still glued in. Not sure what the stitches are for.

Photobox – I’m not sure why I photographed the Photobox one closed. Maybe I couldn’t keep it open? Anyway, I thought it was pretty good for a glued-in binding. I don’t know if ‘glued-in’ is the proper term for it, but there wasn’t any stitching to be seen. It was very nice and, again, like a proper bookstore book.

Blurb – Although this one is also glued in, I found it appeared to be the cheapest. It was a bit wobbly within the cover itself as if the cover would have liked for there to be more pages in it? I didn’t really like it.

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{AUTHOR PAGE}

click to enlarge

It was really important to me that I get to put in information about the author – me! This makes it feel like a real book and allows me to put my face to the project.

Apple – I love how Apple let me put the author page on the dust jacket. Made me feel like a proper author!

Photobox – There wasn’t an option for this like with Apple, so I just made the file in Photoshop and popped it onto the first page.

Blurb – Likewise, I popped the Photoshop file onto the last page along with my branding on the opposite page.

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{BRANDING}

click to enlarge

Sometimes you don’t mind a brand making its appearance on your project. And sometimes you do. All the companies give you the option of removing it for a nominal fee {Apple doesn’t charge to remove}.

Apple – Apple has a cult following. It’s a status symbol. I think people might print through them purely because it’s another place to plaster their logo into their lives! And I love that it says “made on a MAC”. So naturally, I left it there.

Photobox – the Photobox logo was supposed to be on the back and quite large and obtrusive. So I paid to have it removed and place my own on the back cover instead.

Blurb – the Blurb logo was little and I think it’s actually quite nice. And being that they’re one of the new{er} guys, I wanted to leave it there.

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{PACKAGING}

I didn’t opt for special packaging or sleeves for any of my books, but Apple sent theirs awesomely packaged in a cardboard sleeve with the Apple logo. Love! Although it ended up in the trash eventually, it was a really nice way to receive my book.

Apple's packaging

{EBOOKS & SALES POTENTIAL}

my book as an eBook

I was so so pleased to see that with Blurb, any book you create can also be purchased as an eBook for less than £2! Their eBooks are currently formatted in the .pub format for functionality with iBooks. So they can only be viewed on an iPhone, iPad or iPod but it says that other devices are coming soon! So how cool is that?!

If you want to sell your book to others, you can do that through both Blurb and Photobox. You can price your book so that there’s a profit which gets sent to you, although with the prices of printing, you have to price the books quite high in order to make a profit. So as wonderful as it would be to consider this a viable route for self-publishing, it isn’t really perfect for that function. But with the eBooks, you can capitalize on the new wave of people using devices for reading and make a great profit selling eBooks through Blurb! Hopefully they’ll release functionality for Kindle and other devices very soon.

{IN CLOSING}

So in closing, there are many different things to consider when choosing which book printer is right for you. It depends on what you aim to do with your book as well as your audience. Many times, price is the main factor in a decision, however quality is of utmost importance, especially when you want your project to be visually and sensually stimulating; pleasing to both the eyes and the fingertips. There are many things I loved about the Apple book and I loved that Photobox so often has BOGO deals so I can pass a copy on to a friend. But all things considered, I would say that Blurb came out on top. The ease of building the book combined with the forward-thinking way they’re harnessing current trends and technologies makes me very excited to keep my eye closely on Blurb in the future.

That said, you can see the whole book I made {HERE}! And this month, 100% of the profits from the book are being given to the House of the Heroes orphanage in the Philippines which is run by my close personal friends so I know exactly how the money is spent. So grab the eBook copy. I promise you’ll laugh your head off every time you look at this book!

Thank you so much for reading. It’s been fun looking into this topic and seeing my book printed in so many different ways.

Gear

• Camera: Canon 5dmkII
• Lens: 50mm f/1.2

Settings

• Shot in AV with Aperture: Between 1.2 and 2.8

Conditions

• Natural window light
• Somewhat sunny day, however it’s winter which made the light coming through the window very nice. Summer would have been a different story.

Props

• Muslin sling from Keri Meyers Photography
• Body suit from PepperLu
• Hair band from Golden Beam Accessories {she’s local and I needed it pronto!}
• Normal everyday beanbag
• Blanket
• Heavy duty background support stand

Editing

The images were edited with One Willow Presets ‘Beautiful Things’ collection for Lightroom. Skin retouching with Lightroom’s adjustment brush. Then taken into Photoshop for removal of the beanbag and added vignette.