*** FLAG IN A FLASH ***

Enjoy our Free Patriotic Photoshop Template for Memorial Day, Independence Day/4th of July, Veteran’s Day and beyond.

This is a very special freebie for Photoshop and Elements called “Flag in a Flash.” It was first introduced four years ago as a Photoshop action.  We are bringing it back this year, but as a .PSD layered Photoshop file. Photographers and scrapbookers on older Photoshop versions and all Elements users can enjoy it too.  The flag collage template is 20×20 at 300 pixels per inch.  It can be resized for any square dimensions including for the web.  It is perfect for framing, printing on canvas, or for use in scrapbook albums.

This template will work in all recent versions of Photoshop CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, and CS6. Additionally it will work in Elements 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Just VISIT US ON FACEBOOK to download the template, unzip the file, and open the .PDF file as you would a photo.  We did not make a video for this, but watch the video on using our free Timeline Templates if you need to learn how to add photos to the built in clipping masks.  The concept is the same.

Customize the template:

• Add your images. We did not make a video for this, but watch the video on using our free Timeline Templates if you need to learn how to add photos to the built in clipping masks.  The concept is the same.
• Add your own text.  There are also a number of Patriotic fonts here. I used a font called Stars & Stripes. 
• Change the background color. Click on the blue color swatch to change it.

 

Enjoy the template. Please PIN it and share on Facebook if you like this.

If  the “talking about this” number on your Facebook business page, bothers you, as it does us, learn how to hide it now.

When Facebook forced all business pages to the Timeline layout at the end of March 2012, some loved it, many hated it, and others were indifferent. While there are certain pros for companies, there are also many cons.

One huge frustration is the visibility of the “talking about this” number.

It shows on business pages directly below the Timeline cover photo. The concept is similar to Google Analytics – a way to track success with specific posts on Facebook.  Having access to your stats can help you decide what works best for your page.  But, you may not want your customers or competitors seeing any of your private data. As of now, Facebook has not given you a choice.  Everyone sees how many are “talking about you.”  I still do not completely understand the math behind the number, Facebook says the number comes from “sharing, liking, or commenting on your post, answering a question, or responding to an event.”

Since its inception, the calculation has remained unclear. Regardless, seeing the MCP “Talking About This” number bounce from 2,500 to 4,000 to 6,000 and back to 2,500 in a matter of days, stresses me out. I am keenly aware that, even with high numbers, competitors and customers may analyze or draw conclusions from a number that, in my opinion, they should not have access to.  My solution is easy – Facebook should allow each business page to decide if that number is visible. Instead, with no privacy controls, many are looking for another way to hide it.

I searched the Internet and found no “how-to.”  Then I played around this past week until I figured it out.  The answer is simple, though I would still prefer control over this without needing to alter the type of page I own. Community pages do not show this number on the Timeline.  So rather than “claiming” to be an official page, you can classify your page as a “community” page of something else. There are problems with this too, and I am not sure which route we will go – hide as a community page or keep the number showing as an official business page (since that is truly what we are). I wish we could hide it and stay a regular business page – anyone at Facebook reading this?

Here’s how you can hide your number on the front of your Timeline (or until Facebook makes more changes):

Two notes:

* This system is not perfect. The number still shows in the search bar, but not directly on your page.

** Disclaimer – Facebook may change this at any time.  MCP Actions is not responsible for changes you make to your page or you changing your desigation to a community page.  It appears to work the same, but we make no guarantees. We have sent numerous emails to Facebook to ask about getting rid of this number and about the current status of pages and insights.  We received no reply.

Share please:

If you found this helpful, please PIN the graphic, and make sure to “like” and “share” this post. If you have thoughts you wish to express about the “talking about number” enter them in the comment section below.

Friend:

• a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard,
• a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter,
• a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile or
• a member of the same nation, party, etc
•  comrade, chum, crony, confidant,  backer, advocate, ally, associate, confrere, compatriot.

This week’s challenge was to capture the word “friend” in a photo. The photos poured into the Flickr gallery; 2 legged friends, 4 legged friends, young friends, old friends,  friends having fun together and friends through thick and thin… my heart was smiling while looking through the gallery.  Thanks for sharing your vision of friendship with us, it was a pleasure to see so much love. Here are some of the highlights from this week’s challenge:

 Submitted by Alessandra Migliorini Photography

Submitted by Sheryl Salisbury

Submitted by Minkylina

Submitted by LLMphotos

SSubmitted by Bronwyn629

 Submitted by Jillustrated

Submitted by Thesephotographs

   Submitted by Nsphotos1

Submitted by ksphotography

Next week’s challenge is to capture a motion shot with blur. The gallery is already filling up with exciting action shots. We cannot wait to see yours.

Don’t forget, you could be the winner of a new Tamron lens this month! Check HERE for all the details.

We want to thank our corporate sponsors for Project MCP:

I am so thrilled to finally have an entire workflow set just for newborns!  I love that MCP’s Newborn Photoshop actions set takes me start to finish and has everything under the sun relating to newborn editing.  I love my newborn images to be bright, soft, and low contrast.  My image started out a bit underexposed, so I started at the top of the action set with exposure  and worked my way down to a final sharpen.

1.  Increase exposure – 30% opacity

2.  Sugar n Spice (Soft Color) – 50% opacity – Adds just a perfect tiny amount of contrast.

3.  Peach Fuzz (peach tones) 30%, It’s A Girl (pink tones) – 20%, You Are My Sunshine (yellow tones) – 8%

4.  Crying for Contrast – 40% – After applying the color tones, I felt the image just needed a little more contrast.

5.  Paint on Red Baby Fix – 18% – Baby’s face was a bit red for my liking, so I “painted” baby’s face to tone down the reds.

6.  Sharpen the Eyelashes – 35% – Love me some sharp, dark eyelashes.

7.  Healing Brush for scratch and dry skin on arms

8.  In My Dreams (spot color fix) – 50% – Baby’s cheeks were slightly red and splotchy, so I needed just a touch of this to remedy the blotches.  It’s like a little, magic eraser

8.  Print Sharpie – 50%

Done!  The image took me about 2 minutes to edit.  SO fabulous.

9.  Playtime (Golden B&W) – Of course I have to have all of my newborn images in black and white as well, so I ran Playtime, and unchecked the “golden” layer, as I loved this image without any color toning.

Jean Smith is a wedding, portrait, and commercial photographer in Michigan. You can find more of her work on her website, blog, or Facebook.

The winners of our contest are:

Grand Prize: The winner of the iPad 3 + 1 Year of Sticky Albums Pro is: Adrianne Sizemore (entry 1803)

The winners of $100 Gift Vouchers to StickyAlbums Pro are: Mark Jolly (entry 2205), Julie Worthy (entry 256), Claudia Muir (entry 1640), and Dawn of Kitchen Travels (entry 1469)

Everyone else: Through tomorrow, save $40 on StickyAlbums Pro by using the promotion discount code MCP40 at checkout.

Nate will be in touch with all the winners to let you know how to redeem your prizes.  Congratulations!

Do you want to win The New iPad (AKA iPad 3)?

Thank you to StickyAlbums for putting together a prize package you won’t want to miss. StickyAlbums is relatively new to the scene, but is creating quite the buzz.  They offer an easy way to create custom mobile photo albums for each of your clients – then your customers can save them right to their iPhones and iPads.

To celebrate their latest release, StickyAlbums founder Nate Grahek  is giving away The New iPad to one lucky reader. In addition the grand prize winner and four others will get a $100 voucher to Sticky Albums.

The iPad really is like nothing else. And aside from looking at actual prints in a gallery – there is literally no other device better to display your images on. When presenting your portfolio, or showing a client their proofs for the first time, there is something to be said for doing it with an iPad.

Prize details:

How to enter the contest:

• Add a comment telling us how you would use The New iPad to promote your photography.
• Make sure you “LIKE” MCP Actions on Facebook. This is required for entry, but please do not add an additional comment for this.

Extra entries:

• Spread the word about  StickyAlbums and this great giveaway,  link to it at http://www.mcpactions.com/blog/2012/05/16/ipad3 (on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Stumble Upon, etc). For each social networking site where you post about it, add a comment on this post telling us where you shared.
• Visit StickyAlbums on Facebook: Leave a thank you note letting them know you are entering the New iPad Giveaway. Then come back and leave a comment confirming that you did.
• Create your first album FREE at StickyAlbums and leave a comment with the link to it.
• If you’ve bought StickyAlbums Pro now or in the past – leave a comment, for an extra entry, telling us how you are using StickyAlbums to grow your business.

Notes:

• If an existing StickyAlbums Pro member wins the $100 voucher – you will get it in cash (via paypal)
• If you win the iPad – Stickyalbums is going to cover the base model with 16GB | WiFi | $499 US dollar value | You will have the option to upgrade to other models at your own expense.

 Winner will be announced:

• On our blog Sunday evening, 5/20/12.  The winner will be selected by random drawing.  And I will add the winner’s name to the top of this post.

Save $40 on Sticky Albums this week only by using the promotion code MCP40.

Do you ever wonder how newborn photographers get their newborns posed so nicely that they look peaceful?

Here are 10 tips for a successful newborn photography session.

1. Keep the baby warm:

Newborns have a difficult time regulating their own body temperature. To keep them comfortable with no clothing on it is important that you keep your studio warm. I keep my studio at 85F. I also warm my blankets in the dryer or with the heater fan prior to placing a newborn on them.  If you choose to use a heater fan be sure to keep it far away from the baby so you don’t hurt their sensitive skin.  If you are sweating during your session then you have it nice and warm for the baby and he/she will likely sleep more soundly.

2. Make it noisy:

The sounds in the womb are very loud and some say as loud as a vacuum cleaner. Newborns will sleep much more soundly if there is white noise in the room. During a newborn session I have two noise machines (one with rain, one with the sound of the ocean) as well as an app on my iphone for static white noise. I also play music in the background. I not only find it helpful for the baby but it also relaxes me as well as the parents. Being relaxed is key since babies will pick up on your energy.

3. Full belly equals a happy baby:

I always ask the newborn’s parents to try to hold off feeding their baby until they arrive at the studio. I have the parents feed their baby first prior to beginning the session. If the baby is happy when they arrive then I start with the family images and then have them feed their baby while I am setting up the beanbag. I also stop if needed during the session if the baby needs to eat some more. Babies with a full belly will sleep much more soundly.

4. Keep them awake prior to coming to the studio:

I always ask that parents try to keep their baby awake for 1-2 hours prior to coming in to the studio. A good way to have them do this is by giving their baby a bath. This is a great way for the babies to exercise their lungs a bit before coming and tire themselves out a bit. It also helps their hair to be nice and fluffy (if they have any!).

5. Time of day matters:

If at all possible I always schedule my newborn sessions for first thing in the morning. This is a time when most babies sleep more soundly. Afternoon can be very tricky as they approach the afternoon witching hour. Anyone who has kids can attest to the fact that kids of all ages tend to not be at their best as late afternoon approaches. It is the same for newborns.

6. Stay calm and relaxed:

Babies are very perceptive and can pick up on our energy. If you are nervous or anxious the baby will sense that and will not settle easily. If the baby’s Mom is anxious this can also affect how the baby does. I have two comfortable chairs placed behind me so that parents can sit back and watch while giving me enough space to work. I also offer them snacks, drinks and I have a stack of People magazines for them to read. I rarely have Mom’s that come over and hover but if they do I politely tell them that this is their chance to sit back and relax and enjoy.

7. Get them while they are young:

The best time to photograph a newborn is in the first fourteen days of life. During this time they sleep more soundly and curl up more easily into adorable poses. For babies that are born early and spend time in the hospital I try to get them into the studio within the first seven days of them being sent home. I don’t usually photograph babies younger then five days old since they are still working out how to feed and can often be very red or jaundiced. I have photographed babies as old as ten weeks and have been successful in getting newborn like poses. The key to photographing older babies is to make sure that they are kept awake for up to two hours prior to starting the session. I also make sure that the parents understand that there is no guarantee that they will get typical sleepy shots.

8. Take your time:

Newborn sessions can be quite time consuming so you should plan accordingly and educate the parents. If you are stressed about time the babies will sense that. My typical newborn session lasts at least three hours with some as long as four hours. It takes time to get newborns comfortably posed and sleeping soundly. It also takes time to perfect the little details like keeping their hands flat and fingers straightened.

9. Be safe:

Remember that although you are an artist and your goal is to capture an amazing image, at the end of the day this is someone’s precious new life that they have entrusted you with.  No portrait is worth putting a baby at risk of getting hurt. Use common sense and always make sure to have someone VERY close by spotting the baby, even if the baby is on a beanbag. Be gentle and NEVER force a newborn into a pose.   Make it a habit to always wash your hands well before starting the session, and make sure that all of your blankets are laundered after each use.  Never ever photograph a newborn if you are ill, even with a common cold.   Babies are very susceptible to infections, and it is our job to keep them safe.

10. Enjoy!

Newborn sessions are my favorite. What an amazing experience it is to hold a precious new life in your hands and be able to document all the precious details of these sweet little ones.

Memories by TLC (Tracy Callahan) is a fine art portrait studio specializing in newborns, young children and maternity sessions. Website | Facebook

Hello and Welcome to the May, Challenge #2 Highlights post.  The highlight of a sunflare photo, is, of course, the sun, so I hope everyone has had plenty of sunny days to shoot!

The sun is definitely shining in the MCP Flickr gallery this week. Here are some of the Project MCP team’s favorite sunny day photos:

Submitted by austin GG

Submitted by StudioNineProtraits

Submitted by LadyLyn

Submitted by Jillustrated

SSubmitted by Elev8Photography

Next week’s challenge is to capture the concept of “friend” in a photo. We cannot wait to see what you come up with; real or imaginary, 2-legged or 4, we want to see your friends in photos.

Also, don’t forget, participate in Project MCP this month, enter your links to the May, 2012 theme post and be entered for a chance (or several, depending on how many of the challenge photos you submit this month) to win a new lens from Tamron. Details on how to win can be found HERE. Best of luck to everyone!

We want to thank our corporate sponsors for Project MCP:

Introducing the Quick Clicks Collection for Lightroom 4!

We’ve completely re-worked our Quick Clicks Collection presets so you can enhance your photos in Lightroom 4. The best news is that the LR4 version works on both RAW and JPG images. Going forward, when you buy, you will get the presets for LR 2-4 with every purchase at no additional charge. Additionally, you’ll have all the tools you need to edit every photo, regardless of file type.

Because we value customer service, we are offering our Lightroom 4 presets as a complimentary upgrade to anyone who bought Quick Clicks Collection for Lightroom 2 and 3.

Upgrading your presets is easy.  Just log on to your account at MCP Actions. Then go to your account – then to the “My Downloadable Products on the left side. Re-download the Lightroom 2 and 3 presets.  Lightroom 4 presets will be in the zip file too. Make sure to read the installation instructions.  If you need assistance, check the FAQs here.

Additional notes:

• We’ve added five brand new preset sections inside the Finishing Enhancers of the Quick Clicks Collection.  These allow you to get even more out of your color edits, from rich color pops to vibrant skies.

• One of the many benefits of Lightroom 4 is that you no longer need separate presets for RAW and JPG photos.  So, regardless of which set you purchased originally, you’ll be able to use your new presets on all files types.

And what if you haven’t purchased this Lightroom preset collection yet? Start by reading the product reviews to see what others think about this collection of nearly 300 presets.  If you still need convincing, download our Free Mini Quick Clicks on our Site or  on our Facebook Page.

And when you’re ready to slash your editing time with the Quick Clicks Collection, purchase the presets here.

Have you ever tried taking pictures of someone wearing glasses?

When my daughter Ellie got her first pair of glasses in early 2011, I found a new photography challenge.  Since she wears glasses all the time, it is important for her self-esteem to photograph them on her.  Since it is harder to photograph someone in glasses than without them, I had to learn how to avoid and embrace glasses glare.

I had no idea how challenging it would be until I started taking snapshots and portraits. The light reflects off the glass and hides the eyes. It sometimes creates odd green colors on the surface or reflections coming from every direction.

After much practice in the past year here are tips to help you photograph people in glasses:

1. Look for the light. Just as you do when looking for catchlights, look for glare on glasses too. This is tricky but watch as the light and glare hits the glass. Rotate or turn the head slightly as needed. Sometimes finding just the right shaded area blocking light helps too.

2. Photo-journalistic or story-telling. If your subject is not looking directly at you, usually you will have less glare or it just becomes less important.

Ellie looking away from the camera.

Ellie looking down:

3. Tilt the head. I am 100% sure Ellie gets tired of hearing me say tilt your head down or angle your head this way. Tilting or angling the subject’s head down slightly helped to get rid of glare in many situations. The only potential negative is that sometimes the eyes get cut off by the glasses. And the entire eye and lid is not showing through the glass. But this to me is still better than reflections in many cases.

In this first photograph, see the greenish glare over her eyes?

In the second image, her head is tilted down and at an angle.  It is a trade off and often, I will snap a few of each type.

4. Shade them. Use a hat or something from above to partially or completely block certain beams of light causing the problem.

For this super silly photo, Ellie has a hat on. There is light glare on the sides but none covering the main part of her eyes.

5. Remove the lenses.  This is not something I have done personally. But many photographers have the subject pop out the glass from the frames. This way you capture the subject how they look, but without glare. This makes it super easy for the photographer, but who wants to remove lenses from a frame? Not me. I’d ruin them…

6. Angle the glasses. Another trick photographers sometimes use to avoid glare, rather than having the subject tilt his/her head, is to actually angle the glasses. Instead of resting the back of the glasses on the ears, they are lifted above them, which tilts the glasses downward. This sometimes looks awkward so it is not a method I use.

7. Take your time. Explain to your subject that glasses often reflect light and other objects, so you may need to pose them in ways to avoid light covering their eyes and causing distractions.  Take your time while shooting.  It is way harder to get rid of glare and white spots on glasses in post processing and Photoshop.

8. Take them off. When I got glasses in college, I always took them off for photos. For people who only wear glasses occasionally, this is the easiest way.  But it is not a great solution for people who have worn glasses for a long time or, in my opinion, for kids.  You do not want a kid to feel something is “wrong” with them just because they wear glasses.  In my daughter’s situation, if I asked her to “take them off,” even if it makes photographing her easier, it might send a message that she is not as pretty with them or that glasses are too much trouble. I would never want to damage her self-confidence.  So unless she happens not to wear them, they stay on. Also, if you are a professional photographer, unless your customer does not want glasses on, it is not a great idea to suggest removal.  Before you start taking money for your photography, make sure you can shoot a subject with glasses if needed.

9. Sunglasses. One of the easiest ways to shoot in the sun is when the subject has sunglasses on. This is a great way to handle outdoor snapshots, though it may not be a solution for professional photographers for portrait sessions.

10. Embrace glare. Sometimes, especially on open sun and when subjects are with multiple people, it is impossible to avoid. The biggest goal is not to have bright spots of light covering the eyes, but if the light hits on other parts of the glasses, it is not always a bad thing. And even if it does, sometimes the photo still works. How could I possibly dispose of this image just because of the light?

And if I asked Ellie to tilt her head, it would have ruined the essence.

If all else fails, there’s always Photoshop:

• Shoot two and swap in Photoshop. Here is a tutorial on swapping eyes from one image into another, showing you how to take a photo with glasses, then a second without. Then merge parts of each to get a photo with non-glare glasses.

• More editing tricks. While there is no Photoshop action to get rid of glasses glare, there are some things you can do in Photoshop to help.

• Try the burn tool set to a low flow to darken the haze caused by glasses
• Use a Photoshop action like the MCP Eye Doctor to sharpen, lighten or darken parts of the eyes, just where it is needed. Sometimes you will find only one eye needs darkening or sharpening since the light affects one lens more than the other.
• Use the clone tool, patch tool and healing tool, as needed for removal of small bits of flare at a time.  These tools can be tricky and time consuming, but also effective.
• On rare occasions, you may have one eye that is fine and one with bad glare.  You can duplicate the good eye and sometimes replace the bad one, with good layer masking and transforming.
• If you are not strong in Photoshop, you can always hire a professional retoucher who can make almost any problem go away, for a price.

Photoshop CS6 is now available for purchase.  There are some amazing new features.  You can read about our favorites in the Best Features in Photoshop CS6 for Portrait Photographers article.

We love the new skin tones option in the color range dialogue, the iris blur, better resizing features, richer opacity controls and search functions in the layers panel, improved patch tool, non-destructive crop tool, and more.

As we mentioned before, all of our Photoshop actions work in CS6.

If you crop photos at the beginning of your workflow, rather than at the end, you may get an error that reads, “The object layer ‘Background’ is not currently available” when you run some Photoshop actions.

You’ll probably panic the first time you see it and assume your actions don’t work.  They do.

• Photoshop actions that worked properly in CS5 will work in CS6 too.
• If you use the crop tool first, and have the box labeled “Delete Cropped Pixels” unchecked, you will have a non-destructive workflow.  That is a good thing. You retain all pixel information in your photograph and can re-crop at any time (assuming that you save as a layered, non-flattened file).   The drawback is that the “Background” layer in the layers panel becomes “Layer 0.”  Any Photoshop actions that call upon “Background” will get the error: “The object layer ‘Background’ is not currently available.”

Watch the video below to learn how to avoid or fix this issue manually. Also you can download the Free MCP Action Fixer for CS6, which does the work for you.

If you run into the error message here is what you can do:

1. Good: Check off “Delete Cropped Pixels” – this will preserve your “Background” layer and actions will work.  The downsize is cropping will trash pixels, as it did in CS5 and below.
2. Good: Flatten after cropping, even if you only have one layer called”Layer 0.”  This will rename the layer to “Background.” We included an action to flatten in our Free Photoshop Action: MCP Action Fixer for CS6: Flatten. Download it now.
3. Better: Crop at the end of your workflow after running action. Leave “Delete Cropped Pixels” unchecked. Save as a layered file if you may want to crop in the future.
4. Best: Use our Free Photoshop Action: MCP Action Fixer for CS6: Background.  Download it here. This will preserve the layers and rename the “Layer 0″ to an unlocked “Background” layer.  Photoshop actions will work and you can enjoy non-destructive cropping.
5. Best: Rename the layer titled “Layer 0″ to “Background” – same advantages as five.