Photoshop opened up a whole world of possibilities for photographers and image editing experts by allowing them to develop automation within their workflow. No more so than in the areas of Portrait and Wedding Photography.

At the same time though, it created an unprecedented burden on many to learn this new technology and perform like a pro. The trouble has always been that Photoshop is vast in its possibilities, and the task of learning enough of its workings a huge undertaking. Often times, it has become too much for some, and they disappear back into their shells. At least for a while.

My personal experience of this, as a photographer is that I was young and excited and very determined, and years on, I am still learning. Through this I have learnt something about identifying the challenges of specific types of image production, and then how to discover satisfactory solutions to reproduce them easily.

When you look at a beautifully edited set of images from a professional photographer, you’ll see that they have had a lot of image enhancements made to them. For most Photographers, this is the primary way to create a noticable difference between what they offer clients and what the clients can do for themselves. It adds a distinctive value to their work that clients can appreciate and are happy to pay for.

This makes professional image enhancement a necessity for Photographers wanting a successful business rather than just a fanciful luxury.

The challenges with having to perform expertly, in this 21st Century way, for Photographers are manyfold. For example, using Photoshop for this process is a given fact. However learning Photoshop requires a longterm commitment as it is such a vast piece of software. Once you have learnt the basics, how far should you go with your retouching? What level of editing do clients actually like the best? How much time should you spend on editing the images? How much should you charge? What extras should you charge for? What is now expected as a standard level? Just what are todays customers expectations?

Some of these questions you will be able to answer instinctively. Others will require time and the feedback of your paying clients.

For the majority of Photographers the toughest questions relate directly to the photo editing side of things. Fortunately we have Photoshop, and then perhaps even better, we have Photoshop Actions!

The development of time saving Actions in Photoshop opened up a new arena for photographers wishing to improve the look of their work and compete commercially. These Actions are incredibly useful in Wedding and Portrait Photography, where dozens of images need to be edited in a short amount of time.

Actions are small (usually) bits of software that tell Photoshop exactly what to do to an image. Each Action is named according to its function and they are activated by clicking an onscreen button. These actions and their butttons are listed in a pallette (a movable panel) inside the Photoshop work area.

Actions are designed to perform repetitve tasks at the click of a button. The sort of tasks they cope with can be wide and varied. Typically though, they will do things like add soft focus to an image, sharpen an image, add warmth to the colours of an image, or perhaps even to resize an image.

To the portrait and wedding Photographer, this can be a godsend. For example, as a Wedding Photographer, you may have 150 images or more lined up, and they all need work doing to them. Lets say you want to sharpen these pictures, then increase the color saturation slightly and finally bring out detail in the midtones! Phew! Doing each one manually one after the other takes hours as anyone who has tried will tell you.

Photoshop Actions to the rescue! With these Actions, you open one image, press a ‘Record Actions’ button to then log the changes you are making. When you are happy with those changes, you then easily ‘Batch Process’ all the other images on Auto with those same changes while you go for a walk or have a cup of tea!

Naturally, there are many tips, tricks and techniques involved with all of this, but in reality, these Actions make it commercially viable to output superb images to all of your clients all of the time.

Unfortunately though, there is a problem with all of this. Regular Actions have their limitations. Inspite of what I have said, to edit your images to a satisfactory standard can still take a huge amount of skill and time. Time is expensive, and when you have established the processes you like to use regularly for your own personal style, you will still (inevitably) end up bogged down in tedious repetitive tasks.

So what is the answer to all of this? It seems that there are now some highly sophisticated Photoshop Action sets that have just been made available. These go beyond our normal expectations of what Actions are capable of. Amongst other things, they can be adapted to your personal style of imagery. These Action sets can enhance your images almost on complete auto pilot and they work at blisteringly fast speeds too.

You can find out more about these actions on the developers site at Pro Photoshop Answers . I understand that they can turn out work that is finished to an incredibly high standard with very little skilled effort from the operator. This means your learning curve is shortened as well as that of anybody else that you may want to train to help you with your work! Aah! It sounds like an image editors dream…

There was a Photoshop Actions limited availabilty promotion that could help you. It may still be on…Good luck

For Photographers who are just starting out with their very own photography business, it is often hard to know exactly where in your Photographic Niche you sit. One thing is for sure, is that you will want to create a Price List that is reflective of you and your new Photographic Enterprise.

Within that, you will want to make up a photography price list for the services that you will offer. You will need to have a list that you can show to prospective clients.

However before you prepare your photography price list, you will have to do a little research so that you do not overprice or under-price your services. There are a few easy ways that you can work on making this photography list. It is essential though to get a confidence about yourself and your work before you actually embark on this task.

The reason for this? Picture your self standing in front of a prospective client, timid and unsure about what you should charge. I think that you are you likely to under price your work, yes? Now picture yourself full of confidence, brimming over with certainty about your photography, your services, your market place and your place in it. Chest out and shoulders back. Now I expect that the next words out of your mouth will be more representitve of the real value of your work! Don’t you think?

Through some basic research and honest self assessment, you can achieve all of this. You can get the information you need about the best ways to proceed, for free, from www.photodomination.com. They have other resources freely available too, that you may find useful in your new career direction.

Amongst other things, in seeing what other photographers do, you will discover that prices vary wildly within the same niche. You will find that some Photographers do not even publish a price list (probably on the basis that ‘if you have to ask, you can’t afford it!’) Others offer a pricing ‘guide’. Others are a bit too inclusive with the information offered, such as having lots of special offers with ugly little exclusions and disclaimers attached!

Wherever you are right now in your new photography business development, whether you want to run it as a home based business, or to run it from a studio, you need market information and certainty. Pick up the free E-Book at www.photodomination.com. You will be ahead of yourself before you know it!

Image editng is about take on a whole new dimension. Adobe Photoshop CS5 is likely to be incorporating the sort of image manipulation facilities you could only dream of. Reports have the release date for this software pegged at some time in April. You can get all adobe info and products here: Adobe

If you are used to the Clone & Patch tools or even the Transform facility, on occaision, you will have had to spend a lot of time tidying up the joins and distortions you inadvertently create. In the video, you will see the answer to your prayers!

Hopefully, these functions will be incorporated into the latest and greatest version of the king of image editing software – Adobe Photoshop CS5. With Photoshop Talk, you will always find the latest on image editing, photo enhancements & digital photography.

Photoshop is evolving to a new level with the latest image enhancement and brush controls. Adobe Photoshop CS5 is likely to be incorporating the sort of paint facilities and manipulation resources you could only dream of. Reports have the release date for this software pegged at some time in April. You can get all adobe info and products here: Adobe

If you are used to the Clone & Patch tools or even the Transform facility, on occaision, you will have had to spend a lot of time tidying up the joins and distortions you inadvertently create. In the video, you will see the answer to your prayers!

The Adobe team seem pretty excited about all of this, as our team is here at Photoshop Talk. I reckon there is going to be a lot of CS5 upgrades as well as new purchases of this incredicble image enhancement system. Whether you are a graphic artist, digital photographer, scrap booker, professional or hobbyist thiese developments are going to be great fun.

For my part, I am first in line!

Shameless Photographers Will Survive
Many of the traditional promotional methods that photographers have used over the years are now killing them off! These techniques have become unbearably expensive & painfully ineffective. The net result has been the death nell of many quality High street businesses.
Through a lack of knowledge and resources many Pro Photographers were unable to respond in any meaningful way. Others have been absorbed into costly franchises, which in turn are having to evolve or disappear themselves. A few others though have prospered. Just one of the methods used is ’shameless ‘ self promotion. It is much easier than you think.
So what does this mean to you? If you want, you can avoid this ongoing flood of business demises and actually ride the rising tide of newer highly effective marketing methods. Become the recognized leader in your market place. Here is the HOW TO plus the Resources that you will need.

For more Go Here

Lies. LIes & More Damned Lies
What baloney! I remember the early 1990’s and all the wonderful expectations that the anticipated digital photographic revolution held in store. A very exciting time. Most of those expectations were surpassed years ago.
However, instead of more free time, I seem to have less. To counter this I have a real ‘must have’ treat for you. Adobe Photoshop is an amazing and vast tool. Along with its many and tempting pleasures comes the price of having to learn to use it!
I have decided to give you a treasure of mine. If used, you will save time and make more money; plus, you will have very happy customers singing your praises…in that order! Called the ‘60 Second EZ retouch’, it is a sophisticated & powerful Photoshop Action that is easy to use & comes complete with tutorials. Download it here

This article is about giving yourself a simple bit of protection, which is easy to deploy. It covers your needs for a Model Release Form. Although this articles primary drive is about Models – They also come in the child size. Not only that, you may need a Propery Release Form. How about that! All are available for Download at the bottom of this post.

Have you ever been watching a video or a show that includes public shots and some of the faces seem to be blurred out? No, that is not poor production values on the part of the video team. That is because the producers who eventually sold that video to be used commercially did not secure releases from those individuals. And if they used their images, they are laying themselves open for lots of legal problems.

So how do you know if the work you are doing in your photography business requires such releases? After all, you would rather be safe than sorry and get releases from everybody you use as a subject than face a problem down the road. But there is a downside to securing them if you are not sure. That is the impression you create in the mind of your customer.

If you primarily do portraits, weddings or other events where the intent of your work is to sell the photographs to the people being photographed, there is certainly no need for releases. So long as you have no intention of ever using any of those photographs in a sale that will profit your business other than the original way, then you should be fine.

It is when you step over into that realm of photography in which you may be working with models to provide photographs for advertising, magazines, newspapers or any other purpose in which you are selling the images you have photographed for a profit, that is when a release is needed. This area of professional photography is tremendously profitable because you are working at a higher tier of professionalism than photographing the public to provide them with portrait level pictures. And because it is such a lucrative arena of professional photography, the competition to make those sales is stiff to be sure.

When you are working with professional models, securing their releases is pretty much part of the program and never a problem. They are working for you and they know the photographs are for sale so their agents and lawyers do all the legwork so the releases are routine and understood. But from your perspective, don’t let this detail go unattended to.

Your customers, those magazines or ad agencies who look to you for professional photography work, are assuming you have this covered and that they can count on you to deliver not only quality work but work that has been legally released to be used for promotion.

The complications come if you do your shoots in a public place such as a park, a mall or anywhere that there may be traffic that becomes part of the shot. If you complete the shoot and discover that the perfect shot that fits your customers needs just right happens to have miscellaneous members of the public in the background, you have to have releases from them or you cannot sell that photograph.

You could think ahead and try to secure those releases on the spot. But if the people you are trying to convince to sign such releases know you are going to use their images for profit, and you pretty much have to tell them, you get into another whole level of negotiation. But you sure don’t want to have to blur their faces out on the shot. You could Photoshop them out but that may lose the spontaneity of the shot.

It’s best to stage the shot from start to finish. If you want traffic to be occurring around your model, bring in models who can do the job for you. Any good modeling agency to provide you with “average looking” models to use for this purpose. You will have to pay them but at least you know that the shot is clean. Plus when you sell the shot, you are going to get questions about whether those models were paid and if you have releases on them too.

You can download a standard release forms at the bottom of this page or your lawyer can help you develop one that covers the legalities you eed handled but also reflects how you want to handle this issue. But don’t let this issue slide through the cracks. You can do this is, just get the appropiate model release form.

By protecting yourself, you can do good business and profitable business but above all, legal business in perusing your professional photography career.

The following Downloads are all examples of what model release forms often look like. I have include a simple and sophisticated version for the adult version.

HERE IS MY DISCLAIMER ABOUT THESE RELEASE FORMS: I, Mike Eastman, nor Photodomination.com take legal responsibilty for the legal validity of the respective forms, or for the consequences to anyone who relies on them. They are offered to you for information and education purposes only .You must seek independent professional legal advice before signing any kind of contract, including Model Release Forms & Property Release Forms.

Download All RELEASE FORMS

Disposable cameras are cheap and easy to use. If you just want to take some snapshots and have fun then this is the camera for you. You can buy them in bulk for weddings and other special occasions. You can even take some of them underwater. Whether you take them snorkeling or to a messy kid’s birthday party, you won’t have to worry about ruining your expensive equipment.

Disposable cameras are also called “single-use” or “one-time” cameras. You can get both digital and film disposable cameras. They’re available almost everywhere, from your local camera store to the grocery store. These cameras take all the work, worry and fuss out of picture taking and leave pure enjoyment. The photo quality is often quite good, and the point-and-shoot nature of almost all disposable cameras mean that you can capture those moments that are missed as you fiddle with all the buttons and wires and the 100+ pages of detailed instructions in your expensive camera’s owner’s manual. Additionally, when you point a little plastic camera at someone, the reaction you get will likely be very different; people are disarmed, more casual and open.disposable cameras

Technorati Tags: photoshop actions, image editing software, retouching, photo retouching, wedding photography

A new developer is offering free Photoshop retouching tutorials with free Photoshop Actions. He says that… Even relative beginners can now do refined image editing with confidence.

The Photoshop retouching learning curve

Anyone and everyone who has ever pursued the art of image editing using Photoshop retouching techniques will have progressed through a steep and arduous learning curve, that now and then will have been quite testing. Mike Eastman of www.photodomination.com, says this has now all changed. He believes that his new Photoshop action set is currently revolutionising the method for many photographers, amateurs and professionals alike.

For Amateurs & Skilled Photoshop users alike

He says that “Around the planet there are hundreds of thousands of photographers practicing and perfecting their image editing skills, both for fun and for profit right now.” He goes on to add “Amateurs need a straightforward ‘point & click’ system they will ‘plug-in’ that may give them extremely great results that can look superb on their walls at home, or very cool on their latest Blog update. Professionals however need one thing a lot of than that. They need an entire work flow enhancement system that will empower them to produce results that makes them distinct from their customers.”

This Photoshop Action does its job in under a minute

In the past, this kind of system would have come at a hefty price. But it seems that this price tag has gone, currently anyway. It is claimed that for the Professional this Photoshop Action set could be the answer. Apparently, once easily installed, at the press of a button, this Photoshop action launches itself and works a full series of small to large miracles, enhancing your images along the way. It uses a sophisticated and bewildering combination of layers, masks, alpha channel selections, skin enhancing processes and auto space selections to do its job. At the end you’re left with a collection of infinitely variable controls inside the layers palette enabling you to put the perfect finishing touches to your image. Your image will now be ready to show to friends and family, or to your clients. All this is done in under a minute.

Could this be more than just ‘another Photoshop Action set’?

This Photoshop Action set is termed the ’60sec EZ retouch’ and can be obtained through the www.photodomination.com website as a free download with full tutorials. It looks that, no matter your background in photography or image editing, this addition to your Photoshop arsenal is worth having and may potentially become a mainstay. Mike says that the range is being extended, but for now he is continuing to give away this original image editing solution. Go Here

Hi,

It has been a really exciting time with the launch of the EZretouch range of Photoshop actions and I would like to hear about your experiences about 60sec EZ retouch and/or its version 2 update.

As a thank you for your time, I will personally email you a link to download the amazing ‘Click & Glow’ 5 second action set (Soon to be sold at $47).
It will be yours for free.

Please note that some of your comments may be used as testimonials in my online promotions, and by leaving those comments on this post gives me your acceptance of that (some comments may be edited for brevity etc).

Also, as a special bonus, writers of the 5 top comments will receive the EZretouchPRO V2.0 action set ($97 worth)and its tutorial videos. All I ask is that they give me back genuine comments of their experiences with it within a week or so.

Please keep comments between 50 and 200 words, and be sure to leave your email address for me to send back the download link (The address will be edited out during moderation and will not be published).