Fundy SOS - Album Design Software, Online Album Proofing, Work Flow Software, Photography Pricing Software » Tip of the week http://www.fundysos.com Design better, work faster, increase profits Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:50:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Easy peasy fill flash http://www.fundysos.com/2010/07/easy-peasy-fill-flash/ http://www.fundysos.com/2010/07/easy-peasy-fill-flash/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:07:24 +0000 "Fundy" http://www.mobilefotographer.com/blog/?p=303
  • Take a meter reading off of the bride’s face and shoot in manual. Take a test shot. Perfect? Great.
  • Dial down your flash. On sunny days you’ll dial it down less, on cloudy a bit more. On this day I used -2. I usually start at -1.5 and see where that gets me.
  • Shoot away.
  • In a test shot, I’ll often zoom in on the face and make sure that the flash isn’t too noticeable. If you can see the flash, then you probably have it on too high. Keep it simple, and keep it fun during the formals.
  • No shadows under the eyes.

    Flash set to -2 ev

    I hope that makes things easier, next time you need a little fill light. Fundy]]>
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    Growing Your Business http://www.fundysos.com/2010/06/growing-your-business/ http://www.fundysos.com/2010/06/growing-your-business/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:57:23 +0000 "Fundy" http://www.mobilefotographer.com/blog/?p=277 Sadly, one of the most important people in our team is not in the photo, because he’s taking the photo. Mike (head of support and web guru at Fundy SOS and Left Turn Studio) is the man behind the camera here. We are extremely fortunate to have a great team working with us. Mike is lord of everything tech at the studio and without Essie we wouldn’t even know where anything was. They are essential to our success at the studio and keeping us focused. One of the issues many photographers, as small business owners have, is proper growth. You work on your marketing, building your brand, making yourself busy. Then it happens and you are busy – so busy that you can’t keep up with all your orders, can’t get out there and market – can’t do anything. What happens next? Well, more often than not, we end up finding someone who wants to be a photographer, knows a little bit about Lightroom and Album Design and we hire them. How does this work out? If you have done this, you know. It doesn’t work out. They get quickly board behind the computer, learn all your tricks and open up across town. We blame them, but really it is our own fault. There is no way, someone who wants to be a photographer will be happy doing computer work while YOU do what they love. So what to do? I’ve recently talked with two photographers in this very situation and helped them start down the proper path. The answer, is simple. Hire someone right for the job. If you need help answering the phones and organizing orders, hire someone with office experience, who enjoys answering phones and running an office. If you need help with Lightroom and Album Design, hire someone who likes sitting in front of the computer for 8 hours a day. Don’t hire another photographer – or wanna be. But most importantly, hire someone. If you are bogged down in your orders and never get out to meet people or network, your business will won’t survive, and you probably won’t either. ]]> http://www.fundysos.com/2010/06/growing-your-business/feed/ 0 Tip of the Week – High End Baby Portraits http://www.fundysos.com/2010/06/tip-of-the-week-high-end-baby-portraits/ http://www.fundysos.com/2010/06/tip-of-the-week-high-end-baby-portraits/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:01:37 +0000 "Fundy" http://www.mobilefotographer.com/blog/?p=252 ]]> http://www.fundysos.com/2010/06/tip-of-the-week-high-end-baby-portraits/feed/ 1 Tip of the Week – Meet my kids, meet CS5 http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/tip-of-the-week-meet-my-kids-meet-cs5/ http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/tip-of-the-week-meet-my-kids-meet-cs5/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 23:20:41 +0000 "Fundy" http://www.mobilefotographer.com/blog/?p=220 . The shot turned out great, but of course my wife was complaining about the kid playing in the background. I would like to personally thank Adobe for saving me a ton of grief. Pre-CS5 this would have been a nightmare. I would have to get out the clone tool and spend a good hour cloning her out. But now with CS5, I just select the girl and go Edit>Fill, select content aware and I’m done!! Wahoo. Now check it out. Now, do a little retouching, convert to BW and my wife is a happy camper! ]]> http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/tip-of-the-week-meet-my-kids-meet-cs5/feed/ 3 If you ain't got profiles, you ain't got nothin'! http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/if-you-aint-got-profiles-you-aint-got-nothin/ http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/if-you-aint-got-profiles-you-aint-got-nothin/#comments Sat, 08 May 2010 00:13:37 +0000 "Fundy" http://www.mobilefotographer.com/blog/?p=200 Now let’s look at an image with the Camera Vivid profile attached to it (Adobe’s profile to mimic Nikon’s Vivid setting – our favorite). I shot this image in manual exposure and other than setting the correct Camera Profile in Lightroom and sizing for the web, I’ve done nothing to it. Well, I softened the skin a bit, but the colors, contrast, etc. are literally straight out of the camera. So, how do you do this? The good answer is pretty dang easy. Here you see the basic setting in Lightroom, the Adobe Standard profile. Under Camera Calibration in Lightroom, the Profile says Adobe Standard. Simply select that Profile drop down menu and change it to the one you want. Do you like Canon’s Portrait profile? It’s a great one, then just choose Camera Portrait. I chose Camera Vivid for ours because it bumps up the colors but leaves the great skin tones that Nikon has. ]]> http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/if-you-aint-got-profiles-you-aint-got-nothin/feed/ 5 Tip of the Week – Cool HDR "Look" without the HDR http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/tip-of-the-week-cool-hdr-look-without-the-hdr/ http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/tip-of-the-week-cool-hdr-look-without-the-hdr/#comments Thu, 06 May 2010 19:37:33 +0000 "Fundy" http://www.mobilefotographer.com/blog/?p=193 One of the new super cool features in CS5 is the HDR Image Toning. It let’s you create that cool HDR ‘look’ with just one image. Last week we did a great shoot out in Yamhill, Oregon and I was able to use my 14-24 2.8 for some amazing shots. It thought it would be a great test for the HDR. As you can see in the Pre-HDR and the After HDR, there is a dramatic difference in both the shadows and the highlights. If you see this image at full resolution it is amazing the detail it brings out. It is just amazing. My settings The default HDR settings are good except for Portraits you need to change the following.
    • Radius – bump up to 200
    • Strength – 1.3
    • Vibrance – 13
    • Saturation – MINUS 4
    To access this Toning function, go to Image>Adjustments>HDR Toning. Adobe has a free trial of CS5, give it a whirl. ]]>
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    Photoshop Technique – Dental Work http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/photoshop-technique-teeth/ http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/photoshop-technique-teeth/#comments Mon, 03 May 2010 01:02:05 +0000 "Fundy" http://www.mobilefotographer.com/blog/?p=180 So here’s the incredibly simple technique. In Photoshop open the liquify tool. Filter> Liquify Use the Forward Ward Tool (W) ( The one that looks like a paint brush at the top of the Liquify toolbar.) Carefully move the pixels into place so that the teeth are even.  Hit ok.  I then ran Touch Flow’s “Teeth Whitener” for instant dental whitening. (Who needs Crest?)      “Teeth Whitener” works by using the brush tool to whiten the teeth.  Be sure to brush only on the teeth and not the gums. This took less than 30 second to fix and it makes a huge difference in a smile. Stephanie Zettl Stephanie Zettl is a top St. Louis wedding photographer and owner of Zettl Photography Stephanie Zettl & Chuck Arlund will be teaching a workshop together June 7 &8 in St.  Louis, MO.  For more information on how you can  walk away from a workshop feeling like you were both inspired and learned something useful, please visit the Zettl Photography Blog.]]> http://www.fundysos.com/2010/05/photoshop-technique-teeth/feed/ 0 Tip of the week- easy two tones http://www.fundysos.com/2010/04/tip-of-the-week-easy-two-tones/ http://www.fundysos.com/2010/04/tip-of-the-week-easy-two-tones/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:02:07 +0000 "Fundy" http://www.mobilefotographer.com/blog/?p=126 Lightroom allows a fantastic way to quickly and easily create split toning. It takes just a few seconds, and the great thing is that you can save your tones as a preset. I’ll take you through these 3 easy steps right here. Step 1 – In the basic section of the develop module click “Grayscale” to turn your photo into BW. Step 2 – Scroll down to the split toning section. Here you will see your highlight and your shadows color. Simply click on the gray color box in the highlights section and choose your highlight color. This will be the “tint” of the highlights in your BW. You can also choose the amount of color it ads by using the saturation slider. Now do the same for your shadows. Step 3 – Like that color? Want to save it? Just look over on the left hand side where it says presets. There will be a + sign. Click on that, and choose your settings you want to save and presto, you have an easily repeatable split tone.]]> http://www.fundysos.com/2010/04/tip-of-the-week-easy-two-tones/feed/ 0