Quick Hit Monday: Starting Your Wedding Business; Lighting Tricks; Cool Photography: Lots Of Photoshop Tips, Tutorial, and Brushes

Good Morning Everybody,

We left one of the most beautiful places on earth last Saturday and arrived back in rainy Kentucky late Saturday evening. And, it looks like more of the same wet weather all week.  No worries though, we have wonderful memories of our visit to Banff and Spring is in the air here in good ol’ KY.

After signing off of last Friday’s post, LaDawn and I rented a car and took a breathtaking drive over to Lake Louise and then continued many more miles down the Ice Fields Highway.  I said it many times before, but this drive has to be about the most beautiful in the world.  Just check out my “drive by shooting” image above. The soaring snow capped mountains reaching to the crisp blue sky simply takes your breath away.  We both said we would definitely make a return trip.

We got settled in over the Easter weekend and ready for another busy week around the studio. Then on Friday we head out to Dallas, TX for a week teaching at Texas School, the largest school in the country.  I’ll give you more details as we get closer to the weekend.

Anyway, I’ve got quite a few interesting tidbits for you in today’s Quick Hit Monday, so let’s get right to them.

Creative Thinking & Creative Lighting

I thought this was quite interesting post when I saw it come across over the weekend.  In this photograph by Joey Celis you see 11 people, nicely lit in a dim cigar bar.  How do you light each of the models without taking a photograph of all the gear?  Hey, it’s really kind of easy if you take a minute or two to think it through.  Here is the link right here to how it was created.

Highlight Tone Priority Revisited

A few years ago I did a post entitled “Highlight Tone Priority – Image Salvation” [link] expounding the benefits of using Highlight Tone Priority especially when shooting weddings or shooting anything for that matter.  I have it enabled ALL THE TIME on all my cameras.  In that post I went into quite a bit of detail as to why I liked the feature so much on my Canon cameras.  BTW – it’s called Active D-Lighting on Nikon cameras.

The interesting result of the post was the wide range of responses to the post but that’s not the point today.  Well, maybe it is. One recent commenter pointed me to this YouTube video which is about the best explanation I’ve seen on the subject. Here is the link right here – enjoy.

Starting Your own Wedding Photography Business

Jasmine Star has skyrocketed to the top of her field of wedding photography in only a few short years.  How did she do it, considering the amount of competition in today’s market place? It sounds like a secret everyone would like to know.

Well, now you can learn the secret too.  Over at BHInsights.com Jasmine recently shared her secret in her guest blog post right here.  Good info and good advice.

Want a little more wedding photography inspiration?  Check out these wedding website of several other successful wedding photographers right here. Notice who tops the list ;~)

A Little Photographic Inspiration For You

I love browsing the kind of sites I’ve got for you today.  Hey, none of them have anything to do with wedding photography and that’s the point.  Sometimes we need to get our brain juices flowing and exploring sites not related to our own field of interest is the best way to do just that.  Let me invite you to explore three sites.

• Beautiful Waterscape photography right here.
• Stunning Sunset photography right here.
• Mind blowing HRD photography right here.

Oh, BTW, would you like to explore a few more photography web sites.  Then hit this link right here for the mother load of tons of photo related sites!  Have fun.

Another Photoshop Mother  Load Of Tips, Tricks, Brushes, and More

I can’t believe how much stuff is on the web these days.  There simply is no way to keep up with it all.  I like to think I point you towards some pretty cool links on Quick Hit Monday and lately many of those links have been Photoshop related. I really hope you enjoy a few of the PS gold nuggets I toss your way.  I think they’re pretty cool ;~)  Anyway, here is this week’s list.

• Deke McClellan’s tutorial on how to turn a photo into an ink drawing right here.
• 30 interesting Photoshop text effects tutorials right here.
• How to enhance B&W photographs in Lightroom and Photoshop right here.
• Thirty, yes - count them, 30 SETS of FREE Photoshop brushes right here.
• Thirty prime examples of digital manipulation right here.  (These are always some of my favorite images to check out.)
• And lastly, how to get Photoshop running at peak performance right here.

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  I’ve got to check in with my team and see what’s been happening around here since we’ve been gone.  I’ve got a few projects to wrap up this week too.  So, for me it’s my nose back to the grindstone ;~)

I’ll plan to see everybody tomorrow for another episode of Technique Tuesday.

Adios everybody, David