Lighting

5 Reasons to Use Creative Lighting

In today’s age of high dynamic range cameras and increased knowledge of post-production software, photographers are beginning to rely less and less on the fundamentals of lighting. I can tell you firsthand that our studio built a foundation of its success on the ability to use creative light in any situation. Lighting, in my opinion, is the first thing that we should learn as professional photographers. Lighting will dictate the location that you shoot in as well as the overall style that you are trying to achieve.

03/01/2020

Post Production

5 Steps to Brush Up on Retouching in Photoshop

As photographers, you should focus on making your client look their best, but do not transform them into someone they won’t recognize. The rule of thumb with retouching is to be subtle enough that it’s not even noticeable that you did it. For this level of editing, I find myself starting in Lightroom or another RAW processing program, then retouching in Photoshop. In my opinion, there is no other comparable tool, and with actions, using a tablet for pressure sensitivity, and using a non-destructive post-production workflow, I can run through multiple images with ease. So if you need to dust off your editing skills, these are the five steps to brush up on retouching in Photoshop.

03/01/2020

Senior Photography

5 Steps for a Successful Senior Model Program

I often hear things like, “What theme are you doing with your senior models this year?” And simultaneously I am hearing, “Senior model programs don’t work!” I believe the process of creating a theme and requiring each senior to dress in a certain way is confusing to your clientele. On the one hand, you are marketing a unique senior experience, yet you are lumping those same people into a concept of your choosing. The desired result does not match the process. Most senior photographers consult with each senior about who they are and what aspects of their personality they want to show visually. The goal is to create a customized session that reflects the senior. However, the group model shoot concept, in its essence, denies seniors the opportunity to be unique or even themselves, because a theme has been established and they must conform.

03/01/2020

Shutter Magazine

3 Ways to Nail Bridal Prep

Taking pictures of the bride as she gets ready for the wedding ceremony on her special day is a time-honored tradition in wedding photography, but it can require a different set of skills from the traditional photos of the ceremony. I personally love the close, intimate setting and the candid shots that can be captured during bridal prep. Of course, it does take a little planning, a good deal of forethought, and the right mindset to bring out the best in the bride, the bridesmaids, and the hair and makeup artists. Here are three keys to photographing bridal preps that I’ve found to be extremely helpful:

03/01/2020

Senior Photography

The Most Important Question to Ask Senior Clients

As you listen, you will unlock exactly what you need to craft personalized art for your clients. Human beings naturally align with companies who create personal, client-focused experiences, paired with great service and expertise. To produce the best client encounter possible, spearhead a collaborative effort with them to help them feel valued and provide expertly tailored service and craftsmanship. This mutual approach will differentiate your studio from other photographers and illuminate you as an expert portrait artist who cares about more than just the bottom line.

03/01/2020

Shutter Magazine

The Sub-Stories You Must Cover on the Wedding Day

As wedding photographers, it’s important for us to step away from capturing only that which we think will impress our peers. We need to talk to our clients about why wedding photography is important to them. We must go beyond great shots of the couple, and truly tell the whole story of their wedding day. We need to artfully capture their details. We need to attentively capture fleeting moments. And we should offer suggestions on how to create moments that may not happen on their own. If we do this, we become better as photographers, we enjoy better album and portrait sales, and we earn the referrals of our clients and our vendors.

03/01/2020

Senior Photography

5 Ways You Can Increase Your Senior Sales

One of the best things you can do for your bottom line is not to learn how to photograph a better portrait or how to edit a cleaner image. It’s actually to study how to educate your potential and current clients on your end result … your portrait product offerings. Most photographers I’ve taught are missing out on pre-sale product education, and when it comes down to the ordering session, they’re left wondering why they didn’t make more. The following strategies are specific ways that you can increase your sales starting today, by diving deep into your clients’ psyches and finding ways to better motivate higher sale averages.

03/01/2020

Post Production

3 Quick Ways to Creatively Tone Your Images With Adjustment Layers

Between all the tools, filters, layers, and even 3D capabilities, Photoshop can be an intimidating program to approach for those new to photo editing. However, Photoshop offers plenty of powerful tools that can transform your images quickly and effectively. Here, we will focus on three different methods for utilizing adjustment layers to create fun and beautiful toning for your images.

02/01/2020

Post Production

Retouching Responsibly

My wife couldn’t watch me edit photos of her. She told me that it reminded her of how much older she was getting. As I would work on a picture, she would point out marks she wanted me to remove, or tell me how to handle things that the tiny amount of makeup she wore didn’t cover. For her, even though she had great skin and an athletic body, it was a process she didn’t enjoy watching, but she did love the resulting images. Now, this happened years ago, and it was an excellent lesson for me in terms of thinking about how clients would potentially look at their resulting images. It also created a set of guidelines I now use when retouching, and I wanted to pass those on to you, so you can avoid the same pitfalls I did.

02/01/2020

Post Production

5 Steps to Enhance Your Post-Production

I am well aware that post-production can be intimidating and sometimes even overwhelming. That is exactly how I felt at the beginning, when I first started learning about Photoshop and practicing my skills. On the other hand, it is a great tool for unlocking your creativity and bringing your photography to the next level. After I realized the difference post-production can make, I never looked back, and spent days exploring new ways to improve my work and my skills. Still, all those skills can be futile if you do not think about the post-production process before you even take the photo. That is why the next section is an extremely important step in my creative process.

02/01/2020

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Behind the Shutter

Photography training and education for the modern photographer

In today’s competitive landscape, quality online photography training and education is priceless to your growth. Unfortunately, most publications contain a ton of fluff. No real meat to their content. Not at Behind the Shutter. We are committed to the photography community and improving professional photography by providing current, insightful, and in-depth educational content.

Training topics include photography lighting techniques, photography off-camera flash tips, photography posing guides, photography business concepts and marketing strategies, Facebook for photographers, boudoir and glamour photography training, high-school senior photography concepts, IPS (In-Person Sales) strategies, family photography, Lightroom tutorials, Photoshop how-tos, and much, much more.

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Photography training and education for the modern photographer