The Art of Wedding Photography

Posted By on April 25, 2011

I am super excited to announce a new Webinar series ‘The Art of Wedding Photography’ sponsored by Calumet UK. This webinar series will be presented and co-hosted by Jayce Clarke, Crash Taylor & myself. Over 360 minutes of high quality tuition in the comfort of your own home!

Who should attend…

If you are looking to start a wedding photography business or wish to take your existing wedding photography business to the next level, brush up on your photographic skills and super charge your marketing & business acumen, then this webinar series is not to be missed. We’ll share with you our tips, tricks & techniques of our complete wedding work flow, equipment you need, software your require and much much more…

Crasht Taylor Wedding

Here’s what you’ll learn during the webinars:

Webinar 1: The Business of Wedding Photography

In these tough economic climate with so much competition out there, you need to stand head & shoulders above your competitors. This webinar is all about how to get leads, market yourself, convert the leads into bookings, offers, pricing & products. You’ll learn some cool marketing tips & strategies to take your wedding photography business forward. Plus you’ll learn how to organise a wedding from the initial inquiry, sending quotation, making a booking, receiving payments, invoicing, things to remember and to do. How to create your individual work flow for your business easily & effortlessly.

Jayce Clarke Photography

 

Webinar 2: Engagement Photography

Engagement photography is the easiest way to showcase your talent, your creativity and your brand in front of your potential clients. E-sessions are a perfect way to have high conversion rates from leads into bookings. There is a simple process to it. If followed, you will achieve amazing conversions like you never did before. During this webinar, you’ll learn how to, when and where to schedule your sessions to create stunning results. Images which will have your clients booking you up straight away!

Ice Hotel Sweden Wedding Photography by Uzair Kharawala

Webinar 3: Off-camera flash at Weddings

Crash, Oz & Jayce share with you their own individual styles and ways to use off-camera flash creatively and effectively to shoot incredible images in all kinds of conditions. You’ll see images shot in extreme conditions and temperatures with minimal equipment, learn how to balance flash with available ambient light, whether to use flash as a main or a fill light, the lighting kit which requires minimal set-up and is very portable, infra-red v radio triggers and much much more. Even if you are new to off-camera flash, this session will get you started and give you the confidence to use off-camera flash in a very creative way.

Webinar 4: How not to forget key shots at a Wedding

This session covers how to document a wedding from start to finish to give a beautiful & complete story of the day. You’ll see examples of images taken right from the bridal preparations till the first dance to tell a unique & complete story of the day.

Webinar 5: Work flow, editing & post-processing

Wedding photography is all about work flow. Shooting, editing & post-processing. The work flow dictates whether you make a profit or a loss on a wedding. Take too long in front of the computer and all your profits will drain away. Are you confused whether to shoot 500 images or 2000 + images at a wedding, well you’re not alone on this. So many photographers take unnecessarily high number of images which pretty much locks them in front of the computer for a week! You’ll see 3 different shooting, editing & post-processing work flows by each one of us using Lightroom 3 & Aperture 3.

Webinar 6: How to set your website for Google

Vast majority of photographers have set up their websites & blogs which do NOT tick all the boxes for Google. Secondly and most importantly, they don’t know what keyword research is all about. In this webinar, you’ll learn some amazingly simple tips on how to turbo charge your website & blog for higher rankings, how to beat your competitors in search rankings and how to promote your website for free.

This webinar series will get you started on making your wedding photography profitable and giving you the confidence to compete with the best. With no travelling costs, hotels to book or even to take time off work, this is an opportunity you cannot afford to miss out on!

Price

£55.00 + VAT for all six webinars





 

Great Money Saving Offers from our Sponsors:

Calumet

 

Special money saving offers on lighting kit,
Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5 and more…

 

Foto SF Lite

Save 50% of the normal price of £60 + VAT.

Only £30 + VAT with this webinar series.

 

 

FAQs

Q. When & what time are the webinars scheduled ?

A. Here are the dates & times (UK Time)

All Webinars start at 1900 hrs

Webinar 1: 9 May 2011
Webinar 2: 11 May 2011
Webinar 3: 16 May 2011
Webinar 4: 18 May 2011
Webinar 5: 23 May 2011
Webinar 6: 26 May 2011

Q. How long is each Webinar ?

A. Each session is for 60 minutes each. Giving you a total tuition time of over 360 minutes.

Q. What if I miss a Webinar and can’t attend due to prior commitments or different time zones ?

A. Every Webinar will be recorded and you’ll be sent a link to download them.

Q. Where are the webinars held ?

A. These are held online. You can log in from anywhere in the world as long as you have internet access.

Q. I’ve never logged in a Webinar before, do I need any special software ?

A. You don’t need any special software. Logging in is easy and you can use either a Mac or a PC. All you need are speakers on a computer.

Q. Can I ask questions during the Webinars ?

A. Absolutely, we encourage everyone to ask questions and we endeavor to answer every question you ask.

Q. I’ve been on other webinars, but they never answer my questions ?

A. We will have a very limited number of seats available for this series and not hundreds and hundreds of attendees. This ensures that you get a great learning experience and all your questions are answered to the best of our abilities.

Q. Will I be able to purchase this webinar series afterwards ?

A. Yes you will be, however, the special introductory price of £30.00 + VAT is valid only until 09 May 2011.

 




 

About the Tutors

Crash Taylor, Jayce Clarke & Uzair Kharawala regularly present seminars & webinars for Calumet UK. Here is their bio:

Jayce Clarke

Jayce is based in the North West of England and runs a successful photography business covering weddings & portraiture. He is a regular speaker for Calumet UK and runs a series of seminars & workshops for them which are in very high demand.

Jayce follows his passion of fashion photography and this is quite evident in his wedding photography work. Jayce’s understanding of lighting is second to none and you’ll enjoy his relaxed and friendly approach to teaching which are both fun and very informative.

 

 

Uzair Kharawala

Based in Leighton Buzzard, Beds. Uzair along with his wife Farzana runs SF Digital Photography.

He is currently one of Nikon UK’s ‘Evangelist’ and is a regular ‘Guest Speaker’ at major photography conventions, trade shows & fairs in the UK, at Apple’s flagship store in Regent Street London, Focus on Imaging, PhotoVision Roadshows and has previously presented for all major photographic bodies including the BIPP, MPA & the SWPP. Uzair has photographed weddings from the freezing conditions at the Ice Hotel Sweden to the hot temperatures of Borneo, Malaysia. He has also created the award-winning software for photographers Foto SF.

“King of Cool” – Photo Pro Magazine

“Master of the art of wireless flash” – Digital SLR Magazine

 

Crash Taylor

In only four short years as a professional photographer Crash Taylor has become one of the world’s finest wedding photographers. In 2009, he was voted one of the UK’s top 10 winter wedding photographers by Professional Photographer magazine.

In 2010, he became editor-at-large of Professional Photographers new magazine Turning Pro and is a regular contributor to Professional Photographer and Photography Monthly magazines. He is the innovative author of two highly acclaimed photography blogs, providing fascinating insights into the creative process of the world’s top photographers and serves as a source of inspiration to photographers worldwide. Crash has been featured in numerous publications and is also an award winning member of the prestigious [AG]WPJA and on the board of the Best of Wedding Photography: the premier invitation only membership group for the world’s finest wedding photographers. He photographs 30 wedding adventures each year and has captured weddings in Spain, France, Finland and Hawaii. Although Crash’s greatest joy is spending quality time with his wife and young son, he somehow makes time in his hectic schedule to teach workshops and seminars, which are in great demand throughout the UK and internationally.

‘Crash Taylor is in love with photography. Inquisitive, searching, evolving, imaginative and never content with the average. Look at his pictures and his passion and enthusiasm are clear. Crash Taylor is a true photographer‘
Grant Scott, Editor, Professional Photographer Magazine.

’Crash Taylor is one of the UK’s finest documentary wedding photographers creating images that are natural and full of emotion.’
Assistant Editor, Photography Monthly Magazine

 

I look forward to welcoming you on ‘The Art of Wedding Photography’ Webinar Series.

To Your Success

Uzair Kharawala

Filed Under: News, Offers, Webinars Tagged With:

Deal Is On…

Posted By on April 25, 2011

If you are in or around Glasgow, then here is an intensive photography course you may be interested in. We’ve teamed up with Groupon to offer this very special course. The offer will expire on 26 April 2011. For more details, please click on the image below. Groupon-Glasgow

Filed Under: News, Offers, Training Tagged With: ,

onOne Software: Layers for Lightroom

Posted By on April 23, 2011

New product provides photographers with streamlined functionality for creating and working with layers, offering new creative possibilities.

Portland, OR – April 20, 2011 – onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of innovative, time saving solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today introduced the Perfect Layers Public Preview. Perfect Layers gives photographers the ability to easily create and work with layered files in their workflow application of choice. Perfect Layers supports the creation of layered files that can be opened and edited by Adobe Photoshop software and can be used directly from within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software, Adobe Bridge and, with the shipping version, Apple Aperture.

“The impact Perfect Layers is going to have on photographers using Lightroom makes it a game changer!” said Scott Kelby, Editor-in-Chief of Photoshop User magazine. “This is the must-have plug-in for Lightroom.”

“Through our partnership with the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and from invaluable insight gained from Scott Kelby, we’re excited to get the Perfect Layers Public Preview into the hands of digital photographers everywhere,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “We hear from photographers every day, that more and more of their image enhancement is taking place in applications like Photoshop Lightroom and they tell us they need additional tools to let them do even more like easily create composite images, retouch portraits and get creative with blending modes. Perfect Layers will allow photographers to do all of these things. That’s why we’re happy to make this Perfect Layers Public Preview available to the photographic community now so they can start using it to enhance their images.”

 

 

Top Features in Perfect Layers:
Add Layered File Functionality to Lightroom: The ability to have multiple layers in a single file is a great benefit and provides unlimited creative options when enhancing an image. With the Perfect Layers Public Preview, from directly within Lightroom, photographers can create or open layered files. This means photographers can combine multiple images from Lightroom into a single image. They can also open existing Photoshop documents from within Lightroom. Uses of Perfect Layers include merging two or more exposures of the same scene into a single image and masking in the desired portion of each exposure. Compositing multiple images, such as action shots, becomes a simple task with Perfect Layers. Also with Perfect Layers, Lightroom users can now have access to the power of blending images together with blending modes. Blending layers together is a great way to stylize and enhance a photo as well as to retouch a portrait. Files created with Perfect Layers can be opened by Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements later for additional editing if desired.

Masking Brushes:
Control how much of each layer is visible by using the Masking Brush created originally for PhotoTools 2.6 and FocalPoint 2. Similar to using a layer mask, the Masking Brush can be used to reveal or hide selected areas of a layer. The Masking Brush is non-destructive and can even be re- edited with Photoshop.

Blending Modes:
Perfect Layers brings the power and creativity of blending modes to Lightroom! Blending modes determine how two layers interact with each other. For example, you can blend a black and white version of an image with a color version to get a very dramatic and stylized look. Perfect Layers includes the following blending modes: Normal; Lighten; Darken; Screen; Multiply; Overlay; Soft Light; Hard Light and Color.

Adjust Layers:
The streamlined interface in Perfect Layers contains all the controls needed to size, align and reorder layers. A number of useful blending modes offer the ability to dramatically alter images by changing the brightness, altering the color or even creating special effects. All the adjustments can be easily modified.

The Perfect Layers Public Preview allows photographers to start experimenting now with a subset of the features that the complete, shipping version of Perfect Layers will provide. The complete shipping version of Perfect Layers will add more features including:

- Support for Apple Aperture
- The ability to adjust the image/canvas size
- The MaskingBug control from PhotoTools 2.6 to create smooth gradient masks
- Color fill layers and several other new features

As a public preview release, similar to a beta release, the Perfect Layers Public Preview is not indicative of the final performance and quality of the forthcoming complete shipping version. Technical support is not available for the preview release. Users can submit their feedback on this public preview from within the application.

Availability
The Perfect Layers Public Preview release is available immediately at onOne Software’s Website. The shipping version will be available, with additional features, by mid 2011 as a standalone product for $159.95 and as part of the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5. Owners of Plug-In Suite 5 can upgrade to Perfect Photo Suite 5.5, which will include Perfect Layers, at no additional cost. The Perfect Layers Public Preview is a time limited release and will expire on June 30, 2011.

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR

Perfect Layers means Lightroom users (and soon Aperture users) can work in their favourite RAW processing software and now work in Layers. It’s a brand new technology from our friends at onOne Software and this is the first webinar anywhere outside the US. onOne will be here to share their secrets to what’s been described as “A Game Changer” by pundits in the business. Let’s see why!

Date: 5 May 2011

Time: 1800 hrs UK Time (Show in my Time Zone)

Where: Online

Price: Free





Filed Under: News, Offers, Webinars Tagged With: , ,

Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5 Review

Posted By on April 17, 2011

I’ve been using the Nikon CLS very successfully for the last 5 years or so. However, being an infra-red system has its limitations, so when the Mini TT1 & Flex TT5 were released were announced for the Nikon CLS I was quite excited to try them out.

Few weeks back I decided to try these out to see how good this system was. I’m delighted to say that the results I achieved were incredible. I couldn’t have shot these images without them. The consistency is superb and this has opened up a whole new shooting workflow. The system is easy & quick to set up and very portable and lightweight.

So lets take a look at what & how I shot this session. The kit I used were:

Nikon D3

Nikkor 200mm f/2 and 35mm f/2

3 x Speedlights

Nikon SU800 Commander

Mini TT1 & 3 x Flex TT5

Lastolite Triflash Bracket

Walkie Talkies

Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT%

I started the session with a long range shot. I went on the other side of the lake and I’ve circled myself on the above image. You can clearly see the distance I was shooting from. On the right is Charlie and my son who was helping us out! Had no problems firing all 3 flashes consistently from such a distance.

Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT 5Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT 5Below was my viewpoint for the above shot. You can just about see the tiny spec of the flashguns firing. It is ideal to have walkie talkies or mobile phone for communication.

Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5

Firing 3 Nikon Speedlights gave me 3 times the power on a sunny afternoon. I used one SB900 and two SB800 to test and see if they all work seamlessly. Over 2 hours of the shooting, all the images had consistent exposures.

My Speedlights power output was around the 1/32 to 1/64. Very little flash was used even though I had under exposed the ambient light quite a bit. I was controlling the remote flashguns via the Nikon SU800 commander unit. The remotes can also be controlled via the Pocket Wizard AC3 ZoneController.

The biggest advantage of using the Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5 is the ability to shoot from longer range and they also sync at any shutter speed up to 1/8000th.

Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5Overall, I’m extremely impressed by the Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and Flex TT5. Completely 100% reliable. I’m not making this judgement from 1 session only, in fact I’ve put them through the paces for the last 4 weeks or so during various photo shoots. There is also no need for any wired connection to the Speedlights. I wanted to write the ‘Pros’ and ‘Cons’ of the system. However, I’m really struggling to write any ‘Cons’. Just love it. For the price they are, it really is a tremendous value for your investment.

 

Calumet

 

 

 

 

I believe Calumet are running a great money saving offer on these units.
Check out there website. Click on the logo.

Forthcoming Event:

I’m holding a free ‘PW Portrait Afternoon‘ soon at this very location. It will be a very informal meet up to practice lighting & posing. Just put your name below in the comment box. First preference would be given to those who are on our subscriber list. If you wish to join the list, please send an email to info @ sfdigital.co.uk with the subject line ‘Add to mailing list’.Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5

Please feel free to share your experience below in the comments box or if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.

Oz

 

 

Filed Under: Portrait, Training Tagged With:

Adobe: Creative Suite 5.5

Posted By on April 15, 2011

 

Adobe Systems announced an update to their Adobe Creative Suite 5 software which will be available as a monthly pay as you go subscription. This is a bold move by Adobe to go SasS (Software as a Service).

The Creative Suite 5-5 will be available from next month with more incremental updates between fully new versions of its main products. The subscription editions will let customers try and use Adobe products online without having to spend hundreds or thousands of $ or £ to buy the software suites. This also applies to Photoshop, which sits on the low end of the subscription model at an affordable $49 per month or $35 with a one-year subscription.

“This launch marks a major change to Adobe’s product release strategy for Creative Suite,” the San Jose company said in a statement. “Adobe now plans to have milestone Creative Suite product introductions at 24-month intervals and — starting with Creative Suite 5.5 — significant mid-cycle releases designed to keep the worldwide creative community ahead of the latest advances in content authoring.”

Adobe CS5 - Pay As You Go

This model will help photographers, specially those who are starting out, with their cash flow. Those who don’t use Photoshop regularly and need it every now and then, can subscribe for a month only, use the software and then stop the subscription. Or you have the option to try for a month the different software Adobe has to offer i.e InDesign, Illustrator, etc. This is great for those creatives who get projects which require different software to complete it.

What I like about online software is that the risk of piracy is very low or non-existent, which in turn is good for all law abiding citizens as it reduces crime in general. You don’t have to pay for upgrades in most cases and can enjoy the latest software at all times, no need to be restricted to a particular computer or laptop. You can work pretty much from anywhere you like as long as you have internet access.

Adobe will offer two subscription plans: annual and a month-to-month plan with higher prices with no short or long term commitment by the subscriber. You will still have to pay for discontinuous periods. Every 30 days the software will talk to the Adobe servers to check the payment has been made and your credit card is valid.

Unfortunately, the pricing structure is a bit confusing to say the least if you want to do a comparative cost analysis. For example, if you want to buy CS Design Standard and plan to upgrade every two years, then it actually makes sense to subscribe.

I know a lot of photographers are not a big fan of software rental, or rental of anything really. Personally I would be happy to pay a monthly fee to any software company and this sure is a bold move and an experiment on the part of Adobe to take the lead in this software model. Only time will tell whether most will give a thumbs up or a down. If you’d like to add a comment or vent your fury, please do so below.

Oz

Image credit: Adobe Systems

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

Build Your Online Profits

Posted By on April 13, 2011

Not sure how to take your business forward online ? Is your website not working as hard as you do ? Not sure what all this Twitter & Facebook is all about ? Are you totally confused as to where to start with online marketing? If so, this is a one-day hands on workshop you can’t afford to miss. A practical workshop where you will build up your blocks for online profits. You’ll be doing all the work to get your online marketing activities turbo-charged and not just make loads of notes all day long only to go home and get more confused!

Social Media

Here’s everything you need to know on how to generate FREE TARGETED TRAFFIC to your website. You’ll learn some cutting edge tips & tricks to get your website or blog optimised for higher rankings. You’ll also learn how to build relationships with your prospect and how to build a profitable database of subscribers.

Best of all, what you will learn throughout the day does not require you to have any technical knowledge, geeky programming languages or any kind of expertise. Everything will be taught in simple language which is easy to follow.

Content

The day is divided into 4 different sessions where you will learn how to:

Session 1 – Keyword Research

This is one of the most important process you MUST understand before you get your website online. Most small business owners leave it to their website designers to optimise their website with certain keywords. However, your web designer does not understand your business the way you do. You’ll learn how to research what kind of online competition you have and the amount of competing websites in your market / niche. Plus, you will learn how to research what people are searching for and how many people searched for your product or service in Google recently.

With these statistics, you will be miles ahead of the competition and on the way to being indexed in search engine result pages and being found by people looking for your product or service. No keyword research = losing money. Effective keyword research = more traffic + more money.

Session 2 – Website / Blogs

A website or a blog should work hard for you 24/7 365 days a year. You will learn good ‘house keeping’ for your site so it ticks all the boxes for the search engines resulting in higher page rankings. You’ll learn why a blog is so so important for your business and how to keep it updated with relevant and fresh content. Did you know that search engines penalise sites which are static and reward sites which are dynamic and updated with fresh content on a regular basis? Using the correct keywords & phrases are vital for any site to be indexed, once you’ve done the keyword research, you won’t be wasting time & energy over less profitable keywords.

Session 3 – Marketing Your Website

With the explosion in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Digg to name a few, you’ll discover how easy it is to get free and targeted traffic to your website. Most business owners don’t use the power of You Tube to market their product or services. Did you know that You Tube is the 2nd largest search engine and the 3rd largest website in the world! Using some amazing video marketing techniques you’ll generate perpetual free traffic to your site forever as long as the video is online!

I promise you won’t have to spend hours and hours on end on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc to generate traffic to your site. In fact, I’ll share with you my ’1-click’ process which will create your online presence on some of the world’s top ranking websites.

Session 4 – Email Marketing

When it comes to business, time really is money. Email marketing can be extremely effective; however, do you really have the time to make contact with every single potential client or previous client to offer new deals and services? Most busy business owners don’t have the time to do this, and this is where email marketing comes into play. Email marketing effectively & automatically sends out marketing emails, auto-replies and follow-up sales letters on your behalf. This is pretty much a miracle in modern marketing techniques because it can effectively bring in sales on auto pilot, as well as make sure your clients don’t forget you. What are you waiting for? Set your sales machine on auto-pilot and start seeing results.


This is a practical hands-on training day where you’ll follow the process by using your laptop and working away all day long. This is not a boring & techie workshop and you won’t be bamboozled by industry jargons & language. This is exciting stuff and something which, once learnt, you will apply in your business to always be a couple of steps ahead of your competitors. Help will be at hand on each and every step and you will understand how to market yourself on the net. I’ve achieved page 1 rankings for my various websites. It is not due to sheer luck that I end up on page 1 Google time after time after time. There is a process to it. If you are struggling to get higher rankings for your site, then this is a workshop which you must attend to improve & enhance your online presence. Whether you have an existing business or are thinking about starting a new business or a website, I invite you to attend this workshop to clear all the myths of internet marketing.

What’s included: – Tea / Coffee – Hot Lunch – Wifi – Ample free parking

What you need to bring along: – Laptop

When Sat 07 May 2011

Where Mentmore Golf Club, Mentmore Near Leighton Buzzard, Beds LU7 0UA

Times 10.00am to 4.00pm (Registration at 9.30am)

Price: £95 + VAT per person


Filed Under: Business, Training

Masters of Light Workshop

Posted By on April 1, 2011

Last weekend we hosted the first ‘Masters of Light Workshop’ in Leamington Spa along with my good friends Kevin Wilson & Martin Grahame-Dunn. This event was a sell out with 40 photographers turning up for 2 days of intense training. First day was practical shooting and pretty much everything was hands-on.

We finished the day at around 7.30pm and then after dinner we met up at our hotel for networking & drinks. Well, after a long & hard day, I retired to bed at around 1.00am but my wife Farzana and along with another 7 guys & girls stayed till quite late until around 2.30am! Work hard & play hard I guess !!

Day 2 was in the seminar room and was all about editing, workflow, business etc. Had a fantastic 2 days and thoroughly enjoyed the company of like minded photographers and friends. Thank you to everyone who attended and specially to Kevin & Martin.

Here is a little video from the event.

If you like to read more about this event, click here

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: ,