by Michelle Turner
Gels can be great tools to enhance the look of your flash photographs– they can be used to creatively change the light or to match the look of another light in the frame.  Most of the time when I pick up my flash for use off camera (OCF), I gel my flash to a certain color to change the color of the light that strikes my subject. Usually the effect is subtle, but you can also use gels(…)

by Melissa Koehler
Watermarking, it’s something that we should be doing to every single image that we share online. That means facebook, blog and any other public sites. The topic of watermarking gets brought up a lot and I want to spend some time talking about the importance of watermarking your images all the time.

Let’s talk a bit about the placement of your watermark. Everyone tends to watermark their images differently, some in the corners, some at the very bottom and(…)

by Alicia Gould

Photographers often ask each other “how many images do you show in your galleries?” The answer for me is always, it depends!  Each family I photograph is unique; they have different dynamics, different decorating styles and different reasons for wanting to book a session.  If you don’t take the time to find out some of that before the session, you could be wasting a lot of your time processing images that don’t mesh with their style.
Before the Photo(…)

by Melissa Gibson
I know I’ve mentioned this before and I’m certain you all know this by now, but  I really dig Adobe Photoshop Elements.  If you are a beginner looking for editing software, this is the one for you.  On the other hand, if you are more advanced in your photography journey, this may also be the software for you.  In fact, I know loads of extremely talented photographers who use Elements.  It is an editing program that is highly(…)

by Pam Korman
What is a double exposure? Quite simply, it is the combination of two images. How those images are combined can happen a few different ways. It can be done in a photo-editing program like Photoshop, after the fact, but I like the creative freedom that comes from deliberately planning and shooting one image on top of another. This can be done digitally (and I will talk about that in a bit) but, for me, the fun comes in(…)

by Kristin Ingalls
While some of my favorite portraits don’t have eye contact, or maybe even show a face, there’s no denying that strong eye contact is a great way to pull your viewers into your image. It can really help a viewer to connect with your subject. With older cooperative subjects it’s usually easy to get a mix of images with eye contact and without, but with the littlest ones it can be tricky. Here are some of my favorite(…)

by Rebecca Spencer

If you are looking to add a little variety into your portraits why not try using a wide angled lens? Often overlooked as just a landscape lens, a wide focal length can open up a whole new world of possibilities and, contrary to popular belief, you can still get a flattering portrait of your subject – you just need to shoot in a slightly different way.

On a full frame camera a wide angle is anything smaller than 35mm,(…)

And that’s a wrap for Birthday Week!  We had an incredible time celebrating 5 years of Clickin Moms with everyone on the forum, facebook, instagram, and here on the CM blog.  We’ve spent our week reminiscing, laughing, crying, and sharing virtual hugs.  To top it off, we gave away $5400 in prizes from our incredible sponsors!  Congratulations to all the Birthday Week winners listed below!
birthday week winners

*image by Kelly Wilson, CMpro favorites winner
Random CMglimpse winners:

Jo Clark ‘bluella’ – Diana mini(…)

Kendra Okolita and Sarah Wilkerson are the masterminds behind Clickin Moms and we, the CMteam, wanted to take a moment during Birthday Week to tell them how much we appreciate them.  Our thoughts and feelings are hard to put into words but we’ve done our best.
dear kendra and sarah,
To say thank you would be such an understatement. I have learned so much from both of you over the past five years, both personally and professionally. I love saying that I’m(…)

Birthday week is still going strong but we’re nearing the end.  There are numerous reasons to love CM between the helpfulness, education, knowledge, and photography shared daily but one of our personal favorites is the friendships that are formed.  We though, how fun would it be to interview a group of photographers that have grown close after meeting one another on the forum!  Today we have Kim Lane, Adele Humphries, Jessica Remus, Sarah Zalan, Stacey Vukelj, and Krista Sodt to(…)

Are you enjoying the CM birthday party this week?  The festivities are in full swing everywhere you can find us whether it be the forum, facebook, instagram, or here on the blog!  Do you follow CM on Instagram?  We’re having a party there as well with birthday related CMglimpse prompts and random drawings each day with prizes for those who tag their images with #cmis5!  Head on over and participate but first, read up on these great iPhoneography tips from(…)

We are having a blast celebrating Birthday Week on the forum with all the games and contests so we wanted to have a little contest here as well.  Sometimes, the photo outtakes are the best ones and leave us with a smile for hours.  We would love to hear your captions for this hilarious photo!  Leave your caption in the comments below by 9pm EST this Friday, March 22, 2013 and we will announce the winner by Saturday.  Are you(…)

We love photography books here on the Clickin Moms blog and, according to your response to Sarah’s 19 Must Read Books for Photographers, you do too! We thought it would be fun to compile another list of books for photographers that the CM Team particularly loves. Now just to try not to spend too much on Amazon!
book suggestions for photographers

*image by Jodi Arego
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
This best-selling book of essays and assignments is an inspirational read for anyone(…)

by Lisa Tichané
If you read photography forums, you are probably aware that toddlers are supposed to be a photographers nightmare. They don’t listen to instructions, move all the time, run away from you whenever they can, drive their parents crazy, throw your props away and will probably hate all of the brilliant ideas that you had carefully prepared when you planned the shoot.  I have to admit that every single thing in this list is true (and can be even worse(…)

by Ashley Spaulding
It’s been two months and 24 days since we wrapped up the last run of the Shooting 201: Lifestyle with Kids workshop, but who’s counting, right?!? I am!!! I cannot wait for the next run of the workshop to begin in less than four weeks!! I’m so excited to meet a new group of students, to be back to teaching again because I love it so much, and to see four weeks of gorgeous lifestyle images shared in(…)

by Jennifer Dell
The HSL/Color/BW tab in Adobe Lightroom can be used for lots of reasons when editing. One of my favorite ways to start a clean edit in Lightroom is with the Color tab. It can be used for a variety of things including brightening skin tone, adjust specific colors and their saturation as well as increasing or decreasing the luminosity of specific colors.

For this example, I decided to use an image of my daughter from this summer. Here in(…)

by Michelle Turner
I love my speedlights – they provide me with one more tool in my kit, giving me the flexibility and ability to create beautiful portraits in any lighting condition.  Whether I want to bounce my flash from my camera’s hot shoe or whether I want to shape the light by taking my flash off camera, my speedlights give me portable, adjustable sources of light.

There are a few items out there that make my speedlights even more utilitarian, and(…)

Have you seen our Dream Giveaway? Have you entered yet?  One lucky person will win a Grand Prize Pack with over $5000 in prizes from Clickin Moms, Tamron, SHUTTER|bag, Adorama, Pinhole Pro, and Creative Motion Design … plus EVERY entrant instantly receives an incredible Digital Gift Pack with 19 downloads featuring digital tools, templates, educational guides, and more!

What are you waiting for?  Enter the Dream Giveaway for photographers here!

Update!  Congratulations to Katie Dowens who won the Dream Giveaway!

by Emma Wood

If you’ve never used a lensbaby before, they almost seem like a mysterious kind of secret, something unique and totally different.  This is how I felt before I joined in on the fun about nine months ago.   Lately I’ve found more and more people experimenting with them, and loving them.   They bring something fresh and new to images and they are not expensive compared to most lenses.   I remember being totally intrigued with them before(…)

It’s time for another addition of our monthly series “Ask a CMpro” her on the CM photography blog in which we give our CMpros one question and they dish.  Their answers alone are always inspiring and this week we asked them, “What method do you use for setting your white balance in camera and why does that method work for you?”

*image by Lora Swinson
Beth Orey, Texas
I use Kelvin for my white balance. I always prefer warmer images and can usually(…)

 win an iPad mini!

How would you like the opportunity to win a free iPad mini?  We’ve got one waiting for one of you!  To enter to win, visit the Clickin Moms facebook page, share the Black Friday sale with all of your friends, and then come back here to comment by 12pm EST Sunday November 25, 2012 so we know you participated.  Winner will be announced right back here on this post by Wednesday, November 28th.  Happy Holidays friends!
giveaway update!
Congratulations(…)

by Josh and Jenny Solar

On any given Wednesday morning, you’ll find me rushing around the kitchen like a madwoman…packing two healthy lunches, signing kindergarten permission slips, filling up water bottles and snack packs, and pleading with my kiddos to eat a little more breakfast. My husband Josh is filling bowls with oatmeal or cheerios and making sure the kids are dressed. Now, if this mental picture makes you believe that we’ve got our act together and we have it all(…)

by Lisa Harrison
So are you still undecided about making the jump to Adobe Photoshop CS6? Go for it!  You’ll love it! If you’re familiar with CS4 or CS5, you really won’t have much of a learning curve at all. The main thing that is different is how the adjustment panel works. You still have an adjustment panel but you now have a Properties Panel where you make changes to your chosen adjustment. You still choose your adjustments from the adjustment(…)

by Melissa Gibson
Oftentimes, during a session, someone is either not looking at the camera or is making a goofy face.  With my little ones?  It’s more than likely a goofy face.  However, no worries!  If you have a good handle on how to swap heads in Photoshop Elements (aka PSE) you’ll have a little less stress when you’re editing the session.  This is a really handy editing tip that you’ll love to use.

Keep in mind, this isn’t just used for(…)

Megan Squires is set to start a new run of her inspirational and information packed photography workshop, Lighting 201: Natural Light with Atmosphere, on October 29th. This course will give you the tools necessary to shoot outside at any time of day from golden light to backlight to full sun and in any weather situation that Mother Nature can throw your way. Megan focuses on helping students to enhance their vision for an image through creative use of light. If you’ve(…)

by Jennifer Dell

I see the issue of value and photography come up quite often with photographer friends and on the CM photography forum. A photographer gets an email in response to their pricing either before or after a session and the client is asking for a discount or to barter for services already rendered. Sometimes the prospective client demands to know why their pricing is set at a certain price point which often leaves us feeling deflated and undervalued. I(…)

by Sara Seeton
Every photographer has their own unique style as well as their own way of processing images.  There are so many different ways to achieve certain looks whether it be in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), Lightroom, Photoshop or a combination of these.  I don’t claim to be a Photoshop genius by any means.  A lot of what I have learned has been from trial and error, tutorials from other photographers just like this one (there are TONS right here(…)

When it comes to photography education there are many avenues out there for you to use.  There are blogs filled with tutorials, photography forums, colleges, online workshops for photographers, and in-person photography workshops among others.  It can be difficult to decide which is best for you.  Today, we thought we’d offer up a little insight on CMU’s Shooting 201: Lifestyle Photography with Kids with instructor Ashley Spaulding via a mini interview.  Ashley is here to answer our questions and I(…)

Weather can be a real pain and put a damper on that fantastic session you have planned but sometimes it’s worth it to roll with the flow and embrace the unexpected.  In all honesty, I absolutely love heading out right after it’s rained and the sun is peeking out from behind the clouds.  The light is always so beautiful and the natural colors of the earth and sky are rich and deep.  Do you not feel equiped to tackle alternate(…)

Who else is frustrated with their distorted and crooked architecture photography? Don’t delete those distorted images or throw them in your recycle bin!  CMmentor Monica Wilkinson has the secrets to correcting those images with the transform tool in Lightroom 3 and she’s here today to share those secrets with you.  Get your editing software warmed up because you’re going to want to try this out!

We’ve also got a great sponsor for today’s blog post, AlbumExposure, so make sure and read(…)