by Jen Bebb
For any visual artist, putting a portfolio of work together can be a daunting task. After all, that portfolio becomes your “message to the world”, if you will and represents the way you, as an artist, wish to be received and seen.
STEP 1: PULLING PORTFOLIO IMAGES
The first step is gathering images you love, images that make you happy, images you are proud of and images you have had a lot of positive feedback about. Choose images that showcase(…)

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 Rebecca Spencer
For my own images, my personal style is a simple clean edit with a nice pop of vibrant colour. There are lots of ways you can use post processing to achieve this and here I will show you what works for me.  I have found the easiest way to do this is through using level adjustment layers within Adobe Photoshop – levels are a simple way of making a big difference to your photo.

Before Image:

Here is the SOOC(…)

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(…)

Picking up your camera, shooting, and challenging yourself is the best way to improve your photography.  The Creativity Exercises within the Clickin Moms photography forum are a great source for finding new ways to challenge yourself.  On the first Monday of every month the wonderful Sarah Wilkerson posts a new tutorial and challenges our members to shoot with the exercise in mind.  While the exercises are ongoing, at the end of each month we choose a few images as the(…)

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 Elena Blair
I will admit it. I love head shots of children. I enjoy getting close to kids to capture all the sweet details of their faces. My clients love it too, and I aim to capture head shots during all my shoots. In addition, ninety-five percent of the time, clients buy prints of the head shot images I provide.  When you hear the phrase “head shot,” your mind may conjure a boring, stiff image. Well I am here to(…)

by Megan Squires

RAW vs jpeg. If this is something you’ve pondered recently, chances are you are currently shooting in jpeg. And if you are shooting in jpeg, chances are you feel like you should be shooting in RAW. Just like that diet you committed to as your New Year’s resolution, you know you should do it, you know you’ll feel and look better if you do, and you know the end result will be something you’re so proud of.

But does(…)

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 Melissa Koehler
Although I’ve been a photographer for many years now, I am proud to say that I am continually learning as an artist. When you first start out, the thrill of having someone want YOU to take their photo is amazing, isn’t it? It’s exciting preparing for that session, gathering up fun posing ideas and props. You photograph the session and it goes okay but maybe you’re still learning the ropes. We’ve all been there at one point and(…)

by Emma Wood
  

It’s amazing how different crops can change the mood of an image or even just enhance them.  By just making a few little changes, you can add a lot more impact and drama.   I try as much as possible to think about cropping and where I want to place my subject within an image before I shoot.  But there are times when I realize during processing, how much more powerful an image would become with a certain(…)

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 Stacey Haslem

Not too long ago, I was looking through all my images. As I continued to go through images taken over the last few years, I couldn’t help but notice all the images that originated in the bathroom. I had a beautiful collection of memories and stages of my little girl.
When approaching any image, whether it be in the bathroom or not, I always think about what it is I actually want to capture. Is there something in particular(…)

by Melissa Stottmann
If your business had a face what would it look like? Your brand and packaging gives your clients a look at who you are and a “face” for your business. Is your photography bold and bright? Subdued and peaceful? Fun and flirty? Get creative and use your packaging to reflect your work for your clients!
My packaging:
Prints and products need to arrive securely to my clients- this is the very first matter of importance, however, it is equally beneficial(…)

by Rachael Boer
Does this expression look familiar?

Or how about this one?

If you’ve ever photographed young children, you know they can be some of the most challenging subjects on earth. They are tiny balls of energy with a mind of their own and they may not be wild about letting you invade their personal space to get a photograph. Almost all of the families I photograph have at least one child in the 2-5 age range, so I have developed some(…)

by Courtney Keim
I think I always had this idea of dads and family portraits.  I think it started when I was young.  It’s not that my dad was not there.  He just was not in the photos.  He always told me it was the memories not the photo.  Then I married my husband.  And unfortunately, he is seriously just as bad when it comes to family portrait time.  To him, he’d rather be subjected to anything torture-filled if it meant(…)

by Jennifer Dell

Burnout. We all face it at some point in our life. In photography, it can ebb and flow until you don’t want to pick up your camera. Ever. I can only speak from experience, but I know that every December, after the craziness of fall, the last thing I want to do is take another picture. I struggle with this at other times during the year, but I think that the winter is by far the worst. Not(…)

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,(…)

by Beth Orey
A warm, quiet room, the soft lullaby of a white noise machine, a beautiful baby that curls up into any position and sleeps soundly, and the stunning photographer who’s making this all happen.  It’s every newborn photographers dream!  But it doesn’t always happen, unfortunately.  Sometimes we get those dream babies but (at least for me), more often than not, we have to work for it.  And even if you do get the awesome sleeper, do you really want(…)

by Heather Meyer

My four year old daughter has spent a good amount of her life in the hospital because of a chronic life
threatening disease. As time has gone by, I have become a huge advocate of taking pictures even when the circumstances are less than happy.

I have talked to many moms who are afraid to take pictures of their children when they are sad, hurting, experiencing serious illness or injury, or if they are hooked up to tubes or machines.(…)

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(…)

by Winnie Bruce
I just finished my busiest holiday season, and with that came the need to keep things organized. With how busy things are, it’s easy to get lost with keeping everything organized. The key is to start with keeping things organized right from the very start. It’s always the hardest going back to the beginning and retracing steps so it’s best to just get it out of the way, and have a flow. It starts with the very first(…)

by Rachel Nielson

In this before and after tutorial, I am going to walk you through how I edited this image start to finish. I love the expression in his eyes and how he is biting his lip just a little bit. Melts my heart, but I am his mama, so I might be slightly biased!

My workflow starts in Adobe Lightroom 4. I import my images and do all of my RAW processing there before importing my photos into Adobe Photoshop(…)

Picking up your camera, shooting, and challenging yourself is the best way to improve your photography.  The Creativity Exercises within the Clickin Moms photography forum are a great source for finding new ways to challenge yourself.  On the first Monday of every month the wonderful Sarah Wilkerson posts a new tutorial and challenges our members to shoot with the exercise in mind.  While the exercises are ongoing, at the end of each month we choose a few images as the(…)

by Melissa Gibson

Blogging has become an important part of businesses, but also a fun little hobby for people like myself.  You can showcase your latest work, your child’s art and recent happenings in your life.  Perhaps you own a business blog where you post images and advice for clients.  Maybe you have a how-to blog that includes tips and crafts for the home. Or?  You could be like me, and have a personal blog where you post images and stories(…)

by Jenni Jones

Is your website doing what it is supposed to?

The very idea of website analytics is enough to keep most people from even trying to mess with it. It’s overwhelming, nebulous, and probably the least sexy topic for photographers (well…that and taxes). But, knowing whether your website is effective and understanding what people are doing (or not doing) on your site is powerful, actionable knowledge. How will you know if you have an effective website if you don’t look(…)

by Celeste Pavlik

It wasn’t too long ago that I would seek out perfectly even, perfectly bright and perfectly direct light.  I quickly realized how much this style of shooting, while it isn’t wrong in any way, just wasn’t me.  I love capturing my subjects in pockets of light and indirect light, especially indoors.  What this means to me is finding light that gently meets the shadows on my subject.  Give me that and I’m a happy girl!

I think most of(…)

by Jennifer Dell
Ah, six month olds…my most favorite age to photograph. I love it when my littlest of clients starts to sit on their own and truly take in the world around them. They are usually very curious, happy and easy to work with. I honestly cannot think of a reason not to love photographing a baby at this age!  While they are sitting on their own and a few may be getting ready to crawl, a baby this age(…)

by Kristin Ingalls
When shooting portraits on an overcast day, the sky can act like a giant soft box creating soft, even light. You generally don’t have to worry about bright sunshine making your subject squint, dappled light coming through trees, or harsh shadows on your subjects. However, because this giant softbox is positioned directly overhead, it can be hard to have anything other than flat lighting, catchlights can be hard to come by, and portraits can sometimes seem flat and boring.
1. Try shooting from(…)