What is a Styled Shoot?

Sometimes people overcomplicate what a styled shoot actually is. It’s exactly what its name implies, it’s a shoot that’s styled! With styled shoots you’ll be spending a little more time to put together a theme, a certain look, props, details, outfits, etc. Styled shoots don’t have any particular rules other than they should be styled somehow. How you decide to style them and what themes you want to use is totally up to you. You can do anything from classy to crazy.

How is a Styled Shoot Beneficial?

I wish I had discovered and wanted to put time in earlier to put together styled shoots for my clients. Styled shoots allows you to really invest time into your clients and produce something unique to them. Have clients who like to read comic books together? Style a shoot around that. What I’ve found through doing styled shoots is they work well as a marketing scheme and allow you to shoot what you like and use those images to attract similar clients. They can be a great way to start attracting your ideal client. My suggestion would be to put together a styled shoot for free of something you’ve always wanted to do – your dream shoot – and use those photos to build a brand, business style, and marketing scheme to attract the types of clients who like the type of styled photos you took. I really believe that doing styled shoots can help you attract your ideal client.

Are Styled Shoots More Fun?

Heck yes! I have found myself getting bored with doing the same types of shoots all the time. I love being able to find something unique to my engaged couples that we can build an entire photoshoot around. The photos are more personal and you can have so much fun coming up with creative ideas and doing shoots you’ve never done before.

How Do You Start Doing Styled Shoots?

I think before you start advertising that you do them, you need to actually do one. This might mean you do a shoot for free, work with a model, pay for props yourself to put on the shoot you want with that look you love to attract your ideal clients. Once you do that and start sharing and marketing with those photos you will attract clients who like similar things and they will ask for those types of shoots! Styled shoots can take time, money and lots of planning! It’s something you have to just dive into. Once you start doing them on your own you may start getting requests from not only clients, but businesses that would love for you to do a styled shoot for them. This will lead you to making connections with florists, venues, and other vendors that want to get involved and have their work shown off through your photography.

With styled shoots that have involved other vendors I’ve always been open to sharing un-watermarked photos with the vendors that donated items, time and help to putting the shoot together. You’re able to build a network, share your work and have your photos shown on their websites. That can bring in even more referrals! (Yay!).

There’s no right or wrong way to put together a shoot, but I have found it can be difficult to get vendors to donate their time and items for free unless you have a few under your belt.

Business Tools Shop – Become a Member

You can find this amazing software >here< and try out their free trial. I guarantee after you try you will want to buy. I loved it! Culling used to be one of the most lengthy parts of the editing process. I used to go through Lightroom and do my culling there, but the problem is that sometimes before you can see an image clearly you get the little Lightroom swirl telling you the image is loading. When you think about how long you sit there waiting before you can see it and say ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ to an image – that time adds up. I do all my culling in PhotoMechanic. The cool part is the images load instantly, no wait time. To chose them all I do is hit the letter ‘T’ on my keyboard to tag the ones I want to edit. Then I can choose to view all the ones I tagged, highlight them all and simply drag and drop them to import them into Lightroom and start editing.

2. Time Yourself!

This tip seemed crazy to me, but it’s something I do when I find I’m lagging on my editing time. The quicker and more accurately you can edit your photos, the less hours you’ll work and that equals out to paying yourself more per hour (who would say no to that?!). I set a timer for myself when editing. I give myself that allotted amount of time to edit and tell myself that I simply have to finish in that amount of time. It really helps me buckle down and focus on what I’m doing, knowing that I’m being timed. That means my editing time is far more focused and I get less distracted by logging back onto Facebook, watching TV, etc.

3. Define Your Style!

Back when I was spending a lot of time editing my sessions and weddings I think it was mostly because I didn’t know what my style was yet. I had all those actions loaded into my Photoshop, and I wasn’t consistent with what I was doing. Each image had different treatments and that took time – it also didn’t look very great on my client’s end. When you’ve taken the time to really decide what you want your images to look like you can apply that look to all of your images and spend less time fiddling with actions. In fact, delete the actions from your software that you never use, so you’re not tempted to use them. Once you know what your style is and what your images should look like it’s easier to accomplish that.

4. Make Your Own Actions and Presets!

It’s really not that hard and it can keep you from spending hundreds at these stores on boxed sets that have other actions you might not like. If you have a certain style you like and you find yourself doing the same things over and over again to each image you need to make your own style an action for Photoshop or a Preset for Lightroom. That way you can apply your own style to all of your images.

5. Use Lightroom!

Lightroom is a workflow based editing program. Unlike Photoshop or Elements, it allows you to batch process your images so much easier. Becoming a good Lightroom user really changed my workflow, made it faster and better. Some think it’s hard to learn Lightroom or are afraid to learn a new software. I find that Lightroom is actually far more intuitive and easier to use than Photoshop. Don’t be afraid to download a free 30 day trial and give it a whirl.

6. The ‘Rule of Thumb’

A long time ago when I realized I was spending the majority of my time editing images I made a rule for myself. However long it takes me to photograph a session or wedding is the same amount of hours I limit myself to for editing. 2 hour engagement session? Max editing time is 2 hours. 8 hour wedding? The max amount of time I can spend editing is 8 hours.

Business Tools Shop – Become a Member

Supply List

• Heated Blanket
• Space Heater
• Newborn Poser
• Posing Pillows
• Backdrop Stand
• Backdrops
• Towels
• Washcloths
• Hamper
• Spare diapers, wipes, formula, bottles, etc for emergencies!

For those of you just starting out with newborns I wanted to talk a little bit about the newborn poser. Sure, you can use a plain old beanbag for newborns if you want, but I have found that working with a Pose Me Baby poser (and her posing pillows) is a huge plus. They’re almost like large flat round ottomans, and therefore the baby doesn’t sink into it easily. The baby sits light and safe on top. Newborn posers are custom-made and the fabric is easy to wipe and sanitize in case of accidents. The posing pillows I use to prop newborns up into different positions – they’re awesome. In fact, I loved my first set so much that I ordered a second. You can find the Pose Me Baby shop >here< Pose Me Baby also sells a square poser, which I think everyone should consider getting. Backdrops sit nicer on the square drop and there are less wrinkles to smooth out.

I use the heating supplies to keep the room nice and hot. The towels and washcloths are perfect for cleaning up messes. The washcloths can also be great to roll up and help prop the baby too. When I’m done with a specific backdrop or beanbag drop I always toss it in the hamper to wash later, even if there wasn’t a mess. Better to have safety first for the newborn!

Set-up

My goal when setting up my newborn studio is to make the transition from one backdrop or pose to the next very easy. I want things to be safe, warm and comfortable for the baby too. So here’s my set-up list!

1. Put up my backdrop stand and set my poser in front of it.
2. Load the backdrops on top of each other in the order I’m going to use them onto my backdrop stand. That way I can just remove one drop and the next one is ready to go with a little bit of straightening and sorting.
3. I always put the heated blanket under the drop I’m using and a towel over the heated blanket for any accidents.
4. I have the space heater set up and ready to go. When the family arrives at the studio things are already warm and comfy.

Tips & Tricks

• The best lens I’ve ever used for newborns was a 35mm. The little extra wide view (compared to a 50mm) allows you to get up close to the newborn. I find it’s much easier to work with in the studio than a 50mm. 
• A macro lens (Canon’s 100mm 2.8 or Nikon’s 105mm 2.8) are both great for getting up close on the tootsies, ears, noses, and sweet little lips.
• Natural light has always been easiest for me in my studio space, but I do have a couple of studio lights on hand for those overcast days.

Business Tools Shop – Become a Member

1. Start with Your Gear

The quality and type of your camera gear can greatly affect the sharpness of your images. I find this very true when it comes to lenses in particular. Lenses are a true camera gear investment, they will outlast your camera body for a long time. That means investing in amazing lenses is worthwhile and a great lens can help your photos be sharper, where a low quality lens can do the opposite.

Primes, or fixed focal length lenses are often sharper overall when compared to a zoom lens. Some primes also are sharper than others. For example, the images by my 35mm f1.4L are insanely sharp compared to my 50mm 1.2L. There’s always a noticeable difference when editing photos. Don’t be afraid to save up for that awesome lens because it will help make your photos more sharp. If you’re struggling a lot with sharpness and you’re still working with your zoom lenses that came in your camera kit, consider purchasing a prime lens. Those zoom lenses that come in camera kits are not always the best quality lenses and images produced from them are often not the tack sharp images that portrait photographers are wanting to see. Starting with the “nifty fifty,” a 50mm lens, will help your photos a ton!

2. Shooting in RAW

Just for a brief overview – RAW is a format (like JPEG) you can have your camera shoot in. These are large files that store more information and are therefore easier to edit and recover later in case you underexposed or something along those lines. I shoot in RAW because they’re so much easier to edit and fix if needed. However, because RAW photos are full of information it means they don’t come out of your camera as a compressed file, like JPEGs do. When a file is compressed to a JPEG by your camera it will appear to be sharper, but it won’t be as easy to color correct or fix exposure. If you’re struggling with those tack sharp images and you shoot in RAW you can start making a quick sharpening part of your editing workflow to get those images back up to par.

3. Al Servo Mode

If you’re a portrait photographer working with toddlers, and fast kiddos, learning to use Al Servo as a focusing method on your camera will help your camera track moving subjects and keep them tack sharp as they’re running by during that family photo session. >Here< is an awesome article by the Digital Photography School on what Al Servo is and how to use it.

4. Use Back Button Focus

Back button focus might not make your photos sharper simply by using it, it’s just that it’s easier to focus on your subject and be more exact and therefore your images will start appearing to be sharper. It helps you keep your focus spot-on. You can read about back button focus >here<.

5. Eyes

Always focus on the eyes of your subject in a photo. Eyes are one of the first parts of someone we interact with, so eyes will define your photo. Make sure that when you’re shooting up close (if you like to shoot wide open with a low aperture), that you’re always focusing on the eye closest to the camera. This looks much more natural than if the eye closest to you is out of focus and the one further away is in focus.

6. Save as a PNG for Social Media

A PNG file is one that isn’t compressed. Often times our JPEG files are re-compressed when uploaded onto a website, like Facebook. Keeping your files as a PNG will help them display better on Facebook or your blog and keep them from looking wonky when they’re compressed during upload.

Shop – Become a Member

What is the right image to convert?

Usually this comes down to artistic choice for many other photographers, as they’re going through and editing and deciding that something might look awesome in black and white or better in color. It truly is entirely up to you. Often times photographers that struggle with white balance also like to put wedding reception images in black and white because it can cover up your mistakes (just learn how to do white balance instead ) Many photographers prefer to decide for the clients when an image looks best in black and white, but there are lots of awesome options for converting your images to black and white.

I prefer to convert all my images that I give to clients in color into black and whites as well. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea and not every image looks good in color, just like not every image looks great in black and white. For me I’ve been able to figure out converting them fast in Lightroom so it doesn’t take much time away from my work. I feel like it’s that extra step in customer service to allow my clients to decide whether they like something better in color or black and white. One of the things I’ve learned after providing both to clients for so long is that often the ones that are my favorites in black and white are not my client’s favorites. Just like we as the photographer (artist) have the artistic choice to decide what looks best in what method with our art, clients also have artistic preferences and I enjoy this extra step so I can please them. It also stops a lot of the later emails and complaints about wanting one image converted back to color or something else converted into black and white.

Ultimately it’s up to you to decide which ones you want to convert or not, it’s your artistic decision as a business owner and artist what you provide – there aren’t any right or wrong answers.

Classic Black and White Conversions

A lot of other questions I get about black and white images are how you can get them to just look normal and classic. There are so many Photoshop actions and Lightroom Presets these days that offer tinted versions of black and white images and although they may look awesome these go in and out of style. I prefer a very classic black and white so the image is timeless and won’t look old or out of style 20 years from now.

In this image you can see a sample of one that’s slightly tinted, a popular option for black and white conversions now. The way I like to get that classic black and white color is to start by de-saturating your image. The image on the right above is the color image simply de-saturated.

So this option shows the de-saturated image compared with my final option. I like a little contrast pop to my black and whites and sometimes that simple de-saturation can be sort of “gray” and doesn’t stand out the way I like. For me a simple de-saturate with a contrast boost is the way I like my black and white images. I don’t like to have any color tint to my black and whites (no sepia, etc.).

My suggestion for you guys is to play around with an image and make your own black and white actions or presets with a setting that you like best.

Awesomesauce Store – Become a Member

So why do you want to keep that sensor squeaky clean? So you don’t get dust particles showing up in your photos and have to pay for camera sensor cleanings all the time.  If you get one little nasty dust particle hanging out on your sensor and it shows up in every single photo that’s a lot of editing…

Here’s a few tips that can help you avoid that!

1. Vacuum your camera bag regularly. You never know what kind of furballs (or dog hair in my case) collects up in there and can find its way into your camera!

2. Take care when changing lenses! Usually the most dust that will enter your camera does so when you’re doing lens changes. So make them quick and easy. Be careful of changing lenses in blowing/dusty environments.

3. Point your camera down when changing your lens. Make gravity your friend.

4. Use an air blower to blow the backs of your lenses clean before putting them onto your camera.

5. Don’t store your camera on its back (again make gravity your friend).

6. Keep your lenses clean! I clean mine before every session.

7. Use a bigger air blower! Like >this one< if it’s bigger you’ll have a better chance of removing dust particles from your gear.

Awesomesauce Store – Become a Member

1. Use a Hood – The hood is something we don’t tend to use often, but its main purpose is to keep light out of the lens. When you’re shooting with sun flare the light is direct and coming into your lens and you’ll notice all those little specs and sparkles it creates. I love me a little sun flare, but I always hate it when one of those little specs of light ends up in a weird spot and thus makes the photo look a bit odd. Using the hood will allow you to get sun flare, but without all those little hexagonal shapes of light.

2. Be Aware of Where the Sun Flare is Located – Don’t point your camera directly into the sun. Always try to keep the sun behind a tree, building or another object. This will help offset the flare and get even exposure on your clients’ skin. One of the things I try not to do is have the sun flare directly behind my clients’ heads. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but it can look a little odd if the sun flare is really blown out and takes away from the emotion and meaning of the clients in the photo.

3. Fake Sun Flare in Post Processing – I think this is a no-no. It can look really great and realistic, if it’s done well, but often times sun flare actions create a sun flare that doesn’t fit with the natural light in the photo. If you want to use sun flare in post processing to add a little ‘oomph’ to a photo ensure that you first identify where the light source is in the photo and fit your fake sun flare with it.

4. Shoot During Golden Hour – That’s right! This is the best time of day for getting perfect sun flare since the sun will be low in the sky.

5. Shoot in Manual Mode – manual mode will help you shoot and be able to adjust every part of the image to get the best sun flare. When you’re shooting in auto and trying to capture sun flare you are letting the camera make the decisions for you and may not be able to get the exact look that you want.

6. Sun Flare Shapes – The little circles of light that appear in your photos when you are shooting with sun flare take the shape of your aperture blades in your camera. The better your quality of lens, the more smooth  those ‘hexagonal’ shapes will be.

7. Focus with Sun Flare is Hard – When you’re shooting with sun flare right into the sun it can be very difficult to focus. If you’re having difficulty focusing use manual focus. You can also block the sun for a moment with one hand and focus the camera before taking the photo.

8. Expose for your Subject – If you’re a portrait photographer the subject of your photo is the most important object. I always expose for my clients’ skin. Sometimes this may blow out the background slightly when you’re photographing with sun flare. Although, sun flare always creates very bright areas in your image.

Awesomesauce Store – Become a Member

Facebook Dimensions

- Timeline Cover: 851 x 315 pixels
- Profile Image: 180 x 180 pixels (note that Facebook shrinks these images down to 125 x125. Size to 180 in your image program and leave a little space around the edges for it to ‘shrink’ for the best look)
- Custom Tabs: 111 x 74 pixels

Wait…What’s a Custom Tab?

Well, I don’t have any because I haven’t found any uses thus far to go through the process to create them, but some people love being able to customize the look of their Facebook page with the tabs. The tabs show up at the top of your page underneath the bottom right side of your timeline cover. They’re the boxes that can link to your photos, websites, or other custom areas. Creating a custom tab can be a little bit of a process, but >here< is a link to one of the best tutorials I’ve found on how to do it.

How to Display Images on Facebook Better

So Facebook has this icky feature built-in that ruins some photos occasionally. When you upload an image to Facebook it automatically compresses the file which can cause some distortion, color changes, pixilation, and more problems. As photographers we want to be able to display our photos in the best way possible.

There are two different main ways that a file can end up being compressed. One is called lossy and the other, lossless. To make a long story short, lossy compression basically results in the loss of some data. Lossless compression types keep the data of the original file intact.

Saving images as a PNG file for the web can help keep your image compression intact when using them on Facebook. PNG is a larger image file so it will save more information and thus result in a better, higher quality image when displayed on Facebook. This is not to say that a PNG file is the best image format available, and it’s not ideal in all situations, but when it comes to Facebook keeping colors as close to the original file as possible is important and a PNG will help with that.

Another option to help with compression on blogs and social media is using software like Blogstomp, which optimizes image for the best viewing on social media. >Read about Blogstomp<

Cold Tips

1. Really cold weather zaps your battery power fast. If you’re used to using a battery pack, take it off your camera and use each battery one at a time. Keep your spare batteries in a pocket so they can stay warm and keep their power.

2. Getting your gear back to room temperature after you’ve been out in the cold can also be difficult. Taking your camera out in the cold and back into a warm room can cause moisture to build up inside (not fun!). I always put my camera somewhere that it can warm up slowly if I’ve been in extreme cold. One trick is to put a plastic bag around your camera after you’re done using it in cold weather. The plastic bag will collect the condensation that builds up when you come back into a warm room, instead of that building up in your camera. When I was in China in January and we went to the ice festival in Northern China I did lots of this for my camera and it worked perfectly!

Rain Tips

1. Stock up on those annoying little silica gel packets that come in various product packaging. These are great for absorbing moisture and you can toss them in your camera bag for a rainy day so if there is any excess moisture in your camera equipment, just having that next to your camera in your bag can make a difference.

2. Get a rain sleeve. You can definitely go out and buy rain sleeve like >these.< They’re great to have on hand and fit your camera better than a plastic bag. Although I’ve been known to go the plastic bag route on the rare occasion we have really wet snow or rain here in Colorado (really rare). A grocery bag and a rubber band can be perfect.

Wind Tips

1. Use a UV filter on your lens to protect from sand or other gunk blowing into your lens and causing scratches.

2. Find a safe place to do lens changes so you don’t get debris blowing into your camera or sensor when you’re swapping stuff out. Sometimes this means if I’m out at the beach I only plan to keep one lens on or I do lens changes in the car.

Heat Tips

1. This one is a bit of a no-brainer, but don’t leave your camera cooking out in the heat. If  you’re working in extreme hot conditions  you  may need to let your camera cool off slowly now and then so it doesn’t overheat.

Awesomesauce Store - Become a Member

In my head I’ve seen beautiful images on Pinterest and thought, ‘I would love to do a shoot with that!’ But somehow my brain gets in the way and says, ‘Well, hopefully you’ll get a client like that someday.’

I’ve seen a movement and been inspired by others to do my own dream photo shoot, the one I’ve always wanted, that looks exactly the way I want. Why do I have to wait to get a client like that? I’m sure my clients would be interested, I just need to show them what I’m capable of.

So…I’m planning. I’ve been picking up vintage dresses all week, props and other things to use in this shoot this summer. I’ve got models lined up and well there’s really only one thing missing…

One-thousand paper cranes…

You can check out my inspiration board on Pinterest >here<. I came across this image of wedding tables and chairs and above them are hanging paper cranes. I love it and I love the meaning and stories that come with paper cranes and Japan. When I saw that image in Pinterest I went to click on it and the link led me nowhere – just a page with a picture. I had to do the research and see what inspired this styled wedding.

There are lots of myths and legends around paper cranes and Japan – specifically around one-thousand. One thousand paper cranes are traditionally given as a wedding gift in Japan from the father to the couple. He is wishing one thousand years of good luck and prosperity on the couple. There are lots of other things that surround the idea of one thousand cranes, good luck, health, wellness, and more. In Japan the crane is considered a very holy creature who lives for one thousand years. That is why one thousand are made – one for each year of the crane’s life.

So, in the end I’m planning this shoot and the one impossible thing I have to do is make 1000 cranes! I’d love your help. If everyone who reads this makes one crane and sends it in I can incorporate all of you into the shoot. What do I have to give in return? Not much aside from the good luck that making cranes can bring. But, I will make a list of every person who sends me a crane and link to them from Photography Awesomesauce (we have great SEO ). Supposedly making one thousand paper cranes can help your dreams/wishes come true and in this case it would help mine, literally.

So here’s what you’ve got to do. I need your cranes sent by May 31st so I can string them together and use them in June.

1. Make a paper crane. You can make and send as many as you like. Use either white, light yellow, or light pink paper. Here are some instructions on how to make a paper crane. The paper square you start out with must be 3 inches by 3 inches. It’s okay if your crane isn’t perfect!

2. When your crane is finished write your photography wish on the wing. 

3. Send it to my studio! You can flatten the crane (see step 12 above) and easily slip it in an envelope.
Carrie Swails Photography
7595 W. 66th Ave. Suite 200
Arvada, CO. 80003

When the photo shoot is done it’s something I’d love to get published online (we talked about publishing earlier this week). I’d love to be able to give credit to all of you and link to a page where all of you and your websites are listed in the publication. Maybe one crane from everyone will help all our photography wishes and dreams come true?

I would love to encourage you all to set up a Pinterest board and start designing and planning a shoot just for you, exactly the way you want, nothing can be more inspiring and great at getting you into your photography again.

Thanks for listening and helping (if you chose to). I so appreciate each and every one of you and your involvement in our community.

Awesomesauce Store – Become a Member – Carrie Swails Photography

For years I kept seeing these gorgeous dresses, hanging them up in beautiful locations to show them off only to pull up the photo later and wish I’d had a gorgeous hanger to go with that dress! Sometimes brides bring cute hangers for everyone and all the bridesmaids dresses too, but sometimes you get what you get (and you don’t throw a fit).

So I wanted to give you guys a quick solution. Not only can this fix up that one wedding shot we all like to get, but it also helps you look like the awesomesauce wedding professional you are. It’s a small investment, but you can buy your own set of wedding hangers and either give them to each bride or have them to bring to weddings.

Sometimes if I give these hangers to the bride I find they wished they had one that said something else so I like to just have a set to use in case they don’t have their own. Let’s face it, not all brides are as detail oriented as I am!

These are a quick thing to buy and are cool and handmade! You can find them >here< from all kinds of different Etsy vendors. They’re all pretty awesome and cheap, especially if you just buy a set and use them at every wedding. The set I have says, “bride,” “bridesmaid,” and “groom.” I have the groom one just in case the bride sees the one I use on her dress and asks if I have one for the groom too.

Anyway, this is a quick tip for all you wedding photographers on a little piece you can add to your wedding kit. I promise your brides will appreciate you for it!

Awesomesauce Store – Become a Member – Carrie Swails Photography

This is a quick little article I’m putting together. The information is pretty basic, but I get a lot of questions on this topic so I figured this would help to have stored on the back burner.

Some Things Memory Cards Don’t Like…

1. Being shoved into memory card readers. Bent card reader pins can ruin your card. Be gentle!

2. Deleting images one by one on the card can cause read errors.

3. Deleting images in your import program can cause errors on the card, only delete images by formatting.

4. Being a cheap memory card is no fun. Investing in a great memory card that is high quality is very important.

How to Fix Your Memory Card

1. Go to www.cardrecovery.com and download their software – easy peasy!

2. If using recovery software does not work, look up and contact the company who made the card to get their recommendations.

Awesomesauce Store - Become a Member – Carrie Swails Photography

What is it?

When your camera is sent to you it generally has everything set up with its factory settings. That means the camera focuses when the shutter button is halfway down and the photo is taken when the button is pressed fully. Back button focus means the focus button on your camera can be set to another button on the back of the camera to activate focusing instead of the shutter button.

Why do I like back button focus?

I actually find that with back button focus I throw away fewer shots where I accidentally focused on something wrong. I think it allows me to be more accurate with where I focus and how I do it overall. I’ve also noticed a big difference in sharpness, but I think that may have more to do with having it accurately focus.

The great thing about using your back button to focus is you set the focus and as long as you are in the same spot that same area of your composition will stay in focus until you decide to change it. You don’t have to refocus for every shot or refocus every time you let go of the shutter.

If you’re a left-eye shooter you might not find back button focus as comfortable. It definitely takes some getting used to, but I really feel it has improved the number of “keepers” with my photography over time.

How to Set up Back Button Focus?

I wish I could sit here and give you all perfect instructions, but the methods vary from camera brand to the camera model. The best thing I did was just do a google search “back button focus _________” and insert the camera model you have. Most searches will come up with a nice you tube video.

I don’t want to go through every possible option so if you look it up in your manual or online you’ll find what you need. One thing to keep in mind is when you do set it up make sure to set up the back button to focus AND be sure to set up the shutter button to no longer focus. Otherwise you’ll have both buttons focusing and the back button focus concept won’t work quite the same.

Focus Methods & Types

I wanted to talk about one of the best ways back button focus can help you, with moving objects.

There are two great ways to focus Al Servo and One-shot. I’ll explain what each one is. Al Servo is basically continuous focusing. Al Servo is what Canon calls it and Nikons usually have it called AF-C or AF-Continuous. One-shot is called one-shot on a Canon and is called AF-S/AF-single on a nikon.

Al Servo or continuous focusing basically is the method where your camera tracks focusing on moving objects like small children, dogs at the park, the bride and groom coming up the aisle. You can set which option Al Servo or One Shot you want on your camera depending on what you are shooting.

To use Al Servo with back button focus you have to continuously hold the AF-ON button to track focus on a moving subject. The AF-ON button on a Canon is typically the extra button on the back you can choose to sign your back button focus to. You can choose another button too. In Al Servo if you have a still subject and you hold down the AF-ON button the camera will keep trying to work to find focus because your camera thinks it should be looking for a moving object. Instead if you have Al Servo on your camera you can just tap the AF-ON button with a still subject and let go of the button when the subject is in focus.

Al Servo/AF-C/AF-Continuous (have to include the Nikon peeps here) is great for when the wedding couple is coming back up the aisle from the ceremony, or when the wedding party is going down the aisle. Anytime you have a subject coming toward you or you are working with toddlers this can be an awesome method to learn how to use. As long as you’re staying in the same place you can track any subject as it moves around and still get crisp sharp images.

If you’re interested in giving it a try just first switch to back button focus, get used to how that works and then start learning to use Al Servo or continuous focusing. You definitely don’t want the first time you do it to be at a wedding.

Awesomesauce Store & Carrie Swails Photography

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who has stayed away from blogging images because it takes too long to get the images ‘blog-ready’ and watermarked. If you read much here on Photography Awesomesauce you’ll also know that I’m all about time-saving techniques. The less I have to work the more free time I have (and the more I get paid per hour).

So I’ll talk to you guys about Blogstomp today because I’m sure there’s no better way to save time watermarking your images and getting them ready for social media.

Eventually a few months ago I gave in and got the free trial from their website. I must have been out of my mind because I messed with it for a few minutes and decided I didn’t understand it at all and gave up.

I don’t know what made me try it again a few weeks ago, but I did and I’m so sorry I haven’t been using it since the very start of my business. I don’t know why I thought it was more complicated, because it is so utterly simple and easy. I can’t remember why I thought it would add an extra step or two to my workflow when getting images ready for Facebook and my blog.

Someone should have given me a good shake because Blogstomp shaves off minutes, and possibly hours of time getting my images ready for social media. All you do is download the software for $50 and start using it. Within minutes I can put my watermark on every image I want to. Blogstomp allows you to create different blog layouts with certain images side by side. Instead of purchasing blog templates, pulling them up in Photoshop, dragging the photos and resizing them, and then adding a watermark, exporting and uploading to the blog I can skip most of those steps with Blogstomp.

In Blogstomp all I have to do is import the images I want to use in my blog. You could import an entire fold of images instead of picking out your favorites first. All you do after importing them is clicking on them, adding a type of template and your watermark. You press the “stomp” button at the bottom and the software automatically saves it to a file of all your ‘stomped’ images.

It is SO EASY and I think it may have been the best $50 I’ve ever spent on my business. I really encourage anyone looking to save some time on watermarking to check it out. I had no idea what I was missing! No, I don’t work for them and I’m not getting any kickbacks by writing about them here. I’m only blogging about Blogstomp because I know it’s going to change the way I get my images out on social media this year. A good photography tool is worth talking about.

Check out their video on how it works >here<
Go download the software >here<

You will start saving tons of time. I also have to say that there’s a certain finished look to my stomped images that I’m really loving. I feel like it adds a small touch of professionalism that watermarking on my own didn’t have before.

Awesomesauce Store & Carrie Swails Photography