If Today Was Your Last Day...

As I cruised down the road today, in my early morning commute, a song came on the radio which colored my thinking for the day. It colors my thoughts now, even as I write this blog entry.

The song is by a group named, "Nickelback"
and is titled, "If today was your last day"

You might find it here at this link on Youtube, but no guarantees because the record label seems to be chasing it down for removal. But you could always "Google" the lyrics.

Click here or copy and paste the link below to hear the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StbWZz4pF88&feature=related

As the title implies, it's about taking stock of what you are doing in your life now and what you would be doing if you knew the end was near...like TODAY!

How often do we just wake up into our daily ruts and go mindlessly along the tracks we create in our lives? As if, like the innocent children seen here in today's photo, we imagine life will just automatically be better tomorrow.

But will there be a tomorrow? If so, how many more?

I hope one of the reasons you are here, reading this now, is because you want to become better. Better at producing high quality photos. Better at Photoshop skills. Better at workflow speed. Which will hopefully lead you to better compliments, better customers and better cashflow.

But often times we get caught up in the learning mode (to which I plead exceedingly guilty!) and forget that what we need to do, is DO!

Most importantly, if we are not where we want to be, what SHOULD we be DOING that will bring us closer to our goals?

So today's Photoshop tip is to be sure you DO, not just read through!

Try each tip. Experiment with the sliders, the dials, the deep, deep menu options.

Click on the links at the right of this page if you haven't already. Click on them again and DO something if you just were looking last time. Each posted link is a resource I have personally used to increase my photography skills and increase my income. Each has been tested, proven and receives my highest recommendation as something I feel will be helpful to you too.

When you have done that, get those photos out of your computer and out into the world!

Enter contests, (my contest ends next week so submit your photos!) show your portfolio to prospects, submit your photos to forums for review, or at the very least, get them printed, matted, framed and up on your walls!

Promise yourself you WILL do SOMETHING different today!

Because, God forbid, what IF today was your last day?

Today, I rearranged my schedule and instead spent the day with my Dad, out in the sun helping him rebuild his porch steps. Priceless.

Better Sharpening with High Pass Filter

What's Everybody Looking For?

A better way to sharpen up those images, that's what!

While just about everyone is familiar with using the UNSHARP MASK to sharpen up their photos, there is another less well known and often more effective method.

It is the HIGH PASS FILTER

There are two main reasons why HIGH PASS can be better.

1. UNSHARP mask operates on all of the pixels in your photo. It works by making changes to those pixels...therefore it can be categorized as a destructive process, much like the dodge and burn tool.

2. UNSHARP mask takes the broad approach to sharpening, sharpening everything. Unlike HIGH PASS which limits its process to the edges where the most obvious benefits can be seen from sharpening.

Try this HIGH PASS FILTER method the next time you need a little sharpening done:

Step 1: Open you image and duplicate the background (Ctrl-J)
Step 2: Add a (blank) layer to the top of your stack
Step 3: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E, this fills your top layer with a flattened version of your background
Step 4: Set Blend Mode on this layer to OVERLAY
Step 5: FILTER- OTHER- HIGH PASS
You'll get a pop-up box with a slider (for Radius) which will have a preview of your image. Slide that slider left until you can only see gray values (no colors) in your preview.
The "sweet spot" will be around the point where you just make the colors go away to see only an outtline of your image and gray. (Usually this radius is way under 10, more likely between 1.5 and 3.5)

That's it! You're done!

To check your results, toggle on/off the high pass layer. You can also bring the opacity slider for this level down to zero and back up to check. Even set the opacity for your own taste.

And there you have it! An alternative, non-destructive option for sharpening up those photos.

Here's a bonus! You can also spot tune your sharpening for more or less effect in certain places by using a 50% gray brush to increase/decrease the effect in particular areas as you desire.

Go ahead and monkey around with it now so you don't forget!

And so you'll have this tip on hand next time you need it, be sure to get signed up for my Photoshop Tips Card Group...its FREE! Plus, new members will receive a very helpful set of Photoshop Tip Cards free when they sign up. These helpful index cards include all the tips you need to crank out great photos every time. Best of all they sit right beside your computer so you don't have to waste time searching online for the tips you need.

Also, be sure to enter the MEMBERS ONLY PHOTO CONTEST going on now.
You'll get full details in your email when you sign up.

Getting Customers, Keeping Them Happy

Today's Photoshop tip is a bit different, but equally valuable. I know it's valuable because it answers two of the most common questions photographers ask:

1. How can I get more customers, and...
2. Where can I find a reasonably priced lab that won't screw-up my prints.

After all, the motivation most of us have for bettering our Photoshop skills is $$!

When we're better we can charge more.
When we're better we can get more customers.
When we're charging more AND getting more customers, we're making more money!
And if we can find a good processing lab that saves us money and hassle...

Now we've got a GREAT BUSINESS!
And that's the connection today's tip has to Photoshop.

Actually it's two tips today. The two great resources you've been asking for:

First: How can you get more customers?

Veteran photographer and marketing expert Dan Eitriem has just released Volume 2 of his enormously successful book, "How to Pay the Rent With Your Camera...This Month!"

Volume 1 was packed with great tips on how to get more customers into your business at very little cost. But Dan's a great marketer and he knew there were even more ways photographers could get customers. So, once again, Dan approached photographer's, asking them to reveal their best customer getting tips. And sure enough, he got tips to fill an entire book... Volume 2 was born!

I've been a big fan of Dan's marketing genious for quite a while now. Bought just about all of his stuff and loved it...because it works! Dozens of proven ways to get customers, with little or no cost marketing methods...methods that "real people" can actually do. Even me!

Volume 1 was great, I bought it, I loved it. Volume 2 is just as good if not better.

And if you like my tips here, you might just enjoy (and profit from) the one tip of mine Dan thought was so good he even included it when putting together Volume 2 of "How to Pay the Rent With Your Camera...This Month!"

You'll find that tip on Page 32 of his book, and not anywhere else but in Dan's book. So yes, if you buy his book I'll get a small percentage from Clickbank, but you'll get so much more when you put even one of his 17+ methods to work!

So tip one is: Want more customers? Get Dan's book.

Second: Where Can I Get Great Prints at Great Prices?

You could spend hours and hours, using all your Photoshop skills to create the finest photos, but if your monitor calibration is off your prints are going to come back looking awful. Or if the kid down at the photo lab is just dumping your photo files in to print, you could get back garbage.

- Wouldn't it be nice to know that each and every one of your photo files was being looked at on a carefully calibrated monitor prior to printing?
- Wouldn't it be nice to know that if the color or exposure was a bit off trained technicians would adjust it prior to printing?
- And if you could get fast turn-around, fast deliver, and freindly folks to deal with would you be tempted to learn who's doing this?
- And if I told you their prices were better, in many cases, than anything you could get locally would you just about kill me if I wouldn't tell you who they were?

Not to worry! I'm here to help.
And if it makes you feel any better, I get nothing for telling you about them. We are not affiliated in any way - except that they do my prints and I am happy to pay them.

You can get more details about them from their website: http://meridianpro.com

Tip Two is: Great prints, great prices at http://meridianpro.com

Photoshop is a great tool for improving our end results. But if we can't get a good print, at a good price, and someone to sell it too...what's the point?