Ideas on Social Media

I recently had a conversation with a friend about social media, in fact it wasn't the first time I've had this conversation in recent history, so I thought it might be of use to talk about some of the things I am doing to grow, maintain and use the following I have. Let me be the first to say these probably aren't original ideas, but they are compiled ideas that seem to have worked for me. I'll try to keep it brief and useful!

1. Brand yourself - If you went to Art School you probably had this rammed down your throat, like I did. If you were anything like me you said it was stupid and a that you could do ANYTHING! Well, turns out I was wrong. People (especially agencies and art directors) want to see who you are, and that's really hard to do if you don't have consistent branding. All I can say is find your style, your look, your feel, whatever you want to call it, and hang on like your life depended on it! I should know it's you, they should know it's you...we should all know it's you, without having to check the name.

2. Post Consistently - I have found that posting between 7 am and 8 am every day is the best time for me. If I miss that window then I will typically wait until the evening to post, all those tired people getting off work like to scroll through an endless sea of photos...it reminds them of the desk job they left. Please notice that I said EVERY day, and yes it's a lot of work. Sure, I will miss a day from time to time, but for the most part I wake up and post first thing. (I woke up at 4:30 today and I started getting my posts ready, no joke.) You might be saying "What the heck am I supposed to post every day?!" That's kind of dependent on your brand and what you do, but there are a million ways to post stuff, like BTS, Gif's, Videos, your work or work in progress...the list goes on and on, and yes you will need to be creative. I find that I am typically either creating work, planning work, shooting work or retouching work...all of those can be posted with an image. When I am planning work I typically will find inspiration to use in the mood board, this can also be posted (see point #6) Sometimes you might even throw a selfie in there...or not.

3. Have a Purpose - I think the black hole of social media happens when you don't know why you're there, and I'll give you a hint, it isn't to waste time and avoid work you should be doing. Social media is a tool that should be used to gain exposure to the people you want to work for and with. If you really think about it, we have access to an audience that the photographers before us never had, EVERYONE! You used to have to pay thousands of dollars to put your pictures in print so that Art Directors and Agencies would see your work, now you can send them a tweet for free. It's said that it takes more than 7 times having your face/work in front of someone for them to have a chance of remembering you, today it's way way easier, but I would say you need to be in front of them even more than 7 times because of all the noise. 

4. Know your audience - This point is definitely not original, but it ties directly into the point above. One of the most depressing thoughts is to send out a tweet, instagram, etc and just be hoping that someone special might see it. I spend time researching and following potential clients, even creating work just to send their way. It's a lot of work, it takes a lot of time, but it's worth it. One of the most pertinent sites for this is Linked In, and I will give you a cheat for that in a minute.

5. Don't buy them, earn them - I am not a fan of the whole "buying followers" idea, and while I do use Crowd Fire to control who I am following (which is a paid service), I also use it to follow specific people and the people who are influenced by them. Think about the people you want to see your work and who they are following, the photographers you want to be like, the agencies you want to work with, and start to grow your list. Then make sure you are posting things that are relevant and they will notice.

6. Be Social - I know this is cliche, but you should be engaged with the people that follow you. They took the time to follow you and look at your work, and it isn't that hard to say thank you. Also, and this is especially for Twitter and Facebook, don't always just post your stuff. If you see things that are helpful, especially pertaining to your audience, then SHARE it! Don't be afraid to share awesome work, it all comes back around.  

This last part isn't a point, but it has been one of the most useful tricks I learned as a photographer. This is specifically for Linked In, which I strongly believe every serious photographer should be active on...at least for the moment. When I started Linked In it seemed impossible to reach out to the people I really wanted to connect with, that is without paying gobs of money every month to send invites and e-mails. So here is what I did. Start connecting with photographers who work with the companies you want to work with, and yes you will need to research that. Photographers tend to be much more welcoming then many other professionals when you are first getting started, especially if you have posted some rad work. Once you've connected with those people then you have access to the people they are connected with, and while it's never a guarantee, it will most definitely start helping you to connect with and network inside of the companies you want to work for. I have grown my Linked In network to thousands of industry people, and yes it has turned into clients. I have found that the mobile app is a little more friendly when connecting with new people...so you might want to try that, wink wink.

Ok, so those are 6 things and a bonus that can help get things going. Just so you know, it takes time...or at least it did for me. Maybe you are a social media phenomenon and I would love to hear if you have any radical tricks that have worked for you!

Until next time...be awesome!

P.S. The image below is of actual human interaction...and yes, it can be used on social media.

See the light.

I have had a number of people ask me if I would be putting tutorials up on my page, and that is definitely in the works for 2016, but I think there is a fundamental problem with a lot of people trying to break into composite photography, and that's lighting. Sometimes I think our digital crazed culture has become so reliant on the term "fix it in post" that we forget the little things that make photography special.

When you look at some of the great photographers before us, like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ansel Adams, you realize that they saw light, it didn't just happen to them and it most certainly wasn't luck. You might be asking, what do two guys who shot mostly black and white film have to do with a digital composite photographer in 2015?! To that I would say, everything! I have had multiple people come to me and ask how I make my composite images look so real, and yes, I use Photoshop a lot, but Photoshop can only do so much. I think most of what makes composite images look real is lighting. More specifically being able to identify lighting and re-create it.

So, what can you do? How can you start to learn about lighting? Well the first thing you can do is go outside! Look at shadows, haze, highlights, soft light, hard light, night lights, natural light, artificial light, fog, etc. and study them. The more you know about what light looks like the better. That's the fun part, I am still obsessed with shadows and I take pictures of them all the time...it's a little weird. I can't stop it though, I think light is incredible and beautiful, I think at the heart of what we do is the fact that photographers love light.

What do you do after that? You learn how to make it. First, learn how to make light and shadows in a studio. This part can be harder if you don't have access to lights, but it most certainly can be done on a budget. This is a critical step if you want to be a composite photographer because your ability to take an object and put it seamlessly into a background is what will set you apart from the competition. There are a ton of tutorials that you can look at online, like kelbyone.com, that will teach you lighting, but make sure you don't just watch videos, go do it!

Finally, you need to learn how to make lighting and shadows in Photoshop. I think this is where things get a little backwards for a lot of people. I can't tell you how many people have said the know a ton about Photoshop and still can't make their images look right. Honestly, if they really do know a ton about Photoshop (I have my suspicions), it's probably the lighting. I think if you just try to learn Photoshop without learning lighting you are doing yourself a disservice, and it makes things very frustrating in the beginning. When you're ready though, there are a ton of websites and resources to help you learn about lighting in Photoshop (Phlearn, Lynda, Kelbyone, Youtube, etc). 

I might be crazy, but I think you need to know this stuff to be a professional photographer, not just have a nice camera. I mean, having a nice camera is great and all, but I would rather hire a photographer with a cheaper camera who knows what they're doing then one with a super expensive camera who doesn't have a clue.

I just recently went in the studio and did test lighting for a shoot that I am getting ready for and to learn more about lighting, because you never know it all! Below are some of the shots that I took from new lighting set ups I am working on, and a little bts video of me running around taking pictures of myself! Until next time, be awesome!

Pathing and Quick Select - Part 1

I am going to spend the next couple of blogs talking about pathing, quick selection, refine edge and combining these tools. In this particular blog I am going to give a few quick pointers about pathing, next time we'll talk about feathering your edges so they look realistic and then we'll close with quick selection and how to combine them. I am going to assume you know how to use the pen tool and the quick select tool for this series...if you don't you should spend time learning them, there are plenty of tutorials!

One of the questions I've heard is "which should you use, quick select or pen tool?" I would say you need to know how to use both, and know how to combine them. I think it also depends on how quickly you need to finish a project and if you've thought about it before hand. The pen tool is great in that it can create perfect curves/circles. Quick select is awesome for things like hair and edges with high contrast.

I would say almost every image I finish has pathing in it (the pen tool), in fact, pretty much anything with a smooth edge I will path out. It is also VERY essential if you are retouching products, and it is important that you are accurate! When you are retouching a product you need to path out EVERYTHING, for instance, if it's a watch you need to path out: whole watch, strap only, bezel, crown, face, metal, glass, etc. You might be wondering how accurate you need to be, to that I would say you should be within 1 pixel of the edge in most places.

Here are some quick tips for pathing:

1. Get close! I usually path around 200-300% zoom
2. Test it, use a curves layer with your path to see if your path is accurate.
   1. With your path selected create a curves layer and adjust is drastically, you shouldn't see areas of the background being adjusted, if you do, adjust your path.
3. Less is more, the less points you can use, the smoother your path will be

Below is an example of a paint drip that I was working on for a composite, the grey line is my path. You can see that it sits right along the edge and I will feather .5 pixels initially to blend it a little better. Also note that it only took 3 points to path out the bottom of the drop, it's essentially a circle and you don't need more than 4 points to make a circle.

Check out some examples of my paths below, I think paths by themselves can be pretty rad!! In the next blog I'll talk about feathering paths to create accurate and realistic edges...stay tuned and be awesome!