6/03/2011
In this tutorial I will be walking you through how I created my digital piece, “What weather do you want?”. This is a photo manipulation tutorial that combines some adjustment layers, filter effects, and some simple pen/lasso tool work.
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27/02/2011
In this tutorial I will be walking you through how I created my digital piece, “Mother Nature”. This is a simple photo manipulation of a few stock photographs and some brush work.
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18/12/2010
After posting some of Emily’s photos, I was getting a lot of people asking me how I processed the photos. Although, not every one of her photos was processed like I will be explaining below. I will help illustrate how I did two of my favorite images from her session. I like to process a lot of my photos with a vintage/retro/old poloraid feel to them. I enjoy that style, and I feel it helps convey certain moods in photographs. Her images came out fine SOOC (straight out of camera), but the mood created by the final post-processing makes the image more engaging. Not every photo will come out like the end result in this tutorial. A lot of factors depend on how the end result will look. For example how well the original image was strobed, your scene, and original tones in the image.

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15/12/2010
One of the most important features of an e-Commerce site is the product photos. Having the ability for the customer to almost feel the item through the screen, and knowing how the product would be as if they had bought it. This could be the difference between you making a good conversion rate or not. Gaining customer trust is another aspect that can be acquired with good product photography.

I’ve recently been doing a lot of product photography for the company I work for. Well, it is one of the main reasons they hired me I suppose, aside from my design skills. Product photography can be easy, but can also require a lot of work. There are certain lighting techniques that will help improve the image of a product, and certain techniques that can destroy the image of a product. The style of the product photography should not only fit the branding of the company, but also match the site in which the products will be presented.
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15/12/2010
Recently I read the article posted by the graphic designer Brian Hoff, “What to Include In Your Design Contracts”. He has some excellent information and I highly recommend you stop by for a visit and read through the article (and subscribe to his RSS feed if you haven’t). I am going to expand on his article a little bit, and his will set the base for what I am about to touch on below.

I would like to give some insight on how I devise my contracts. This will probably be more catered to the photography side in this article, but you can take this and twist this to other areas of the design world. We will be putting together a basic contract for a photo shoot. Now I am making my disclaimer, as I am not a lawyer and I have limited legal knowledge when it comes to offering advice about contracts. I have read books, I have hundreds of copies of different kinds of contracts saved on CDs, and even took a law during my college career. That still does not make me an expert on the subject.
Everyone should seek proper legal advice about his or her contracts if you plan to get serious about freelancing. You cannot hold me liable if you plan to use anything in this article for a contract.
I have pieced together my contracts from numerous sources of information and advice given to me from other individuals. This article will contain everything I usually give to my clients before I start the project. From the description of the assignment with an estimate of the photographer’s fees, terms and conditions, and defined terms.
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