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Album Design and Final Q&A

a couple more things in here and then take some questions. So for album design, listen, almost nobody did this, right. Like I got maybe three emails that talk about album design. All I wanted to make sure that you did is figured out how you're gonna receive your selections for your clients, whether you're going to pre design or not, how you're going to create your design and is album designed something that you want to outsource? How I do it is I received my images through my eyes in Folio favorites. I do not pre design. I know I'm leaving money on the table by not pre designing. We talk about this often, Um, Jerry Bonus. If you have a chance to go to any of his workshops where he talks about selling albums, I can't think of anyone who does it better than he does, huh? No one's He's really good at it. I use Fund. The album builder and Sandra designs albums for me. From the beginning, I send her when I get the favorites from San Polio. I said that the Sandra I said the client's informat...

ion to Sandra and then I'm out. She takes care of it from there on out, I've got, you know, from the weekly check in a few questions. Many questions as you need. Yeah, that sounds that sounds really good. So and, you know, as we know, we're always getting stuff all over the place, right? These air, these are questions that people been getting scattered questions. Totally. Yeah. So someone asked earlier about, um gens and I would like to get Susan's as well your particular workflow with photo mechanic. And again, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to whoever asked this, But the point of the three month mentorship is for people to pay attention the entire time. You can tell me if you've answered it. I've talked about it 1/2 dozen times, but we will talk about it again. I'm gonna let Jen talk about it, actually. So the way I think it was particular to Jen's, because go for it. Because I have not heard me talk about it. So here you talk about this stuff all the time. Just hang out over there, have a drink the way that I handled my images in photo mechanic. Now, when I received, there's two sets of clients. I have clients who I do actual post production work for, like, season and some other studios. And the way that I handled them is I don't really take them into Federal Cannon ever because they've already made their selections. I have called for certain clients in the past, but generally speaking, by the time I received them, they're ready to go into a light room. So put that aside when I worked with my own clients, the way that I handled it is once I've ingested everything, I've created backups and I go to call, I pretty much do what Susan does. I believe I bring them into photo mechanic. I go through. I utilize additive editing, which is where I hit one. If I want to keep the image, if I think the images particularly great, then I'll hit a two and a two means that I'm gonna give it to the client as a preview, and I might block it. And then if it's one of the best images I've ever taken, in my opinion at the wedding I could give it a three, but that's pretty rare. That might be like a couple times a year that I might get something at three. And I give mine, too, because I know they're just gonna go in that big pile of read keepers for me, right? But a three is like a special thing. So as I go, why are three keys or super dusty? Because we use the maybe like doesn't work. You really have to pound on. You have to convince it that it's really worth it. So once I've done that, I then go ahead and I sort them and make sure that I've got everything that I've starred, at least one star. I make sure that I've already adjusted the time. I usually do that first if I haven't seen my cameras, but I usually think my cameras. I'm pretty good about it. And like Susan, I shoot with an assistant. But I am the only shooter, so I don't really have to worry too much about out of sequence stuff because I can. It's rare that I can use two cameras simultaneously Anyway, we're working on it. We're working on that. So once I've done that, I moved them. When I in just the photos in the first place, I put them into a folder that's called rejects, which sounds fine. Just assume they all suck from the get go. I don't want any of that. And then once I go through that rejects holder and photo mechanic, and I designate all of my keepers, I move them into something that's called Master Raw. Once I move them into Master Master, I didn't see that one coming. I don't think Masters a rank, though I like to pretend that it once I move them into faster, raw. Then after that, I basically I'm getting ready to do my actual workflow, which is where I convert the raw files to Proxy D and GS and then full size D and GS Great. The catalogue, etcetera, has already been created because I did all of that when I did The Unjust and Proxy. The Indy editing is really brilliant. There's no way that we can describe it right here. There is no way, hence the point of sidecar having their own class. So if you're looking for literally the fastest method to start speeding up your editing, this proxy DMG editing is genius, and that's why they spent a whole day teaching it. So just to tell you what it is more like, what the heck is she talking about? Proxy editing is basically using a much smaller version of the file to do your edits and light room so that your catalog moves very quickly because part of the problem in light room that people have is that it takes a long time because everything is like coming into focus slowly and the catalog move Sylvie, especially with the G 8 10 files. You have these enormous files, so proxy editing is taking a very small version of the file as a DMG at a small size, making all of your edits, saving it into that file and then moving all of the data that you've just saved onto the full sized Angie's. And, like Susan said, your last step. We talked a little decor on how to do it, and I can't explain it here because you're going to get it wrong if I don't if it's not done in detail. But if you're looking to speed up your workflow, that proxy editing is a really important thing, and it anyone can do it. It doesn't require any special purchase of anything. Adobe DMG converter is free. Anybody can learn how to do this. And honestly, if you're looking to buy anything to supplement what you've learned here the sidecar post class, especially with the creativelive holiday sale that's going on right now, I mean, how can you not buy it seriously? Yeah, please do. Because it's really, honestly, so many people after that one day that didn't think the clothe one day mind blown. First of all, everyone cried for walks. Hurt the brains. People are actually writing to them and saying I'm editing twice as fast now three times as fast. Now it's just helping everything hum along. So it if if you want to just hurt your face over your winter break, by all means, um, this one is from T for NK Any tips Generous Susan can provide for getting natural looking greens. When in nature settings, this person struggles with it looking to green the unlike, and they try and play with the yellows and greens and saturation and just can't seem to get it right. Hm. That's a good question. I mean, there is no universal. Yeah, tough way to fix it. I mean, one thing you can obviously do is you know, if you're in a situation where you can use a brush to darken things down, obviously darkening down keeps it from being sure neon hurt, hurting your eyes. Yeah. Um, another thing you can do is you. Obviously, your most important thing is skin tones. You can try shooting. I knew Susan shoots a lot of seven cloudy white balance, which really warms things up. That's gonna probably give your greens amore golden glow. So there's a couple things you could try, but what I mean, what I do most of the time and I'm trying to fix it is all actually, color balance the image for the skin tones, and then I will create a brush to color balance the image for the greens. You can do that, and I'll just full time can pop over the greens. It's a little time consuming, but it's The main thing is, what you said is, when you push the file up, you get those neon greens. So if you can bring those down, it's not gonna look quite a Technicolor thesis from Oh, uh oh, CF. How do you get Ambien light reading without a meter. There's a meter in your camera, right? Like I I'm sighing a big sigh because that is such a photo. question if you don't know that there are, I mean, there's different metering modes your camera uses the media removes to determine how to expose the scene. But if you don't know that you have a light meter your camera, we have bigger problems here. Over time, you will be able to eyeball how you need to meet her like so sometimes when people are like Now what do you meet her in? I have to stop and think about it because it doesn't matter at a meeting in my head and you'll be able to do that too eventually, as you just keep you eventually were actually room and you know where to start. You might not nail it 100% but you walk into a ballroom and you say, OK, 1601 80th of a second off camera flash started at 18 power and you're gonna be pretty close. Yeah, I mean, appearance. If you took my digital camera away tomorrow and gave me a film camera, I could still shoot the wedding. It would be harder said after rethink my way around it. But I could shoot the wedding without LCD. You know, I don't need it. Yeah, but it Yeah. And honestly, if you're still struggling with me uttering using your in camera meter by an external meter, there's no shame in that. You know, by an external meter in practice, at home with it. All right. Are you ready for the big one? Maybe. I think you are. So you've done 30 days, right? Your did your 30 years of wedding photography, and you covered it, all right. And then you step back. And when you know, when you left here after doing that, we came to you. We like Susan. What's next and what? What are we gonna do? And we conceptualize You and Aaron are CPI and the channel adds, Amanda, conceptualize this this mentorship program to get you as a group setting as photographers. We all have very similar issues. So the idea was that since we do have all those similar issues, you would speak to us as a group, but a smaller group on I just think you've done absolutely amazing job during this four month dollar, and you close the class that people are more honest in their sharing, which is really nice to say, Yeah, I know that Facebook page is going to stay alive. That's that. That's not the end of this Facebook page. So I personally encourage you guys to go out there, continue to post your work, were critique each other, right? It's that thing that a little bit of that already a lot of bodies in there. But the great thing about it is it's not just about image critiquing. It's about, you know, Hey, I'm struggling with this thing or hey, does this look weird? Are Hey, what was that one software you talked about one time like It's a good resource for everyone who's been in there, and the group is never going to get bigger than it is because it's just you guys, you know. It's just close to the students that were in the mentorship, and I really believe strongly in like that. Like I said, getting a buddy and I don't just mean like a few people that you necessarily pushed her work to, but like find a body like a real person that you know, and that you that's a photographer that cares about their work. You care about your work and, you know, ask them to look here. Stop. Ask them to look at things you're gonna blawg and tell you whether you need to tighten that up. I mean, Geoff Mosher and I do that for each other. I know that Ben Chrisman has a friend, I think. Is it Brett Understandable that he's done that with for years. People will go when your best friends of season stripping It's easy. The truth is like I really do that with Susan. You only do that with Jeff if I think I took an amazing image and I want an opinion that I'll ask Susan for an opinion. But generally speaking, it's really good to have a buddy who's kind of like at the same level as you are who's working to get better, that you can bounce ideas off of each other and you can show each other images and get it honest opinion on it. And a lot of people are like, Well, you're married to clip Mountain or don't you guys just look at each other's work all the time. No, because looking at golf and Susan's looking at North Storm. But really, we really don't We talk about our work so infrequently that, you know he's not my editing buddy. Like he's my husband. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want toe. So if I start feeling like my work is stuck where I start feeling like I talk, which is like, all the time, I'll ask you or I'll ask Jeff or I'll get Sandra It'll look at my work and I'll be like, Am I slipping like arm? I just tired, right? Like what you need. You need a community, Teoh that you trust. So I'm gonna ask you both your final thoughts. Jen, I'm going. I'm going to start with you. What should they keep in mind? Your post processor. What do your five like, Susan, Wait here or No. Just like think that you would going forward that you tell every photographer your big your big like you guys just do this. Not overall. I would say like, first of all guys. Calbert, your monitors. I know it seems like Oh, it's another thing to buy blah blah blah like you, and your body can share one. You can mail it to each other every couple of months and calibrate your monitor if you want. Cover your monitor. It just gives you such a good, strong base to work from. I don't care what you use. Just do it. You know, um, I would say I'm not trying to sell the course. Really, I'm not. But learn proxy editing. I mean, even if you don't want to buy our course, do some research online. I'm sure other people have thought of it. Do proxy editing because it's going to save you so much time. It's an easy thing to Dio. It's gonna give you your life back to a large extent, I would say. Learn from your from your mistakes from your editing if you're doing it yourself. I think this is easy to dio. As you go through your weddings, you should be looking at it and figuring out what you could have done better. If you have to go through a series of reception photos and there's 300 photos that are all under exposed, you better start thinking to yourself, What am I gonna do to make sure that this doesn't happen in my next wedding, whether it means you need to adjust your LCD screen, whether it means that you need to adjust the way that you're shooting, whether it means that you don't know what you're doing with off camera flash and you need help and you've got to find something toe watch something to read that's gonna help you with that. And then I would say I would really encourage you to write down the steps of your workflow. Like I said, you know, we're working on a work full application that's gonna help people kind of track their workflow. But we lost our developer to Apple on. We're looking for somebody else, which is why it's so delayed. But even if you just have a whiteboard or a bulletin board with a piece of paper on it with your list, just make sure that you're always looking at those steps so that you don't miss something and you don't deliver something your clients that you didn't mean to deliver. It's true. I think those are the biggest things that I was back up and doc up back, not really important because you do not want to be the person that has to make the phone call to the broad to tell her that her wedding images were gone and you tried everything and you can't recover them. Do you recommend an offsite backup as well? Well, I just as long as your finals or on the cloud, you're probably OK. Yeah, I deliver my images to clients via sent Zen polio, which has been good, but there's been some downloading issues recently. And Jen, how word of people find you. Oh, yes. So to find sidecar, post and be and my partner Jon, it's just sidecar post dot com. And if you want to see my own photography work, it's ego media photography. That's E g o not CEO E g o M e d I a photography dot com And would you be so willing to put her information in the Facebook group so they look like there we go. And if you want to follow me on instagram, it's ego media D C from D. C. That's right. I see what you did there. OK, your final thoughts. What? What do you what are your big tops for people to do as they continue for, you know, the level of the group with them. What is your overall group? Mentorship? Overall group mentorship is you're trying to run before you can walk. People are trying complicated things. A flash. They're trying complicated things with exposure. They're saying things like, How do I make really cool compositions? When the technical side is failing, you have to go back to photo 101 and go step by step from aperture to shutter speed. People in the group not understanding how your shutter speed effects through the image How your shutter speed xx Your shutter speed affects things. When you're using flash, you can't use auto. So when you're using flash basic photo 101 Things were still kind of flying over the heads of people. So number one, you've got to step all the way back. And before you think about an editing style or being creative, are, you know, doing all of these crazy things You've got to be able to take a competent picture in all circumstances. So there's that stop worrying about marketing and how many followers that you have on social media and building up your social media game until you've done number one, which is improving technical skills because the worst thing that you can do is start advertising your services really strongly when your skill set is still really low, because then it's you're gonna have a harder path. Well, you're going to get a bunch of people looking for work and thinking that it's mediocre, and then they're never gonna come back and look at it, that's your chance. You had your chance you got in front of them. They weren't impressed. And just because you want to be a photographer does not mean you have to be a professional photographer right now. Like wanting to be a professional photographer. Buying the year. Starting to learn doesn't mean that you're ready to take clients right now. Like take things slowly. This takes years. I want people to know that experience is not something you get after two weddings. It's not something you get after 10 weddings, and when I see people in the industry who shot for two years and now they're gonna quit so that they can teach, you have nothing to teach. You have two years of experience. You don't actually have a business, right. But I said all of these things. But the most important thing is don't let any of this get you down. You can learn this stuff. You can learn this stuff and you can get better. And you will always get better. But you have to be willing to buckle down and do the work. Yeah, it takes work and a lot of work. You've been doing this. How long? 14 years. 14 years. And I've been doing this nine years. And I mean, just to give an example. This whole belong that I've started. I had to go back to blogging. 101 I'm in a blogger's group on Facebook, which are the kind ist most generous people you will ever, ever meet. And I'm asking things like Talk to me about mailing lists, which in a photographer's group is like saying, talk to me about F stops, right? And I'm learning mailing lists. I'm learning Facebook conversion pixels. I'm learning woo commerce like I'm learning all of this blogging stuff, and I'm I'm a blogging 101 baby. I'm asking stupid questions. I know this is gonna take me time but I'm buckling down and doing the work. It's your playing a long game, right? Like this is, It's a marathon, not a sprint. Although sometimes it feels like a long, steady slog. Uphill in the rain, both ways in the snow, carrying all of your game. Yeah, I mean, the industry can get you down bad, but I find that if I just view it as a business instead of a lifestyle, it's it's a whole lot easier to handle. Wonderful. Thank you, End. Where can we find you after the fact? Tell us where and tell us about your new and you're about your new website. You know where to find me. You've been finding me. I'm in your Facebook group. You know how to get me. The one thing I do want you guys to know. Don't use that creative life email anymore. The email that you've been using to submit your homework. That's that was for submitting homework. If you've got questions and you send it in literally nobody shocking that anymore. So on the email Facebook. Andi, my new baby, which is the dynamic range dot com and Jennifer. Actually, she's got one or two articles from you. But Jen is going to be our resident. Help me answer these emails. Expert where When you get a terrible email from your clients and you don't know what to say, send it to Susan and I will read up in answer, you know, seriously, like the one I want you to do next is I really love my images. But are there more? How do you answer that? It's a hard thing. The answer. So she's are kind of dear Abby of I can't write this just right this forming. I hate everyone. Please help. So what you're doing, you're going through our chats and your emails for when you've written emails for me? Because I just I would draft an email. I'm like, I'm pretty sure this is offensive and will probably get me sued. So can you help me do this down just a little bit? Weird thing is my hobby. But from here on out, like questions in the Facebook group are great. But if you do have major major questions questions, send it to me through the dynamic range and I'll write a blob post on it, and I'll put it up there so that it's not gonna get buried in the Facebook group. It's going Teoh Live on in infamy. Awesome. Well, until I drop dead of exhaustion. Thank you. Just a quick few. Thank you. Before we go out, folks, I want to thank you guys out there for being part of this groundbreaking new program here. A creative life. So thank you to the audience out there. Thanks to the folks and joined us right here in the studio. Thanks for the creative Live crew. Some big shout outs. Amanda Air and you guys were great, but especially Christina. Absolutely fantastic. And Jenna James. She's been a part of this group as well in a lot of support. So thank you, Jenna. And but most of all, big round of applause. Thank you for joining us today, but thank you, Susan Stripling. It's always a joy to have you actually really afraid as to what? Creativelive three days. You got 30 days. You got three months brings up. There are rings of fire involved through the rain. With all of your gear Upheld. Joked that the next thing they were gonna ask me to do is the rest of your life with Susan 2016. That that's a wrap. See you later. Thanks for joining