Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Did you splurge on Black Friday? What did you buy? I'll reveal my list of goodies soon. But with today being Cyber Monday, I wanted you all to get access to what I consider to be the three best deals for photographers:

Deal # 1: Web Marketing Guides For Photographers

Zach Prez is the prolific writer behind the best books on social media marketing for photographers. Yes, that's a testimonial based on my own experience. I have learned so much from Zach that I have decided to endorse his products here on Tiffinbox.

He is extending his Black Friday specials through the end of today. If you are struggling to get your social media groove on, you will be doing yourself a favor by diving in and buying one or all of his e-books.

Save 30% on my Web Design Guide $70 $49
Photographer's Guide to a Killer Web Presence has 122 pages that analyze the world’s top photography websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter pages, and email newsletters to show you simple design tactics to attract new business.

Save 57% on my Intro Web Guide + Blogging Guide $58 $24.50

Save 50% on my Intro Web Guide $29 $14.50
usiness building recommendations focused on search engines (SEO), social media, and email marketing.

Save 50% on my Blogging Guide $29 $14.50
Photogrpahy Blog Success has 60 pages teaching photographers how to get more business from your blog.

Save 30% on my Self-Study Workshop $89 $62
Web Marketing for Photographers Workshop walks through SEO, blogging, social media, tracking, and everything you need for getting more sales online. Includes multiple ebooks, action worksheets, and videos.

Save 30% on Individual Coaching $500 $350 most savings
The fastest way to succeed is with personal phone consulting. I review your website and talk you through everything you need to know to excel in search. All my ebooks are included for your reference after our call.

Visit Photography Web Marketing Guide, to learn more about what Zach has to offer you.

Deal # 2: All Fundy Products at 30% Off!

Andrew “Fundy” Funderburg is the brains behind Album Builder, Image Brander, Prosper, Action Matic, Blog Collage, Workflow and Album Proofer. That's a dizzying array of products for sure and knowing Fundy, he is cooking up even more goodies for us in 2012. If you are a wedding photographer, you probably already know these products. He is offering them all up for 30% off today. Now, you've an even better reason to jump in and buy his products.

Click here to visit Fundy SOS and learn more about what he has to offer you and your business.

Deal #3: Kubota Tools: $50 Off Photoshop Products + Receive $50 Kubota Bucks!

Kevin Kubota and his team in Bend, Oregon sure know a thing or two about Photoshop actions. While I wrote about Lightroom and Photoshop Adobe Camera Raw presets yesterday, all … and I mean … all my images are retouched using Kubota's Photoshop actions. If you are interested in seeing some examples, ask me in the comments section below. For more details about this offer, please contact Kubota Tools.

I know I had said 3 deals, but I just stumbled across this last one and figured you should know about it.

Deal #4: Zack Arias' OneLight DVD

The opportunity to learn from a modern-day master of lighting is what I called a “no-brainer.” And that's what you'll be doing when you buy Zack's truly awesome DVD. You will learn the fundamentals of lighting. You will learn to be at ease with off-camera strobes. You will learn to not spend a crap load of money on useless doo-dads but keep things simple. This DVD liberated me personally from the fear … yes, I was afraid … of using my flash. At 50% off, it bears repeating … this is a no-brainer. You should get it. It's $75, but only till 11.59 pm EST. (btw, I don't make a dime for endorsing his DVD) Or, buy the OneLight Field Guide and save 25% off.

Disclosure Of Material Connection

As a portrait and wedding photographer, it's awfully tempting to jump on the latest shining thing that comes along that claims to cut post-processing time down by a significant margin.

After all, what would you rather do, have the time to photograph or sit there in front of your machine for hours processing images? No one I know has opted to do the latter. It just wouldn't make sense to them. So, the search for that holy grail continues.

MY POST-PROCESSING WORKFLOW

My process after an event, be it a portrait session or a wedding, is to download my images off of my CF cards (for the curious, I use Sandisk 8gb Extreme III's). I cull my images in PhotoMechanic, as it allows me to quickly view my raw files and then I mark the ones I want to keep. The ones I edit out are moved into a different folder and out of sight. I then edit images in either Lightroom or Photoshop, depending on how many images there are in the “process” folder. Choices, choices. In the past, I would chug through a wedding with more 1500 images to edit. Lately, I have been thinking of sending them out to Colorati and having them tweak the images for me.

PRESETS FOR AND BY PHOTOGRAPHERS

There is however one other option. Yes, that bright and shiny thing I mentioned earlier on. It's called Visual Supply Company, or VSCO. If you use Nikon or Canon cameras and you shoot RAW files, your ears should perk up about now. Once you've imported your raw files into Lightroom or Photoshop's Adobe Camera Raw, you are able to apply presets based on your camera's profiles. So Nikon users would use Nikon presets and Canon users would use Canon presets. A select number of Nikon and Canon cameras were used to test these presets to create custom profiles. From what I have been told, the company will continue to add more profiles as they are tested and as newer cameras come into the market. I personally like this progressive aspect of the company a lot. Here is the current list of cameras that have been profiled so far.

FIRST STEPS

From my experience with the presets (which I bought), I needed to have correctly exposed and white balanced images before beginning to work with the presets. So, that should be your first step (getting the exposure right in the camera) and then batch correcting the white-balance, if you have that option after you get home.

EMULATE THE LOOK OF FILM

I don't know about you, but I started out in photography using film. I have shot untold number of rolls of Kodak Tri-X and T-Max 3200. I miss the rich, textures that digital files have all but obliterated. Yes, in the words of Jonathan Canlas or Kirk Mastin (both awesome film-only photographers), I could pick up a film camera again instead of making a digital file look like film. They have a point. Yes, I could do that. But VSCO gives me the opportunity to emulate the look of film without the added expense of working in that wonderful medium. For me, it's really the best of both worlds.

BLACK & WHITE EXAMPLE

>Straight Out Of Camera, or SOOC

>First Tweak – Just Clicked on the TriX-400++ Preset

>Second Tweak – Used the Vignette++ Preset

>Third Tweak – Used the Dark Skies+ Preset (notice how the t-shirt in this is darker?)

So, in three clicks, I arrived at what I consider to be an acceptable final image, ready to be shared with my clients. The images will definitely go through another round of tweaks, in Photoshop if the clients were to order this image.

COLOR EXAMPLE

>Straight Out Of Camera, or SOOC

>First Tweak – Clicked on the Kodak Portra and Contrast++ presets

>Second Tweak – With the above image being a little “hot” in the highlights, I used the “recovery” slider to bring back some highlight detail.

>The Final Image – Took this image into Photoshop and used brushes to smoothen out natural blemishes, bring some light back into the eyes and sharpen the image up.

For both sets of images, I used the Visual Supply Company Studio Version. I also processed the images in ACR. With the processing engines the same in both ACR and LR, sometimes it is more convenient to fire up ACR (for a small set of images) versus Lightroom (which I use for image sets that are 100 or more). Wanting to emulate the film look, I was more enamored by the way VSCO's Film helped me produce black and white images. In fact, I might use this almost exclusively to create black & white prints for my clients.

IS THIS FOR EVERYONE?

In one quick answer, no. It's not. I would recommend you look at your needs first. Figure out whether your clients (if you are a professional) would not just see but also appreciate the look you will be producing for them. If you are an amateur or hobbyist, just looking to create images with a different look, these presets will help you achieve that. Let me put to you even more simply – if you are inclined to produce images that you want people to merely look at, then you should pass on this. However, if you are the type of photographer who wants your viewers to dip into a well of emotion and feel the image, then you should definitely buy these now.

THE SWEET DEAL THAT ENDS ON NOVEMBER 29th!

Until Monday night (that's tomorrow night), you can get the Standard, Pro and Studio versions for quite a bit off of their regular prices. I bought the Studio version as it includes both the Lightroom and ACR options for both Nikon and Canon cameras. In the event I work with a photographer who shoots with a Canon system, I can now very easily tweak her/his images as well. If your business is primarily shooting portraits, I would nudge you more towards the Pro version.

From Visual Supply Company's Twitter feed:

“All prices will increase after Monday at midnight PST #VSCOFILM. Standard $59 will be $79, Pro $99 will be $119 & Studio $179 will be $199.”

STILL NOT CONVINCED?

You should also read John Keatley's review of Visual Supply Company's Presets. And Jonas Peterson's review too. Just look at the images they have on display.

SHARE YOUR IMAGES

If you bought the Visual Supply Company presets, please share your images with me and tell me in the comments sections below which presets you liked the most. Do you use other

Disclosure of Material Connection

In the US, you are all just about ready to sit down and have a good meal with your family and friends. Here's wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving, from my family to yours.

What comes next is usually considered the biggest SALE day of the year, or Black Friday. I haven't done that 2 am mall run in ages and have no desire to send you looking for stuff at such a witching hour either. Life isn't a scavenger hunt. Instead of buying “stuff” that will collect dust in no time, how about giving your brain a boost and learning some new techniques or getting your photography fundamentals down?

Full disclosure: Rob & Lauren of Photography Concentrate are friends. I love their products, I have used them myself and have learned a tremendous amount from them. Yes, even professionals need to keep learning. All the time. So the links you will find here are all affiliate links.

If you are just beginning to use your digital camera, consider buying Extremely Essential Camera Skills. Regularly priced at $49.95, if you buy it before November 29 (midnight), you'll save $19.98. I reviewed this gem of an ebook (comes with videos to explain a few necessary fundamental things about your camera) and everybody who has bought it through my affiliate link has thanked me later. With a whole lot of you buying cameras – be they point & shoot or DSLRs, you'll want to get this truly foundational course to get you going.

Once you have your photography skills down pat, you'll need help with editing them. The team at Photography Concentrate have a tutorial called Super Photo Editing Skills. It too is on sale. Instead of paying $79.95, you can buy it for $47.97, saving you $31.98. If you ever wanted to learn how to use Lightroom, this is a great video tutorial. What's awesome is that you can pause it, rewind and watch it again and again until the concepts and the steps make sense to you.

When you are done editing your images, you have a couple of choices. You can save them on hard drives or you can share them with the world. Albums are always a good choice because they have staying power. Awesome Album Design Skills, is another tutorial that Rob and Lauren have produced for portrait and wedding photographers. They show us how they use InDesign to quickly and efficiently create custom albums for their clients. This too will be selling for $47.97 through the end of November 29th, so you'll want to jump on this deal if you are ready to go pro. It's regularly priced at $79.95.

In addition to the sale, Photography Concentrate has a new free eBook – The Camera Buying Guide (do they just think of everything?) and giving away a Fuji Instax camera (brings you back in time to your Polaroid days doesn't it?).

Please remember that the sale starts NOW and ends on November 29th at midnight EST. If you do buy these products, please come back here and let me know what you thought about them. Your feedback is valued greatly.

Today's guest post is by Kate Anderson of Plumeria Album Design. Kate works with professional photographers to design clean, classic albums that wow their clients while giving the photographer some much needed free time. She lives in Minneapolis, MN. Follow her on Twitter.

Imagine a scene with me for a moment. It's 25 years or so in the future (cue the Back to the Future music now); a woman is looking through boxes in her closet. She's a bit upset, her son's new fiance is looking on. Finally, the woman finds what she's looking for. It's an old iPad, an antique from 2011. The woman looks at it with a loving smile.

“These are my wedding photos from when we were married. I haven't looked at this in so many years.”

Then the smile fades. The woman realizes there is a problem. The battery is long drained from disuse, and the charging cable is no where to be found. They've moved several times since the wedding, and as usually happens, things got misplaced and lost. Amazingly, there is a dvd, with a beautiful photo of wedding rings on it. The backup copy of the photos. But with no dvd drive in her possession for a decade, the woman can't even look at those. Her wedding photos are locked away in a digital purgatory. She can't show her future daughter in law her own wedding.

If you don't offer albums to your couples, this is a very likely scenario in the future. They probably have all the best intentions to print an album, probably at Blurb or Snapfish. But for many, it will get pushed to the back burner and neglected. So it's up to you, their trusted wedding photographer, to make sure they get an album, before it's too late. Printed books never become obselete, technology does. You don't want your brides and grooms to live on their harddrive forever.

But many photographers don't offer albums, for many of the same reasons that their clients won't get around to printing one themselves after they receive their shoot and burn disk. Albums take time if they're to be done well. They have to be put together with a storyteller's eyes. The right photos have to be selected, from hundreds. However, album design doesn't always have to be a panic inducing moment. Here's a few design tips and my process, to help you out.

Don't cram the album with photos

Less is more. Remember that. I like to have only a few photos per page for most spreads, usually around 2-3 per page. This lets each photo have it's own voice. Too many photos crammed on one page gives you a sense of confusion. Your eye darts around the page quickly, rather than calmly resting on each photo for a moment and moving on to the next. Too many photos fighting for your attention all at the same time means none get the attention they deserve, and the message that the photos tell gets lost. Look at a National Geographic magazine, or fine art book; then look at a tabloid magazine. Which feels calmer to your eye? Ignore the content of the tabloid vs the National Geographic.

But with all guidelines, there are exceptions. Some spreads work better with a bit of a denser layout. Spreads of the family groupings and wedding party, or spreads of reception dancing are examples. With family groupings, having several photos per page gives the sense of family continuity. Everyone is together, and the photos are likely to be very similar in composition. That consistency is calming to the eye even when there's many of them. Reception and dancing spreads a bit of the opposite to me. I usually want those to give a sense of energy and excitement. Using a denser layout gives that feeling.

Spreads meant to show action also may get a few more photos per page; the story of the first look can't always be told in a few photos. Spreads that focus on a scene, such as the ceremony site, sometimes need a denser layout also, to show the whole scene in one spread, as if the viewer were there and could walk around to look at different things.

Don't be afraid of the dark/white space

White space is a good thing. It focuses the eye on the photo and eliminates distractions. Think about iconic, high end brands, such as Chanel, Apple or Tiffany's. Their websites and print materials have one thing in common. White space, or negative space. Then think about lower end brands. Their websites and print materials have lots of stuff, everywhere. It's distracting and cheapens the feel.

Also, it's a lot easier to design with white space than to try and fill the page with photos. It's like putting together a puzzle. If you're not afraid of the white space, you can use only the photos that are perfect for the spread, rather than having to add or subract photos to make everything fit. In this spread, having any other photos would have been distracting and taken away from the focus.

Don't fluff up the album

Remember that “less is more” bit? That applies to how long the album is. An album is perfect when nothing can be removed without losing part of the story, and nothing can be added without feeling repetitive. Each spread should have it's own theme, or portray one event. While there may be dozens of great photos of the couple after the wedding in a field, the album doesn't necessarily need all of those photos in several spreads. Pick the best 3 or 4 and create one spread that showcases the best parts of the session. This scene had lots of awesome shots, and I could have easily used several more, it was hard to choose only a few. But adding more would have taken away from the simplicity of the moment.

Do keep it timeless

Wedding albums should be timeless. Simple and clean design is the only “trend” that stands the test of time. Think of the simple black dress, or the basic charcoal gray suit. Those work now, they worked 50 years ago, and they'll probably work 50 years from now. They are simple and clean clothing items. Your album should be the simple black dress. Extra graphics, photo layering, fading, and spot coloring may look cool now, but how are they going to look on the couple's 50th wedding anniversary to their grandkids? Don't give the kids anything more to snicker at besides the clothing and decor trends.

The 5-Step Design Process

Here's what works for me.

1) The first step for me is to download the photos and set up the folders for each album in a client's folder. Here's what my layout looks like:

2) I sort through the photos and make copies of the album selections. Each spread gets it's own folder with a theme/title, and the copied album selections are dropped in. I tag selections in red in Bridge so I don't duplicate, and the main photos of each spread get a star rating.

3) I use InDesign with the AlbumFlow script to design albums. You can also use Photoshop, and I've heard only good things about Fundy's Album Builder [aff] to speed things up. The debate of InDesign vs Photoshop is for another discussion. It's similar to Ford vs Chevy, Canon vs Nikon; they all get the job done in the end, one way or another.

4) Now I go through the finished design to eliminate any problems. I make sure the bleeds and margins are correct, that full bleed photos will be just that, and that all other photos are within the safety zone. I make sure all the photos line up and spacing is consistent. I double check that no one's head or an important detail is going to get trimmed off.

5) Last, the finished design is exported as a PDF using guidelines from AlbumFlow, to create the highest quality print. I then use Photoshop to create JPEGs from the PDF using ImageBrander from FundySOS [aff]. It's a super helpful plugin for easily watermarking and creating multiple sizes and resolutions. I can make full size JPEGs for the album company and smaller ones for the blog, all in one shot.

This isn't the first time we have addressed album design on Tiffinbox. Justine Ungaro talked about it in this post. My question for you is this – are you still stressing out about your album designs? Or, are you blissfully adding images to your pages willy-nilly and hoping that your clients don't notice. Trust me, clients are getting savvier and do know good design from bad. So, what are you going to do? You can hone your skills (if you have time) or you can farm the task out. What would you do? Tell me/us down below. It's not an easy decision. I do know that.

For the last 6 months, there has been a low rumble in my brain to present an annual award to a photographer or photography teacher who universally inspires us all to be better photographers, perhaps even be better human beings. In my mind, it had to be a person who goes well beyond the ordinary – shares her/his knowledge openly, invites dialogue and challenges us to elevate our craft and vision.

You probably already know some them. You've attended their workshops, hung out with them at parties and chatted with them one-on-one about your photography work and or business. You've come away after each encounter feeling energized and enthused about your calling – photography. They have rekindled that fire in your belly and you know that today and tomorrow are going to be great days because of the time you spent with him or her yesterday. Ever feel that way? It's time to celebrate them.

2011 Awardee

The list of friends, and they have become just that over the years, is long. Choosing one among all of them for this first Tiffinbox Award was no easy task.

The photographer whose name I kept seeing again and again – thanks to his awesome Twitter presence, his phenomenal feat of writing 4 truly amazing books in 3 years, his workshops, his thought provoking blog posts and his positive spirit as he faced life-threatening challenges – is David DuChemin.

So, David, congratulations. On behalf of all the photographers who have been inspired by your spirit, your hard work as a photographer, teacher and mentor, I am honored to present you the 1st Annual Tiffinbox Award. You'll receive a real Tiffinbox in the mail, filled with goodies you can munch on as you embark on your next trip with Jessie.

Craft & Vision

“Gear is good. Vision is better,” is his mantra. This simple, yet profound philosophy to photography and business has been my guide for the last few years. Perhaps it has been for you as well. So, instead of buying more gear, David suggests expanding the way you photograph your subjects. To that end, David began publishing beautifully designed and written e-books for photographers. At $5 each, these won't break your bank. Want to know more, check out Craft & Vision. [affiliate]

The Giveaways

If you have been influenced or inspired by David's blog posts, Tweets or even the e-books he produces, let me/us know in the comments section below. Be as descriptive and specific as possible. How has he helped you? What steps did you take with your photography after reading one of his e-books or blog posts? Which particular blog posts spurred you into action? Feel free to show us “before & after” images via links to a post on your site.

If I receive a 100 comments under this blog post between today and August 31, I'll select 4 of the best comments to each win one of 4 of David's awesome books (yes, shipped anywhere in the world) on September 1. So, hurry!

UPDATE: I've reconsidered the 100 comment requirement and I am pulling it. The deadline will be the same. You want to win 1 of 4 David's books, then comment away. I'll read through each of them and pick 4 winners. Deal?

Here are the four books I will be giving away:

Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision
VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography
Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Photographically Speaking: A Deeper Look at Creating Stronger Images

By the way, the annual Tiffinbox Award will always be presented on August 23. I'll let you figure out why. Also start thinking of whom you will nominate for next year's award.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: This morning I chose the following to win 1 of 4 David's books – @kristaphoto @LaraWhite @nine9beans and @BelindaOlsen. Congratulations! Please contact me with your mailing address by September 7. All but one book will be shipped in September. David's latest is in process of going to print. If you already own one or more of his books, please let me know which one(s) so that I don't send you something you already have.