Welcome!
Welcome to my site! Kick back, grab a cup of your favorite brew, and stay a while!
When my husband and I were dating, the term "Real Promise" was created. It was our personal way of making sure the other person knew what had been said was honest and true. My Real Promise to you is that, as your photographer, I will capture moments in time that you will cherish forever. We will laugh, dance, and have a great ol' time... whatever it takes to get some killer portraits you will want to stare at forever.
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I remember braiding my hair like this many years ago and I’m glad it’s making a comeback. I love the look of the messy fishtail braid on seniors and it’s super easy to transform into this hairstyle mid-shoot. Here’s a great tutorial from Forever 21!
Nashville High School Senior Photographer
Dates & Locations
Hendersonville, TN: February 4, 2012 (9am-1pm)- CLOSED
Hendersonville, TN: February 18, 2012 (9am-1pm)
Let me guess. You’ve got this awesome camera, but not quite sure what to do with it. All the settings and buttons make you so frustrated that you just keep it on auto. Sure, it’s easy and the pictures are decent but what if you want your photos to be amazing? Are you nodding? If so, this is the workshop for you!
Join me for a half-day beginner’s workshop where you will learn how to use all those buttons and finally get your camera off the dreaded green box of Auto.
What we’ll discuss:
· Getting to know your camera
· Exploring the functions of your camera
· Histograms
· Manual mode and metering
· Composition of people and children
· Flash
· Getting light into the eyes
What does the workshop cost include?
· 4 hours of instruction
· Hands-on learning time
· Lunch (9-1pm) or heavy snacks (1-5pm)
· Awesome custom workbook that will fit in your bag to take with you
· New friendships
· Lots of fun and laughter
· A cool nametag
What this workshop isn’t:
· A business workshop. We will not be discussing the business side of photography since this is a course designed to teach you how to take better personal pictures.
· Learning to shoot in studio situations (with backdrops, lighting, etc)
The Details:
· $100
· Class size limited. First come, first served.
· Minimum of 6 participants
· Must have a DSLR camera (camera with interchangeable lenses) – any brand is fine, although I shoot Canon.
>>>Are you ready to REGISTER??<<
Click the link above if you are ready to put your name on the list of excited participants!
A waitlist will be started for classes reaching the maximum 12 participants.
It’s time for another installment of Before & After! I love seeing a photo come to life with the simple process of editing. I’m a Mentor over at Rock the Shot and this week, Amanda Padgett with Everyday Elements wrote a tutorial on achieving a clean edit. Clean edits are critical to my business and something I work hard on. I want my clients to look like the best version of THEM… not a washed out version, or an over saturated version, or heaven forbid a different color version (i.e- too orange/yellow or puke green…. ewww!). I like to achieve a clean look and then give it a slight kick of my signature look from there. 
Amanda provided a nice canvas to start with. The photo has good composition, good lighting, and good exposure for SOOC (straight-out-of-camera). Underneath the Before is my After version. By just bumping a few curves, giving a little more contrast, and warming the photo up to my standards, I think this photo is gorgeous!
What do you think?
Since I mentioned Rock the Shot, head on over and sign up for the newsletter, and if you are a professional, amateur, or just a hobbyist photographer, why not think about registering for our awesome forum? Tons of great information, free templates, and yours truly! Click on the link below to register! See you on the forum!
Most people assume that photographers just snap pictures at a shoot, head home, upload the photos, and they are done. Not the case at all. I heard a statistic one day that said photographers spend only about 12% of their time actually taking the pictures. The majority of their time is editing, custom designing products (albums, etc) and then actually sending their images to their pro labs. Pretty dead on, for me at least.
In my years of being a photographer, I’ve searched for ways to make editing easier and faster. Many photographers choose to use actions in Photoshop to help speed up the process. I get asked all the time what are my favorite actions. I always answer that my favorites are the ones I’ve made to help make my editing easier. Sure, I have a few actions that are my “go to” ones for certain things (Florabella and Michelle Kane are two favorites) but for the most part, I hand edit every image a client purchases. I’m kinda Type A like that! 
Today, I thought I’d show off a simple and life changing (okay, maybe not life changing but pretty darn awesome) tool that I use that has helped speed up my editing process dramatically. This little dandy method helps you out in a few ways. Not only does it house all your tools you use on a regular basis (brush for the eyes, brush for the eye bags, Logo watermark, etc) but it has them already sized to what you normally would need them to be. When making my tool presets, I open an image and enlarge it to where I would normally be editing at. If I’m editing the eyes on an image, I usually enlarge my image to 100%. I will go ahead an zoom in on an image and set my brush to exactly what I want. I make it the size I want, the opacity needed, etc. This way, I don’t have to fiddle with them when going from image to image. They are pre-sized and ready to be used. To make your own presets, follow the instructions I laid out for you. (*Sidenote: This is using CS5 but I’m assuming it’s similar in all versions of Photoshop)
Now, all you need to do is save it and you’re done. Simple as that. Pretty nifty, huh? Also notice, I try to minimize the amount I have to drag my mouse across the screen. I’ve moved my tool bar to the right side to keep me from having to go from one side of the screen to the other so much.
Do you have a time saving tip that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it and maybe even feature your suggestion on my blog. Send me an email at summer[at]realpromisesphotography.com with your tip.
