I am giving away 25 Adobe Photoshop Actions to anyone who wants them. 13 of the actions are Matte Effect Gradients with the option of adding a soft blur. The other actions are a variety of actions I have demonstrated in my YouTube Videos. You will be transferred to my John Whitehead Images Tutorial Website. All you need to do to get these actions are to subscribe to my YouTube Channel and sign-up for my newsletter. The goal of this newsletter is alert you when new actions are available, so you won’t be receiving emails everyday. You might get an email once or twice a year.
If you would like to to see examples of the gradients, I have created a page showing the before and after effects. Note: actions are great but you need to be able to change opacities and apply masks for the best effect. That page also has links for my newsletter and YouTube page. I hope you enjoy the actions.
Well you didn’t have to go all the way to Penn State’s main campus to participate in THON 2020. I food fortune to visit and photograph some amazing young children today at Penn State Children’s Hospital. They celebrated the THON Watch Party today. Click on this link to see the real hero’s from today’s event. https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLzTqvh Thanks to everyone who participated in todays and future events for this wonderful cause. John Whitehead You can also see this story on Penn State Health’s Facebook page.
Depth of Field can be an issue when photographing in macro photography. Focal length, aperture, and distance to subject all play a part in the depth of field of an object. Even though I was shooting at F 22, a very high aperture the distance to the subject reduced my depth of field.
My goal with this image was to have all the little hairs stand out. The only way this could be achieved was a process called focus stacking. I took six sequential frames, moving the focus on each frame. (Note, you will need a tripod to do this. ) Using Adobe Photoshop, I then stacked the images together and told Photoshop to blend the in-focus areas of each frame. The result is an extended depth of field. If you are interested in learning this process check out this YouTube tutorial.
Did you know I make custom holiday cards, graduation cards etc. Check out my new page that shows some of the products I have available for purchase.
If you hire John Whitehead Images to shoot your portrait, I will design the card for free. All you have to pay for are the cards! If I don’t have a card you like, I will inquire and make or get something that fits your needs.
The page also has information on the most commonly ordered items. Not sure what a print wrap is, then check out the new products page for more information.
Blogs, SEO and social media are great ways to advertise or express yourself in this day and age. I teach college photography and 99.9% of all my students lack basic computer knowledge, or any clue of blogs, SEO (search engine optimization) and the use of social media.
I love to make things and started a site called Metal Design. I make custom furniture, jewelry and a variety of other stuff. Because I understand blogs and SEO, I get calls all the time from companies needing metal fabrication. Some of the work is over my skill set, or I just don’t have the time. Most work I accept is because it is something I will enjoy. Metal Design is more of a hobby than a job. It is something I want to enjoy. The reason I get so many calls is because my site is the one getting found on searches. Most metal fabricators in the area do not have a website or know anything about getting found on internet searches. Just one example of the power of SEO
I photographed someone from India who was working in IT in this country. I asked him when they start teaching computer programming in school. He said in 5th grade! My daughter is in 8th grade and knows nothing about the subject. However, she can tell you about the war of 1812. Not sure how that is going to help her in the future.
The real point of this blog is to promote my niece who started her own blog titled, “E.xploring L.ife H.appily” Personally, I don’t enjoy writing and partly because I am not that great at it. Take time, click the link and check out Ellie’s blog.
P.S. Backlinks and links within a post to your own blog are great for website analytics.
Image Ratios
Getting hired to shoot images for a website is pretty common now. A lot of small businesses decide to manage their own sites. This is not a big issue, as long as you have your template or site available before the shoot. A photographer really needs to know what size image needs to be in pixels before they shoot. This helps the photographer shoot each image in the correct ratio and avoids important information getting cropped. Not knowing image sizes or ratios can result in re-shoots and extra costs. It also benefits the client because I can size all images for the client and make them ready to use.
A quick note for clients. Color Management is very important for photography. It ensures color to be true to a viewer. Most photographers use the color space Adobe RGB or Adobe 1998. Any image used on the internet should be in sRGB. Make sure your photographer or webmaster converts files to the correct color space.
Below, I will post a new page I am devoting to Website Information. I show examples of how image ratios can affect your photograph.