Ken Luallen
Welcome
I created this site as a one-of-a-kind resource for my like-minded friends. I hope you are one!
It's designed to help us all become better photographers and business owners by using road-tested, original strategies.
My wedding work and client info:
My latest wedding photographs:
I’ve already told you what I think about choosing a RAW processing company to handle your digital post-production.
Now it’s time to get some inside information – straight from lab owners themselves.
I asked the heads of five prominent labs everything from which size they think is best to a big thing no one in our industry talks about – companies that send your images to India for processing.
I’ve been using labs for years, but some of these answers still surprised me.
Be advised, this is not a brief post. I made the decision to keep their answers a bit long because I think you can handle it. If you’re looking for a perfect RAW lab partner you want all the inside information you can get.
Enter the experts.
In this post I’ll show you how to get the pro look of a branded email address (such as [email protected]) while still using Gmail’s awesome feature set… without anyone knowing.
It takes only 3 easy steps.
FIRST A BRIEF ASIDE
Thanks to everyone who has given me permission to send you emails and bonus content using the sidebar signup form. I’m working on some fun things exclusively for my Insiders. It’s great to see so many photographers visiting from outside the US – particularly Norway, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Also, I appreciate everyone who has written to say thanks for the free e-book, especially my fellow DWF members. You’re welcome.
LET’S TALK GMAIL
With all the emails coming in, I’ve been surprised by how many wedding photographers are using Gmail addresses (such as [email protected]) for their businesses.
I certainly understand the allure – Gmail’s features and accessibility are fantastic!
Nonetheless, Gmail is generally perceived as being for personal use, just like free website providers such as Blogspot and Tumblr. There is a business legitimacy cost to not having an email address on your business website’s domain (such as [email protected]). Using personal resources is the opposite of what an established, trustworthy company would be expected to do.
Interview with STAK Duo
site: getstak.com
Podcast: Download
RUNNING TIME: 35 minutes
00:00 – 09:54 – the benefits of being a photography duo
09:55 – 12:11 – learning to keep improving (like michael jackson)
12:12 – 17:09 – the value of being critiqued by their peers
17:10 – 22:25 – why they spend serious time processing their images
22:26 – 24:25 – putting their personalities on display for clients
24:26 – 30:42 – designing their unique brand
30:43 – 32:47 – feeling inadequate as artists
32:48 – 35:16 – how having a plan helped them succeed
MENTIONS
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In this video I discuss how I used a scrapbook of magazine clippings to discover a signature image style that felt right for me.
Finding an image ‘look’ that best expresses you as a person is essential. Unfortunately when you enter the wedding photography business, no one tells you that you don’t need to learn every style and processing technique out there.
Making a scrapbook helped rescue me from the sea of different digital photo ‘looks’ all of us have to choose from. And it takes very little time.
Here’s how this works.
This series of posts shows images I’ve dodged and burned for printing in a wedding album. By default you’re seeing the finished work. Put your mouse on each one to see the original with only RAW adjustments.
A photographer’s ability to finish her work this way is the dividing line between a middle-of-the-pack and a high-end product. This is something your digital lab can’t do for you.
Finishing a print doesn’t have to be time consuming. I typically spend 60 seconds preparing an image for an album in Lightroom (or Photoshop if I’m really loving the moment). All my albums have over 100 prints so I’ve got to be efficient. There is no correlation between quality and time spent sitting in front of your computer.
I wish I had these kinds of before-and-after examples when I started out because I learn well through comparison.
We made this simple image on the beach during the sunrise, which feels like it happens more quickly than sunset! The character of light is often very different in the mornings so sometimes I try to get my couples out early. We photographers are used to shooting in the afternoon light but the sun has more looks to offer us. Try it!
The viewer’s eye is usually attracted to the lightest parts of an image, which are often the wrong parts of a backlit scene. Here I burned just enough to bring some visual weight back into the sand and ocean-sprayed background.
Next I dodged just enough to put a bit of fill light on their faces so my bride’s expression – the visual center of gravity – will be instantly felt by the viewer. The goal is always to draw your viewer into the story with zero effort on her part.
