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FREE Download – Greeting Cards
Hi my name is Loren! I created each of these cards myself. I hope you will be respectful and use these for personal use only. They are my gift to you and are not to be resold. Just click the one you want and the go to file>print! I hope you enjoy them! If you use any of them, I would love to see! Take a picture, post it on your social media and tag me! Xx-Loren
What to Wear in Pictures
How do I know what to wear in pictures?
If you haven’t already checked out my pinterest board with examples, check it out here.
Here are six tips that should help you know what to wear in pictures.
- Guys can dress up in a suit and tie, or dress down with nice jeans and a button up. Avoid Tennis shoes.
- Girls, flowy dresses can be very flattering. However, If you would like to bring a second outfit that includes jeans and a nice blouse, go for it! Two outfits only.
- Bright colors can reflect on your skin which can create an unflattering skin color. Pastels and neutrals are best. Avoid bright reds, pinks and purples, vibrant blues, and neon.
- Along with soft colors, simple or no patterns are best. Graphic tees or busy patterns can distract from what we want to showcase, your love!
- Above all, wear something you feel comfortable and confident in.
- Don’t overthink it! If dressing up isn’t your style, a more casual look can work too. Just make sure you’re not wearing bright colors, busy patterns, or tennis shoes. AND if the weather is cold or wet, dress for the weather.
Lifestyle Family Photos at the Sand Dunes
Sand Everywhere, Don’t Care; Lifestyle Family Photos
This family portrait session was as much of a good workout as it was a good time! I don’t usually go to the sand dunes so I had forgotten how strenuous it can be to walk around a bunch of sand dunes! My pregnant, out-of-shape body was like “Whooa! Slow Down!” At the same time, my adventure seeking side was like “Lets do this!” I definitely ended the day a little sore, but it was so worth it.
The Laws Family was a blast to photograph! They had me laughing the whole time and their son has one of the cutest smiles I have ever seen! All three of them have such fun personalities. Makena and Justin came along to help me with lighting and Makena thought it was so fun to have another little one there to enjoy the sand with her. Lifestyle Family Photos are so fun. Here are some of my favorites!
To see more Lifestyle Family Photos check out some of these ones by Twisted Oaks Studio. Some of Emily Lucarz’s photos are also amazing! See her website here.
From Photo Album To Photo Book
Learn about the printing process involved in going from photo album to photo book…
Below is a video explaining my experience going from photo album to photo book. In this video, I focus specifically on the printing part of it. I printed using Blurb, but of course you can also print with other companies like Walmart. Be forewarned though, I have printed with Walmart in the past and my photos ended up being quite saturated after the printing.
In the video I talk a little bit about what I did as far as editing the photos is concerned. I didn’t want to do a whole lot to the photos because I still wanted them to look authentic. I did do a bit of color correction as I mentioned. I mostly just fixed the white balance. I also boosted the shadows slider where necessary. However, I had to be careful because since I was not using RAW images, I didn’t have all of the original pixels still intact. Bringing the shadows up too much made the pictures look incredibly awful.
Another thing I did do, was bring up the clarity. Because these are old photos, and because they were scanned, they weren’t as sharp as they could be. But, again, too much made the photos look very grainy and strange. Below is a before and after example using one of the photos I included in my book.
Before:
After:
I am hoping to do more books like this going from photo album to photo book in the future. If you or someone you know would like this done, feel free to contact me for pricing!
How to Design A Photo Book Layout
InDesign Is Your BFF in This Tutorial on How to Design A Photo Book Layout…
Remember the old photo albums from my last post? This is a continuation of that process except this time I am talking about how to design a photo book layout. After I finished scanning the photos, I selected the best photos from each of mine and my siblings first moments in life and began working in Adobe InDesign. I created two separate InDesign documents, one for the cover (front and back), and one for the rest of the book.
I chose to create my book through Blurb. I was so happy to learn that Blurb already had a plugin for InDesign. That meant that once I was finished with the layout, I was able to order my book directly through Blurb. It also meant that the dimensions of the book and dust jacket cover were created without any effort on my part. I only had to worry about the layout of the book itself. I loved this! I let blurb worry about the technical side of things and let my creative juices flow freely!
Below is the layout I did for the dust jacket cover. The two strips you see on the side are the flaps that fold underneath each side of the cover. I got my inspiration for the cover layout from pinterest.
Here are a few more sneak peaks from the inside of the book! The key to the creation of a book within InDesign is to use the master pages feature. This allows you to make changes to all pages at the same time. For example, if you wanted to add a black background to every page, you would just add it to the master page and that background would then be applied to every page in the book. I have set this up both manually and with the help of Blurb. I would say that Blurb made my life way easier, but it is definitely possible to do it manually.
For more book design inspiration click here or here. If you have more questions on how to design a photo book layout, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via my contact page!
BTS of My Family Photo Album Adventure
Family Photo Album: Steps To Creating A Masterpiece
Recently I got to thinking about the numerous pictures that my family has taken over the years. All of those pictures are in my parents possession. However, I wanted to be able to access them and see them too. I decided that I would help my parents with this process. They are busy people and I knew they wouldn’t have time to scan the pictures themselves. I volunteered to scan all the photos from each family photo album. I am moving to Georgia very soon so I knew that I really needed to be on the ball if I was going to get it done before then.
I began by making a trip to my parents house and first removing all the photos from each family photo album. Luckily my mom and husband were also enthusiastic enough to help me with this process. To be sure everything remained in the correct order and that we could later put it back in the same album, we stacked and tied all the photos from each family photo album together separately (see below).
9 hours later… We finished removing all the photos from the old albums and stacked them into a cardboard box so that they would not slide around when being transported.
My parents live in Salt Lake City near the Family History Library downtown. At the suggestion of my mom, I went to this library to scan the photos. This is because the Family History Library has high speed scanners. I don’t know what I was thinking when I said I would scan each photo using a flat bed scanner because that would have taken weeks! With the high speed scanners I was able to scan all the pictures in about 4-5 hours. There was also a family photo album that had lots of bigger pictures as well as some tiny passport size photos that needed to be done using a flat bed scanner but one photo album is nothing in comparison to the 30 or so others that we were able to do using the high speed scanners. I am seriously considering purchasing my own high speed scanner so that I can continue doing more projects like this in the future for other people!
The end goal is to begin creating photo books using the pictures from each family photo album. To get a better idea of what I mean see the picture at the top of this article. David Geffin also gives some great ideas on how to preserve more of your digital family memories here.
Comm 316 Portfolio: My Best Recent Work
This is my Comm 316 Portfolio from a class I took this semester!
These photos were all taken in the past 4 months! It is nice to finally be building a quality portfolio of work. I tried to add lots of different types of photography to this to show that I am versatile. I have included some landscapes, portraits, food photography, commercial photos, light painting, and astrophotography. All of these were taken thanks to a fabulous photographer and teacher Caryn Esplin! I am so grateful to add my Comm 316 Portfolio to that of so many other fabulous student photographers before me.
Taken at String Lake in Grand Teton National Park:
Taken at The Lift Restaurant in Jackson Hole:
Taken at Mesa Falls near Ashton, Idaho:
Taken at Schwabacher Landing near Grand Teton National Park:
Taken at the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, Idaho:
Adding light painting to my Comm 316 Portfolio was a thrill! It is difficult but so satisfying!
Taken at Beaver Dick Park in Rexburg, Idaho:
Taken at the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, Idaho:
To see an example of the kind of fun we have in Comm 316 click here!
Real Estate Photography
You might find that you enjoy architectural and real estate photography
I loved the details of The Lift Restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming. I loved being able to capture the quaint atmosphere of this place! Real Estate Photography has always intrigued me because of the way a person can capture the atmosphere of a place.
The picture below was pretty orange originally so I decided to change the color of this fence a little to be more red and add more contrast to the lights.
I don’t drink, but I found the bar to be beautiful in its own kind of way.
These pictures were pretty dark to begin with but I was able to brighten them a bit. I didn’t want to brighten them too much because I wanted to show a more realistic atmosphere.
Check out the purple lights! They change color too! I have never been into environmental portraits, but I like how this one turned out.
Check out these tips on how to get started with your own real estate photography. I looooove the shot of this cabin!
Do Not Take Pictures of Food While Hungry
If you can eat it when you’re done, take pictures of food all day
Recently, I got the opportunity to take pictures of food for The Lift Restaurant in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Every dish was as equally delicious as it was beautiful!
The Lift has a beautiful rooftop overlooking the ski slopes. It was a beautiful spring day and I used the natural light to take these shots.
I was trying out a 50mm lens so these were taken mostly at an f stop of 2.8. The one of the chicken wings was taken at a 4.0 f stop.
In post I used the smart sharpening feature in Photoshop to sharpen the areas that are in focus. I also fixed the white balance. However, for the most part, this food already looked amazing so my job was pretty easy.
Chicken Wings
Stuffed Idaho Baker
Lulu Salad
Burger (I can’t remember which one!)
Now if you’ll excuse me while I go eat something because even just writing about the food is making me hungry! Check out this shot and these shots. They will make your mouth water.
Check Out My Fine Art Print!
This fine art print is of Mesa Falls
I can’t even express how satisfying it was to hang my work in the Spori building at BYU-Idaho this evening. I have always walked by other people’s pictures hoping that one day it could be mine. That day has finally arrived! My fine art print will be displayed there for the next few weeks so if you are in the area, be sure to stop by and take a look!
Here is my original image before any edits were made.
Thank goodness for Lightroom and Photoshop because with the help of those tools, I was able to transform it to this beauty!
With printing, it is always good to lighten things and sharpen things. I had already done a ton of sharpening and lightening so when it came time to print, I wasn’t too worried.
When I got the fine art print back from the printers though, I was a little worried at first because depending on the light, it looked a little dark. I knew that the place where it would be displayed would have good lighting though, so I was optimistic. I was so happy when I saw how it looked on the wall where it would be displayed. They have some halogen lights that really help. My print looks fabulous!
I am so happy with how it turned out and can’t wait to print more of my work in the future. I loved looking at these beautiful landscape prints as well. Plus, Peter Lik’s photos are #goals.
Post Production Photoshop Editing Techniques
Photoshop Editing: Change up your post production workflow using these techniques
Here are two before and after shots that I recently took at a Maid Marian Robin Hood themed shoot. The real magic of the “after” shots was made possible by some new post production Photoshop editing techniques I learned from someone who recently returned from Photoshop World.
I added a texture to both pictures using a picture I took of a bush outside of one of my classrooms at BYU-Idaho. I added a bunch of contrast to the texture shot and then brought it into Photoshop. I also did some preliminary edits to the portraits in Lightroom.
I made her eyes pop using a quick selection mask. I drew over each iris and then used the linear dodge blending mode and the selective color adjustment.
I added some different effects to the background using the color lookup adjustment.
These three techniques, adding a texture to the background, using the quick selection mask tool to make the eyes pop, and using the color lookup adjustment, can really enhance your post production workflow. Good luck!
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
How To Expose Your Subject Without Blowing Out Your Sky
A Lesson On Exposure: Landscape, Sky, and Subject
In order to expose all three elements of your photo you are going to want to add a light source. Sometimes this means using a reflector, sometimes it means using a speed light or other light source.
Here you can see that without an additional light source, I was able to expose the sky, but at the expense of a dark subject.
Here my subject is better exposed, but the sky and landscape are a little blown out.
Here, with the help of an additional light source, I was able to expose the subject, the landscape, and the sky. All at the same time!
Here are a few I did using a different subject.
You always end up with a few bloopers and I loved this one. I caught him mid-laugh.
To see more outdoor portrait ideas, visit Picture Correct.
How To Take Your Own Amazing Head Shots
Here I Will Walk Through How To Take Your Own Amazing Head Shots
Set up your tripod. Get a black sheet and hang it behind where you will be standing or sitting. Set up your light source. Set your camera settings (ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed). Set your self timer. Take the picture! It’s simple and easy! You can take self business portraits, or you can follow these steps on how to take your own amazing head shots of others!
For the head shots of Kade (above) and Kaili (number 3), I simply boosted the saturation. That was it!
Business portraits can also look fantastic in black and white. Try it out! You never know.
Use this tutorial on how to take your own amazing headshots to show off your clients best attributes. Kaili had awesome hair! Also, isn’t her make up on point?!
To see some more amazing headshots visit Steve Glass’s website. You can also visit Billy Plank’s website.
Using the Lightroom Radial Filter to Enhance Your Portraits
Used Here With Both An Environmental Portrait and a Themed Portrait
If someone could let me know where I can find an old vintage American flag like the one below that would be fabulous. I had a blast shooting Allyson in this themed portrait session. We used a blue smoke bomb to get the effect you see here. I loved the black and white version as well. Smoke bombs are difficult to shoot, but it helps to have your model keep moving toward you so that they don’t get blocked by the smoke. Otherwise you will be shooting portraits of smoke instead of a person.
the bushes in the background were originally much brighter, but thanks to some radial filter action, I was able to fix that. If you are wondering what a radial filter is and how to use it, you can visit this link from helpx.adobe.com. I like to have a picture that was well exposed to begin with, then I turn down the overall exposure of the photo and bring back light using the radial filter. I feel like it really helps my subject to pop. I like to apply Dave Black’s motto of “if you want something to look good, only light part of it.”
This themed portrait was taken using a smoke machine and two speed lights covered with colored gels.
This environmental portrait of Kory the Cowboy was a learning experience. I have never tried to light paint a human before this. To do it we flashed a speed light on him once or twice and then had him hold really still for the rest of the shot. This allowed us to have him well exposed as well as the barn, sky, etc.
For this shot we flashed him with the speed light while he was standing still and then we had him spin the rope over his head.
I have never really fished in my lifetime, but I have always been fascinated by fly fishing. I love that most of the lures are hand crafted by the fisherman himself. This environmental portrait was taken in natural lighting. It was a bit blurry so I boosted the clarity and did a little color correcting.
Both of these pictures were taken at Schwabacher Landing near Grand Teton National Park.
Couples Photography For A Beginner
Vintage Themed Photography To Boot!
If you are thinking of getting into couples photography, I recommend starting with people you already know personally. Analee, pictured below with her husband Craig, was my roommate forever ago when I we were still single. She has such a fun personality and she and Craig are the cutest! They were so cute during this shoot that I almost cried. No joke. Good thing I didn’t because they would have been like “whaaaaa?” It’s probably just my pregnancy hormones, but anyway, they were so cute.
This was a quick kiss and I’m so glad I caught it on camera! Just a pilot kissing his girl before he takes off.
Themed photography has never been my thing, but after this shoot I am rethinking my stance on the subject. I just love all things vintage and this was ALL THINGS VINTAGE. I love that the Legacy Flight Museum (where I shot these pictures) was willing to let us borrow their uniforms so that we could match the planes! This picture below was shot in very low light, but thanks to a speed light from near the end of the wing of the plane, we can see the couple quite well.
You may remember a similar aged look from my mens fashion post. I did a whole bunch of desaturation for this picture and I love how it turned out. Other than that, it was a few quick spot removals here and there to add to the authenticity of the vintage look.
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\This picture is themed photography with a different spin, but same concept. The moody sky looked like rain, but don’t let that get in the way of your shoot! I have seen some of the cutest couples photography shoots that were done in seemingly terrible weather.
Learn more about couples photography here!
Frequency Separation for Mens Fashion?
Vintage Military Pilot Uniforms
For these first two sets of pictures were so fun to edit! This guys looks so authentic in his vintage military getup. You can’t see it because of the hat, but he even styled his hair in a vintage way! I decided to continue this authentic look and make two different versions of these photos. I wanted to color the photos in such a way that they looked a little aged. As if the photos were actually taken during that time period.
I put the aged look and the original photos (with a little color correction, spot removal, and frequency separation) side by side here.
This next photo was taken using one speed light. I used the same radial filter trick that I talk about in my womens fashion post. I also brought down the saturation of the reds a bit to make the color of his skin look a little more even (frequency separation also helped with this). I am a red head so I know all about reds in skin tone.
His hat had yellowed a bit with time so I used the teeth whitening adjustment brush to boost the whit and make this vintage military uniform look more authentic. Just a WW2 pilot fixing his hat.
This picture was taken with two speed lights. One lit up the plane and one lit up the pilot.
This one is not a vintage military photo but check out this guy and his bike! This look makes it look like he could have fit right in with all those 80s hair dos and aviators.
As you might have noticed, I used the frequency separation technique (to learn more about what this is watch this tutorial) with each one of these photos. I was a little skeptical at first as to whether or not this would work on male skin. I wanted them to still look authentic while also looking good. I think the think it helped with the most was evening out skin tones. I of course did some spot removal here and there but in the end, I was definitely a fan of the frequency separation.
Buy mens vintage military getups here.
Fashion Photography: My First Go
Women’s Vintage Fashion is so fun!
WW2 Women at their finest.
I was a little nervous for this shoot because I have never done anything like it before! But, I discovered that doing a themed shoot was actually was easier than I thought. I have actually always enjoyed history and have always been fascinated by WW2 in particular. I love hearing people tell stories about it. Maybe it’s partly because I think old people are the greatest. Whatever it is, these WW2 women models rocked this Vintage Fashion Shoot!
One thing that I have never experimented with until now is fashion photography. I have taken portraits many times, but I have never tried to edit using the frequency separation technique. This time around, I learned to do it in both Photoshop and Lightroom. For the below shots though, I used Lightroom.
For this first shot, I also used a new technique I learned involving the radial filters in Lightroom. I turned down the exposure and then brought it back using the radial filters. This allowed me to bring the light back to only the areas I thought important.
To be honest, these next two shots already looked fantastic so I don’t remember doing a whole lot in post. I think I mostly just fixed up the saturation and contrast. Having good lighting from the get go helps a ton with the editing of fashion photography portraits, or any portraits for that matter.
For the two pictures below, the wind was blowing a little too much for my liking. I used the spot removal tool to remove some stray hairs that had blown into their faces.
Thanks to my models who did a great job playing the part of WW2 Women and making this vintage fashion look awesome! You can shop for some vintage fashion items of your own here!
Something About Old Planes
There’s Something About Old Planes and Vintage Details of Military Uniforms
First off. These Skys. So Moody. Near the end of the shoot we had to bring the planes inside because it started thundering and lightning. These old planes still fly and need to be well taken care of. There is just something about old planes!
Have you ever been to the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, Idaho? It is incredible! They have old planes from WW2, old uniforms, cars, you name it! It’s amazing! Everything is well cared for and the people that run it are amazing. They were the ones that made this incredible shoot possible.
The pictures below were taken just outside the main air hanger. In post, using Adobe Lightroom, I turned up the dehaze slider to make the skys pop behind the aircraft. Other than than I didn’t do much in post besides raise the shadows and add a little clarity. I like the grunge look of the vintage vehicles. There’s just something about old planes!
This next picture was taken of the dashboard of the above U.S. Air Force Plane. The original photo was pretty dark so I lightened the shadows and added a little extra clarity to the focal point using an adjustment brush. I also used the teeth whitening tool to lighten up some of the numbers and lines (they were a little yellowed by time).
The next three are some amazing jacket details I captured from the uniforms of some of the models. For all three, I boosted the clarity quite a bit.
The picture of this vintage Ford was beautiful in color, but when I tried out the black and white I fell in love! I was loving the grunge look for this shoot so I again boosted the clarity. I also raised the dehaze slider so that the skys in the reflection would be more noticeable.
Check out this incredible video showing some other rad vintage planes! This blog post also explains a little about the history of old planes.
Get Yourself to the Tetons
A Look Through My Lens At Grand Teton National Park
Have you ever been to Grand Teton National Park? If not, you need to book your next vacation right now and make that your destination. The Tetons are gorgeous! It doesn’t matter what time of the year you are visiting, they are always incredible. I have been to the park at least twice and I was blown away both times.
These first two pictures were taken at String Lake. This beautiful lake is located right between two other beautiful lakes! Jenny Lake and Leigh Lake. Triple Whammy! I mean really, just have a look for yourself and you will see only a glimpse of what you are missing.
This first picture was taken using an ND filter. This helped to warm up the photo as well as make the clouds look softer. In post, I was able to change the white balance a bit to help the picture look like the real deal. It was amazing! I boosted the clarity and brought down the highlights. The ND filter really seems to have helped me bring out the beautiful reds in the stump giving a great contrast to the green in the trees.
The mountain in the below picture kind of reminds me of the Matterhorn. I am just loving the reflections in the water! It was not a very windy day which made for very peaceful waters.
Schwabacher Landing. Put this on your bucket list. Seriously. It is just outside Grand Teton National Park and the Tetons are still beautiful even when it is overcast! This beautiful place is located right on a beaver pond. It was raining off and on when I was there, but when the rain stopped the pond was completely still and you already know how I love reflections! Another favorite thing to do is to position myself so that I have something in the foreground. It always seems to make the picture more interesting.
I do love me a good macro shot. My family has always loved moss for some reason. It sounds weird until you see a photo like this one. Moss is such a beautiful phenomenon. I brought up the clarity and contrast on this one to show the texture of the wood and the moss. Old things like this log can be so beautiful!
These fellas are all over Grand Teton National Park. I saw lots of them! This little guy climbed to the top of some sage brush that I was standing right next to. He was obviously cautious, but not afraid. His proximity to me gave me the photographic advantage here. He was already sharp so I just fixed the colors and cropped in a little in post and this was the result!
What is the moral of the story? Get yourself to the Tetons! I promise you won’t regret it. They were too far away to get a good picture, but, I saw pelicans. Just saying. If you want to find out more about Grand Teton National Park you can visit the National Park Service website. You can also visit fineartamerica.com to see more fine art like this.
Spontaneous Road Trip to Mesa Falls
Amazing Sunset at Mesa Falls
Every Monday is family night. So this past Monday, my husband suggested we make a spontaneous road trip to Mesa Falls! I love waterfalls and hikes so I was like, “uh, yes!” Plus, we would be going during golden hour so the chances of an amazing sunset were pretty high. There were two things about this spontaneous trip that I was not prepared for, one was the mosquitoes and the other was my pregnant breathlessness. Keep in mind that I was even wearing bug spray! I ended up with a few shots where you could see the blurs of the mosquitoes that were swarming me.
I’m not sure where to even start about the picture below. I forgot my tripod which was a real tragedy, but luckily there was a railing that I could rest the camera on. That helped. I used a longer exposure to get the water to appear soft.
I spent ages on the post-production of the below picture. I was so grateful for an amazing sunset (golden hour, am I right?). I mean look at that sky! It was difficult to see in the original image so I turned down the highlights and boosted the dehaze slider. I started out in Lightroom and later moved to Photoshop using a variety of adjustments, masks, and filters.
The picture below was shot with a faster shutter speed and thus required less editing which is always nice. Isn’t Mesa Falls breathtaking?
The top image, and this bottom image, were both bracketed and then later merged in Adobe Lightroom. This helps a ton with getting the sky to be the right exposure. Plus, even though the amazing sunset wasn’t as amazing from this angle, you can even spot some color beginning to creep into the clouds!
One thing I have learned this year is that sometimes, a spontaneous road trip is just what you need. Mesa Falls is beautiful this time of year! But, a word of caution, cover every part of your body in bug repellent.
To learn more about Mesa Falls visit the forest service website. To see more amazing landscape shots, visit Chris Burkard’s site. He does some awesome work!
About Loren
