Create Black and White Images

Original Color Image.

Converted with Red Channel Overlaid on Grayscale Image

Creating a Sepia Tone print.

Final Sepia Tone.

Are you looking for ways to make some extra cash in these hard financial times? Do you own a digital camera system? Can you edit images on your computer? Do you enjoy taking photos and sharing them with others? If you answered yes to these questions, then you might be able to make a good second income with digital photography. And, if you are interested, you may even be able to make a new career with your photography skills.

Digital photography has come a long way in just a few short years. Cameras are now able to do some amazing things thanks to computer technology. Some of the new systems just coming to market include the ability to take a photo only when everyone is smiling, and the camera can tell you if some one blinked! Wow, now that is amazing.

Photography is a fun and exciting art and people with creative skills will always be in demand. And in this day and age of amazing color camera and printer systems, many people are looking back at the art of black and white photography. Black and white photos gave always had an intrinsically artistic aura about them. Ansel Adams developed the Zone System, in an effort to make black and white photography more predictable and consistent. In his day, this was a time consuming and labor intensive task.

But, with the computer systems of today, and the inexpensive ink jet printers available, just about anyone can create good black and white images.

So, if you are interested in creating black and white images from your color photos, let me show you a couple of techniques to create great images. You can see samples of the conversions, beginning with an original color wedding photo and the method used to create the black and white versions at the blog mentioned at the end of this article.

If you open an image in Adobe Photoshop, and take a look at the channels, you will notice that the Red channel always has an interesting, bright, almost infra red appearance. In the first example shown in the blog, this Red channel is first copied to the clipboard, the image in converted to Grayscale via the Image, Mode menu option. Once the image is in Grayscale mode, Paste the copied Red channel on top of the newly created Grayscale image. Next, lower the opacity of this new layer to around 50 percent, or just until you have a visually pleasing result. In most cases, the resulting Black and White photo will have a beautiful texture, with a more pleasing result than just the default Photoshop conversion. Of course, this is just one method.

Another method is to use the Black and White adjustment option in the image menu. This method gives you the ability to refine the grayscale appearance of each color in the original image. Many people prefer to use this method, but in my opinion, there are many ways to achieve the result you are looking for, and so I believe you should experiment, have fun, and discover other ways to achieve the desired result.

Now, another option is to create a Sepia print, or a Duotone. This is the recreation of an old technique, where the image has a slightly brownish/reddish tint. The process of achieving this look is via the Duotone option in Photoshop. So, once you have converted your image into a Grayscale image, you go back to the Image menu and select the Duotone option from the menu. This will bring up a dialog box, where you can specify the number of colors you want to use, in this case, a Sepia tone, we want to add a reddish cast, so we will be adding just one other color to the Grayscale image. By clicking on the color square you can select any color you would like to use. Of course, you may want to create an image that has a different color cast, such as a blue etc. Entirely up to you. Once you have selected the color, you then click on the small graph on the left, which will allow you to tweak to effect the color has on the final image.

Now, the final piece of the puzzle is the printer you use to print the results for your client. You will want to purchase a printer with 8 or 9 colors. This type of printer will have two or three black ink cartridges, which will enable you to create a rally beautiful Black and White image, full of the rich tones and lots of detail, to create a truly outstanding image.

Remember, people do not mind paying for quality. If you spend the time to input your creativity to get the images you and your client desire, you will have a client who will be recommending your services where ever they go. Certainly, every time they show someone one of the images you created. Your client will forever appreciate your efforts. And as a photographer, that is what it is all about. Client satisfaction. And client satisfaction leads to income. No one will ever be upset for paying for quality results.

Like many professionals, Tom Jackson began his career by shooting weddings. You can make a substantial income shooting weddings with very little overhead. You can get more info on wedding photography, cameras and computer image editing, and see examples of his work, or get more info on how to start your own business http://www.howtoshootweddings.net

Portraits for Cash

It is possible to make a good income doing the things you love. Photography is a fun and exciting art and people with creative skills will always be in demand. Considering the hard economic times we are facing right now, many people are looking for ways to supplement their incomes. More and more people are losing their jobs. Finding ways to make ends meet is becoming difficult. But, if you own a digital camera system, then you may have the skills and the equipment you need to make a good second income.

Many of today’s top photographers started out taking pictures of friends and family, before they reached the pinnacle of their profession. Some of the top wedding photographers started taking pictures at the request of friends, before they realized they could make a decent living taking photos.

Often, you will be asked if you can take some portraits. If you have decided to try your hand at starting your own part time business, then taking portraits is a great way to make some extra cash and get some great experience. Remember, as a photographer, you need to understand what the client is looking for, and try to take photos that represent what the client needs. You will add your creativity to the equation, and hopefully you will have a satisfied, paying customer, who will recommend your services to all their contacts.

In the blog mentioned at the end of this article, you will find some sample photos that explain more clearly the concepts covered here. As mentioned, you need to show some creativity and you need to capture the essence of the clients character. That is what a portrait is all about. Capturing the essence of the client in such a way that is interesting and tells a story for anyone who will be viewing the images.

In this case, the client wanted some images to capture the spirit and exhilaration of speed and independence, provided by the car and motorcycle of the client. The car is a special high performance model from the Chrysler factory, with a race tuned, turbocharged engine.

To make the portrait stand out, the first image is shot from ground level. This gives a sense of power and speed. The client is posed beside the car, so one can get a good clear view of both the client and the car. This gives a sense of balance, and shows the client as someone who enjoys taming the power of the machine.

The second image is designed to show the sense of power and speed, by taking photos of the car in motion. The trick here is to have the car and driver moving in a direction around the camera. The photographer then need to pan the camera at the same speed as the car, so the car and the driver will be in sharp focus, but the background and the wheels of the car will show a motion blur, giving a heightened sense of speed.

In the third image, we have an image of the car, her motorcycle and the client. In this image, we bring all the elements together in a way that shows these are the things that matter to the client. Here is someone who enjoys power and speed and the thrill of the open road. Here is a person who is a true independent, self motivated and fun loving individual. This is what the client is looking for in their portrait session, and that is what you have to deliver.

If you enjoy photography, then making images like these will be fairly easy for you. In this type of session, you need to have fun with the assignment and takes lots and lots of images. These days, memory cards are cheap, and reviewing the photos on the computer screen is easy and fun. You need to work with your clients. Make them feel at ease and enjoy the shoot. You will come away with lots of great images to sell if you do this.

Remember, people do not mind paying for quality. If you spend the time to input your creativity to get the images, you will have a client who will be recommending your services where ever they go. Certainly, every time they show someone one of the images you created. Never be afraid to look a little silly if that what it takes to get a great image. Your client will forever appreciate your efforts. And as a photographer, that is what it is all about. Client satisfaction. And client satisfaction leads to income. No one will ever be upset for paying for quality results.

Like many professionals, Tom Jackson began his career by shooting weddings. You can make a substantial income shooting weddings with very little overhead. You can get more info on wedding photography, cameras and computer image editing, and see examples of his work, or get more info on how to start your own business here http://www.howtoshootweddings.net

Extra Cash With Your Digital Camera

Here is a wedding album being prepared in Apple's iPhoto software. This program come with every new Mac computer, and it makes it very easy to create and order custom wedding albums. This is the cover jacket for the album, and all the text starts out as a place holder, so you just select the default text and compose the correct text. All very easy with a very professional finished result.


This is a sample spread page. Creating an album is just a simple matter of drag and dropping images into the frame you want, to get the look you want for each album. You can create a large album for the bride and groom and smaller albums for the parents and friends.

The economic depression we are all facing at the moment, is certainly one of the worst, and some believe, even more damaging the great depression back in 1929. Many people are being laid off and losing their jobs and their income. It is very difficult for most people to continue to pay the bills and the mortgage when this happens. Having a skill with which you can make a part time or even full time income if necessary, can be the difference between making ends meet or filing for bankruptcy.

If you own a digital camera system, then you may have the skills and the equipment you need to make a good second income. Wedding photography can be a very lucrative part time of full time option. In the United State alone, wedding photography is approximately a $5 Billion per year industry. That's a sizable market. And with some know how and a decent digital camera, you can be a part of this industry. I have designed a course that includes everything you need, including business forms, technical discussions, sample ads and business cards, and even tips on using Apple iPhoto, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Apple's Aperture. You can see more information at my blog or website.

If you use an Apple Macintosh computer system, you have all the items you need to be able to process, edit, order prints and create photo albums, right from within the iPhoto software. You can create custom wedding books using iPhoto, and fully customize the printed product to please any bride.

iPhoto makes it quite easy to order prints and photo books. The orders are place right within the software, see my blog for sample images of the process. You can add words as well to really get a personalized product for your clients. The bride and groom will love the results, as they are very professionally printed, and relatively inexpensive.

Apple’s iPhoto makes it easy to edit and adjust your images. You can also remove red eye and blemishes. iPhoto ’09 is quite a powerful product if you do not own or wish to purchase other, more expensive software, such as Adobe Photoshop.

One of the first questions I am asked when shooting with a digital camera (after the "which camera do you use, question), is, what format should I shoot? Tiff, High Res. JPEG, RAW etc. And the answer is very simple. RAW! There is NO other option. And you need to make sure that you are using the highest resolution (mega pixels) available on your camera.

You should only be using a digital SLR (DSLR) camera, with the most powerful (expensive) flash you can afford, available for your system. When you shoot a wedding, you will need to use flash for almost every shot you take. Indoors and out, even in bright sunlight. The flash will light dark subjects inside and when you are outside, it will fill in the shadows of your subject, and make the resulting photos look their best.

A very important point to remember when you photograph the bride, is to make sure that there is lots of detail in the wedding gown. With digital cameras, the sensor cannot record as wide a range of light to dark as with traditional film cameras, and whites in particular, can be very challenging to record with detail. This is where you need to be able to balance the flash with the available light to get acceptable results. Otherwise, you may have some angry people calling you after the event. And you cannot arrange a do-over for a wedding, it is a one shot deal. So, make sure you do lots of practice before your first real paying event. A good way to practice is to have you wife/girlfriend/kids dress up in white clothes and take lots of shots and note the settings you need to get detail in the dress, and good even skin tones on the brides face.

Photos of kids at the wedding can help make you a lot of extra money. Whenever possible, set up the kids in the bridal party by themselves. These kinds of photos will sell to the parents, the bride and groom and many other family members, especially the grandparents. Part of your job is to not just take good photos, but to take photos that will sell and keep you in a job and allow you to buy more equipment as you need it. You should always take individual shots of each kid and have the parents help to get them comfortable so you can get some good shots. Always try to choose an interesting background where possible. In order to focus attention on the kids (refer to the photo on my blog, listed at the end of this article) and not the background, I have made a selection around the kids in Adobe Photoshop, and darkened the background a little, so the kids will stand out and be the center of attention in the photo.

Like many professionals, Tom Jackson began his career by shooting weddings. You can make a substantial income shooting weddings with very little overhead. You can get more info on wedding photography, cameras and computer image editing, and see examples of his work, or get more info on how to start your own business at http://www.howtoshootweddings.net

Making Money in Hard Times

This is the final image after editing with Adobe Photoshop. The original image is below. Also, I have included some enlarged detail images for reference.



We are currently in an economic depression. Many people are being laid off and losing their jobs and their income. It is very difficult for most people to continue to pay the bills and the mortgage when this happens. Having a part time hobby with which you can make a part time or even full time income if necessary, can be the difference between making ends meet or filing for bankruptcy.

You can make a good income with wedding photography. It can be a very lucrative part time of full time option. In the United State alone, wedding photography is approximately a $5 Billion per year industry. That's a sizable market. And with some know how and a decent digital camera, you can be a part of this industry. I have designed a course that includes everything you need, including business forms, technical discussions, sample ads and business cards, and even tips on using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Apple's Aperture. You can see more information and order at my blog or website.

Using Adobe Photoshop will be essential to making a good income with photography as many of the photos you take will require some kind of manipulation, even if it is just a small brightness or contrast adjustment. However, if you can master some of the trickier tools, you will be able to create some stunning photos. You will also be able to contract to other studios for work. Mastering Photoshop is still something that not everyone can do. But id you enjoy creating images on the computer, then you can could be in great demand by others looking for help.

On my blog, you will see images of a cabin in the snow country of Arizona. The client wanted an image that they could frame and put on the wall. They were very proud of their cabin, but to make a really good image required some extensive Photoshop work. The main tool I used was the Clone tool. I think that the Clone tool and the Pen tool are the two most powerful tools in Photoshop. If you master these tools, you will be able to create some really great images.

As you will see, by astute use of the Clone tool, the overhead power lines were eliminated, so we have a nice clear view of the beautiful blue sky. Next, we smoothes out the snow covered road, and deleted the car by Cloning the snow over the car. Next, the sidewalk was smoothed out and the footprints were removed. Then, some Cloning of the snow on the roof to make the roof line look better. Finally, judicious use of the curves and a selection on the cabin itself, brought the warmth and texture of the wood walls to life. These kinds of techniques will enable you to earn money, even in a down economy. Just be sure to practice as often as you can.

One of the first questions I am asked when shooting with a digital camera (after the "which camera do you use, question), is, what format should I shoot? Tiff, High Res. JPEG, RAW etc. And the answer is very simple. RAW! There is NO other option. And you need to make sure that you are using the highest resolution (mega pixels) available on your camera.

You should only be using a digital SLR (DSLR) camera, with the most powerful (expensive) flash you can afford, available for your system. When you shoot a wedding, you will need to use flash for basically every shot you take. Indoors and out, even in bright sunlight. The flash will light dark subjects inside and when you are outside, it will fill in the shadows of your subject, and make the resulting photos look their best.

A very important point to remember when you photograph the bride, is to make sure that there is lots of detail in the brides dress. With digital cameras, the sensor cannot record as wide a range of light to dark as with traditional film cameras, and whites in particular, can be very challenging to record with detail. This is where you need to be able to balance the flash with the available light to get acceptable results. Otherwise, you may have some angry people calling you after the event. And you cannot arrange a do-over for a wedding, it is a one shot deal. So, make sure you do lots of practice before your first real, paying event. A good way to practice is to have you wife/girlfriend/kids dress up in white clothes and take lots of shots and note the settings you need to get detail in the dress, and good even skin tones on the brides face.

Photos of kids at the wedding can help make you a lot of extra money. Whenever possible, set up the kids in the bridal party by themselves. These kinds of photos will sell to the parents, the bride and groom and many other family members, especially the grandparents. Part of your job is to not just take good photos, but to take photos that will sell and keep you in a job and allow you to buy more equipment as you need it. You should always take individual shots of each kid and have the parents help to get them comfortable so you can get some good shots. Always try to choose an interesting background where possible. In order to focus attention on the kids (refer to the photo on my blog, listed at the end of this article) and not the background, I have made a selection around the kids in Adobe Photoshop, and darkened the background a little, so the kids will stand out and be the center of attention in the photo.

Your Wedding Photography Business, Taking Special Photos

Wedding photography is a very fulfilling activity. You get to meet lots of people. You travel to places you have never been to before. You will see some beautiful sunsets. And you get to be intimately involved in an event full of emotion for the bride and groom, their parents and all the friends and family who attend.

If you enjoy photography, and you have some good digital equipment, then you too can participate in the wedding photography industry. An industry that is worth approximately $5 Billion per year. Many of today’s professional photographers began their careers shooting weddings. It is usually the easiest way to get into the photography industry because nearly all of us know someone who will be getting married. And they will need a photographer.

If you know the bride and groom well enough, you can offer them a deal directly or have one of your friends approach the bride or groom. In the tough times we face today, most couples will love the opportunity to save some money. But you do need to ensure that you provide the couple with a quality product. Check some of the downloadable courses available on the net if you are not experienced.

When I am teaching wedding photography, I always tell my students, that every photo you take needs to be good enough that it is one you would buy yourself if you were the bride. Just because you are starting out in this industry, does not mean that you can deliver an inferior product. You really do not want the wrath of the bride and her mom coming down upon you.

One way I make sure I have saleable photos, is to pose the couple, but not in a way that makes the photos look posed. Yes, many will need to be posed, like the photos of the parents etc. But if you can provide some photos to show off the glamour of the occasion or the fun that the couple had on the day, you will receive lots of orders for prints, and the referral of the couple to others they know who will need the services of a wedding photographer.

Whenever I have the chance, I will use items that are meaningful to the bride and groom in my photos. For instance, if the bride is wearing an item that has been handed down from one generation to the next, I will make sure I cover that item in one or more photos for the bride and her family to choose from and hence, make me some more money. This is a business, and you need to keep in mind that you need to make money so you can invest in new technology, as well as providing your clients with a memorable product.

If you check out the photo on the blog shown at the end of this article, you will see one such photo. The groom owned an old Cadillac which was his pride and joy. It was the main car for the bride and grooms arrival at the church and reception. So, to make a memorable shot, I had the bride take the wheel and pretend to be driving away in the grooms pride and joy, while he tried to hop aboard before she ‘got away’. The couple loved this shot. He had to get both feet off the ground to make the shot work, and I did some Photoshop work to make it look like the car was traveling at a higher speed than it was. I think you’ll agree, the shot came out great and the couple loved it.

Make Money with your own Photography Business

I am writing this article in December 2008. In the economic crises we are now facing, it can be very difficult to make enough money to pay the bills. Many people are being laid off, and finding work is becoming more and more difficult. One way is to start your own home based photography business using your digital camera. If you own a good quality digital camera, you can start your own home photography business. Wedding Photography is an approx. $5 Billion per year industry.

We currently face some of the most difficult economic times in our history. It is becoming more important than ever that people find a way to make an extra income at home. Many online business opportunities usually make a lot of money for the owners of the site, but it can be very difficult for anyone else to make a part time income. As a photographer, you will be your own boss. You will have a great opportunity to make a real income. And with so many people losing their jobs, having a way to make an income at home is can be a true blessing

Using your digital camera you can make a very good income at home. If you enjoy taking pictures and sharing them with friends and family, then you might consider taking wedding photos on weekends. Wedding photography can be a very lucrative part time or full time career. In the United State alone, the Wedding Photography industry accounts for approx., $5 Billion per year. That's a very large market. And with some know how and a decent digital camera, you can be a part of this industry. All you need is a course that includes business forms, technical discussions, sample ads and business cards, and even tips on using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Apple's Aperture.

In this article, I will explain some technical considerations of picture taking. Available light photography and many people often have questions about the aperture and how to use it effectively.

Available light photography is pretty much as the term says. You take photos using just the available light in the scene. You do not add any light with either a flash or other light sources. However, by using a reflector, you can redirect, or model, the light to give a more pleasing and natural effect. In image above, you will see a sample photo, of a scene from a wedding which does not use a flash.

If you look carefully at the photo, you will notice some very obvious things about the light. Overall, the light is very even right across the whole image, including the background of the image. This is because the light is bouncing off the walls of the church and lighting the whole scene. A flash on the other hand, will only light a small part of the scene, usually just the bride. The problem with flash is that it will product a lot of hard shadows both on the bride and dress, and also on the background. With flash, you would normally see a big shadow of the bride on the wall in the background. By using available light, you eliminate this shadow. Also, the shadows on the brides face are also very soft.

Now, the biggest problem with available light photography, is that the exposures are usually much longer, and so there is more opportunity for the subjects to move a create a blurred image, thus negating all the advantages. So, you need to let people know that this is a special lighting effect and that they need to stay very still for the exposure. The image shown in the blog, had a shutter speed of a quarter of a second. Photographically speaking, that is a long time. Most exposures will be in the order of a hundredth of a second or more, which will freeze the movement of most subjects (maybe not very active children) and give you a nice pleasing photo as a result.

So, available light photography will consider two aspects of the camera to make a correct exposure. One is, as we mentioned, the shutter speed, and the other of course, is the aperture.

Lets take a look at how a correct exposure works. The shutter speed, in a wedding for instance, will freeze the movement of the subjects, so that the images appear sharp and pleasing to the eye. So, the shutter speed determines how long the light affects the sensor on the camera, and the aperture affects how much light hits the sensor. So the combination of how much light hits the sensor for how long determines by the shutter speed, gives us a correct exposure.

The secondary effects of the shutter speed is the amount of movement shown on the image. A fast shutter speed will show no movement, and a slow shutter speed will cause a blur of the image, either from the movement of the subject or by not holding the camera perfectly steady.

The secondary effect of the aperture is how much of the image is in sharp focus. With either shutter speed or aperture, a lot of people get confused about the numbers involved. The aperture shown on a camera lens is usually shown as f5.6 or f8 etc. The confusing part for many photographers, is that the larger the f number, the smaller the lens opening. But do not let the numbers confuse you. The numbers are only written this way because of space constraints. The number is really a fraction, and every number technically should be written with a one on top of the number. So, f8 is really f and 1 over 8. And f16 is really f 1 over 16, or a sixteenth. What this means is that each stop downs, halves the amount of light coming through the lens.

The effect of closing down the aperture this way, is that the smaller the aperture, the larger the depth of field. In other words, the smaller the aperture, more of the image will appear in focus. So, when shooting portraits, we usually want a shallow depth of field, so that the background does not affect the appearance of the subject. But as we adjust the aperture, by letting more or less light reach the sensor, we have to adjust the shutter speed to allow the light to be on the sensor for a longer or shorter period to make a correct exposure.

Making Money with Wedding Photography

I always try to keep everything light and fun for the bride and groom, as well as the bridal party. You will be able to get some great shots by making sure that they have fun at the same time as you are setting up the shots and taking the photos. The best shots are often the more relaxed, informal ones. You can make quite a lot of money on these shots, as everyone in the shot will want a copy, as well as parents and grandparents.

Have your friends have told you how good your photography is? Are the prints you create appreciated by friends and family? Have they have suggested that you start your own wedding photography studio? If so, you may be asking what is your next step? Well, with a little help, you can get started in your very own business.

You may have been taking photos of friends and family for a number of years now, and everyone makes the comment that you should start your own business. Sounds great, but where do you start. Well, there is a great eCourse with everything you need to get started. This article, covers just a couple of things that you will need to be aware of. The course concentrates on wedding photography, however, the techniques apply to any type of photography. It’s just that with wedding photography, you have a much better chance of making a good part or full time income, without having to go through years of study and research. Many great photographers began their careers by shooting weddings for friends and family, on a part time basis.

It is possible that you can make a lot of money shooting weddings. Many of the top professional photographers began their careers shooting weddings either for themselves or for a studio. Doing it for yourself of course, means that you get to keep all the money. But, please note that as the photographer, you will often be required to act as the wedding coordinator as well, as these days, most brides cannot afford one. And if there is no wedding coordinator, then it is usually the wedding photographer who will make sure everyone is where they should be most of the time. So, a downloadable training course will help in this aspect also, as it covers the entire event in detail. As the wedding photographer, you need to make sure that the bride and groom follow your directions. Make them aware that it is in their interest to follow your directions because they want a whole lot of great looking photos for their album.

As you prepare for an event, you need to make sure that all your equipment is ready, and that you have everything you need for the days event. If possible, be sure to have a series of back-ups, a spare camera body, a spare lens and a spare flash in case any of your prime units fails. There is no excuse for the photographer to have to come up to the bride, and try to explain that your camera just broke, and you cannot take any more photos. Again, a death sentence. Your back-up units do not need to be identical to your prime units, but they should be at least close to the same specs. The camera needs to be able to take images at the same resolution as your prime camera, otherwise there will be a noticeable difference in quality of the final prints. The flash unit can be a smaller unit with a slightly lower light output, but if it happens, then this unit will have to do quite a bit of work, so be careful. Make sure that the spare flash is fully charged before taking photos. I have seen a number of photographers get excited about taking some pictures at an event, and they will often just fire away, taking picture after picture, not realizing that the flash is not fully charged for each picture, and so, most of the resulting images will have serious problems, that may not be able to be recovered on the computer. So, make sure that you have good back-up equipment.

Are you are ready to take the next step? Would you like to start your own photography business? Then you will find that the wedding photography course is designed to get you off to a great start. Everything is in this course, including all the forms you will need. They are provided as a computer file that you can change and edit so you can create your very own designs, with your own information. This alone will help you and your business look very professional and save you a lot of time and money, so you can get bookings and start making some money with your very own wedding photography business.