Posted by: Amelia Lyon Photography | February 1st, 2012
Introducing our brand new workshop: GO OUTSIDE! I know it's been a while! A ton has happened between now and the last LYON-SHOP, Justin and I had new arrival to our family and have had to put things on hold for a bit. Recently we've received a TON of emails from people curious about our next LYON-SHOP date and figured it was time to get the workshop business going again! There will definitely be more LYON-SHOPs in the future, HOWEVER, this time around, Justin and I have partnered up with Matt & Angie Sloan of SLOAN PHOTOGRAPHERS to host a first ever workshop called GO OUTSIDE!
The THREE DAY workshop will be held on March 28th-30th in Palm Springs, CA. Check out what the GO OUTSIDE workshop is all about by visiting our rockin' website! Expect a ton to learn, share, inspire, & laugh about! We are SUPER excited about this workshop because we get to spend THREE DAYS hanging out with all of the attendees, teaching, business talk, guest speakers with vendors we actually use, chatting, one-on-ones, presenting challenges, and conducting a real shoot with a real couple!
Be sure to sign up ASAP as seats are very limited due to space!
Justin, Matt, Angie, and I are BEYOND excited about this, can't wait to see who makes it out!:)
Tags: Photographer Resources
Posted by: Amelia Lyon Photography | January 7th, 2012
Did you know about the upcoming
What If Conference?! If not, be informed. This is about to be one of the best, most uplifting, positive, challenging business/photography related conferences available!
My amazing husband Justin has been invited to speak and attend as an innovator at the What If Conference January 23rd-26th. He's been invited to consult and share his thoughts, ideas, and experiences with those in attendance. Since Justin is both a
photographer and a
successful producer, he has much to impart and a unique background. There have been so many times in his career when he's had to think about the very question: WHAT IF?! What if he never took leaps of faith? What if he didn't follow his dreams in producing? What if he was too scared to face the unknown? What if he listened to what others thought about his passions? What if he let go of all his inhibitions, with a full face forward and let the amazing things life has to offer come his way? WHAT IF?
Ever since I've known Justin, he's had a "streak of luck". He always gets the best parking spot in a busy parking lot, he always seems to be meeting the right people he needs to for producing, and he always has a positive outlook on life because of it. In fact, anyone that knows him can say that he always happens to be in the right place at the right time to get exactly what he wants! I can vouch that this "lucky streak" is not luck at all, it's Justin creating that luck, being brave and basically barging his way into life's opportunities. Again, it's that "what if" in his mind that he is constantly living by and has brought him much success in life (that's how he won my heart over when we first met).
Interested in attending this conference? There is still time to sign up and reserve your spot!!! Plus, this conference is ridiculously affordable!
Click here for details!
I'm super excited for him to share all that he has learned over the past decade and the value of asking himself WHAT IF? Here is what the What If team has had to say about him:
Justin is the consummate business-creative. Working in two very competitive fields, and finding success in both, Justin knows first hand the value of hard work. He will be sharing tips and tricks for a successful CREATIVE BUSINESS, tools for building that business while maintaining your creativity, and how to stay the course when the going gets tough.
Tags: Photographer Resources
Posted by: Amelia Lyon Photography | November 23rd, 2011
I am constantly receiving emails from fellow photographers (old and new) who want to know how I handle the post processing of my images. So I'm dedicating this entire post to just that!
First, I want to express an opinion: A photo shouldn't just be shot, burned to a disc, then handed over to the client...if you're a digital photographer (and an artist at that), one must work on the images. Even if it's proofs being handed back to the client, never, I repeat, NEVER, give a client an untouched image! Would a painter hand over a paying client an almost blank canvas with just the pencil sketches? No. Especially when the paying client is expecting "art"! They hire you to do what they cannot do for themselves. We are artists, lets be respectful to our paying clients and deliver to them the amazing photos they are expecting out of us!
Okay, now that I'm done ranting I want to give credit to the amazing companies that make my life 100 times easier when it comes to the post processing of my images. These two companies are
Fotofafa and
TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS! I use both of these companies separately for two totally different purposes and I'll explain that below. I'm proud to be an affiliate for both of these companies, because as I rave about them constantly (they deserve it more than they know) they are "scratching my back" with beautiful images I can give to my clients and in return I get to share what they do, along with how awesome I truly believe they are for a small percentage return in my pocket.
Plus, I thought this would be the perfect time to share about these two companies because both
Fotofafa and
TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS! are running HUGE Black Friday sales, see below to take advantage of that as long as it lasts:
To redeem the discount for 15% off at
TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS! type in the coupon code 1016BLACKFRIDAY (you don't want to miss out on the RadLab if you don't already have it). Their sale is only running for 24 hours only on 11/25/11!
To redeem the discounts and HUGE savings from
Fotofafa during their Black Friday sale, be sure to type in the coupon code LYON11. Their sale is currently running through Monday 11/28/11!
Working on images takes time, we all know that, and if not time-managed properly, post processing of images can take over your life, which will in turn make you abhor the job you once loved. I am a complete believer in outsourcing so that I can have more time to do the things that I love, like spending time with my family, going out on a date with my husband, or even at this time of year taking time off for the holidays.
After shooting a wedding with 3,000 plus images, I get to send all of my photos over to Fotofafa to cull down and process into beautifully proofed jpegs. They take each image and color correct to my preference, adjust the white balance, perfect my exposure, and even add contrast if I need them to.
Here are a few recent images I received back from Fotofafa along with my raw (in camera) image so you can see the before & after:
This image seemed a bit dull and I like how Fotofafa brought it to life.
I love how they were able to bring out he details in the blacks and still keep the contrast up.
Even the slightest adjustment in white-balance can make a huge difference.Before I send all of my images over to Fotofafa, I like to go through and choose my favorites that will be featured on my blog, used for the slideshow, and ultimately used for my clients' wedding albums. Totally Rad Actions help me to "artistically edit" my favorite images and retouch them into a complete work of art.
Here are a few of my favorite recipes played on the following photos using Totally Rad Actions through their new RadLab...(which is seriously RAD and beyond easy to use!).
Recipe for black & white conversion using TRA within RadLab (note: all of my black and white images are always desaturated prior to the following steps):
1. Detroit reduced down to 50% and tone compression increased up to 130%
2. Grainstorm at 100%
3. Get Faded Neutral reduced down to 30%
4. Boutwell Magic Glasses reduced down to 50%
Here is the color recipe I used for these next two images using the Totally Rad Actions within RadLab (the best part about Radlab is that it is very visual and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to use it):
1. Cool As A Cucumber reduced down to 50%
2. Get Faded Spring reduced down to 60%
3. The 600 reduced down to 50% with grain down to 15% and the defocus down to 0%
4. Boutwell Magic Glasses reduced down to 50%
Again, a HUGE shout-out to Fotofafa & Totally Rad Actions for making my life easier, especially during the holidays when I really want to get things done fast in order to have more time to myself and all the while still being able to deliver the quality images my clients deserve!
Tags: Photographer Resources
Posted by: Amelia Lyon Photography | March 21st, 2011
Who wants to be part of the next LYON-SHOP?!!! We'll be holding this next on on May 19th, 2011 in Laguna Beach, so hop on fast and
grab a seat, we'd love to have you out for a day full of learning, shooting, networking, post processing, and inspiration!
CLICK HERE to reserve your seat now! You can also visit our official
LYON-SHOP site to get more info! Can't wait to see who makes it out!
Our last LYON-SHOP was held on February 19th in Las Vegas. Here's a recap of the two shoots we did with all of the attendees. A HUGE thank you to our models Emmy & Josh who drove down from Provo, UT to join us that day!
We covered everything from creative use of natural light, to rocking the off camera flash, what lenses we like you use and when, as well as posing and interacting with our subject.
My second favorite shot of the day!
My favorite shot of the day, it was a fun one to set up!
LOVED all of our attendees that took time out of their busy lives to come all the way to Las Vegas to learn from us! THANK YOU to all of them and we are humbled to have spent such a sweet day with such a wonderful group of people!Again, to reserve your seat now for the next LYON-SHOP,
CLICK HERE! Also, check out what past attendees have said about their experience about the LYON-SHOP by visiting
"the love" section on our website!
We also would like to thank all of our awesome sponsors, these are companies that we believe in and each make our lives a little easier here at Amelia Lyon Photography:
Tags: LYON-SHOP!, Photographer Resources
Posted by: Amelia Lyon Photography | February 17th, 2011
Sometimes I like to give well deserved shout-outs to the amazing companies Justin and I like to use to help our business run a little smoother. One of the best moves Justin and I ever made was to outsource all of our post production of proofing images before we put them online for our clients to see. FOTOFAFA is our company of choice. They really have their heads on straight with the color correcting, customer service (this is HUGE to me), and turn around time! Not only do I get my images back in a timely manner, but the work I get back from them is phenomenal! PLUS, I get to use the time I would have spent editing these photos to play with my family, go on a date night with Justin, or take a guiltless afternoon off for some "me time". If you feel like you're drowning in your business, maybe it's time to let go and outsource, you will never turn back once you do and guaranteed it'll be the best thing you ever did!
Thank you
FOTOFAFA, we love you and what you're all about! Here's to more business together in the future!
Here are some images from a wedding I received back recently from
Fotofafa, you can see the awesome befores and afters!
I like my images a bit warm in white-balance, Fotofafa nails it every time!
I love that the details in her dress and in the sky weren't lost in the proofing process.Well, Justin and I off to WPPI in Las Vegas! If you see us, please come up and say hello! Excited for a fun week of playing, dancing, networking, and sharing ideas!
Tags: Personal, Photographer Resources
Posted by: Amelia Lyon Photography | February 14th, 2011
KATE WHITMORE!!! Congrats to the winner of the Airplanes & Blazers contest! You won a free seat to any one of our LYON-SHOP classes this year!!! I'll be emailing you, Kate my dear, for details very soon!!!
That was a TOUGH decision! First, we had to go through all of the comments and see which commenters guessed our favorite quote, second, we then gave each correct commenter a number, and third, we ran a random number generator online and that's how Kate Whitmore won, whew!
PS. our favorite quote from
Anchorman is #3! "
What? You pooped in the refrigerator? And you ate the whole... wheel of cheese? How'd you do that? Heck, I'm not even mad; that's amazing." LOL! Makes us laugh EVERY time!
Tags: Personal, Photographer Resources
Posted by: Amelia Lyon Photography | February 14th, 2011
KATE WHITMORE!!! Congrats to the winner of the Airplanes & Blazers contest! You won a free seat to anyone of our LYON-SHOP classes this year!!! I'll be emailing you, Kate my dear, for details very soon!!!
That was a TOUGH decision! First, we had to go through all of the comments and see which commenters guessed our favorite quote, second, we then gave each correct commenter a number, and third, we ran a random number generator online and that's how our friend Kate Whitmore won, whew!
PS. our favorite quote from
Anchorman is #3! "
What? You pooped in the refrigerator? And you ate the whole... wheel of cheese? How'd you do that? Heck, I'm not even mad; that's amazing." LOL! Makes us laugh EVERY time!
Tags: Personal, Photographer Resources
Posted by: Amelia Lyon Photography | February 11th, 2011
Hey everyone! Our friends over at Airplanes & Blazers (an amazing party to take place on Februrary 21st in Las Vegas for photographers by photographers) is running a killer contest on
their blog. Go there now to participate and win a FREE SEAT at one of our
LYON-SHOP classes in 2011!!!
Tags: Personal, Photographer Resources
Posted by: Amelia Lyon Photography | January 24th, 2011
Come one, come all to one of the RADDEST bridal/groom events ever....HITCHED! Seriously, you don't want to miss out on this boutiquey event to inspire, meet, mingle, dance, and visualize what your wedding could look like! Plus, you'll want to come & meet Justin and I, along with many other awesome vendors in the wedding industry...not just any vendors, but COOL ones that have fantastic style and much to offer and add to your wedding day! Click here to get your tickets!
Also, as a featured vendor at the Hitched Event, we have the great opportunity of giving away two tickets to a lucky couple! All you have to do is leave us a fun comment below and if you catch our attention enough you'll win!!! We'll announce the winner tomorrow at 1pm! If you don't win, be sure to buy your tickets online ASAP as the event happens THIS SUNDAY!!! See you all there and can't wait to see who wins our free tickets!
Tags: Personal, Photographer Resources
