Hey everybody!

Recently I showed you how to use engagement images to upsell packages by offering a unique product, the engagement guestbook. It may have not been a new idea to you, but to your clients who have never heard of a guestbook made with their images, it’s a homerun.

Today I want to share something else that is so minor of a product, but makes a HUGE difference in how much money I make after the wedding: engagement cards. I’ve heard them called event cards, which is probably a better name, but around my office we refer to them as engagement cards or bridal cards (if we use bridal images instead).

The idea is simple: bring a stack of 200, 400, etc. wallets that are pre-made with a couple’s image, your logo, and a link (and password, if needed) to where the wedding guests can view the images. We also put the date they’l be available to create a little excitement. Since I’ve started doing this, my wedding print sales have been much higher and effortless. Sounds like a plan, huh? I’ve posted a few different examples to show and inspire.

Do you have neat uses for engagement pictures? Let us know below! Or, email me and maybe we can feature the idea!

Talk to you soon,
Dale Benfield

www.benfieldphotography.com
www.twitter.com/dalebenfield

Hey everybody!

I received a reader’s email last week asking about engagement guestbooks and any other fun idea to offer with engagement photos. Let me just say that I sell a TON of engagement guestbooks!  If you don’t already offer these, I’m sure you will after you read how easy it is to implement this into your packages right away.  By the way, I have used both MpixPro layflat albums (LOVE THE MATTE finish) and the custom hardcover press book as guestbooks, and both work great.  I typically choose the stock paper because it is the easiest on which to write.

First, let me explain what they are.
After the engagement session I’ll design a book that will be used as a couple’s actual guestbook for their wedding. Their guests will sign (or write a little message) on their way into the ceremony. When designing the layouts of the book, I’ll leave lots of white space or fade out pictures so guests will have room to write. It’s a GREAT way to show off engagement pictures as well as make more money from your current clients.

(here are a couple of shots from one of my guestbooks – as seen on the MpixPro catalog page)

Next, let me explain how I sell them to clients.

Since I started showing these to couples in 2007, over 70 percent of couples who get an engagement session get an engagement guestbook. The keyword here is “SHOW.” It’s almost cliche: you sell what you show. However, that’s because it’s true. At every client meeting I have, I show this. Here are a few things we say when we’re showing this book:
—”It’s a great way to show off your engagement photos – nobody really ever sees them except for the image in the newspaper.”
—”This book, unlike the old book with lines, you’ll continue to get out for years and years. You can show it to your children and to your grandchildren one day.”
—”You should have your parents write you a message in it, as well as your wedding party. Their words to you will be great to read over and over again throughout your marriage.”
And so on. You see, we’re appealing to emotions, and when you pair that with a killer sample that’s filled with great images, who is going to say no?

Stay tuned next week for another fun idea to help you make more money using engagement images!

Here’s to great guestbooks!
Dale

Our good friends at The Savvy Photographer have an amazing Mother’s Day giveaway going on this Saturday. Be sure to check their blog for more details!

A litle inside information for our blog readers: we donated a Metal print, Accordion Mini, Accordion Book, and Custom Image box! Some great prizes, and you could take one home this Saturday!

Hey everybody!
Following up my last post about how to prepare images for some metal-fabulousness, I wanted to post a little tutorial on how we add a texture to an image quickly and easily. There are definitely “better” ways to do it, but to us this is the simplest and gets us our desired effect. If you can’t view the video for any reason I also wrote out some instructions below. Make sure to leave any technical questions below and I’ll do my best to answer them as quickly as possible.

**If the video is too small, click here to see the original size, or download the tutorial: http://vimeo.com/11170098

Written Instructions for applying the texture to your image:
Open the .png or .jpg file in Photoshop.
Open the image you want to apply the texture to.
Drag the texture (with the move tool) on top of your image and release.
Transform the texture (command+T, or CTRL+T on a PC) to extend over
the image. Rotate if necessary. Press enter to apply the
transformation.
In the layers palette (if it’s not on your screen, go to
Window->Layers, or press F7) change your mode from “Normal” to
“Overlay”
That’s it!

If you want to play around with it, we also like changing the blending
mode (in the layers palette) to multiply for some images. Also, we
might reduce the opacity.

Here’s one more killer tip: If any part of the texture is over skin,
or something you don’t want it on, instead of using the eraser tool
use the SMUDGE tool!

Talk to you soon,
Dale

I think I’ll take a reader question today.

From Eric, a North Carolina photographer:
“I own a photography studio in NC, I have only been doing it for a couple of years now. I admire your work and found you guys through MPIX Pro, I also use   them for my prints. On the paper samples book I noticed that Benfield Photography are the ones that shot for the Metallic samples. I tried it once but it did not   look right. I was wondering if you could give me some advice on the matter. Do you have to post process differently than you normally would for regular E-Surface or True B&W. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I really love the look of Metallic.”

Let me start by saying that not every image is going to work well when printed on metal. Some images don’t lend themselves well for the medium. However, there are some images that definitely deserve a metal treatment to do them justice.

In my studio, I love metal for seniors, some family shots, and our special maternity line, urban bellies. Urban and grunge images lend themselves perfectly for this medium. You’ll notice, however, that the few images MpixPro shows of ours printed on metal are from an engagement shoots and a bridal shoot, which are not common for the metal medium, I would suspect.

That’s where we enter the second part of your question, and to me, the more relevant part: processing. For our style, we have some great processes, whether it be presets or actions, etc., that complete our look. Don’t misunderstand me, we have plenty of shots SOOC (straight out of the camera) that we deliver to our clients, but when we look to have a metal print or metal mural made, we take extra care of the image and run it through our specialty processes.

This week, I’m going to help you out by listing a couple sites where you can grab some actions and textures.
www.gettotallyrad.com – these cost money, but are definitely worth it. I have them; I use them; I love them. I have purchased everything Doug has to offer.
www.thepioneerwoman.com – these are free, and probably shouldn’t be. They’re really good. I don’t use them as much as TRA but there are a few that I just can’t live without.
www.urbandirty.com – yummy free textures if you don’t want to shoot them yourself.

You have a week to get these and play around with them. Then, coming soon, I will show you a great tip on how to make these look super fabulous!  I know, teasers stink. �

Here are a few examples from an Urban Belly session (Benfield Photography’s special take on maternity):

Here’s to making metal masterpieces,

Dale Benfield
website: www.benfieldphotography.net
follow me: www.twitter.com/dalebenfield

With the release of the first version of iPad, it really got my wheels turning about how I could use this in my photography business – mostly because I want to buy one and be able to write it off.  Ha ha!

For the sake of this post, we’re not debating on whether to buy one or not.  There are lots of existing blog posts about that.  Instead, this post is for those who are planning on getting one and incorporating it into their business duties.

If you haven’t already seen the iPad video, which discusses many of its capabilities, click this link (opens in a pop-up).  I’ve also checked out some of the apps for the iPad and have been pretty impressed.  In particular, the calendar app looks great!

Here are my top five hopeful uses for the iPad:

1) Slideshows for clients.  Duh! This one doesn’t take much creativity to dream up, but I do love the options to customize the slide shows.

2) Album proofing for clients, or album examples for prospective clients.  Because you can drop jpegs on the iPad, you can essentially show off current album designs for approval (from existing clients) or ooohs and ahhhhhs from prospective clients.  Instead of having your big ol’ MacBook Pro at dinner with your client, just pull out the iPad and give that WOW factor as you show off your sick design skills.

3) Give it as a gift! It’s no new idea to give an i{product} as a gift.  We used to do iPods until everybody already had one. Now, the iPad gives us something we can give to high-end clients either in a top package or as a jaw-dropping surprise (loaded with their images, of course). Additionally, they can use it as an expensive photo frame or take it with them to show ALLLLLLLLL their co-workers, family, and friends. Jackpot!

If you do this, don’t forget to load the iPad with your contact info, links to your blog and website and twitter, and throw on a best of the best images folder so they can show you off to the best of their ability!

4) Because it shows video, you can also show off your fusion pieces, assuming you’re in to that sort of thing.  Again, it can be a gift of a way to show off your awesomeness.  Bring this thing to bridal fairs, too, but keep your eyes on it!

5) Use it as your super-planner.  One thing I hate about my iPhone is that when I check an open date while I’ve met somebody out and about, it is SOOOO small!  Having my handy-dandy super-planner with me in the iPad will help me keep track of appointments and open dates so I’m ready to book on the spot.

~~~And now for a bonus~~~ This is something I HOPE to incorporate, but I’m not quite sure how to just yet: sign contracts right there on the iPad.  Wouldn’t it be great to have your contract stored on the iPad so when a client is ready and willing to give you the job you can have them sign the contract right then and there, and then you can immediately email them a copy (assuming you’re connected to the internet through the Wi-Fi or 3G).  Oh, and if you take credit cards online, just pull up your shopping cart page and hand over the iPad and get PAID!

Do YOU have any thoughts about how we as photographers can use the iPad?  I would LOOOOOOVE to hear them, so leave a comment!

Talk to you soon,

Dale

Wanna buy five copies for my mother!… you know, like the Dr. Hook song? Now… we certainly weren’t on any cover of the Rolling Stone… but… the NEXT BEST THING!!! (okay, maybe not…) We were in an ad. As in… OMG, WE WERE IN A DOUBLE SPREAD AD!!!!!!! As in… an ad that ran in THREE pro photo magazines (and one WPPI Show Guide )… AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Another question that we’ve gotten quite a bit was, “who took the photo?!” Well, originally, we did. You know… self timer style! Mike would balance those books on his head while I’d click the shutter… RUN… jump on the couch… straighten my hair… fix my scarf… suck it in… pop the hip… CLICK… jump down… back to the camera… repeat as many times as I could until the books would fall off of Mike’s head… he’d RE-balance the books… and then right back to the beginning…

I sent in the photo. You see, I hadn’t yet seen their rough layout of the ad and shot it how I pictured the ad to look. Well… it wasn’t wide enough. Furthermore, I thought that version didn’t show enough products.

SOOO… they sent more products THIS time, however, I was NOT about to go through the chaos of the self timer I called one of my very best friends. One of the very few people I would trust with this (I was the type in college that in group projects I’d do all of the work because I wasn’t going to allow anyone to ruin my grade!).

Who is this awesome person I speak so highly of? Ryan Hunley! He’s the creative genius behind 2nd Street Creative (and has designed mannny photographers’ logos). In his past, he’s art directed many photo shoots.  So, having his creative, detailed eye was a HUUUUUGE help to us!

Here, he’s trying to see how easy it was to balance the books. Uhm… he found out it wasn’t! Ryan, don’t be mad that I snapped this.

This may make me sound totally lame… but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this ad was, up to now, the ABSOLUTE proudest moment of my life. ALLLLL that mattered to me was showing our parents. Seriously. I didn’t care if ANYONE else saw it… having my mom full of pride was what I was most excited about. And let me tell you, the parents didn’t disappoint. We waited to tell them until it was in print. I called my mom at work and told her about it. She about hung up on me and immediately left work and drove to Borders and OF COURSE showed it off to every person in Borders. I’m not kidding you. She’s just beside herself with pride. Karen and Dave, Mike’s parents, saw it before it was published. The awesome people over at mpixpro sent us 4 prints of the final ad. We accidentally left it on the conference table. Dave promptly asked for one… but first demanded that we sign it. SERIOUSLY?! SIIIIGN IT??!? HAHAHAHA! OH how I love our families.

Really and truly, thank you Mom Kim, Mom Karen, Dad, Aunt Karen and G-Mom.  We love you. Big time!

I know you’re not surprised that it’s a week later that I get around to WPPI wrap-up. I mean, that trip was INTENSE! It definitely took a little recovery time. Now that the we’re settled back home, I have my wits about me and can finally form rational thoughts about the week.

Hanging out at the booth was incredible. I had lots of photographer friends, new and old, come by to chat. Honestly, this was one of my favorite parts of the week. Some of you told me about cool ways you use MpixPro products, and others just wanted to chat it up. I loved both. I was happy to see how packed the booth was pretty much nonstop for three days.

The scariest part was speaking in the booth. I’ve taught for many years, but SPEAKING – that’s a different thing altogether. I get nervous when I talk. Leading up to it I was a mess until I started thinking about it as a fun conversation with friends. That actually helped a lot. My friend Louis Torres stopped by the booth and snapped some shots of me, so I thought I’d publicly thank him and put one of his shots of me making a silly face on here. Oh, and check out his site for wedding photographers. Thanks Louis!

Another favorite part was seeing some super photographers and industry leaders speak in the booth. I got to see bits and pieces of everybody and learned a ton (especially from Dave Cross – man, that guy’s gooooood!). Here’s Arden speaking in the booth to a great crowd.

If there was a singular favorite moment I had in Vegas, it wasn’t the yummy meals or parties (though they were crazy fun), it was this memorable end to Bobbi and Mike’s talk (see her post about it here). I love her so much, and (as much as anybody could) know her so well, so I wasn’t surprised when she asked her audience to sing Happy Birthday to her mom. So cute! I shot video for her to send to her “Momba” Aw, it was precious.

If you didn’t get to go to WPPI this year, I’d definitely recommend it for the future. Not only do you get to touch and feel amazing products that you can otherwise only see online (hello, metal mural!) and learn from the best in the business, you also get to meet lots of fun photographers in the process.

What were your favorite parts of WPPI?

Here’s to Vegas (baby),
Dale

P.S. I have to put up this cute shot of Mike, Bobbi, and me.  FUN!

With Carey’s tools you can take this image:

And make it look like this:

Special thanks to Carey for providing these AMAZING tools for free!