Master The Image

New Christmas Card Templates Vol 1 and 2

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Photo Christmas Card Holiday Photoshop Template Vol. 1 and 2

By purchasing these 12 completely unique editable Photoshop templates you can insert your own or your clients photos and print them at most photographic labs (Sams Club, Walmart, Ritz, Walgreen's, Costco, etc.).
This volume of holiday templates includes 6 completely editable templates, each have the following sizes:
4x6, 4x8 (slimline), 5x5 and 5x7.

Item description:
You will receive all 48 of the layered editable .PSD files shown below.
Each of the templates are:
• Fully Editable Layered Photoshop files 300dpi
• Fully Editable Text Layers
• RGB Color
• Compatible with Photoshop 7 and above or Photoshop Elements
• Each designs sizes include 4x6, 5x7, 5x5 and 4x8

SEE ALL OF Christmas Collection Vol 1

SEE ALL OF Christmas Collection Vol 2

Order Now for $21.95

New Christmas Card Templates Vol 2

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:29:00 +0000

Photo Christmas Card Holiday Photoshop Template Vol. 2

By purchasing these 6 completely unique editable Photoshop templates you can insert your own or your clients photos and print them at most photographic labs (Sams Club, Walmart, Ritz, Walgreen's, Costco, etc.).
This volume of holiday templates includes 6 completely editable templates, each have the following sizes:
4x6, 4x8 (slimline), 5x5 and 5x7.

Item description:
You will receive all 24 of the layered editable .PSD files shown below.
Each of the templates are:
• Fully Editable Layered Photoshop files 300dpi
• Fully Editable Text Layers
• RGB Color
• Compatible with Photoshop 7 and above or Photoshop Elements
• Each designs sizes include 4x6, 5x7, 5x5 and 4x8

SEE ALL OF Christmas Collection Vol 2

Order Now for $16.95

New Christmas Card Templates Vol 1

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:27:00 +0000

Photo Christmas Card Holiday Photoshop Template Vol. 1

By purchasing these 6 completely unique editable Photoshop templates you can insert your own or your clients photos and print them at most photographic labs (Sams Club, Walmart, Ritz, Walgreen's, Costco, etc.).
This volume of holiday templates includes 6 completely editable templates, each have the following sizes:
4x6, 4x8 (slimline), 5x5 and 5x7.

Item description:
You will receive all 24 of the layered editable .PSD files shown below.
Each of the templates are:
• Fully Editable Layered Photoshop files 300dpi
• Fully Editable Text Layers
• RGB Color
• Compatible with Photoshop 7 and above or Photoshop Elements
• Each designs sizes include 4x6, 5x7, 5x5 and 4x8

SEE ALL OF Christmas Collection Vol 1

Order Now for $16.95

Templates and Edges for Photographers using Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

"Templates & Edges" is a huge collection of 240+ of the very BEST templates and custom edge treatments that we use here at the studio everyday!
These will work with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Elements, on a PC or Mac.

Included are:
Family Template
Senior Templates
Wedding and Bridal Templates
Children Templates
Collages Templates
PLUS...
Senior, Wedding, Baby, Announcements, & Christmas Cards.

PLUS, PLUS...
24 Digital backgrounds
Calibration samples to help calibrate your monitor

You can easily copy and paste your own images into these templates. Not sure how to do that. No problem with quicktime video tutorial included on the DVD!

This will give you tons of ready to use templates to start creating your own incredible collages and start making money NOW!

"When some clients have an objection to a 'HUGE', (as they call it), wall portraits this is an awesome alternative! Our clients love these and they have definitely added 20-40% to our orders!"

What you get on this DVD:

- 240+ Adobe Photoshop Collage Templates: Some sizes include 2x7, 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 10x30, 15x30, 24x30, 7x40 and as large as 36x60! PLUS lots of other sizes. All templates are layered, editable, resizable, and easy to use. All texts layers are editable to fonts you want to use.
- Video Quicktime Tutorial on how to use the included Photoshop Templates.
- Video Quicktime Tutorial on how to apply edge treatments to your images.

Purchase NOW for $32.00

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial Manual

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:32:00 +0000

I have offered this for quite some time but just now getting ti on the BLOG.. Adventures in Photoshop is an Adobe Photoshop digital photography training guild for upcoming and professional photographers. It will take you from basic to advance in 16 easy to follow lessons. Clearly written and screen capture images to show you what your looking for.

Plus an added bonus include all digital images and files for you can work in the same files in the lesson to show you how to get the same results.

My photographic eye is only half of what I can do to enhance an image. To take it to he next level I love to refine it with the magic of Photoshop.

What you get on this CD:

An Adobe Reader PDF Manual the contains:

Chapter 1 - Basic Retouching & Working with Levels
Chapter 2 - Color Correcting
Chapter 3 - Advance Retouching
Chapter 4 - Super Soft Skin
Chapter 5 - Opening Up Dark Shadows
Chapter 6 - Making a Bridal Details Collage
Chapter 7 - Making a Senior Composite
Chapter 8 - Digital Infrared B&W Look
Chapter 9 - Making a Custom Logo Brush
Chapter 10 - Wedding Day Portrait
Chapter 11 - B&W Spot Coloring
Chapter 12 - Multiple Personality Collection
Chapter 13 - Bridal B&W Spot Coloring
Chapter 14 - Insert in a Digital Backdrop
Chapter 15 - Artistic Watercolor Technique
Chapter 16 - Artistic Texturing

PLUS A BONUS - All files and images contained in the lessons.

I sell this for $19.95

New Upcoming Webinars!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:28:00 +0000

Starting Wednesday, April 22nd we will be hosting online Webinars every two weeks at 6:00pm MST. Over the past several months I've recieved hundreds of questions on various topics. You know how the saying goes... "If it's a question in your mind there a good chance someone else has had the same question come to their mind also". Webinars are a perfect fit for educational material like photography.

Here the short list of upcoming topics.

April 22 - Creative Template Making
May 6 - Portrait Enhancements
May 20 - Adobe Lightroom 2 Techniques
June 3 - Portrait Posing

Cost will be $10 per Webinar or $175 for a years subscription.
Subscribe below and additional information will be emailed to you the following day.

Email me directly if you are interested in the yearly subscription CLICK HERE

Newly Released! WEDDING SUCCESS KIT

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:06:00 +0000

Here is the BEST "Wedding Photography Success Kit" you will find. If you are just starting out and wondering what are the best things to do or a seasoned professional and need some new ideas. This will catapult you to the front of the pack. Give you fresh idea on how to attract brides, how to shoot them, design attractive wedding announcements and albums. Then design wedding/bridal collages and most importantly... start making the great money now.

What you get on this informational DVD:

* 150 Engagement Images
* 150 Pre- Bridal Images
* 150 Wedding Day Images
* 10 Wedding Announcement Photoshop Templates
* One 20 page Wedding Book Photoshop Template
* Two 30 page Wedding Book Photoshop Template
* Engagement Lighting Diagrams Tutorial
* Bridal Indoor Lighting Diagrams Tutorial
* Bridal Outdoor Lighting Diagrams Tutorial
* Wedding Price Brochure
* Wedding Advertising
* Bridal Fair Flyers
* Wedding Gift Certificates
* A Bridal Fair Follow-up Letter
* Two Different Wedding Contracts

The Wedding Book and Announcement Templates are Photoshop PSD files. They work in Adobe Photoshop CS or higher, Abode Elements, and a customer informed my they work in Corel Paintshop Pro. Fonts that I use in these templates are downloadable from dafont.com
Lighting Diagrams and Tutorials are video quicktime file that are viewable on a free download from Apple Quicktime player.
All Images are in Acrobat Reader PDF files that are viewable 4-up per sheet in Adobe Acrobat Reader. All other letters, flyers, contracts, brochures are also Acrobat Reader PDF files. Acrobat Reader is a free download from Adobe website also.

**** PLUS A BONUS OFFER ****

- FREE PDF manual of "Best of Marketing" (See more info below)

_________________________________________________

MasterTheImage.com in cooperation with Master Photographer, Steve Mackley, of Mackley Designer Portraiture is pleased to bring you this DVD.

Steve's Accolades

- PPA Master Craftsman Photographer, F-PPI, F-IPPA
- Nine time “Photographer of the Year”
- 2005 Best of State - KUTV Channel 2
- 11 time recipient of KODAK GALLERY AWARD
- 8 time recipient of the FUJI MASTERPIECE AWARD

This Kit is a collection of the very BEST images, templates, marketing ideas, and tutorials from PPA Master Craftsman Photographer, Steve Mackley from the past several years. Hundreds of outdoor poses as well as studio and urban landscapes. This will give you tons of new ideas to add to your collection.

* * BONUS OFFER * *

With this purchase we will include a copy of our newly finished manual, "Best of Marketing". A 45 page manual with all the great marketing techniques we've used at our studio. This will give you ideas of marketing to families, weddings, high school seniors, children specials, and dance groups. As well as
Yearbook ads, direct mail, flyers, brochures, gift certificates, cooperative advertising samples, plus comments of how we used them... plus much more.

Five Seat Left in 2-Day Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:31:00 +0000

There are only five seat left in our "Image Success" workshop in Logan, Utah. This will be held 9:00 to 5:00 on Monday - Tuesday, April 27-28, 2009.

Master Craftmans Photographer, Todd Hicken and myself will be teaching the latest techniques in Lighting and Posing in the studio and out on location. I will be showing advanced digital work flow in Adobe Lightroom 2.0 as well and image enhancement in Adobe Photoshop. Todd will also be sharing some business and selling techniques he uses to sell to his high end clients. We will have several live (as apposed to non-living) models so everyone can practice each lighting and posing technique. The price for both day is $199.

TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT CLICK BELOW::

How to Retouch Glass Glare

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:53:00 +0000

Steve's been a BAD BOY.... he hasn't posted in over three months! This reaffirms my theory thou... the slower things are the less you get done. And the more hectic times are the more is seems to get accomplished. Go figure!!

Anyway I've been meaning to post several questions I've received lately from you out there. So here one I've gotten several time. How do you retouch glass glare.

I really prefer to shot one shot with their glasses and one in the same pose without glasses. Then merge them together. But I explain both ways to fix them in the video.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO

Three NEW Success Items Available for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:53:00 +0000

Just finished two new DVD Success Kits for Families Photography and Senior Photography and... A "Best of Marketing" manual.

Before you read on make sure you notice the BONUS OFFER at the end of the post!

The first DVD is called "Family Photography Success Kit and more"

If you are just starting out and wondering what are the best ting to do or a seasoned professional and need some new ideas. This will catapult you to the front of the pack. Give you fresh idea on how to attract clients, how to shoot them, design attractive collages and start making the good money.

What you get on this DVD:

- Hundreds of Family, Couples, and Children Images to Get Posing, Background, Lighting Ideas
- 25 Adobe Photoshop Collage Templates
- Video Lighting Tutorials and Diagrams
- Video Tutorials on how to use the Photoshop Templates

The DVD will be $45 plus $5 shipping (***Check out the Bonus Offer below***)

The Second DVD is named "Senior Photography Success Kit and more"

If you are just starting out and wondering what are the best ting to do or a seasoned professional and need some new ideas. This will catapult you to the front of the pack. Give you fresh idea on how to attract seniors, how to shoot them, design attractive collages and start making the good money.

What you get on this DVD:

- Hundreds of Class of 2009 High School Senior Images to Get Posing, Background, Lighting Ideas
- 25 Adobe Photoshop Collage Templates
- 15 Adobe Photoshop Gradation Announcement Templates
- Full Length Video Tutorial Senior Session from Beginning to End
- Video Lighting Tutorials and Diagrams

This Senior DVD will sell for $52 plus $5 shipping (***Check out the Bonus Offer below***)

The New Manual of marketing is called "Best of Marketing"

It is a 45 page manual with all the greatest marketing techniques we've used at our studio. This will give you ideas of marketing to families, weddings, high school seniors, children specials, and dance groups. As well as
yearbook ads, direct mail, flyers, brochures, gift certificates, cooperative advertising samples, plus comments of how we used them... plus much more.

This Manual will sell for $29 plus $5 shipping

************** BONUS CHRISTMAS OFFER!!!! *****************

Get both DVDs, Family and Senior Success Kits.
I will include the Best of Marketing Manual and free shipping!

CALL or EMAIL me today and you'll get the first one off the press!

*************************************************************

Have a super day and Merry Christmas!

-Steve

Where does the time go?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:02:00 +0000

Well, as was mentioned a few weeks ago, we've got a new DVD or 2 in the makes, and while we were planning on having it out the first week in December, we're a bit behind schedule, but it's a good thing. There is definitely a learning curve whenever you do something new, and this is no exception. We could crank the new DVD out, but I don't think it would meet the quality we want it to have without taking more time on it. Needless to say, we aren't too far behind in schedule. It's looking like it may be the beginning of January, rather than in December, but we'll see what we can do.

Test of the Canon 5D Mark II

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:16:00 +0000

OK... so I am not a videographer. I just had to try out the video features of the New Canon 5D Mark II. I had an engagement shoot in Salt Lake City on Monday night and walked around after trying it out. I was very impressed with most everything about the camera. Video quality is incredible. Sound quality is very good. Worked great in low light. The depth of field control was something I could not get enough of. Love the sensor cleaning feature... if it really works. I guess time will tell.

Big Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:13:00 +0000

Come the first week of December, we're planning on releasing a few new DVDs, and while I can't go into specifics, let's just say you are going to want to check them out. Look out for more info coming soon.

CAS

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:47:00 +0000

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we've just started using CS4 at work, and I also have it at home now. While there are a number of cool new things, probably my most favorite is CAS, or Content Aware Scaling. In short, transforming your image with CAS allows you to stretch or squish the image without it affecting the content. It works really good too, "straight out of the box" if you will. Below is an image I manipulated with CAS.

What is great too, if you don't want a certain area to be affected for sure, you can make a selection around that part, save it as a channel, and then when you go to use CAS, select it in the protect drop down menu, and there you go.

The only thing I've not liked about it is that it is VERY memory intensive, and I'm constantly getting out of memory warnings. I'm still tweaking how I have CS4 setup in hopes to fix that, but haven't been very successful yet.

Happy Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:23:00 +0000

Nothing more to post today other than hope you have a Happy Halloween!

CS4 Me

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:31:00 +0000

"Hi, my name is Brian."

"HI BRIAN"

"I stand before all of you, proud to say that I have been Photoshop CS free for almost a week now, and I'm not turning back. Gone are the lonely nights when I had to convert my RAW images to DNG before I could view them. Never again will I be slowed down by the evil that is File Browser. Most importantly, no more will I be forced to live under the thumb of not being able to multi-select layers. I've done it. I'm a CS-free man, and you can be too!"

If you weren't able to get what is going on from the title of this post, or from the above gibberish, last weekend I got Photoshop CS4. All I can say is WOW!

Overall, I don't have too many complaints. It took me a bit to get it to run well without always telling me it was running out of memory for even the smallest tasks, but that is just Photoshop in general. I've also lost my palettes once or twice and had to quit the program to get them back (it wasn't because they were hidden with tab either). All and all though, I can't really say anything bad about it.

Now for the good stuff. First off, it's sad, but the thing I'm excited about the most is the fact that I can now multi-select layers. I know that has been something with us since CS2, but only having CS at home left me in the dark ages.

My next favorite thing is content aware scaling. Unlike many of photoshop's programmed filters and auto adjustments that only semi work, depending on the image, I would say 9 out of 10 times, Content Aware Scaling works BEAUTIFULLY!!!!! without any further enhancement at all. For that other one time, according to a video on NAPP's site, if you make a selection around what you don't want to effect as much, turn that selection into a new alpha channel, and then use that alpha channel hand in hand with content aware scaling, the desired result you want is a lot more likely. Check out the video here:
Content Aware Scaling with Dave Cross

Camera RAW 5 is awesome as well. If any of you have ever used Lightroom, you know there are a lot of pre-editing you can do now in RAW even before you open the image. Camera RAW 5 has brought us a lot of that same editing. Post crop vignetting; location specific adjustments from the adjustment brush; etc, etc.

I could continue to go on and on, but really, in order to get a real feel of it, you've either got to watch someone use it, or try it out yourself. I don't think you can download the demo yet, so in the mean time, head over to NAPP's CS4 Video Tutorial site and check out a lot of the new features for yourself. If you need me, I'll be happily multi selecting layers over here. :)

It's Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:02:00 +0000

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I missed last Friday from a little personal crisis I had come up. Nothing big too big, just big enough to divert my attention onto other things.

Photoshop CS4 as well as the other Creative Suite softwares, such as Indesign and Illustrator began shipping yesterday. Have you ordered your copy yet?

This last week, I had a friend of mine call me up and tell me another friend of mine was getting married, and that she wanted me to take a picture of the Logan LDS Temple. I've shot a couple of different pictures of the temple in the past, but nothing I've been too proud of. It's sad, but I consider the Logan Temple one of the less photogenic of the Temples. I was howevever able to not only find a shot I liked, but had a chance to play around with HDR again. Check out the resulting below:

To get this shot, I extended the legs of my tripod, but kept them compressed like a monopod, and then cranked it up as high as the thing would go. I'm actually up against the fence, shooting through it. I could barely see through the viewfinder to see the shot, and was using my corded remote to fire the shutter.

Restored!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:04:00 +0000

4-5 weeks ago, I made some posts about image restoration. I had planned on having the image I was working on done for the following week, but things got crazy here at the studio and I wasn't able to finish it until Wednesday of this week. Check out the finished version below.

Is it October yet?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:44:00 +0000

October is going to be one heck of a month. Not only do we have Canon releasing their new cameras, as mentioned in previous posts, but we also have Photoshop CS4 coming out as well. What more can you ask for in a month's period of time?

Here at the studio, we are really looking forward to CS4, especially since I'm still back at CS2. (Actually, I'm still running CS on the computer I have at home.)

Here link over at Adobe with more info about CS4:

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/features/?view=topnew&promoid=DRHXB

Canon 5D Mark II

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned Canon's new 50D was coming out, a 15 mega-pixel camera sporting Canon's new processor, the Digic 4, and that something new might be coming out from Canon shortly. Well, low and behold, the Canon 5D Mark II.

Coming at us with a 21 mega-pixel full-size sensor, live view mode, HD video recording capability and more, the 5D Mark II gives a full size helping of Canon goodness. A full rundown of the specs, including price (US: $ 2,699) can be seen over at DPReview.com. Canon also has it listed on their site.

All I can say is October is going to be a good month. :)

Free Range Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:10:00 +0000

HDRI - High Dynamic Range Imaging is the subject for todays post, and something I've been really interested in lately but haven't had much of a chance to play around with. In short, you take a couple of images of the same thing, each at different exposures to compensate for highlights, lowlights, and inbetween and then put them all together. This can be done by hand, or there are some programs that'll put it together for you automatically.

Popular Photography has a really good article on HDRI over at their site.

Here is my take at HDRI. You can see the 3 different images, taken with a different exposure for different parts of the image, and then all combined in the lower part.

Cameras & more

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Making it that much harder for me to decide what I want to upgrade my camera to, Canon recently announced a new 15 megapixel camera, the 50D. Just checking out the specs over at Canon's site, it looks awesome! Take note it lists the new Digic 4 as the processor. I may be jumping to conclusions, but I think this means we'll be seeing a bunch of new stuff coming out from Canon over the next little while.

Canon also announced recently the Rebel XS, a 10MP version of the XSi. Both the XS and XSi have had really great reviews from Popular Photography and others, and would make excellent entry level cameras.

Last week, I posted about an image restoration project I've been working on. I don't have the image done yet, but here is a shot of what it looks like so far.

When love and hate collide......

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:00:00 +0000

When my older brother was in high school, he took some classes at a local tech collage on Photoshop. After seeing what could be done with the program, it became a passion of mine. Currently I'm contemplating what I should be going into school for, and all I can really settle on is it has to be using photoshop in one way or another.

Working at our photo studio, most of the projects I work on are in relation to the images clients order. Every once in a while though, I get a project that deals with something I both love and hate, all at the same time. This would be photo restoration. Anybody who has done any restoration work knows exactly what I'm talking about.

This past week or so, I had such a project come in. While I haven't made enough headway on it yet to post a before and after, here are a few others I've worked on in the past.

This one was one I did for my parents. When they were married, they had a photographer there, but for some reason, the only images they have now are 2 proofs of the same image. One, as you can see, was put into a scrapbook, and the other was put into a frame without any glass. This led to yellow discoloration and cracking. Taking the 2 of them and adding 18-20 hours brought the result on the right.

This is one I worked on last month for a client. I'm really pleased with not only the result, but also the time that went into it, which was just a little under an hour.

Stay tuned for next week, when I'll post the result of my current project.

Back on track

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:56:00 +0000

Wow, I can't believe it's been since the 27 of June since I posted last. I had committed myself to post something every Friday, and was doing pretty good for a couple of weeks, and then as you can see, fell off the bandwagon.

Well, with the entire web as my witness, I am going to start posting again. Keep tuned on Fridays. More stuff to come. :)

Speaking at WPPA Quarterly

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mackley) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:38:00 +0000

Just got back for the Jackson Hole, Wyoming where Master Photographer, Todd Hicken and I spoke at their summer quarterly. We took some very hard situation and show how to make the best of them. Went the BAR-J Ranglers show later the evening. Great people and lots of fun! Thanks to professional photographers of Wyoming for all the good times. Here a few best images...enjoy! Steve