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Digital Backgrounds Can Transform Ordinary Photos Into Magical Portraits in Just 3 Minutes Or Less!

By Steve Shulenski Co-Author: Susha Shulenski
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The thrill of taking pictures -always feels like the first time every time. Now armed with your ever handy digital SLR and taking your nth photo, you still feel that same level of excitement when you held that very first instant photo you took with your Polaroid. So the moment you felt that you can translate this passion for photography into something that can cover the bill, managing your very own home studio seemed like a picture-perfect idea. But after a month of having less than encouraging results, you are now starting to wonder if your home photography business can actually outgrow your home. With creativity, right marketing strategy, and digital backgrounds, we know you can cash in on your experience of being behind the camera and earn yourself a full time income working part time hours.

Dare To Start With Zero: Growing Your Home Studio

But what exactly are digital backgrounds and how do you use them to grow your business?

Can you imagine a photography studio with just a mere white backdrop - without the fancy painted backdrops and expensive photography props that you've seen other portrait studios? With today's advances in cameras and digital enhancements, we dare you to imagine the unimaginable. With years of working behind the lens, we know that a camera with one light, a reflector and a simple white background combined with digital photography backgrounds are the just the ticket that new home photography start ups need to become highly successful. We sure wish we knew when we were first getting started what we know now. If we did, we could have saved thousands on all of the unnecessary photography props, backgrounds and tools we thought were necessary to succeed in a home based portrait studio.

One of the very first things that you learn about browsing through your old photos is that photography is not always about having a great looking subject with just the right expression. More often than not, backgrounds can really make or break a shot. Our experience tells us that a background, especially when used in portrait photography, can set in the mood that you want to achieve or throw everything out off balance. That is how important backgrounds are in making a good photograph.

And just like the rest of the new photo biz start ups, you may think that the only way to improve your chances of gaining enough clients to cover the bills and earn a living is to

· Shop for expensive backdrops and props to attract customers who want creative studio shots. After all, kids love to play with great but expensive toys that are prone to wear out and break and your main clients here are parents who love cute photos of their babies. So what other choices do you have?

· Learn how to use sophisticated software, which not only requires your time but some serious cash when you enroll in a crash course so you can learn how to use it.

· Go outdoors and organize an offsite photo shoot. We could not agree more when you say that the Mother Nature provides the best background you can ever find. But bringing your client outdoors - and arranging a session outside - is downright impractical, especially for a start up.

You may believe that outdoor locations are free. But our experience proves just the opposite. Remember, time is money and just driving all the way to the nearest picturesque spot takes a lot of time off your billable hours.

We use to meet our clients at a park or the beach and despite asking them to dress in a coordinated fashion they seldom would. The kids would often get muddied and parents would get frustrated trying to stop their kiddies from running amuck and pleading with them to sit still so the tree branches over their heads would not appear to be growing out of their ears in the finished portraits.

These are definitely all great ideas. But start crunching the numbers and you will know that all these add up big time to your overhead. If you have exhausted your stash for rainy days, run out of family members who trust your skills, and faced investors who only question your ability to grow a successful photography business then we have some very good news for you.

What if there is an affordable solution, which requires only a little knowledge of user-friendly photo manipulation apps and takes less than 3 minutes per photo from start to printing?

What You Need To Know About Digital Backgrounds

Digital photography backgrounds are very flexible and easy-to-use background images and creative themes that replace expensive old masters and scenic painted canvas backdrops and they make many props obsolete. Digital backgrounds can be easily manipulated and eased into an image you took with your SLR to enhance not only a boring white backdrop but to literally take your subject out of this world. Ever wonder how can you add a bit of "Wow" to a studio shot? Why not put your subject in a whole new dimension like a mystical enchanted forest or a room straight from a Victorian castle? Digital backgrounds give you this flexibility and more.

Here's a quick overview of how you can shop for and use digital backgrounds with ease:

· First, choose a reliable provider. There are a lot of online sellers who will definitely try to sell you their stuff. And since these items are, well, in digital form, there are some risks when shopping for digital backgrounds online. Check their portfolio, read their terms, and check the quality of backgrounds you are buying. It is difficult to go after online sellers since most payment systems like PayPal do not cover digital products.

· Second, download high quality digital backgrounds. NEVER buy in bulk, that is, those that are bundled with hundreds of others. Why? Simply because you'll never know what you will receive - and if all are actually usable. Digital photography backgrounds maybe affordable and you will never have enough of them. But be practical. The key is to know your clients: Are you targeting moms who would love a picture of their children in a fairytale setting as fairies, pixies, wizards and such? Or the teen market who loves creative shots and wants a year book image they can be proud of? With this in mind, you can narrow down your choices and only shop for the backgrounds that your target market will truly appreciate and love.

· Lastly, open and use. Digital backgrounds can be used with Corel Photo, Adobe Photoshop, and GIMP, also referred to as Poor-Mans Photoshop. So how do you exactly use a digital background? Simple. Just open the image with the app of your choice, use the magic extractor tool to extract your subject from a boring background, open the digital background you have just purchased in the same window, drag the extracted image over the background, and, viola, in an instant, you now have a unique and creative photo that will truly impress your clients.

It's really just a matter of extracting your subject and placing it onto a digital background. The key to creating a magnificent work of art lies in how you can creatively blend the image with the digital background.

Honestly, using digital backgrounds is easy. However, creating a creative and flawless photograph is a process and a journey. But with heaps of free tutorials on the net, the whole learning process will only take days. You will be surprised with what you can create after just a few tries and will wish you had began using digital backdrops years ago.


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And The Survey Says - New Numbers Regarding Small Biz And Health Insurance In Texas

By Patt Carpenter
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A 2006 survey, released by the health insurance trade group America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), offers a snapshot look at small group health insurance plans throughout Texas and nationwide. The survey has once again stirred up debates over whether health insurance is affordable enough to allow small businesses to cover their workers, or if sweeping changes are needed.

The survey showed that small businesses — those companies with 50 employees or fewer — actually paid a slightly lower health-plan premium than that reflected in a previous survey of mostly larger companies.

"The take-home message is that small businesses have affordable options," said AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni. "This is the only survey of its type on very, very, small businesses," she said. "The 'less coverage' hypothesis for small businesses is not what the data show."

The AHIP survey specifically reports that more than 650,000 small companies showed they paid an average monthly premium of $311 for individual members, and $814 for a family ("family" generally meaning a family of four).

AHIP officials also noted that the monthly premium for individual members is down from the $335 average premium revealed in an earlier survey done by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which focused on firms with three or more workers. The premium decrease, AHIP officials said, was due to cost sharing, which tends to be more significant in small-business health plans, compared with those of large firms.

The AHIP survey — which divided the small companies into those with 10 or fewer workers, 11 to 25 employees and 26 to 50 workers — also revealed that premiums dropped slightly as company size increased.

But the survey's portrait of a robust small-business insurance market is misleading. The health insurance industry could do even better by its mom-and-pop customers if legal barriers weren't standing in the way, Ignagni added.

According to the survey, small businesses state they want more affordability. “And we want to customize benefits for small businesses but we're prevented from doing that by state mandates," she said. "We could be doing more."

But not everyone agrees with the survey’s findings. Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association (NSBA), was skeptical about the AHIP survey and its conclusion about small companies' access to health coverage for their workers." We certainly don't think health insurance is affordable for small business," he said. "AHIP is trying to make a case that it's more affordable than people think."

McCracken stated that small-scale companies face unique challenges in covering their staff, such as higher health-plan administrative costs and less stable premiums. Oftentimes, one change in a tiny workforce — like the replacement of a young, healthy worker with an older, less healthy one — can keep premiums in a constant state of flux. With this kind of change "more than half of small businesses can't afford health insurance," he said.

The NSBA currently represents about 65,000 companies with an average workforce of thirteen employees. McCracken reiterated that lower premiums for small firms evidenced in the AHIP poll reflect the fact that smaller companies are increasingly making their workers pay more for health benefits, whether in the form of higher premium contributions or bigger deductibles and co-pays.

There is also the question whether the survey might be leaving out some of the states in which the market is dominated by (non-AHIP) Blue Cross & Blue Shield Plans, where tighter rating rules drive premiums higher.

McCracken said his group would support legislation that changed the current premium-based state tax laws — which don't affect self-insured companies or those that don't buy health insurance — into a more "broad-based" tax, such as an income or sales tax. But aside from piecemeal laws to cure the problem of affordability, "We're continuing to urge Congress to look at the bigger picture," he said. And how should that big picture look? "We would support something similar to the law recently passed in Massachusetts, where everyone has to have health insurance," McCracken.

If you’re a small business owner who would like to offer affordable health insurance plans to your employees, but can’t afford group health insurance, you should take a look at the revolutionary comprehensive individual health insurance solutions created by Precedent specifically for young, healthy individuals. Precedent offers affordable, individual health plans with catastrophic coverage, but without a high deductible, and we’ll offer these plans to your employees at a discount.

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Start a Photography Business in a Destination Location

By S. Hill
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Expert Author S. Hill

Starting a photography business in a destination location can be one of the easiest ways to get off the ground for a new portrait photographer. People flock to vacation destinations all over the globe because of their unique beauty and breathtaking backdrops. Capitalizing on the built-in tourism draw of these destinations can make a profitable portrait business and pay huge dividends over the life of that business. A new niche in portrait photography is emerging as I write this article. Are you one of the few tapping into this brand new market?

As someone just starting your photography business in portrait photography, let me ask you a question to shed some light on this amazing marketing opportunity. If you had a choice of where to get your portraits taken, in your local portrait studio or in your vacation destination which would you choose?

Your local portrait studio is the same place all of your friends and family have had their pictures taken for years, sounds pretty boring to me, because frankly it is.

Your vacation destination is where you have wanted to go for some time. You have a picture of the vacation destination in your mind. Is your picture of white sand beach in Maui, sitting next to Mayan Ruins in Mexico, the bright red arches of Arches National Park in Utah, the green foliage of California wine country, the massive columns of Greek ruins in Greece? What I am getting at is, there are niche destination photography markets all over the world you can capitalize on.

People are going to have their photography done somewhere and it is not always in a stuffy portrait studio. If you start your photography business next to travelers favorite destinations, and you get your marketing just right, you can catch a steady stream of these happy vacationing customers with open wallets just waiting to spend. Vacationing customers are so happy when they find you, because often they had no idea it was even possible to get their photos taken in their dream destination.

I recommend getting some additional information from the front runners in this field before starting a photography business in your destination. You can waste a lot of money very quickly on advertising and you need to set up your web presence very specifically to get them booked in.

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Redefining Destination Photography

By S. Hill
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Expert Author S. Hill

Do you live in a location that thousand or even millions of people visit annually for vacation or recreation? If your answer is yes, you probably live in great location for starting a destination photography business.

In the past, the definition of destination photography was: following a customer to the location of their choosing and shooting them there. There is a new buzz around destination photography which is being focused around seeking out travel destinations in your area and sourcing customers before they reach your destination. There is usually an attraction that brings a massive amount of visitors to almost every state in multiple locations every year. The key is positioning yourself in front of these customers in their vacation planning stage. Letting customers come to you rather than the other way around makes for a great way to generate income and is a trend on the rise in recent years.

This new photography business plan or model, of sourcing customers coming to a vacation destination is a relatively new concept in the realm of portrait photography marketing. Sourcing destination photography customers at a location has been done for years in the field of wedding photography, but for some reason overlooked for vacationing travelers. With the onset of the new digital photography revolution this is a great way of starting a home based photography business because of its low start up cost.

Because this is a new trend, none of the old rules apply when it comes to marketing to this untapped segment. Travelers are looking for easy fun portrait sessions designed specifically for those on vacation. Purchasing a destination photography business E-Book is a great way to learn how to structure your business to traveling clientele. It can save you time and money letting someone with a proven customer generation method explain exactly how to reach these vacationing customers.

A destination photography business can be a high profit career if it is executed correctly. Vacationing customers are looking for ways to spend their vacation dollars; it is up to you to show them how! If you live in an area with plenty of tourism, you can usually have one portrait session in the morning and one session at night, and decide which days you want to work. It can be easy to make full-time income from only working part time, really increasing your quality of life. Even if your destination only draws customers a few months a year you can often make a whole years worth of money in just a few months.

There are hundreds of thousands of places through-out the world to use as a home base for a destination photography business. You can either live in the vacation destination or move there to live the life you have always dreamed of.

Here areas some ideas for portrait locations for a destination photography business:

1. Florida- beach photos
2. California- beach photos, Yosemite photos, wine country photos
3. Greece-beaches, ancient ruins
4. Italy- wine country, beach, castles
5. Hawaii- Beach photos
6. New York- fun City photo backdrop portraits
7. Canada- whistler ski photos
8. Texas- Ranch photos

The list of possible locations is almost endless. If you know where people like to visit then you probably have a great area for a destination photography business.


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5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Increase Sales and Book More Sessions

By Michael Spatola
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Expert Author Michael Spatola

The last year or so has seen a more challenging time for many small businesses. The mom and pop portrait studios in particular have had a rough time. I have personally seen many privately owned studios go under in the last 18 months. Many tried and true promotions that have worked for years, have now seen less than stellar results. In a time where the middle class is rapidly disappearing, and the average person is having more and more difficulty providing even the basics to the their family, portraiture is not high on the list of priorities. The purpose of this article is to bring some new bodies in and boost sales with zero to little cost, even in a tougher economic climate.

So, here we go. Here's 5 things you can do right away with minimal cost and effort to boost sales and session count.

1) Create a re-order coupon sheet to place in with every delivered client order. You can also mail these, or email these to all recent clients that picked up an order, say, in the last 6 months. Make it strictly for prints already ordered. This way, you already have the retouched file on hand, and work will be minimal to fill the new order, making it mostly profit. From now on, always include some sort of re-order coupon in with every delivered order. The coupons must have a very short expiration period of no more than 2 weeks. A short expiration will create a more immediate call to action on the part of the client. At the end of my 1st year doing this I was able to see an average of $75 more from every client that I served. That's MANY thousands of dollars added to my bottom line with minimal effort. The only cost involved is a single sheet of paper with the coupons printed (in house) on them for about 3 cents each.

2) Referral Cards- Take one image from your client's session and make a referral card (wallet size photo) from it. Give every client 8 or more of these to give out, included in their finished order. Each card should include your studio name, phone number, and web address, and perhaps a brief "Tell them (client name) sent you". This way you can track where the new client is coming from more easily. You can make it win-win by making the card a complimentary studio mini session for the recipient, and when the new prospect becomes and actual client, spiff the one who gave it out with, say, $50 in store credit for every new referred client that does a session. Definitely put an expiration date on it, perhaps 30 days, so that it has a call-to-action!

3) Sampling- Ever heard of Mrs. Field's Cookies? Debbie Fields had a very rough time of it in the cookie biz- until she took some hot fresh-baked cookies into the street and started giving out free samples. The rest is history and she's world famous, and the ruler of a cookie empire! Krispy Kreme Doughnuts frequently gives out fresh hot samples. One bite and you're hooked. How can you adapt this to your studio? Well, the above Referral Cards suggestion is one way. The next suggestion is another...

4) Free ads on craigslist.org. Hey, they don't cost anything except the time it takes you to write the ad. Use it to drive traffic to your website. Offer a complimentary session as an introduction to your services. Have a special, very simple price list for these clients. After the session, give them the referral cards (from #2 above). Hey, it's all better than waiting for the phone to ring!

5) Start writing a client newsletter- Mine is 11x17 folded to make a tabloid style newsletter. You can start off very simply like a 2 sided color flyer, 8.5x11 inches at first if you like. Constant contact with your happy clients is the best way to bring them back for more and have them refer friends. Do them fairly regularly. But not more than quarterly, or it gets redundant. At least 2 to 3 times per year is good, quarterly is perfect. Any more often than this an you will eventually see a large fall-off as the Law of Diminishing Returns comes into play. This is from experience. Response went way up when we returned to a quarterly mailing.

Have your newsletter full of human interest, perhaps a quick little blurb about a famous client, any awards your images may have won, some pretty images you made recently, and ALWAYS a game or puzzle that clients can play and win a gift certificate to your studio. This method books me an additional 30-40 session with each mailing- at a good average sale above and beyond the complimentary session they receive for winning. This is the only one of the 5 that I recommend that will take you any time or outlay of cash. However, and well written newsletter can be informative and heart-warming, and it is very powerful when done right.

Adding any one of these 5 things will increase your bottom line. Adding several of them will produce infinitely better results. Give them a try.



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newportraitbiz photography marketing start a photography business marketing photography how to make a photography blog camera props the photography company how to start a photography company
newportraitbiz photography marketing start a photography business marketing photography how to make a photography blog camera props the photography company how to start a photography company
newportraitbiz photography marketing start a photography business marketing photography how to make a photography blog camera props the photography company how to start a photography company
newportraitbiz photography marketing start a photography business marketing photography how to make a photography blog camera props the photography company how to start a photography company
newportraitbiz photography marketing start a photography business marketing photography how to make a photography blog camera props the photography company how to start a photography company
newportraitbiz photography marketing start a photography business marketing photography how to make a photography blog camera props the photography company how to start a photography company
newportraitbiz photography marketing start a photography business marketing photography how to make a photography blog camera props the photography company how to start a photography company
newportraitbiz photography marketing start a photography business marketing photography how to make a photography blog camera props the photography company how to start a photography company