Please browse our site for many more digital photography courses. We host many photography online courses for free. Regular webinars are hosted with top photographers from around the world to help you with portrait photography tips, how to be a wedding photographer and many other subjects.

Are you someone looking to earn a living from Portraits ? Want to run a profitable home-run photography business to suit your lifestyle ? Here is an online photography course you cannot afford to miss out on! Learn from the comfort of your home or office. This webinar series comes with bonuses worth £230.00

Sponsors

This webinar series is proudly sponsored by:

What is this webinar series?

7 hours ( 7 x 1 hour sessions ) online photography training course. You will also receive recordings of each of the sessions to watch as many times as you wish.

Course Content

The webinar series will cover everything you need to learn to get started in making money from portrait photography. With Bonuses worth £230.00, you cannot afford to miss out on this webinar series.

Setting up business
Learn what are the legal requirements for setting up your new business, accounting practices, insurance, logistics & pitfalls of running a business from home, balancing family & work life.

Camera Kit, Software & Computers
This will be your major investment in your business. You cannot afford to waste your cash and find out that you’ve invested in the wrong kit. You’ll learn how little you need to invest to get started.

Managing & Marketing Your Business
Most photographers struggle badly with managing & marketing their business. They bleed cash from convoluted administration & poor day to day management. Uzair will demonstrate a simple & streamlined workflow for managing your offline & online marketing activities and where you should focus your marketing muscles to help you avoid all these hurdles.

Lead Generation Techniques
This is the bottle neck where most photography businesses get snookered. Spending all your cash on magazine advertising & trade shows is not the answer. You need to be very smart as to how you get your leads in your business and mostly importantly, how to convert them into sales.

Pricing, Promotions & Products
No matter how good you are at taking portraits, if you don’t get your pricing, promotions & products right, you will struggle for survival. In this economic climate where the customer is reluctant to spend the cash, you need to send out ‘irresistible’ offers which your clients can’t refuse and still make money!

Selling & Closing the Deal
What tools you require to sell without having the luxury (or expense) of a high street studio. What you need to do so you don’t have to sell but your clients will happily buy from you without having to use any high pressure sales tactics or hard sell.

Setting Up A Mobile Studio
You could end up spending a fortune on expensive lighting kits.  Uzair will demonstrate his portable ‘1 light’ lighting kit which weighs less than 5 kgs, takes about 2 mins to set up with no power packs, sync leads, heavy power packs in sight! You’ll see examples of portrait sessions shot in the freezing temperatures at the Arctic Circle of -40C to the hot & tropical climate on a sunny beach in Malaysia. Controlling light on-location can be tricky and if that’s the case, then you need your lighting kit to help you out.

Website / Blogs / Social Media
You’ll see how to use a simple website as a shop front for your business, how to drive and attract customers using a variety of techniques including the use of social media, blogs and the clever use of search engine optimisation to get your site ranked high in Google. Best of all, how to drive targeted free traffic (visitors) to your site.

Lifestyle Portraits
You will see at first hand how to take great portraits on-location using ambient & flash light. Learn how to direct & pose your clients, how long the portrait session should last, where, how to use off-camera flash, reflector techniques, clever use of depth of field (or lack of it!). Photographing toddlers, kids, families & couples will be covered. To view Uzair’s portfolio, visit SF Digital Photography.

Editing / Post-processing
Your editing / post-processing workflow needs to be lightning fast without compromising on quality. You will learn from the portrait sessions that ‘getting it right’ in-camera is the key to a fast & effortless editing workflow. Saving or spending time on post-processing can make the difference between making a profit or a loss on your sessions.

About the presenter…

Uzair Kharawala is a full-time professional photographer. He runs SF Digital Photography with his wife Farzana and is also the creator of the award-winning photography studio management software Foto SF . Uzair has photographed & given seminars in various countries including Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Cyprus, Ireland & Denmark.

He has been an ‘Evangelist’ for Nikon for the past 5 years and is a regular ‘Guest Speaker’ at major photography conventions & trade shows.

His work is regularly featured in top photography magazines, journals, websites & blogs. You can download some PDFs from here .

What they say…

“We work with Oz on a regular basis and love his simple to follow training techniques, both as a photographer and as a businessman. His enthusiasm is second to none and best of all he is always coming out with new ideas & concepts to help photographers improve their business.”
Bob Campbell, onOne Software

“A master of the art of wireless flash.”
Digital SLR Magazine

“King of Cool”
Photo Pro Magazine

“…the person capturing it all certainly is no ordinary photographer”
Digital Photography Magazine

When & Where

You can be in the comfort of your home, office or anywhere as long as you have a broadband connection and a computer / laptop. You can log in from anywhere in the world.

(All UK Time)
11 Jan 2012 / 2000 hrs
15 Jan 2012 / 2000 hrs
18 Jan 2012 / 2000 hrs
22 Jan 2012 / 2000 hrs
25 Jan 2012 / 2000 hrs
29 Jan 2012 / 2000 hrs
01 Feb 2012 / 2000 hrs

THIS WEBINAR INCLUDE BONUSES WORTH  £180.00

BONUS 1 – £60.00
Award-winning photography studio software Foto SF worth £72.00

BONUS 2 – Worth £60.00
Fantastic 360 minutes of ‘The Masters of Light’ Webinar series featuring 2 of UK’s top photography trainers Kevin Wilson & Martin Grahame-Dunn

BONUS 3 – Worth £60.00
Fantastic 240 minutes of ‘Mystical & Fantasy Portraits’ Webinar series with multi-award winning photographers Clare Louise & Vincent O’Byrne

FAQs

Q. How long is each webinar ?
A. Each session / webinar is scheduled for around 60 minutes.

Q. Can I ask questions ?
A. Unlike other webinars, each and every question is answered to give you a great learning experience.

Q. What if I miss a class and or unable to attend ?
A. Every session / webinar will be recorded and you will get the recorded webinar to download.

Q. Can I log in to the webinars from outside of UK ?
You can be anywhere in the world. As long as you’ve got a broadband connection, you’ll be fine.

If so, this is a 4 hour (4 sessions x 1 hour each) webinar series you can’t afford to miss. An online course where you will build up your blocks for online profits. You’ll be doing all the work to get your online marketing activities turbo-charged and not just make loads of notes all day long only to go home and get more confused!

Here’s everything you need to know on how to generate FREE TARGETED TRAFFIC to your website. You’ll learn some cutting edge tips & tricks to get your website or blog optimised for higher rankings. You’ll also learn how to build relationships with your prospect and how to build a profitable database of subscribers.

(The above video was from a workshop held recently. The course advertised here is an online one).

Best of all, what you will learn throughout the series does not require you to have any technical knowledge, geeky programming languages or any kind of expertise. Everything will be taught in simple language which is easy to follow.

Course Content

Keyword Research

This is one of the most important process you MUST understand before you get your website online. Most small business owners leave it to their website designers to optimise their website with certain keywords. However, your web designer does not understand your business the way you do.

You’ll learn how to research what kind of online competition you have and the amount of competing websites in your market / niche. Plus, you will learn how to research what people are searching for and how many people searched for your product or service in Google recently.

With these statistics, you will be miles ahead of the competition and on the way to being indexed in search engine result pages and being found by people looking for your product or service.

No keyword research = losing money.

Effective keyword research = more traffic + more money.

 Website / Blogs

A website or a blog should work hard for you 24/7 365 days a year. You will learn good ‘house keeping’ for your site so it ticks all the boxes for the search engines resulting in higher page rankings.

You’ll learn why a blog is so so important for your business and how to keep it updated with relevant and fresh content. Did you know that search engines penalise sites which are static and reward sites which are dynamic and updated with fresh content on a regular basis?

Using the correct keywords & phrases are vital for any site to be indexed, once you’ve done the keyword research, you won’t be wasting time & energy over less profitable keywords.

 Marketing Your Website

With the explosion in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Digg to name a few, you’ll discover how easy it is to get free and targeted traffic to your website.

Most business owners don’t use the power of You Tube to market their product or services. Did you know that You Tube is the 2nd largest search engine and the 3rd largest website in the world! Using some amazing video marketing techniques you’ll generate perpetual free traffic to your site forever as long as the video is online!

I promise you won’t have to spend hours and hours on end on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc to generate traffic to your site. In fact, I’ll share with you my ’1-click’ process which will create your online presence on some of the world’s top ranking websites.

Almost 98% of small businesses use YouTube the wrong way to promote & advertise their business. YouTube is massive, 2nd biggest search engine & the 3rd biggest website in the world. Learn how to use YouTube to get free targeted traffic and leave your competitors behind.

Email Marketing

When it comes to business, time really is money. Email marketing can be extremely effective; however, do you really have the time to make contact with every single potential client or previous client to offer new deals and services? Most busy business owners don’t have the time to do this, and this is where email marketing comes into play.

Email marketing effectively & automatically sends out marketing emails, auto-replies and follow-up sales letters on your behalf. This is pretty much a miracle in modern marketing techniques because it can effectively bring in sales on auto pilot, as well as make sure your clients don’t forget you. What are you waiting for? Set your sales machine on auto-pilot and start seeing results.

This is a practical hands-on training courrse where you’ll follow the process by using your laptop and working away all day long. This is not a boring & techie workshop and you won’t be bamboozled by industry jargons & language. This is exciting stuff and something which, once learnt, you will apply in your business to always be a couple of steps ahead of your competitors.

Help will be at hand on each and every step and you will understand how to market yourself on the net.

I’ve achieved page 1 rankings for my various websites. It is not due to sheer luck that I end up on page 1 Google time after time after time. There is a process to it.

If you are struggling to get higher rankings for your site, then this is a workshop which you must attend to improve & enhance your online presence. Whether you have an existing business or are thinking about starting a new business or a website, I invite you to attend this workshop to clear all the myths of internet marketing.

When & Where

You can be in the comfort of your home, office or anywhere as long as you have a broadband connection and a computer / laptop. You can log in from anywhere in the world.

(UK Time)
11 Dec 2011 / 1500 hrs
12 Dec 2011 / 1500 hrs
13 Dec 2011 / 1500 hrs
14 Dec 2011 / 1500 hrs

Price:
£95 + VAT per person

If so, this is a one-day hands on workshop you can’t afford to miss. A practical workshop where you will build up your blocks for online profits. You’ll be doing all the work to get your online marketing activities turbo-charged and not just make loads of notes all day long only to go home and get more confused!

Here’s everything you need to know on how to generate FREE TARGETED TRAFFIC to your website. You’ll learn some cutting edge tips & tricks to get your website or blog optimised for higher rankings. You’ll also learn how to build relationships with your prospect and how to build a profitable database of subscribers.

Best of all, what you will learn throughout the day does not require you to have any technical knowledge, geeky programming languages or any kind of expertise. Everything will be taught in simple language which is easy to follow.

Content

The day is divided into different sessions where you will learn how to:

Keyword Research

This is one of the most important process you MUST understand before you get your website online. Most small business owners leave it to their website designers to optimise their website with certain keywords. However, your web designer does not understand your business the way you do.

You’ll learn how to research what kind of online competition you have and the amount of competing websites in your market / niche. Plus, you will learn how to research what people are searching for and how many people searched for your product or service in Google recently.

With these statistics, you will be miles ahead of the competition and on the way to being indexed in search engine result pages and being found by people looking for your product or service.

No keyword research = losing money.

Effective keyword research = more traffic + more money.

Website / Blogs

A website or a blog should work hard for you 24/7 365 days a year. You will learn good ‘house keeping’ for your site so it ticks all the boxes for the search engines resulting in higher page rankings.

You’ll learn why a blog is so so important for your business and how to keep it updated with relevant and fresh content. Did you know that search engines penalise sites which are static and reward sites which are dynamic and updated with fresh content on a regular basis?

Using the correct keywords & phrases are vital for any site to be indexed, once you’ve done the keyword research, you won’t be wasting time & energy over less profitable keywords.

Marketing Your Website

With the explosion in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Digg to name a few, you’ll discover how easy it is to get free and targeted traffic to your website.

Most business owners don’t use the power of You Tube to market their product or services. Did you know that You Tube is the 2nd largest search engine and the 3rd largest website in the world! Using some amazing video marketing techniques you’ll generate perpetual free traffic to your site forever as long as the video is online!

I promise you won’t have to spend hours and hours on end on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc to generate traffic to your site. In fact, I’ll share with you my ’1-click’ process which will create your online presence on some of the world’s top ranking websites.

Outsourcing 

You will get to learn how to build your team to do the work which you don’t wish to do. You will apply & interview candidates and then set up a team of highly talented creative professionals to help you with your business. Whether you are looking for a copy writer, graphic designer, social media expert, photoshop retoucher, writing press releases, marketing expert or any one you can think of. During the workshop you will set up your account, set up various jobs. Then wait for the applicants to apply for your job. Usually within hours of your posting going up, you get people applying for your job.

Best of all, the professionals you will interview will not cost you the earth!!

Email Marketing

When it comes to business, time really is money. Email marketing can be extremely effective; however, do you really have the time to make contact with every single potential client or previous client to offer new deals and services? Most busy business owners don’t have the time to do this, and this is where email marketing comes into play.

Email marketing effectively & automatically sends out marketing emails, auto-replies and follow-up sales letters on your behalf. This is pretty much a miracle in modern marketing techniques because it can effectively bring in sales on auto pilot, as well as make sure your clients don’t forget you. What are you waiting for? Set your sales machine on auto-pilot and start seeing results.

This is a practical hands-on training day where you’ll follow the process by using your laptop and working away all day long. This is not a boring & techie workshop and you won’t be bamboozled by industry jargons & language. This is exciting stuff and something which, once learnt, you will apply in your business to always be a couple of steps ahead of your competitors.

Help will be at hand on each and every step and you will understand how to market yourself on the net.

I’ve achieved page 1 rankings for my various websites. It is not due to sheer luck that I end up on page 1 Google time after time after time. There is a process to it.

If you are struggling to get higher rankings for your site, then this is a workshop which you must attend to improve & enhance your online presence. Whether you have an existing business or are thinking about starting a new business or a website, I invite you to attend this workshop to clear all the myths of internet marketing.

What’s included:
– Tea / Coffee
– Lunch
– Wifi
– Ample free parking

What you need to bring along:
– Laptop

When
29 Nov 2011

Where
Milton Keynes

Times
10.00am to 4.00pm
(Registration at 9.30am)

Price:
£125 per person

Maximum Delegates:
10

Do you want to be a Wedding Photographer ?

If you are looking to start a wedding photography business or wish to take your existing wedding photography business to the next level, brush up on your photographic skills and super charge your marketing & business acumen, then this webinar series is not to be missed. We’ll share with you our tips, tricks & techniques of our complete wedding work flow, equipment you need, software your require and much much more…

Price: £60 + VAT

Instant download after checkout.

Here’s what you’ll learn during the webinars:

The Business of Wedding Photography

In these tough economic climate with so much competition out there, you need to stand head & shoulders above your competitors. This webinar is all about how to get leads, market yourself, convert the leads into bookings, offers, pricing & products. You’ll learn some cool marketing tips & strategies to take your wedding photography business forward. Plus you’ll learn how to organise a wedding from the initial inquiry, sending quotation, making a booking, receiving payments, invoicing, things to remember and to do. How to create your individual work flow for your business easily & effortlessly.

Engagement Photography

Engagement photography is the easiest way to showcase your talent, your creativity and your brand in front of your potential clients. E-sessions are a perfect way to have high conversion rates from leads into bookings. There is a simple process to it. If followed, you will achieve amazing conversions like you never did before. During this webinar, you’ll learn how to, when and where to schedule your sessions to create stunning results. Images which will have your clients booking you up straight away!

Off-camera flash at Weddings

Crash, Oz & Jayce share with you their own individual styles and ways to use off-camera flash creatively and effectively to shoot incredible images in all kinds of conditions. You’ll see images shot in extreme conditions and temperatures with minimal equipment, learn how to balance flash with available ambient light, whether to use flash as a main or a fill light, the lighting kit which requires minimal set-up and is very portable, infra-red v radio triggers and much much more. Even if you are new to off-camera flash, this session will get you started and give you the confidence to use off-camera flash in a very creative way.

How not to forget key shots at a Wedding

This session covers how to document a wedding from start to finish to give a beautiful & complete story of the day. You’ll see examples of images taken right from the bridal preparations till the first dance to tell a unique & complete story of the day.

Work flow, editing & post-processing

Wedding photography is all about work flow. Shooting, editing & post-processing. The work flow dictates whether you make a profit or a loss on a wedding. Take too long in front of the computer and all your profits will drain away. Are you confused whether to shoot 500 images or 2000 + images at a wedding, well you’re not alone on this. So many photographers take unnecessarily high number of images which pretty much locks them in front of the computer for a week! You’ll see 3 different shooting, editing & post-processing work flows by each one of us using Lightroom 3 & Aperture 3.

How to set your website for Google

Vast majority of photographers have set up their websites & blogs which do NOT tick all the boxes for Google. Secondly and most importantly, they don’t know what keyword research is all about. In this webinar, you’ll learn some amazingly simple tips on how to turbo charge your website & blog for higher rankings, how to beat your competitors in search rankings and how to promote your website for free.

This webinar series will get you started on making your wedding photography profitable and giving you the confidence to compete with the best. With no travelling costs, hotels to book or even to take time off work, this is an opportunity you cannot afford to miss out on!

Price: £60 + VAT

Instant download after checkout.

Our Sponsors:

About the Tutors

Crash Taylor, Jayce Clarke & Uzair Kharawala regularly present seminars & webinars for Calumet UK. Here is their bio:

Jayce Clarke

Jayce is based in the North West of England and runs a successful photography business covering weddings & portraiture. He is a regular speaker for Calumet UK and runs a series of seminars & workshops for them which are in very high demand.

Jayce follows his passion of fashion photography and this is quite evident in his wedding photography work. Jayce’s understanding of lighting is second to none and you’ll enjoy his relaxed and friendly approach to teaching which are both fun and very informative.

Uzair Kharawala

Based in Leighton Buzzard, Beds. Uzair along with his wife Farzana runs SF Digital Photography .

He is currently one of Nikon UK’s ‘Evangelist’ and is a regular ‘Guest Speaker’ at major photography conventions, trade shows & fairs in the UK, at Apple’s flagship store in Regent Street London, Focus on Imaging, PhotoVision Roadshows  and has previously presented for all major photographic bodies including the BIPP, MPA & the SWPP. Uzair has photographed weddings from the freezing conditions at the Ice Hotel Sweden to the hot temperatures of Borneo, Malaysia. He has also created the award-winning software for photographers Foto SF.

” King of Cool “  – Photo Pro Magazine

” Master of the art of wireless flash ” – Digital SLR Magazine

“King of Cool“
Photo Pro Magazine

“Master of the art of wireless flash”
Digital SLR Magazine

“ We work with Oz on a regular basis and love his simple to follow training techniques, both as a photographer and as a businessman. His enthusiasm is second to none and best of all he is always coming out with new ideas & concepts to help photographers improve their business. ”
Bob Campbell, onOne Software

“ …the person capturing it all certainly is no ordinary photographer ”
Digital Photography Magazine

Crash Taylor

In only four short years as a professional photographer Crash Taylor has become one of the world’s finest wedding photographers. In 2009, he was voted one of the UK’s top 10 winter wedding photographers by Professional Photographer magazine.

In 2010, he became editor-at-large of Professional Photographers new magazine Turning Pro and is a regular contributor to Professional Photographer and Photography Monthly magazines. He is the innovative author of two highly acclaimed photography blogs, providing fascinating insights into the creative process of the world’s top photographers and serves as a source of inspiration to photographers worldwide. Crash has been featured in numerous publications and is also an award winning member of the prestigious [AG] WPJA and on the board of the Best of Wedding Photography: the premier invitation only membership group for the world’s finest wedding photographers. He photographs 30 wedding adventures each year and has captured weddings in Spain, France, Finland and Hawaii. Although Crash’s greatest joy is spending quality time with his wife and young son, he somehow makes time in his hectic schedule to teach workshops and seminars, which are in great demand throughout the UK and internationally.

‘ Crash Taylor is in love with photography. Inquisitive, searching, evolving, imaginative and never content with the average. Look at his pictures and his passion and enthusiasm are clear. Crash Taylor is a true photographer ‘
Grant Scott, Editor, Professional Photographer Magazine.

’ Crash Taylor is one of the UK’s finest documentary wedding photographers creating images that are natural and full of emotion. ’
Assistant Editor, Photography Monthly Magazine

 Price: £60 + VAT

Instant download after checkout.

Not sure how to take your business forward online ? Is your website not working as hard as you do ? Not sure what all this Twitter & Facebook is all about ? Are you totally confused as to where to start with online marketing?

If so, this is a one-day hands on workshop you can’t afford to miss. A practical workshop where you will build up your blocks for online profits. You’ll be doing all the work to get your online marketing activities turbo-charged and not just make loads of notes all day long only to go home and get more confused!

Here’s everything you need to know on how to generate FREE TARGETED TRAFFIC to your website. You’ll learn some cutting edge tips & tricks to get your website or blog optimised for higher rankings. You’ll also learn how to build relationships with your prospect and how to build a profitable database of subscribers.

Best of all, what you will learn throughout the day does not require you to have any technical knowledge, geeky programming languages or any kind of expertise. Everything will be taught in simple language which is easy to follow.

Content

The day is divided into 4 different sessions where you will learn how to:

Session 1 – Keyword Research

This is one of the most important process you MUST understand before you get your website online. Most small business owners leave it to their website designers to optimise their website with certain keywords. However, your web designer does not understand your business the way you do.

You’ll learn how to research what kind of online competition you have and the amount of competing websites in your market / niche. Plus, you will learn how to research what people are searching for and how many people searched for your product or service in Google recently.

With these statistics, you will be miles ahead of the competition and on the way to being indexed in search engine result pages and being found by people looking for your product or service.

No keyword research = losing money.

Effective keyword research = more traffic + more money.

Session 2 – Website / Blogs

A website or a blog should work hard for you 24/7 365 days a year. You will learn good ‘house keeping’ for your site so it ticks all the boxes for the search engines resulting in higher page rankings.

You’ll learn why a blog is so so important for your business and how to keep it updated with relevant and fresh content. Did you know that search engines penalise sites which are static and reward sites which are dynamic and updated with fresh content on a regular basis?

Using the correct keywords & phrases are vital for any site to be indexed, once you’ve done the keyword research, you won’t be wasting time & energy over less profitable keywords.

Session 3 – Marketing Your Website

With the explosion in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Digg to name a few, you’ll discover how easy it is to get free and targeted traffic to your website.

Most business owners don’t use the power of You Tube to market their product or services. Did you know that You Tube is the 2nd largest search engine and the 3rd largest website in the world! Using some amazing video marketing techniques you’ll generate perpetual free traffic to your site forever as long as the video is online!

I promise you won’t have to spend hours and hours on end on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc to generate traffic to your site. In fact, I’ll share with you my ’1-click’ process which will create your online presence on some of the world’s top ranking websites.

Session 4 – Email Marketing

When it comes to business, time really is money. Email marketing can be extremely effective; however, do you really have the time to make contact with every single potential client or previous client to offer new deals and services? Most busy business owners don’t have the time to do this, and this is where email marketing comes into play.

Email marketing effectively & automatically sends out marketing emails, auto-replies and follow-up sales letters on your behalf. This is pretty much a miracle in modern marketing techniques because it can effectively bring in sales on auto pilot, as well as make sure your clients don’t forget you. What are you waiting for? Set your sales machine on auto-pilot and start seeing results.

This is a practical hands-on training day where you’ll follow the process by using your laptop and working away all day long. This is not a boring & techie workshop and you won’t be bamboozled by industry jargons & language. This is exciting stuff and something which, once learnt, you will apply in your business to always be a couple of steps ahead of your competitors.

Help will be at hand on each and every step and you will understand how to market yourself on the net.

I’ve achieved page 1 rankings for my various websites. It is not due to sheer luck that I end up on page 1 Google time after time after time. There is a process to it.

If you are struggling to get higher rankings for your site, then this is a workshop which you must attend to improve & enhance your online presence. Whether you have an existing business or are thinking about starting a new business or a website, I invite you to attend this workshop to clear all the myths of internet marketing.

What’s included:
– Tea / Coffee
– Hot Lunch
– Wifi
– Ample free parking

What you need to bring along:
– Laptop

When
Sat 07 May 2011

Where
Mentmore Golf Club, Mentmore Near Leighton Buzzard, Beds LU7 0UA

Times
10.00am to 4.00pm
(Registration at 9.30am)

Price:
£95 + VAT per person

First day was practical shooting and pretty much everything was hands-on. We finished the day at around 7.30pm and then after dinner we met up at our hotel for networking & drinks. Well, after a long & hard day, I retired to bed at around 1.00am but my wife Farzana and along with another 7 guys & girls stayed till quite late until around 2.30am! Work hard & play hard I guess !!

Day 2 was in the seminar room and was all about editing, workflow, business etc. Had a fantastic 2 days and thoroughly enjoyed the company of like minded photographers and friends. Thank you to everyone who attended and specially to Kevin & Martin.

Here is a little video from the event.

If you like to read more about this event, click here

With an idea of the perfect image in your mind, bringing it all together means working with a team of people who are talented and creative. With ideas, tear sheets and inspiration all put together on a mood board, it is quite easy for everyone to envisage the kind of image you are trying to create.

Few things which you need to consider are:

Location

It is ideal to shoot indoors as you can totally control the lighting and secondly there isn’t any wind which may cause havoc with hair being blown everywhere. Plus there isn’t any danger of rain spoiling the shoot as it is expensive with all the work done for make-up, hair & styling.

A great location is very important and you must spend some time doing the recce and finding the right location i.e a modern flat, country park, car park, graffiti walls, etc.

Styling: Make Up & Hair

This can pretty much make or break your makeover photoshoot. A professional stylist can bring a valuable dimension to the table. A good and talented stylist can help our job being a lot easier by styling the subject the right way and creating the look you are after. Styling is one of the most important things on the photo shoot. Some make-up artists also do hair styling, so do look for someone local to work with and build up a good relationship. You will definitely need someone you can trust and rely on every time.

Do allow some time for the styling, depending on the kind of look and styling, it may take around 1 hour for the hair & make-up to be done. The stylists I use take about 1 hour. They know what I’m looking for and I also know how they work. This trust-worthy relationship works well and helps me achieve my images on time every time.

Image on the left lit with 2 x Nikon SB900 & on the right lit with 1 x Nikon SB900.

Clothing & Props

Depending on your budget, it is quite important to have a stylist. A good stylist will have strong relationships with fashion PRs and know the latest trends and fashion. They also know what works well in front of the camera and will bring a variety of clothing & props for the shoots for different looks.

Lighting

This image was shot using a Ringflash.

When shooting on location, you need to have a fairly lightweight & portable kit if you are working on your own. The lighting kit I use is fairly portable and quick to set up. When I’m photographing say at a Beauty & Hair Salon, I make sure that I don’t take over their premises. My kit usually consists of Nikon SB900 & SB800 flashguns along with a Lastolite Ezybox.

As you can see that I’m using a small corner of the salon and have shot images as above. In this set-up, I have 3 x Nikon Speedlights. This 3 light set-up took no more than 10 minutes to set up. It is completely wireless and I am controlling all the flashguns using a Nikon SU-800 commander.

Retouching & Workflow

Lastly, images need to be retouched. You will need Photoshop to retouch your images. It is not necessary to have the latest version of Photoshop. You can quite easily use older versions and get some terrific results. There are also loads of software available at low cost which can retouch very well. One software which I have heard good reviews is Portrait Professional. I personally don’t use it, but have heard very good things about it and is also very affordable.

If you aren’t very efficient in Photoshop, there are many companies and retouchers out there who can retouch your images for very low cost. If you don’t enjoy this part of the process, then best is to outsource it. All you need to do is FTP the images and you’ll get the edited, retouched & colour corrected file back usualy within 24-48 hours.

I hope you enjoyed this post and please feel free to share your experience of Makeover Portrait Photography in the comment box below.

Do you want to tap into the lucrative ‘Lifestyle Portrait’

Photography market?

Are you someone who is interested in making money from digital portrait photography without the added & expensive costs of running a studio?

However, if you are working from home and mainly photograph on-location, then you need to have a kit which is very portable, lightweight and easy to set up. Recently I photographed Natalie for her portfolio images for her website. We had planned to photograph outdoors, but due to the weather being extremely cold, we decided to shoot indoors. The kit I used for this session was (you can either use the umbrella or a softbox) :

Lastotlite 1.5 x 1.8m Black Velvet Background

Perfect for ‘low-key’ photography, the background is crease free and absorbs the light, giving a deep, even, rich black background colour. As with all other Lastolite collapsible backgrounds, the Lastolite black velvet background collapses to a third of its original (5′ x6′) size when not in use, making it ideal for portrait shots in the studio or out on location as it is so easy to store and transport. The support stand has a maximum height of 2.7m made up of individual 54cm pieces, meaning the height of the stand can be reduced 54cms at a time, depending on your need. A clip on the top of the stand grips the sprung edge of the background, and the flat feet provide stability. Although it is described as a heavy duty stand, it is not heavy to carry (weighing only 1.6kg) and dismantles to 60x12cm, making it easily portable.

Lens

This is one of my favourite lens for portrait  photography.

Lastolite 100cm Lighting Kit

The Lastolite All in One Umbrella Kit is now available with the Hotshoe Tilthead Shoelock. The Tilthead Shoe Lock features an adjustable ‘screw locking’ shoe mount which offers an additional locking mechanism as well as accommodating variances in the dimensions of the hotshoe from one flashgun to another. The kit comes in two sizes featuring either a 80cm (34”) or 100cm (40”) Lastolite All in One umbrella. The kit includes the All in One umbrella, 4 section stand, the new Hotshoe Tilthead Shoelock and padded shoulder bag. The All in One umbrella can be used as a silver or white bounce, a silver and white bounce or shoot through.

Lastolie Ezybox

If you are looking to create a soft lighting effect, the Lastolite EzyBox Hotshoe is the product for you. The Hotshoe converts the harsh directional light that your battery operated flash gun creates into a much softer, diffused light, perfect for portrait shots for example. The EzyBox Hotshoe is designed to be easy to transport, as it folds down flat making it easy to store and can be reassembled in only a few minutes. The Lastolite 60cm x 60cm EzyBox Hotshoe Kit includes the EzyBox Hotshoe (with plate), 4 section stand, tilthead bracket, extending handle (24cm – 42cm), padded shoulder bag and circular carry case. The kit is also available in 38cm and 76cm versions.
I prefer the 76cm as the light from this softbox is gorgeous and very soft & diffused. The bigger your light source the better it is…

Lets take a look at some images…

For this shot, I used 2 x Nikon sb900. One placed behind the subject on a light stand. I set the zoom head on the flash to the widest setting so to spread the light as much as possible.

To create a blue graduated colour on the background, all I did was to blue-tack a blue coloured gel over the Nikon SB900.

The whole session took no more than an hour including setting up, 3 change of clothes and packing up. If you have any questions, please enter them in the box below and I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

Oz

Are you fed up of paying eye-watering prices for sub-standard photography training? Are you looking to start a profitable home-based portrait photography business with minimal overheads & running costs or wish to take your existing business to the next level? A workshop unlike others where you will get great content & tuition at great value for your money. Being tutored by not one, not two, but three top  photography trainers. This is a workshop you cannot afford to miss out on!

This is a 2-day practical photography workshop presented by Martin Grahame-Dunn, Kevin Wilson & Uzair Kharawala. You will get some of the best photography training over 2 days on subjects like posing, composition, lighting, off-camera flash, work flow, editing, simple post-processing, business marketing and much much more….

PHOTOGRAPHY

This practical workshop includes everything you need to learn about photographing portraits on-location.

The workshop will cover topics such as:

– shooting with ambient light

– shooting with window light

COURSE CONTENT

DAY 1

Price
£150.00 + VAT

What is included:
– Models on Day 1

– Tea / Coffee throughout

– Lunch on Day 2

Photography on Day 1
You will photograph 3 different models which you can use for building for portfolio.

– Model 1 : Retro Portraits

– Model 2: Lifestyle Portraits

– Model 3: Elegance Portraits

When & Where

Hotels
There are a variety of good quality & low-cost hotels around Leamington. Here are a couple:

Our Sponsors

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors for the tremendous support in helping us put this event. Delegates will get some very special & exclusive offers which will save £££.

Save 25% of any Loxley product.

Save £100.00 off the full onOne Perfect Photo Suite 5.5

Save 25% off the full price of £60 +VAT

About the Presenters

Martin Grahame-Dunn

Martin has been in the industry for over 30 years covering many aspects of Professional Photography including Industrial, Commercial, Automotive, Advertising, Fashion, Editorial, Wedding photography & Portraiture.

Over almost the entire period of his professional career he has been actively engaged in the training of photographers from the four corners of the world covering every major discipline. A highly respected trainer and judge with so many Professional Organisations, the Fuji Professional School of Photography, the Kodak European Gold Circle and many of the worlds leading representative bodies.

Kevin Wilson

Kevin Wilson honed his photographic skills to encompass the current trends demanded by buyers of wedding and portrait photography today. The foundation of good photography is based on lighting and composition, this coupled with available light and the use of various reflectors and diffusers is where Kevin has developed his own style and brand of classical work with a contemporary twist.

Kevin, is the only photographer to achieve multiple fellowships, in portrait and wedding, all with natural light, both with the Master Photographers Association and the British Institute of Professional Photography. In total he has 7, plus PPOA Mcr.

Uzair Kharawala

A relative new comer and the new kid on the block! Uzair has established himself as a skilled photographer and an astute businessman. He is the creator of the award-winning software Foto SF , the founder of this blog, various DVDs on off-camera flash which have been sold in over 27 countries to date.

He is currently one of Nikon UK’s ‘Evangelist’ and is a regular ‘Guest Speaker’ at major photography conventions, trade shows & fairs in the UK. He regularly presents seminars & workshops for Calumet, at Apple’s flagship store in Regent Street London, Focus on Imaging, PhotoVision Roadshows and has previously presented for all major photographic bodies including the BIPP, MPA & the SWPP.