DIY Prop Tutorial: The 3 Minute Bow Tie

senior pictures, Virginia Beach senior photographer, Chesapeake, VA family photographer

Okay, so here's the story behind this bow tie.  I had this fabulous stylized session planned for my son and his adorable little friend (also known as my best friend's daughter).  I wanted to give his outfit more of a vintage feel so I decided to add a bow tie.  The only problem is I live in Western Washington when the weather is super unpredictable. 

When all of a sudden tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 60 degrees I was not entirely prepared.  I was throwing things together all day to beat the sun and catch that gorgeous backlighting.  (Luckily we made it because we haven't had a nice day since.  In fact, it snowed here today!!)  Anyways, as we were about to walk out the door I realized I still needed my bow tie!

So here's how I whipped out an adorable bow tie in about 3 minutes.

Supplies

- a sheet (or scrap) of felt in desired color

- scissors

- a hot glue gun

- a piece of bulky or extra-bulky weight yarn

Tutorial

Step 1: Cut a piece of felt approximately 1 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches.

Step 2: Fold the piece of felt in half lengthwise.  Put a small dab of glue down at the bottom of the fold.

Step 3: Fold both sides back down like so.  Secure them down with hot glue (careful not to burn yourself)!  This will then be the back of your bow tie.

Step 4: Cut a piece of bulky weight yarn about 20 inches long and glue the middle of it onto the middle of the back of your bow tie.  When you are tying onto your little one you will want to tie a very small bow, then trim the ends short so it can all be tucked under the collar.

That's it, you're done!  It's not something you would want to sell (lol, funny thought, I know) but it cost me less than $1 and it sure looked cute in my photo shoot, didn't it?!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, thanks for reading :)

DIY Prop Tutorial: The Itty Bitty Headband

I am guest blogging over at Prop Insanity today!  {yay!}  Go check out my tutorial for making these adorable little headbands that are oh so popular in newborn portraits right now.  You may be surprised (or maybe not) at just how fast and easy they are to make! Etsy online classes should also be able to teach you how to create other cute baby accessories.

Also don't forget, you can win one of these by entering our first weekly photo challenge!  Click here to go enter and join in the fun {please :)} !  The top three winners will also get featured here on Frame Worthy Shot.  I'll be introducing this week's fabulous guest judge Wednesday or Thursday!

March Giveaway Extravaganza is still open so if you haven't entered yet go check it out for your chance to win almost $1,300 in fabulous prizes!  And if you have been considering purchasing anything from one of the awesome vendors remember that lands you an extra entry!

Free 5x7 Birth Announcement Template

Hello all!  This is one of my favorite girly birth announcements, the Emma Announcement :)  I've been working hard on some awesome new designs so you can expect many more great freebies like this one. 

I love sharing awesome digital freebies with my loyal readers!  If you download my templates and love them, please share the love and comment here and/or share this post on Pinterest or Facebook!

You can download the Emma Birth Announcement Template here.

Download the fonts I used here and here.

Free Photoshop Action Set: Basic (but powerful) Photo Fixes

So I have been diving headfirst into learning all the advanced features of Photoshop the last few days and I have made my very first action set that I would like to share with all of you!  You may also want to check out photography classes at online universities that can teach you different post production techniques and effects to make your photos even more appealing.

It contains six actions that will help make your photos look more professional and visually pleasing.  Remember to play with the opacities.  Most of the time you won't want the action at it's full strength so by lowering the opacity you have more control over it.  If an action isn't strong enough for you, you can always run it again! 

Most of the actions probably won't work to their full potential in Elements, but I will work on making a set like this compatible with Elements in the next month or so.  Meanwhile feel free to test them out in Elements and let me know how they work there.  Since this is my first time doing this, please let me know if you run into any glitches! 

Actions included:
- Sweet Pea Vintage
- Color Boost and Sharpen
- Warm Me Up
- Take Out Red
- Soft Vignette
- Portrait Black and White

More action sets to come!  Like Frame Worthy Shot on Facebook to stay informed when new freebies are posted.

Click here to download your set.  Installing actions is really simple, but if you need help installing the actions, this video is helpful.

Marketing and Sales: Lesson 1 {Creating Print Packages}

For the first year of my business I included the DVD of images with the session (terrible I know, but I was trying to build my portfolio and get some practice and experience).  When I finally decided that I was way too talented for the prices I was charging I knew it was time to start requiring a print purchase on top of the session fee. 

I looked at what a lot of other photographers offered and just kind of threw some packages together.  They didn't really have any meaning to me.  I didn't know which one I wanted my clients to purchase or why I was offering certain things at certain price levels.  My sales were pretty sporadic with these packages, I never knew which one people would choose and I wasn't making quite what I wanted to for all the time I put into each session.

Feeling overworked and underpaid isn't good for your business so I knew I needed to re-create my packages.  My first step was to decide how much I wanted to make from each session.  My next step was to create a package that would leave me with that profit while providing enough great stuff to my clients that they felt they were getting a good deal as well. 

To choose what goes into this package think about what you want to sell.  If you hate designing albums you won't want to include an album in this package.  Whatever you do include in this package should be the things you display a lot of in your studio and talk a lot about to your clients during their session (pre-selling).  This will end up being very different for each photographer.

For me, I included the DVD of images (printable up to 8x10) in that package because I knew it would pretty much guarantee me to sell that package almost every time because people are so fixated on getting the DVD now days.  I realize many photographers wouldn't want to do this because you are pretty much capping yourself off at that price for most sessions.  For me, as of right now, I'm okay with that. 

Once you've got your ideal package created you'll want to create a couple packages below it and one package above it.  I've heard other photographers tell me that if you sell your smallest package very often there's too much in it and if you sell your largest package very often it's not expensive enough.  I think that's true.  I designed my other packages simply to guide people to the package I want them to choose (package 3).  Of course your packages will be unique to you, but here is my pricing list for some inspiration:

Since I implemented these new packages I have sold package number 3 (with the exception of only one client) every single time!  Amazing.  And that was over three months ago.  It's so nice having more stability in my income and being more confident in what I am providing and why it is valued at what I am charging for it.

I hope this is helpful for some of you.  If any of you have any tips to add to this please comment!

DIY Prop Tutorial: Pennant Banner

Pennant banners are all the rage right now for newborn and baby photography.  I really wanted a boy banner and a girl banner and there are so many cute ones out there, but they are a little on the spendy side.  After looking around and debating about purchasing one I realized I could probably just whip one up myself.  You may also want to check out arts and crafts classes at online accredited colleges that can teach you how to make different kinds of darling pennant banners using left-over fabrics.

Now here's the thing, this is a simple, no-sew banner.  I wanted it to be quick and easy.  It is not heirloom quality like the ones you can purchase on Etsy.  Those banners are spendy for a reason, they are double sided and stitched with love and care to make a very high quality product.  I may very well purchase one of those beauties in the future but for now, since I have to pick and choose which props to spend money on, I save where I can.   The banner I am going to show you how to make may fray over time or in the wash because that's what happens to fabric when you don't finish your seams (which includes lots of sewing time). 

However, if you take care of the banner it should last you quite awhile and make a great, affordable, and fun prop to add to your collection.

A couple notes before we get started:

1) After seeing the finished product used in my photography there are a couple things I would change If I were to do it over again.  I would choose only fabrics with small prints on them because the larger prints seem to be a little distracting.  I would probably also switch the brown fabric out with another shade of blue, or maybe a soft green.  The brown just seems to bold to me.  I would also choose a ribbon that had no gloss/shine to it. 

2) The adorable birthday outfit set was purchased from Fuzzy Cheeks Boutique.

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Okay let's get started.

Supplies:

- An assortment of fabrics.  I chose to do three flags of three different fabrics (total of 9 flags) but you could choose nine different fabrics if you wanted, or do something in between.  If you do three fabrics like I did, a half yard of each will be plenty.  If you do nine different fabrics the little pre-cut portions (I think they're called fabric quarters) would easily be enough for one or two flags.

- Fabric scissors

- A ruler

- Fabric chalk or normal chalk

- A piece of paper

- A roll of 1 inch wide ribbon (that coordinates with your fabric)

- A hot glue gun

Steps:

Well there you have it.  I hope some of you will have fun trying this out and making yourself an adorable pennant banner!  I would love to see any photos if you do try it out!  Let me know if there are any questions.

Free 11x14 Storyboard Template (and some exciting things to come. . .)

I love this storyboard!  Clients get so excited when I show them something unique like this that they can display and show off in their home.  This is a personal favorite so I hope some of you will enjoy it as much as I do :)  You can download it here.

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Okay now on to that exciting news. . . I have started organizing a giveaway extravaganza!  One event, three HUMONGOUS prizes, tons of fabulous vendors, and lots of fun!  I've already had so many really exciting vendors jump on board, including the fabulous Wild Sorbet (see post below this one).  I am only inviting companies that I love, most of which I am already a loyal customer to so these are going to be some fabulous prizes.  The giveaway will begin March 1st so mark your calendars!

Free Blog Board/Web Board Templates

It's amazing how long it can take to blog your sessions.  Using blog boards helps to streamline the process for me and it also makes things look nice and tidy.  My business photo blog is 900 pixels wide so I typically build my blog boards to be 900 pixels wide that way I can choose the "original size" option once the photo is inserted into my blog post.  You can see my blog here.

If you are planning to use these blog boards on your website I would resize it to fit your blog before you insert any photos.  These blog boards are very easy to use, just insert your photo above the shape layer and click ctr+alt+g.  Enjoy!

Blog Board 1

click here to download blog board 1

Blog Board 2

click here to download blog board 2

Blog Board 3

click here to download blog board 3