Here are a few things we discussed:

What is a good camera to use?  

That’s a tough question all based upon your needs. I am a Canon shooter. If you are looking into getting started professionally with photography in the Canon line I would start out with a Canon 50D or 7D. Step away from the kit lens and pick up a decent portrait lens like the nifty 50…a 50mm Canon 1.8, this is going to be similar to an 85 mm lens on the cropped sensor. The lens is just as important as the camera. Once you pick up the camera I suggest focusing your attention to learning how to shoot on Manual. I currently shoot with the Canon 5D Mark II. If you are looking for a decent point and shoot to capture everyday moments….I always take my Canon G12 to capture candid everyday moments of my children

I know you are a portrait photographer, but any advice for landscape photographers? I want to expand and hopefully make a business out of it one day.

I don’t have much advice other to look at the image, the lines..tell a story with the landscape just like you would a portrait. It must speak to the viewer. Possibly start marketing a fine art photography line and begin to selll framed prints and calendars…there is a diverse market for landscape photography. Check into local publications and see if you can intern. Put all the money back you can and invest in a Medium Format camera. If you ever have the chance to visit Las Vegas stop by the Peter Lik Gallery  http://www.lik.com/

I have two questions for you: How do you get your client’s skin to look porcelain like? 
Also, how do you make your client’s eyes pop?

I do my skin retouching with Portraiture, that’s it. As for the eyes…it is all about the catchlight. The only additional thing I may do post production wise to the eyes is sharpen. A great way to see if you have good catchlights in your subjects eyes when shooting outside is to see if you can see your own reflection in the eye..then you know they are lit Also…wear white when shooting..that is gonna create a little bounce fill….never a bright color…you don’t want neon orange catchlights from a shirt you are wearing. I have seen it happen before

Amanda when you do your skin retouching how is that done in your workflow? you upload images from card; backup the images, then you start editing on the images. at what point does skin retouching come into play? does it happen in photoshop as a plugin?

After I have converted my raw files in ACR the next step is running a batch action on the files through my portraiture plug in for photoshop.

I’m doing a bunny special next month for a week. Any suggestions on how to promote it best?

The best thing to do is start early…go ahead and grab a bunny and shoot an image for your promo. People want to see the goods before they purchase. Make an event on Facebook and invite your fans/friends.

I have my first wedding in April and wondering, for a Canon Rebel, what lense would you suggest to use for snapshots and one for actual posed pictures. Any suggestions for settings? I believe most pictures will be outside but some inside. I also plan to buy an additional flash to the one that is already attached to my camera.

I would look into renting a backup camera and lenses to get a feel. You can also rent off camera flashes. I shoot everything on manual so that I can make the decisons and not my camera. For flash I would look into a 580EX II speedlight and as for lenses…two of my faves are the Canon 85 1.8 and the Canon 70-200 2.8

Quick ? Just saw your post for texting too receive all around cool $*#*. What marketing company do you through for this feature and do you use these as subscription confirmations for your email marketing company as well? And if you have done this before, what has your feedback been?

I just signed up for the text marketing this morning…just posted and have 16 subscribers…i think its going to be an amazing tool. I do not use any email marketing whatsoever…working with mainly high school seniors…email rarely gets checked and i delete so many campaigns i deal with it…i just dont think it would work for me. So..I just posted and have 16 subscribers last count. I used yepwords

What do you think about EF 70-200 f/4L USM?

If you can afford it at all go with the 2.8 IS L. It is my favorite portrait lens because I can get the 2.8 for my shallow depth of field.

Any advice for studios? I’m building one.

Studios are all based on what you plan to shoot there. I think a camera room should be at least 900 square ft bare minimums if you are going to invest in a build. North facing windows…ample office and seating area outside of the camera room

I want to upgrade my lens for my Rebel….suggestions?

The Canon 50mm 1.8

How do you get light streaks in a picture during the day? I’ve played with the shutter speed but it just blows out the light. I hope you understood my question

I am assuming you mean sun flare? Im not a big sunflare shooter and probably a lot of what you are seeing on images is placed on the image in post production. You can get it but you need to have a wide aperture to get a nice round flare with the subject backlit.

When shooting a group of people 4 rows deep. I know you increase the f stop for extra depth of field, but where do you concentrate the focus, front, middle, or back rows?

I tend to focus in the middle, also if I am shooting a group of 5 I feel safe at 5.6, group of 9 then f9…11 peeps at f11. Thats just how I do it.

First, I adore and admire everything you do. You are by fast the most amazing photographer that I’ve ever seen. 
I do have a question though. First, how do you pick an area to shoot in? It drives me crazy that you can take pictures in a junk yard and make them look AMAZING! It blows my mind.
Also, what are your 3 main rules you follow?

When I am selecting locations…first I look for light, next color and third texture……end of the list is always no trespassing signs! I have to have light so I always attempt to shoot in open shade and then modify or fill with the available light from a reflector or my speedlight when I am on location. When I first began photographing…everything was flat. I had an eye for composition and posing but I could not see light. I began to deconstruct images that spoke to me and try to recreate the lighting setup…asking myself how many lights were used etc. So many people have flight light and it doesn’t give your client any dimension. So always look at the light and look for the potential to shape that for your needs. #2 Have fun. I am a self proclaimed goof ball. We take a lot of laugh breaks…if my client isn’t having fun then it is going to show in my work. This took time, it took the confidence to be 100% myself in front of my clients. I had to say…I really don’t care if so and so are going to judge me. It’s fine but I have to be me and if that means a Jesus testimony or a wisecrack, that is what I have to do to stay true to me and my passion. I think this resonates with my clients and puts them at ease. I have a lot of high school seniors walk through my door and are more nervous to meet me then to have me photograph them…once they find out I use words like burp and fart then…I am off that pedestal and I am just another person. #3 Say no……..sometimes an image or location that my client has in mind just isn’t going to work. I have to have the balls to say…nope, won’t work…that won’t photograph well because if I take a shot that I know I am not pleased with and won’t work then that is the image they will have their heart set on and when it turns out bad its my fault for not being honest…….sometimes the client is right but when it comes to knowing how we do our job best…that’s on us.

Your images uploaded to FB, always seem perfect. Is there a trick to uploading them so the image quality is not lost ??

All I do for the images I upload to facebook is resize my finished image to 600 pixels on the longest side. i don’t even sharpen for web.

I love your work and have always wanted to ask you about your post-processing. Do you do the majority of your edits in RAW then finalize in JPEG? Or do you apply the majority of your edits on your JPEG image? Your pics are always very clean and crisp, and your style…is well…one of a kind Thank you for sharing your pics with us and helping us learn more about your technique

I would say it is 50/50. In raw I will pump my radiance, saturation and vibrance to +5. I may pump my blacks depending on my image and if I can stand not to loose to much detail in my shadows. I love the adjustment brush…if I am underexposed in one area of the image I will correct that by overexposing that area with the adjustment brush. Once I am in photoshop I run daily multi-vitamin from Kabota actions. I tweak this one as well..usually upping the opacity. Here I run portraiture for all my skin retouching and will go back and take care of any blemishes if need be. I am not one to retouch a file at 400% it is time consuming and for most print sizes it would be a waste of my time. If you see a color image of mine then I can guarantee I have ran daily multi vitamin…used my burn tool and ran high pass filter for sharpening on a duplicate layer blended to opacity. The best tip is nailing your exposure in camera than your tools can work with you to make your image pop!

What avenue would you tell someone whose hit the point of understanding the basics and has a decent concept of what they’re doing but really want to take the next step to take their images from impressing clients to impressing their photographer peers. (i.e. being amazing images!)

I suggest the next step be going to convention. If you are in WV our ppwv convention is this weekend! So definetly joining your local professional organizations. Even if you do not enter you will learn so much by networking and hanging out with your peers. Watch the print judging..listen to speakers. If you can afford to join WPPI and PPA then I highly recommend it. Another great convention is Sync. Sorting through speakers selling you fluff and those who honestly give up the goods to help you become a better photographer can be time consuming but when you find a program or speaker you resonate with it will be your game changer. I remember my first trip to WPPI. I came home a different person and never looked back. I realized a friend had been right when they said I did not take photography serious…I was fine with ok…..but now I am looking to be amazing and when you hit convention and surround yourself with people 1000x better than you…you decide to go big and be awesome or go home and be content…I never want to be content!

My question has to do with ACR. My husband is getting on my case about learning RAW processing. I’m not that good with raw processing yet and it’s one of the things that I need to do better. so when you first take the images off your card what do you next?

Once I have my images uploaded and backed up, I open bridge. I have my bridge set up to filmstrip but you can customize how your bridge workspace looks. From here I can see all of my raw files. I will select 5 or 10 and right click to open in camera raw. A dialog box will pop up with your images. Under your selected image will be your color space and it will probably show Adobe…select this and you can change to sRGB which is the color space I work in. From there play around with your tools. If you have a set of images from the same light and want to apply everything you did to your fist image then select all and hit synchronize this will adjust every image to those selections. If you did any burning or use of other adjustments you will need to select local adjustments on your synchronize dialog box so that it will recreate those effects as well. Next you are ready to save…hit save images. You will then be presented with another dialog box and here you will choose where and how to save your images. I save in the same folder as jpegs….it will not write over your raw files but rather save a copy as jpeg.

Will you adopt me?

It is tax season, so if it comes with a tax break…I will surely adopt!

Are there any books or guides youd recommend for a noobie?

Yes… I would pick up Understanding Exposure also if you can invest in the Photovision DVDs that is a helpful tool to see what the business is all about.

What is the best way to get your name out there? What advertising has worked best for you? I don’t have a lot of clients yet so getting the word out has been difficult to say the least.

I have only spent money on advertising one time and that was an add that played in my local movie theaters for 6 months and it did ok…I would not do it again. The best way to get your name out there is do be someone who not only photographs amazing images but someone who wants to better your community. Get involved in projects that are important to your clients. I donate often to several communties…not just where I live. I volunteer, I purchase athletic uniforms, I shoot sessions for charity. I find that the saying…give and you shall receive is true and I do it from a humble spirit. See how you can particiapate in your communities and schools and people will pay attention to your efforts.

If you have a question you would like answered shoot me an email to amanda@amanda-reed.com and I will feature it on the next q&a blog post

Can’t have a post without some images so let’s heat it up for Valentine’s Day!

Thanks Lauren for letting me get out of the box!

 I am holding a styleboard contest. You need to have an account on Pinterest, next you need to make a board titled “AR STYLE” you need to pin amazing, clothing, locations, props, etc onto that board. Everything you dream of your session with me being! Then post a link to your board on my facebook fan page! Your deadline is on Feb 7th. Myself and a panel of my peers will look over your boards and see who we think was the most creatvie and which session would be the most fun to photograph and announce a winner on Feb 10th If you need an invite to pinterest then leave your email in the comments below and I will send one over. The session will be shot at a location of my choosing (most likely meeting at my studio) Get excited…give me some great stuff to work with!! It’s valued at $300 and could be yours for free!!! Take the link to see my sample AR Style Storyboard. Use any idea you like. I used an American Indian theme but it could be vintage, sports, cars, fields of gold, roller skates…anything goes! http://pinterest.com/amandaphoto/ar-style/

Also, so many of my clients drive from over two hours away or just have busy schedules like all of us do. We all know having a consultation about your session gives us the best possible outcome but that is not always possible. So, I want to utilize Pinterest to make our ideas cohesive and give me an impression of your style and what you hope to accomplish from your session with me. Wether it be family, couples, boudoir, high school seniors etc. If you are willing to make a board entitled AR Style and pin clothing ideas, locations, colors anything that you want your overall shoot to possess then pin it and share with me. By doing this simple and fun task you get a $100 print credit in addition to your paid order. So not only are you guaranteeing a better finished result, you are getting $100 worth of our amazing products with your order!

Here is a sample board I put together that brings some of my ideas out of my head and onto a pallet of inspiration for a shoot I hope to take on this summer. If you need an invite to Pinterest please leave your email and a message in the comment section at the end of this post! I can’t wait to incorporate your ideas into our session.

My friends Elise Ellis, Brooks Holloway and Jim Heidorn took our lunch break at the Corporation. A little hole in the wall with a bar and one well lived native of New Orleans taking your orders in the back. Elise ordered first…red beans and rice. Next up, I order a hamburger because I just do not think cajun food is going to agree with me and it is afterall on the menu. In the words of that 70 year old lady taking my order ” honey, you can get a burger at home, here we got shrimp creole, jambalaya, po’ boys or muffaletta.” I say kindly…I will take a burger. She says..”your friend got red beans and rice, you is getting jambalaya and she handed my order to the cook.” Thank God, the jambaylaya was good because if it wasn’t….ain’t no way ima send it back to the kitchen and yes..I know I should not use words like ain’t but after being deeply rooted in the south for 4 days, ain’t is appropriate and correct use of vocabulary and if you do not think so…go to the Corporation and get schooled like me.

Imaging USA: I mostly hung out around the tradeshow. I listened to the fabulous speakers in the Black River Imaging booth. Met lots of people I will never forget. Purchased amazing products from PhotoPie and Graphic Authority. I of course spoke at the tradeshow on Tuesday. I was interrupted by Graphi Studio and Jim Garner speaking at the same exact time. Hmmmm wonder who set that up… but thanks for thinking I could compete for an audience with Jim speaking …who by the way was my first choice for pre-board to attend his class during WPPI. I think it will be amazing. On to other news, I was able to catch up with Jeff Poole and his wonderful fiance Lori Unruh of IndigoSilver Studio. They won my dinner giveaway which was wonderful as I had received a phone call from a dear friend, Gregory Georges and set up a lunch date with them…dinner turned out to be even better. My friend, photographer and social media genius Elise Ellis also gave away dinner which led us to desire with these amazing ladies as well Stephanie Turner , Tennille Sechrist Mullery and Sabina Cavalli. Dinner to say the least was exciting. I love talking shop with good friends, good food and better drinks…..the BIG EASY lemonade at Desire

  Lots of name dropping in this post which directs me back to  David Scott (don’t ask)

We also gave a great schooling to some poor soul at The Riverwalk over lunch. I believe our talks of fishbowls, strippers, bourbon street and photography may have been a bit much and I am sure our first impression was full of sex, grit and imagery. hehehehe……..laughing quietly to myself as I imgine her praying to never see the likes of us again. Which leads me to Bourbon Street.

The term Bourbon Street, walk in and crawl out is oh so true.Let’s just say we took in Bourbon Street When my friend Brooks says to you…I looked at my checking account and I have that 40 dollars…you know it can’t be good or likewise when he says……..this is starting off like a bad episode of CSI. All in fun. We did have an amazing time.

Again, I cannot thank my friends at Black River Imaging enough for supporting me and asking me to teach at such an amazing organization to my peers whom I love and respect. Much thanks to my husband who kept up with appointments and the kids while I was away. Couldn’t have done it without him.

and how these tips, while learned on my own would have saved me ions of time and made me boatloads of $$$$. Who doesn’t want that?

The BRI tradeshow booth schedule for speakers follows. Be sure to take their links for some amazing eye candy! I keep good company!

Sunday, January 15th

 12:30 – David & Whitney Scott 

1:45 – Gene Ho 

3:00 – Dawn Shields

Monday, January 16th

11:15 – Natalie Licini

12:30-   Vanessa Joy & Rob Adams 

 1:45 – Prem Mukherjee 

3:00 – Martha Dameron

Tuesday, January 17th

10:00-  Dixie Dixon

11:15 – Amanda Reed

12:30 – Elise Ellis

1. Photograph the sessions I feel passionate about.

2. Photograph the people who resonate with me and want my vision in the final product.

3. If I say, we are at max capacity and it’s gonna be 8 weeks on those proofs, I will not feel bad about saying it! I have to be confident in the fact that sometimes the best things are worth waiting for and I know anything faster won’t be my best and I am not willing to give anything less than that.

4. No more Saturday work. Now, I know there will be cases when a story or event will pull at my heartstrings and I am counting on God to let me notice when my time is of importance and this person may need a weekend but I will discern that for myself. I am not willing to miss out anymore than I am in the lives of my children. I had an amazing Christmas break with my kids. I looked at my simply amazing 9 year old daughter and thought….when did you grow up. I want to spend every Saturday shooting hoops, riding bikes, tossing softball, baiting hooks, roasting marshmallows, reading books under the stars, catching fireflies, taking back road drives.  That is where my heart is. It is in the hands of Lydia and Reed.

5. I am going to try and I do say try, not to make my husbands life a living hell because of things his family does that drives me crazy. I absolutely have no problem putting that on the web. If you have someone whose ambition is to wake up every day and spite you then you know how I feel. I will try to love them in the best way that I can but I will not be treated as though I am beneath them because.I bust my ass everyday trying to support and take care of a family that means more to me than you will ever know. I need to realize some people are just not going to like me and I need to be okay with that. Because, the truth is I just want to be loved by my husbands family………all of them. Liked would be okay too. I would also like to add that my husband has amazing hard working parents who love our kids to death. We just do not have a good family dynamic and my husband desperately needs that and a great sibling dynamic as well. I would be lost without that in my life and I feel that he is lost somewhere trying to make sense of it all which of course affects the dynamic of our marriage. Knowing that there is just nothing I can do to change that situation revolts me because I like to think I can change whatever I set my mind to. So….today I am changing my mind. I will just be a vessel of forgiveness and whether that ever flows back to me is not in my hands but I can pour out what Christ filled my soul with and that is forgiveness.

6. I want to be a grandma one day. Yeah, I know that sounds a little strange but I lost my Grandma this year and DAMMIT, its hard BUT I know one day I am going to be the best damn Grandma out there because I learned from the best.

7. Take care of me. That means working out, reading books, dinner with friends, a massage, a good glass of wine, a campfire and the wood snapping in my ears. It really doesn’t take a lot to satisfy me. I truly love simple things. I love to spoil others way more than I like to things for myself but God created me for great things I believe. As he created all of us and my soul needs nurturing to. I want to stop feeling guilty for taking care of me. I am blessed to travel to some amazing places and do amazing things. This often comes with the guilt of leaving my family or feeling just a little spoiled. When that sets in, I ask myself what I would tell my daughter to do. I would tell her to reach for every possibility to never let her dreams sit still and to keep going.

Now that you have heard me blabble about 7 of my priorities of 2012 (that’s the short list). How bout I leave with you some of my fave images from the past year. I could never begin to show you them all cause I have a fave from every session I shoot but here are some highlights!

I realize the through my conversation and imagery I have an affect on large number of people. I believe God gave me a life built around valleys and mountains so that I could share that with others and hopefully encourage them to keep pushing. Please, do not put me on a pedestal as I will surely fall off and break into a million pieces. I have lot’s of lessons to learn and as human nature provides a short and long road to learn them.  I prefer to take the long road to learn these lessons. Sometimes repeating the mistake again and again.

One day I will have to answer for all the mistakes I have made on this journey and it will be with a great pause and weeping in which I do so. To many of you, it may seem as though I have “all my shit in one sock” as I have had someone tell me before. That could not  be further from the truth…what I do have is the ability to accept my failures, to value my imperfections, to try and find good in the heartbreak I am dealt and the heartbreak I cause.

If I had an amazing year, I could tell you that the year I turned 30 was an amazing year. I felt alive in so many ways that I have never felt. I was selfish and spoiled.  In a little less than a month I will turn 32 and I can tell you that all of the fun times I had the year I turned 30 were paid for in this year. Ah….31 years, the 31st being most difficult for me. I have struggled to find a peaceful co-existence between being a business woman, a mother, a wife and just being human. I cannot indulge 100% in any one thing. When I go head strong into my business all the other aspects suffer. Finding that happy medium has been just out of reach for the past 12 months.

There are so many things I did not know as a young 18 year old wife, a 22 year old mother that I know now in my 31 year old skin. Things that I would perhaps do differently? NO….things I would tell you to do differently? OF COURSE. There is no right course of action, there is only the course of action you are responsible for. There are many roads to one destination, you have to find comfort in the road you take and accept responsibility for taking that road.

I could have taken a lot of paths at 18 years old. Marriage did not have to be one, although on the course I was pointed, I do believe had this angel of a man not been put in my life a path of alcohol and drug abuse that so many of the people in my life at that time have taken would have told my story. I will say I have fully understood for better or worse this year because time after time, I want to walk away from the worse. Resulting in one huge ass tattoo on my ring finger that once was written my husbands name. It ain’t easy and I will leave it at that.

I guess in light of the coming new year I felt the need share apart of myself with you. I hope turning 32 in January will lead to a better understanding of who I am and finding that balance between all my so called titles. This year it has been just out of reach but I am hoping to grab hold of that next year. With that will come more blogging and it may be professional or personal. Just whatever is laid upon my heart to share with you.

Something that was laid on my heart are a series of videos I am about to share with you. My friend Rob, who is one of my favorite vloggers ask me to collaborate on a tolerance, love, peace sort of short video. Twenty seconds was all he needed. My idea came to me in an instant and God had already prepared the hearts of my friends to join me as they had no reservations about doing so. What resulted was over 20 minutes of video that I did not have the heart to edit to a shorter length. I want to share them with you. All of these people have touched my life and I think that if you opened your heart and mind, they will touch yours as well