Free Headshot Retouching Tips and Q/A: Creator Office Hours

Hey there, y’all. This week on my lil’ Office Hours, I decided to focus on a particular topic that’s been in my inbox a few times. That’s headshot photography. In particular, headshot retouching. Check it out below. I hope this helps photographers get rolling in their headshot photography journey. Please reshare the video far and wide.

Tools mentioned include:

Wacom Intuos Tablet*

Canon R5 C*

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

"Ruthless Reviews" Ain't Bad At All, Right?

A little while ago I sat in our Mr Alex Lindsay’s Office Hours again. I love sitting in on that panel to attempt to answer questions from the creative community as well as LEARN more stuff for my own skillset. Periodically, he and the panel conduct “ruthless reviews” of each other. The reviews range audio, to video, to set, and so forth. All about making the online/virtual meeting experience better for the panelist and their audience. I was a part of this ruthless review and it was quite helpful. Click below to watch the first hour of q&a and then watch the second hour of the video as we get into ruthless reviews. Enjoy.

Screenshot via Alex Lindsay and Office Hours

On-the-Go Design Is Here To Stay and This Adobe Mobile Bundle Proves It

I remember a few years ago when I attended Adobe Max and “Lightroom CC” was announced. I also remember, at the time, Adobe renaming the Lightroom most already had to “Lightroom Classic.” A lot of uproar came from this. Some from me as I didn’t like the idea of putting all of my creative workflow into the mobile space. Turns out, it’s ok and works well for many creative artists. Not all, but many. Today Adobe continues its double-down approach to on-the-go creativity with its mobile design offering for iPad users.

Image source: Adobe

Creating No Matter Where You Are

If you’re an iPad user that happens to be a graphic designer/artist, getting Adobe Illustrator on the iPad was BIG. Now, the mobile-first initiative is in full swing as Adobe is now bundling Photoshop, Illustrator, Fresco, Spark and Creative Cloud apps in what it’s calling the “Design Mobile” package for iPad.

As usual, the pricing structure from Adobe creative products are based on a subscription model. You can pay an annual subscription fee of $149.99 or monthly at $14.99 per month. Adobe discusses it more on its blog post here.

Signing up for this service has to be done via the Apple App Store. At least at the time of creating this post. Here’s the link for that if you’re reading this on your iPad. Sounds like a nice deal.

Are you signing up? Or are you in the camp that already has the full suite of Adobe creative apps? I’m curious to know how this may affect the full suite subscribers. I pay for the full suite and use a good bit of the apps, but not all of them. So it is definitely a good value for me? What about you? Thoughts?

I Made Some FREE Lightroom and Capture One Presets

In between working on my shows and shooting, I’ve dabbled with creating some presets for my Lightroom* workflow. Now understand that using presets doesn’t mean your photo post-processing is finished. A preset should be considered a good starting point 90% of the time. I hate that many beginner photographers assume presets are a quick-fix for photo editing. But anyway. . . .

I’ve put together three different presets that I use fairly regularly because I tend to have certain looks and lighting in mind when I shoot. So here are three different presets for you to download and try for yourself. I’m not charging for these presets, but if you’d like to buy me a beer, I won’t turn it down. ;)

Cozy Morning

The Cozy Morning preset was created with the mind of a person that’s dragging a little in the morning and trying to get going. Exposure is dimmed, clarity and texture increased and the color temperature is moderately warm. Think of warm, Earth tones far as the color grading.

Image by Ant Pruitt. All rights reserved

Cigar and Whisky

With the Cigar and Whisky preset, I was shooting some test portrait shots. At the time, I was testing the Canon R6 and R5 for work. While shooting, I was wishing I had poured myself a whisky and grabbed a cigar. This is just a guilty pleasure of mine while I shoot or process photos. When I think whisky and cigars, I think of warm, soft images. The images aren’t as crisp, but still look good. Also, the color tones are warm.

Image by Ant Pruitt. All rights reserved.

Biscuit

The Biscuit preset was developed after shooting a couple shots of our dog named Biscuit. A few weeks after we got the dog, he spent a lot of time resting in window lighting. This lighting worked well with his white coat and really captured the “puppy” mood. The preset will increase exposure without clipping the highlights. It will also soften the middle frequency and slightly increase the higher frequency to enhance details where areas should be sharp, but soft where the areas of the image should be soft.

Image by Ant Pruitt. All rights reserved.

Use These in Lightroom or Capture One

These preset were created in Lightroom, but you can also use these in Capture One. I’ve not tried to do so yet, but apparently it’s pretty easy to import Lightroom presets into Capture One. Just follow the steps on this DIY Photography blog post here.

*Affiliate link used. Affiliate links allow me to earn a small commission as a content creator if you purchase items using the affiliate link. Thank you for your support.

Peak Design Announces Mobile Product Line

I’ve been fortunate enough to be acquainted with Peak Design for a couple of years. Recently, they reached out to share with me their pre-production products designed for the mobile content content creator. It’s the new Peak Design Mobile line of products. The new product offerings will be available via its Kickstarter found here.

I created a short video below walking through what was presented and some hands on footage, but if you want to read what was presented, here it is via the Peak Design press release:

Peak Design Launches a Complete Mobile Accessory Ecosystem An innovative connection system unites beautifully designed cases, mounts and accessories

San Francisco, CA (October, 2020) –Peak Design, the worldwide leader in crowdfunding and everyday carry solutions, has launched a revolutionary ecosystem of mobile cases, mounts, and accessories. Built around a proprietary low-profile connection system, Mobile by Peak Design aims to make your phone a better tool for everything you use it for, from navigation to communication, creativity to recreation.

Prior to the release of Mobile by Peak Design, clunky, bulky, unattractive mobile accessories hindered users’ attempts to obtain a seamless, compact mobile carry experience. Peak Design addressed this with a groundbreaking piece of mounting technology named SlimLink. With a stack height of just 2.4mm, SlimLink minimizes bulk on your phone and mounting devices, and facilitates both soft-locking (magnetic) and ultra-secure, hard-locking (mechanical) mounting functionality. To achieve the SlimLink architecture, a zirconia ceramic insert is surrounded by an array of magnets and then embedded into each Peak Design Everyday Case. “Phones are the most powerful tools in the world, and our goal was to create the most powerful accessories for them” commented Peak Design Founder and CEO Peter Dering. “We’ve been developing the SlimLink architecture for 4 years, and we didn’t stop until our cases and mounts looked better, felt better, and worked better than anything else out there.”

The consumer starting point for Peak Design’s mobile accessory ecosystem is the Everyday Case, a durable polycarbonate phone case wrapped in Peak Design's custom high-performance nylon canvas fabric. The case—available for iPhone (including iPhone 12) and Samsung devices—supports wireless charging and strikes an ideal balance between ruggedness, protection, and refined aesthetics. A slim, adhesive-backed Universal Adapter is also available that works with nearly any phone or hard, non-textured case. Peak Design intends to support additional phone models in the months and years to come.

To complete the ecosystem, Peak Design has launched a wide array of instantly-swappable accessories, including mounts for cars, bicycles, motorcycles, home/office, a mobile wallet, and accessories for photographers and filmmakers. Each accessory was developed by a team of engineers over the course of 2 years and designed to outperform leading competitors in ease-of-use, form factor, ruggedness, and aesthetics. All accessories are built from premium materials, individually serialized, and guaranteed for life. The range of products illustrates the versatility and security of the SlimLink mounting technology, which supports activities from Facetiming to downhill mountain biking.

Mobile by Peak Design will be available for presale on October 19, 2020 as part of Peak Design’s monumental 10 th Kickstarter campaign (peakdesign.com/ks). Following the launch on Kickstarter, the mobile system will then be available for purchase online at Peakdesign.com and through major retailers beginning Spring 2021.

Product MSRP (USD) Presale Discount (Kickstarter)

Everyday Case $39.95 $32

Out-Front Bike Mount $59.95 $50

Universal Bike Mount $49.95 $40

Mobile Tripod $54.95 $45

Car Mount $39.95 $32

Kickstand Wallet $49.95 $40

Mobile Creator Kit $39.95 $32

Wall Mount (2pack) $29.95 $16

Charging Car Mount $69.95 $58

Motorcycle Bar Mount $69.95 $58

Motorcycle Stem Mount $69.95 $58

Wireless Charging Stand $89.95 $72

It Was the DroidX. My Chat With Miss Susy Botello and the SBP Podcast

I had the pleasure of being a guest on a fascinating podcast geared towards the mobile content creator. The show is SBP Podcast hosted by the extremely passionate and kind Miss Susy Botello. I appreciate her having me on and sharing my story with her listeners and community. Do me a favor, give her a follow and subscribe to her show. Follow the show on YouTube and Twitter and find the show on Podbean or your podcast app of choice. Thanks for supporting content creators. Miss Susy is doing some good things for creators out there.

Here’s my chat with her. Thanks for listening and sharing.

Try Not To Blame The Tools

I love watching my YouTube subscriptions. Probably more than I love watching regular television shows. Recently, I watched another video from Darious Britt. This man is an inspiring film maker that has been helpful to many with his tips and tricks regarding telling a story. This video echoes telling the story, but it’s also about his camera gear.

It resonated with me because I KNOW i don’t have “the best camera.” But I’m fine with that (for now.) I know my lil’ Rebel camera can do a good job in most scenarios. If there are other situations needing a different camera, I just rent one. By the way, get $25 off of your rental from LensRentals using my link here. This is who I rent gear from with ease and with great rates. Anyway, back to Mr. Britt. . . .

Check out his video below. The message is great. Hopefully it will inspire you to keep on keepin’ on with the gear that you have. #CreateAndDominate

It's Getting Easier To Make Great Videos With Your Phone

The camera’s on smartphones today are so good. Seriously. Most of them even shoot in 4K resolution. Why not take advantage of these things? Click my video below of some of my current gear I use to create videos when I’m not using my DSLR.