Casey Templeton Photography

Every photographer has a website these days, but very few are utilizing their website to its full ability.  A website consist of multiple files that are “hosted” online in a directory. To access your directory, contact your website hosting company and ask for your FTP information.

What FTP information looks like:

• FTP Server: ftp.yoursite.com
• FTP Username: exampleusername
• Password: samplepassword

Once you have this information, you can use FTP programs such as Fetch, FileZilla, Ubermind for Aperture, even some browsers have built in FTP such as Firefox FTP, to organize, store, deliver files, create web galleries, etc.

Basic way folders/directories work on your FTP:

Inside your directory, you have multiple folders and they are split up by the “/” and you can have various folders and images on your FTP site that you can access from anywhere you can jump online.  This can also be a great spot to store files you need while on the road and you can access them from any computer.  Notice below how the URL shows the path to the files.

Click on this link to see what the main directory of “ftpexample” looks like online: http://www.caseytempleton.com/ftpexample/ Here you can see that the other files on your website are safe because when you click on “Parent Directory” it takes the viewer to your main website.

Send large files to clients:

Sending large files is made extremely easy when using your FTP rather than emailing or using other file sharing programs. I believe this is also much more professional and keeps your client inside your brand. All you have to do is send them a single link and when they click on it, a window pops up and ask where you want to save the file. Try it below.

• Select a file, folder, or multiple files
• Right click and select “compress”
• Drop it on your FTP
• Send complete link to client ( ex. www.casytempleton.com/ftpexample/bigfile.tif.zip )

Post Web Galleries

You can set up folders for your clients and create web galleries showing your work or takes from a shoot. Programs such as Aperture, Lightroom, and Photo Mechanic are great programs to create web galleries. When you export a gallery using these programs, it produces a folder and inside has an index file, folders to hold your images and other files the site requires.  You can rename only the main folder and simply drag this into your main FTP folder. See below how this example gallery created in Aperture will look in your directory: http://www.caseytempleton.com/ftpexample/clientA/

It is OK to be overexposed!  When I am trying to make a good photo in a scene that isn’t always the best looking, I try to never accept the light I see as the best it can be. I overexpose my images to clean-up the backgrounds and to bring out the vibrancy of the colors that you can’t see, but are always there.  You may hear a photographer say that cloudy and overcast days are the best for taking photos, this is because some of the most vibrant colors are in the shadows (and no harsh light on a subject’s face, but for this post, it is because of the colors).

Here are a few examples:

Now go and overexpose!

A common headache for photographers getting started with digital photography is keeping their images organized; if left untouched, images can get lost in the shuffle very quickly. The key to keeping images organized is to come up with your own naming structure for your images and folders. In this post, I am going to explain my process of keeping images organized.

The goal is to have all of your images named in a way that if they are all put into a single folder together, they would all be in order by the date they were taken. Same for all of the folders we keep the photos in.  Often, your camera will come with a photo editing software you can use in taking your photos off of your memory card and onto your computer.  You can also use Apple’s iPhoto, Windows Live Photo Gallery, or for more advance photographers, Apple’s Aperture or Adobe’s Lightroom.

If you use a program such as Camera Bit’s Photo Mechanic to download your images, you can use this in your naming window:
{iptcyear2}{iptcmonth0}{iptcday0}_YourEventName_{seqn}   =   100302_YourEventName_001
or
{iptcyear4}{iptcmonth0}{iptcday0}_YourEventName_{seqn}   =   20100302_YourEventName_001

It is also important to keep your images similarly organized in the program you may use to organize your images such as Apple’s Aperture, Adobe’s Lightroom or any other program that may be provided in your camera’s software.  Below is how I keep my Aperture library organized.

I’ve received several request to give simple camera/post-production/shooting tips so here is my first of many weekly photo tips. Please feel free to leave comments with questions as well as suggestions for other photo tips. Enjoy!

Cloudy White Balance, My Go-To

Starting photographers often complain about dull or blue tinted photos that make their subjects seem lifeless. My cure for this is to start using cloudy white balance.  This setting can be found on most digital point-and-shoot as well as DSLR cameras and uses a cloud symbol. I use cloudy white balance when shooting in direct sunlight, when using a flash, indoors with natural light coming in from windows as well as any other situation where my images seem too cool. This works great for natural skin tones.

Below is an example of a piece of finished wood that is inside near a window, the difference is stunning.

Auto White Balance vs. Cloudy White Balance