I start with the information I want to have on the site. I know I want an About Page, and a Portfolio of course. A Contact Page is a good idea, and a Blog is a given. That is one of the best reasons to use WordPress for your website framework; the built in blog. The ease of use and maintenance is the other best reason.

Are there other pages I may want to add? How about a Projects Page to show some of the different photographic projects and self assignments I am working on?

An Investment Page for consumer shooters, a Schedule Page and Calendar may also be cool if you need them.

Now you have to figure out where they go – and this is the Navigation part of your site.

There is a limited amount of real estate for your navigation, whether you are using a horizontal method of navigation or a vertical, you want to avoid ‘wrapping’ of lines if you possibly can.

“About Don Giannatti Photography” is too darn long: We can use “About” and still have the ability to have the long name when we do the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for the page.

With most WordPress themes, you have the ability to have drop down navigation, and that saves a lot of space. Having all of your navigation on that one global bar makes no sense, and it is NOT what people are looking for. Studies show that horizontal navigation with drop down menus are very comfortable to visitors of your site. Hey, you wanna re-invent the web, go right ahead – me – I want to make sure that people who visit my site are happy and engaged with my content.

Here is a typical web navigation schema. I do these in Photoshop, but there are other tools you can use.

It shows a navigation that is very simple: Home – About – Portfolio – Projects – Contact – Blog. Below each of those simple navigation points are the additional pages of the site. We call them ‘child pages’ because the flow from the main page.

Looking closely we see that there are some additional notations on the main navigation pages.

Notice that the Portfolio navigation tab is the one that is showing… so what happens when we click on the word “Portfolio” instead of going to one of the drop downs? This is a consideration – you have offered a button and now someone feels that they should click on it… what happens?

We have two options: One is to make it without a link, so it forces the user to choose one below – NOT a good option. The other is to have a “Portfolio” on that page.

I think that a portfolio that is the best 25 or 45 images that are contained within the other three categories makes the most sense, and it is becoming the de-facto way of showing our work.

So we break out our genres, while keeping the best work from each genre in our portfolio. How ‘back-in-the-day’ that is, and yet it remains the best way to show your work. In my opinion.

When we get to Projects, we find a Project Explanation page. I would want to at least inform my visitors on what the projects are, and how I chose them, and what they mean to me. Then in the drop down I can take them to the current projects I am working on.

(In my vision, projects are self-contained assignments, mostly self-assigned, that show a different side of what I do than the work shown in the portfolio. The work in the projects area is more narrative, story driven work. You may choose to do or do not. S’all good.)

Now that we have our navigation, we know exactly what content we need. That makes it so much easier to begin to create it.

For the above navigation I would need the following:

About: Bio, Quote, Photograph of me.

Portfolio: 24 photos sized and ready to go into the portfolio tool I had chosen.

Projects: Copy for the Main Project Page, a photograph to accompany the text, individual project info (paragraph) and a sample of each of the projects sized and ready to enter.

Contact: Copy for the contact information, a Google Map link to my studio, a photograph to make the page look good.

Schedule: Copy for the Schedule page, a photograph to accompany it, possibly a ‘schedule tool’ if I was taking appointments online.

Calendar: a Calendar plugin would work well here.

Blog: I would suggest at least two blog posts are there, and have at least 6 more ready to go within your blogging schedule. Getting behind can take the fun out and stomp it silly… trust me.

While you are writing your copy, you must also be getting your visuals ready. And you should know how big to make them so they fit, so instead of fighting with them, and redoing and redoing and redoing, you make them once, put them in a folder and grab them as you are populating a page.

I have built fairly complex WordPress sites in less than a day when I had all the content ready. And believe me when I tell you that there is some complexity you must work with in these modern themes. Adding the frustration of writing the copy as well as sizing the photographs and trying to remember what pages go where… crazy.

I suggest taking a screen shot of the theme you are going to use and take it into Photoshop. If you can grab the images by right clicking, then that is an alternate way that is also effective. (Some images are embedded in such a way that they are not ‘right-clickable’ so in that case, the Photoshop method would be a good alternative.

We are using the “Hero” theme available at ThemeTrust: Use the link provided on the sidebar of this page. ThemeTrust is one of my favorite theme builders and the link is an affiliate link.

We need a good portfolio tool, and WordPress comes with a Gallery tool that will make the thumbs and larger image views. It is not bad, but there are other ways of showing the work that you may prefer.

Use your “Save for Web and Devices” tool when saving out your images, but do not make them less than 60%. WP will crunch them up a bit more, so if you are too low in your quality, it can be very bad on your image. Saving the images with SFWAD will make the file smaller (less weight) and load faster on your site.

SlideShowPro.net makes a very good product for showing portfolios. You can show one portfolio per page on your site, or let SlideShowPro do all the heavy lifting. They have a simple means for hooking your SlideShowPro portfolio into your page(s).

GalleryPro.me is another solution that gives you control over your galleries and portfolio from a single dashboard. (Disclosure: I am a partner in GalleryPro.)

There are also many different plugins to show galleries in your WordPress.

25 Most Downloaded Free WordPress Image Gallery Plugins.

30+ WordPress Gallery Plugins

The Best WordPress Slideshow and Gallery Plug-ins

Putting the Plugins in your site is easy, and you can try them out with only a few clicks. If you do not like them, delete them from your Plugin panel.

Knowing what you want to do, and how you are going to get there will make your WordPress website a much easier project. Get the heavy lifting done first, then concentrate on working with your theme, learning its quirks and making it all yours.

Next time:
Important Plugins, Widgets and more.

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I was recently on creativeLIVE and have received some rave reviews of the workshop. If you are interested in taking a look at the workshop, you can find it on creativeLIVE’s web site here. I think it is a tremendous value and if you are unable to attend any of my workshops, this may give you a ton of information you will want to have to push your photography to the next level.

Actually it may be later than that. And that makes it all the more… more…

Well, I don’t really know how I feel about stopping the workshops. A little sad, I suppose. Possibly a tiny bit bitter (fuckit, I’m human… right?). But mostly I feel like I needed to do it and move to a different place. Doing workshops was something that was fun, but not my main source of revenue, and I need to focus a bit more on that these days.

When I started the Lighting Essentials workshops it was in response to what I was seeing here in the Phoenix area in regard to photographic lighting – or rather the lack of any attempt at it. Or the knowledge that it even existed…

We charged a few bucks and we would put 4 or 5 shooters in my little studio on Broadway and we would shoot. Setup, discuss the reasons for the setup, shoot. Setup, discuss, shoot. Repeat.

It was for one day and we would cram a ton of learning into those days, starting early and finishing late.

I turned around and we were traveling the country and then the world doing workshops based on my idea of Subject Centric Light (H/T Dean Collins for inspiration), and my 30+ years in the business.

I took the workshop to Boise, New York, Halifax, San Diego, Missuola, Omaha, Anna Maria Island, New Orleans and a couple of dozen other cities. I even traveled to Singapore and Malaysia to do my workshop.

No Bullshit workshops… No “Celebrity” workshops… No ‘watch me while I have fun and you stand there and admire me from afar wishing you were me but knowing you will never be as cool as me but still watching and hoping anyway” bullshit workshops.

There are plenty of those around. Plenty of worthless shit workshops where people pay a grand for a ‘lesson’ from someone who has been shooting for 3 years and knows how to fuck around in Lightroom. Yeah – photography has changed a lot. You simply don’t need to know much at all to make photographs good enough to wow ‘em in the wedding forums and on Flickr. There are so plenty of “spray and pray” workshops teaching nothing at all about photography but simply a way for narcissistic preeners to garner wads of cash from their sycophantic followers.

(“I thought you said you were only a little bitter?” – ed. LOL – I am making a point, so let me rant will ya…)

But my workshops were different.

In September of 2011, I was voted as one of the top workshop instructors in the world by the READERS of PDN. Not ‘chosen’ from the ranks of the ‘good ‘ol boys’ network, but by the people who took my workshop and learned stuff. From the heart stuff and from the experience stuff. And really real stuff to use right now to make better images.

The people who TOOK my workshop rated me that high.

That same month I cancelled all my workshops for the balance of the year.

Ironic? Sure, whatever.

But I said it was time, and that means there are other considerations as well. And they were the most important in the long run and figured high in my decision to pull the plug.

For one thing, teaching is exhausting when you do it right. It really is. I love it, and I love the exhilaration when someone in the workshop says… “hey, I got this… I can do this…”

Yeah… you can. And that is what a good teacher does. He/She helps their students to be as good as they can be… even better than the teacher in some instances. When the master becomes the student and the student becomes the master, then there is perfection in the art of teaching.

But it also takes its toll on the teachers own work. At least it has mine.

I need to focus back on my work, and my design work, so that I can be an effective teacher if I decide to do it again. I love to teach, but I want my teaching to be relevant – and timely. So this hiatus, however long it goes, may be a catalyst for something else. Something new, different, relevant.

I miss the travel already, and then there were those wonderful people that I met out there in the workshops. Many have become my friends, and I know we will kick up some dust sometime out there. But there are those faces and names that I can barely recall that seemed to have such a great time, and then we went our own way and we never met up again. Those folks I miss too.

I am a one man band. No roving bands of assistants, and no grunts. I do it all. Sweep and paint the cyc and then shoot on it. I am not famous, nor do I seek fame. I have never been a big time photographer, rather I was a photographer in a crummy market that made a good living. Never shot a cover of Vogue, nor climbed the highest mountain to get a fashion shot of a super model. I just maintained my clients and made images that were hopefully a little more than they expected.

But this also means that I am doing everything for the workshops myself… booking spaces, finding models, and looking for venues and dinner places in towns I have no knowledge of. When the workshops were filling it was fine, but now it has become too much work. Too much time.

And I am a good teacher. I have taught photography, music, art and self achievement. I love it.

So now, this chapter is closed and I move on to something else. We’ll see. I am doing creativeLIVE and that is a blast, and I will be continuing on the very successful Project 52 with all that amazing talent.

I do have a commitment to a few folks who were setting up workshops for me and I will of course honor them, and we will have a great time.

Things change… I changed. Photography changed in the last five years as well.

So for now it is off to other endeavors, and we will see what that means for the future of Lighting Essentials Workshops. Essentials for Photographers is fine and staying and I am working on some other ideas for Learn to Light.

Thanks to all who supported the workshops and especially to those who came out to meet me.

Addendum:
I will be working with other groups who do workshops, and presentations. This post deals only with the Lighting Essentials Workshops that I did on my own. I will be on creativeLIVE, and other venues presenting a host of information from lighting to overall photographic directions.

It is a word so over used that we mention Stravinsky and Lady GaGa in the same breathless discussion of creativity. Schools want to nurture it (bullshit). Companies seek it (bull-bullshit). Poets have it in spades (bull… oh never mind).

But have you ever tried to simply define it? Being ‘creative’ can also be cruel, savage, inhumane and anarchistic. Creativity can mean simply doing something different… so what? If I take the garbage out with my left hand instead of my right hand, as I do every day, is that “creative”?

I rarely think about creativity, as I long ago realized something about creativity that made me wary. Creativity claims to be your buddy, your pal… your roommate along the path to making cool shit. but creativity rarely keeps up his end of the bargain. He leaves the place a mess, hits on your girlfriend, steals your money and drinks your beer.

And then one day, ol ‘creativity’ waltzes out the door destined to befriend that kid down the street, or the woman downstairs. He hasn’t even paid for his half of the electricity.

Bastard.

So here are a few things I know about creativity. And believe me, after being in the ‘creative’ business for nearly my entire working life, I know this guy. Here’s the skinny…

Ten things I Know About Creativity:

1. Creativity is not something you bestow on yourself, but something that others bestow upon you. Creativity to the creative person is simply the way they work. Calling yourself ‘creative’ may not mean it is so, and in fact, I find it runs pretty much the opposite. Every time I see the title “creative photographer” I want to mutter under my breath, “says who”?

2. Creativity is not a method or a system or a learned behavior. It is inherent in all of us, but few of us let it be what it is. Out of fear or laziness, self pity or arrogance, ignorance or infinite exploration, we eschew creativity and choose the safer, well worn paths. Ignorance of creativity is a very smart way to get along in some circles. Washington DC for instance.

3. Creativity cannot be taught. It doesn’t have to be. It only needs to be unleashed. Getting out of its way is the most difficult of challenges. We are not conditioned to allow creativity to go unchecked. From our earliest age we must walk in a straight line, color inside the lines, sit at our desks, study what some older person deems is important to us. Creativity and schooling is like a fish with a bicycle.

4. Why do we automatically consider creativity good? Hitler was fairly creative in his endeavors, getting farther along the path to madness than most would have been able to go. Some murderous monsters are creative in the ways they trap their prey… while eluding capture. Creativity can be horrific when applied to horrific things. Creativity has no soul other than the one wielding it. Creativity is not good or bad, it is simply its own person, and he does what he wants. We allow him to run free or channel his wanderings and misadventures. Our call, not his.

5. Creativity can be within specific genres and may not necessarily spill across the entire spectrum of a persons life. One may be incredibly talented in music, but not very good at drawing. A sculpture may be able to see and reveal an incredible masterpiece, while a concert level pianist may not be able to see anything but a piece of rock. This is not good or bad creativity… it just is creativity in different spaces of humanity.

6. Creativity is shown simply and honestly… and not in a good or bad notion. One may be very very creative and turn out pure shit in the eyes of the world. A 3 year old with a canvas and 56 paints could have the time of their lives… being creative and exploding color across the field in ways NO ONE has ever seen.

So what?

Creativity does not necessarily create masterpieces. Sometimes creativity creates shit. And then he stands there smugly demanding that we LOVE what he did… it was so, you know, creative.

7. Work that is derivative can be creative, if the act of derivation ends with something that we think is worthy. It can also end on a bad note if we think it is not as good as the original. We see creativity usually on the backside, not the front. We see the results not the action, and we rarely see the prelude. Sure “Batman” was pretty creative back when Marvel was cranking them out and we were spending a quarter to keep up with the story. But these days, they are simply worn out ‘toons with two hundred million dollar budgets. Boring, predictable and lame.

8. Creativity is a tool. Creativity is a honorarium. Creativity is a joke. Creativity is divine. If Lady Gaga is creative, then what would we call Eliot Carter? Stravinsky? Coltrane? If P-Diddy is creative, what do we call the hordes of rappers that came before and after that sound the same… identical even, to his work? If Copland was creative, how do we explain it to someone who has never heard the music? How about explaining music to someone who has never heard music before… ever?

Now that Would be creative.

9. Creativity is over rated. We have turned anything a bit differnt into “creativity at its finest”. If building the space shuttle and twitter are both creative, is there any difference given to the importance of the creation? Can “Cats” be considered as creative as “Othello?” Is a child like presentation of a Chopin Etude be considered as creative as a performance by a prodigy – or indeed the creator himself? If we consider creativity to be some mark on a ledger or tick on a measuring stick, then we have to be able to quantify it.

Go ahead… give it a go. Quantify creativity.

Good luck with that.

10. Creativity is not definable. Not in any way I can comprehend. And yet I know creativity when I see it, hear it, taste it. We all can agree that we know creative people, and yet we may be somewhat dismayed when we discover who each of us believe to be creative.

I rarely think of creativity as something I want to achieve. It is never how I discuss my own work. If my work is creative, others will note and if it is not, then it will be noted as well. To seek it wastes time, as it cannot be found. It only reveals itself when it is ready, and when the moment is right.

Our job is to make more opportunities for creativity to be revealed. We do that though practice, and study, and work, and effort, and critiques (good and bad) and friends who are not afraid to call you on the work, and enemies that make you defend, or retreat, or rethink. Creativity is a pain in the ass. It has no guarantee of being revealed. There is no magical criteria (10,000 hours my ass), no ‘aha’ moment, no grace to be bestowed. It can leave you waiting at the alter after promising you a thousand times that it loved you. It is heartless and loving, cruel and kind, manic and patient.

And often it is disguised as something else. Something more familiar than trendy, more ethereal than processed. Sometimes it is disguised as hard work.

Creativity means something to each of us, but it is rarely something that I think we should be chasing. Rather we should be chasing the near perfection that comes from working whatever we do to the heart of it. From shooting every day. From being relentless critics to stalwart defenders of our work. Creativity needs nothing from us, but we give our all to achieve it.

Sometimes we are awake to see creativity arrive, but we rarely know its name nor recognize its power. Most of the time we are working on our work so hard we never see it arrive, we couldn’t care less what we call it and we never remember to acknowledge it. We just keep working.

So creativity sits on our shoulders for a while.

Resting in its comfortable by-the-month apartment, putting his feet on the furniture and parking his car on our lawn

But you can be sure about one thing… creativity can be a mercurial and disloyal pal while he camps on your shoulders. He will come over for BBQ and Corona’s, flirt with your wife and hang around long enough to borrow your lawnmower and never return it when he leaves.

You see, creativity rarely moves in, buys a house and puts in a pool.

Get my creativeLIVE show for a full 16 hours of photographic and lighting instruction.

Based on a single layout, supplied to the photographers, they had to complete a faux assignment from an ad agency that was representing a Pharmaceutical Company. The point of the ad was to show how a new pill could allow oldsters to feel like they were younger. The product addresses an eating disorder, so the focus was on having “lunch”. There were few creative directions; the photographers could look at the assignment from a contemporary perspective, shooting older folks behaving more like they were young, or in a nostalgic way showing how much fun it was to have lunch when they were younger.

The work was simply amazing.

I want to share their work with you here. It is really exceptional. The images are linked to the photographer’s Flickr page. If you like the work, let them know by clicking and leaving a comment.

Vintage Design Smith

Em Thomas

Irene Liebler

Irene Lucier

Rob Worth

Shutternutter

David Travis

Wolfiesden

Indiana Bond

Macfelipe

Nick Giron

Bob Knill

Tim Lester

Reflective Photos by Phyllis

Texan Mama

Bryan Lawler

Lola Takes Pictures

Bonzersquad

GHG Photos

Rasmus Hald

Eric M

DBM

Lildebg

Abendig

Redcargirl

Dan Fenwick

Pete Hudeck

Gerry Dac

Wonderful work all around, guys. I wanted to feature this on the LE page so we could get even more viewers.

Wanna join in? Doesn’t cost a dime, and you do not have to ‘register’ or give anyone your email. This is Real Life, baby. Show up, work and get it done. See Project 52 for more information.

I decided to break down a couple of shots I did of Natalie in Seattle the Sunday after my creativeLIVE presentation.

We were on the waterfront and the sun was out in full force. Yes, it was out in full in Seattle in April. Maybe it was me, maybe it was Bri… who knows.

The girls were taking turns standing by a metal building with some glass in order to get warm. Even though the sun had just burned off all the clouds, there was still a very chilly breeze coming off the water.

I was taken with the light that fell across Natalie’s face as she was facing away from the full sun. The area we were in had a lot of patio that was very light concrete. It served as a fantastic fill.

PLACING THE EXPOSURE

Looking at Natalie in the sun and taking a meter reading of all of her would naturally include some sunlight. And that sunlight would skew the reading toward being darker than I wanted. I was not interested in anything but her face. I took a reading of her face, opened up a stop and 2/3 and did my test shot. I found that a little hot, so I closed down a third of a stop. That seemed right to me.

Yep, the hair blows out. Yep, the background seems really bright.

That is the look I wanted to portray… what I saw in my minds eye was the shot playing out against the bright sun, and letting that sun BE bright and open and airy.

What I didn’t want was to get any sun on her face. The contrast of the sun on the tip of her nose or on a part of her cheek would have been terribly difficult to remove.

I like my faces to render in such a way that there is not a lot of complexity in tonality and presentation. That means that deep shadows on noses and highlight /shadow / highlight / shadow across a face is not something I would usually actively seek. If the sun had been allowed to strike Natalie’s face, that is exactly what we would have had.

So I worked with Natalie to keep her face toward me without turning so far as to get the sunlight on her nose.

Here is the first shot without any modifiers at all… pure natural light next to a small building that was actually being a kind of reflector from the shadow side. Natalie is actually leaning against the building.

Here is the diagram of what I was thinking about while doing the shot.

Used in discussion of portraiture on Lighting Essentials, a place for photographers. Lighting, posing and the thought process behind two images.

You can see the under lighting that is filling in by noticing the light areas just under her eyes, and the shadow above each side of her nose. This is not a problem in these ratios, as having a black hat on would necessarily result in a little feel coming from the concrete. As long as it is subtle, it can be a nice part of the image’s authenticity.

EDIT: In the comments, Lily asked about how I see this stuff and I answered that contact sheets were such a vital part of learning how to photograph for me. They are not a part of our lexicon and I think that is a shame. I use the ‘grid’ on my Canon software to look at the take as if it were a contact sheet. Below is the contact sheet from the shot above. You can see how I worked with Natalie in the light and I also think you will agree with my pick for first shot (Red) and second shot (Orange).

You can see how I encouraged her to move in the light that I wanted, carefully keeping it off of her face and nose.

We added a diffuser for the second shot. This is the middle panel in a 5-in-One reflector kit and is usually a soft, translucent panel. In this case it is about a 42″ panel. It is being held in very close to block the full sun from striking the hair and edge of the hat.

I like my diffusion panels to be in very close, and in this case it is just out of camera… maybe an inch out of camera. At that distance it becomes a huge, soft light source for the subject and delivers amazing, soft, wrapping light.

You can see the soft gradient of light from under the brim to the chin in this one as well. Notice however that the hair is no longer burned out, and there is a bit more subtlety to the face presentation.

And the diagram to show my thought process:

Notice the placement of the lines... I wanted something specific and got it. Deliberately making the choices to deliver the final image in the manner you want it delivered... ah, that's the ticket.

By using the diffuser to kill the very bright sun from hitting the hair, and the wall in front of her, we have smoothed out the gradient, and eliminated the small light under her eyes. The light on her face is far more even than in the previous shot.

The ‘contact sheet’ from this image is to the right:

You can see the distinct difference that the diffuser makes on the overall emotion of the shot. There is a much more subtle feel to it. I had forgotten to move my camera back to RAW after shooting at creativeLIVE the previous day. Didn't catch it until after shooting all day Sunday. I simply forgot as I NEVER shoot JPEG. Dang it. LOL

This is neither a good or bad thing… it is only a choice thing.

We still have a nice feeling of light coming from the camera right side of the image, but it is changed substantially in both feeling and emotion. One being more flamboyant and involved in the light and the other more subtly presented in a feeling of ambient.

I am quite deliberate when I shoot, and my mind is seeing the image finished as I am shooting it. Noticing the little things in these diagrams becomes second nature to us as we shoot more and more. Always be shooting… and try these simple ideas for making a portrait:

- Find an area that is bright in the sun.
- Put your subject with the sun over their shoulder and PLACE the exposure for their face.
- Shoot with the full on sun behind them, keeping any part of their face from being lit by it directly.
- Add a scrim, and see how the light changes the mood. Remember that the scrim should be as close as possible to get the effect I got here.

I like both methods a lot and use them when I love the light. Which one do you like better?

And BTW – if you would like to see more of this kind of article here, let me know in the comments. I want to make sure we get the best info out to you.

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I was recently on creativeLIVE and have received some rave reviews of the workshop. If you are interested in taking a look at the workshop, you can find it on creativeLIVE’s web site here. I think it is a tremendous value and if you are unable to attend any of my workshops, this may give you a ton of information you will want to have to push your photography to the next level.

Clark Terry, Jazz Trumpet Legend and Educator

In short – it is simply how creative people learn to do what they do.

The good news here is that you don’t have to start from technique.  The best rule is “don’t play everything (or everytime), some music [is] just imagined”.  YES.  If you listen to Miles Davis play solos, he often hangs back, throws a note out for a while to set a mood, uses what he needs to get the job done.  But he doesn’t necessarily hot-dog.  Sure, Coltrane was an amazing sax player, but he played for many years before his work with Miles on Kind of Blue, or Giant Steps, or My Favorite Things.  There was a great interview series I recently found on iTunes (John Coltrane, “An Interview With”), and in the interview he mentions that he used to play horn with a friend, blowing tunes listening to records, imitating his heroes. — Ken Rimple

In Jazz, we are very aware of how this works. First we learn how to use the sticks and the moment we do, we start to try to play “like” someone. Whether it is Dennis Chambers or Buddy Rich, we try to learn the licks, the fills, the intensity and how to make that trip around the set like Elvin does. How many of us have sat in the throne working our ass off to learn that great little shuffle thing on “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” – Steve Gadd’s legendary riff.

I would sit and play “Alabama” over and over and over to figure out what Elvin was doing with that great little poly-rhyhmic ride. And there was a keen sense of thrill when I was able to finally figure out the underlying shuffle and then ‘get it’.

Trane, Elvin, McCoy and Jimmy playing Alabama. The absolute BEST quartet EVER. EVER.

Did I sound like Elvin? Hellfire NO. I sounded like me doing what Elvin did, but on MY set with MY ride and MY snare and MY changes. Yeah, I changed it. I wasn’t playing “Alabama” with Trane… I was playing “On Green Dolphin Street” with my man Paul (miss you dude, you died way too young). So I took what I had steadfastly learned, and changed it up a bit to work with the way I played.

I imitated, then assimilated, then innovated.

But of course, this is a photography blog, so let’s talk about how it works for us.

The three stages as a photographer:

IMITATE

Finding photographers that you love is not hard. We constantly look at the photographers work we admire, and wonder how they did it. That is exactly fine and totally cool.

And we try to make shots like them. We want to make images that look like they could fit in well with the work of our heros.

Right about now someone is jumping toward their keyboard to type out some snarky thing about me telling you to ‘copy’ and commit mass copyright infringement and how fkn lame that is to tell someone to ‘copy’ someone else.

These fools have never been to school, I guess. In music school we learn how to do what came before in order to move ahead. Same in learning to write, act, paint, program, design, build, engineer, – well, you get it.

In order to get to where we are, we have to know where we came from, and that shows us where to go.

Neal Peart studied Buddy Rich and Jo Jones. Eddie Van Halen listened to every guitar player who had ever played – from country to jazz to classical. He didn’t just ‘make it up’ one day.

He imitated, assimilated and innovated.

When I first picked up a camera, I wanted to make photographs like Weston and Caponigro and Adams and Cunningham. Even though I was 35MM bound, I wanted those grand black and white images to be on my walls. The “majesty” of the work – from landscapes to portraiture” was what drew me in.

And I pursued that look. I bought the books and learned how to print. I got the toners and the enlargers and the papers and the chemistry.

And I made photographs that initially looked sorta maybe kinda like my heroes, but of course didn’t. My models were different, as were my lens choices, places, and aesthetics. I was studying them with the goal of imitation, so that I would then assimilate the processes so that I could apply it to my work.

One day I saw the work of Elgort, Watson and the great Demarchelier.

Life. Changed.

I had thought of photography in different terms, and that world view changed.

I struggled to do work like Patrick, and Peter and Annie. I wanted to get THAT look.

I would travel to NY a few times a year to shoot with NY models, in NY locations. I learned more than I ever would have thought about fashion and trends and hair and makuep and styling.

But I never made shots that looked like theirs. I made images that looked like mine – inspired by them – and in the techniques that I had learned, and changed, to fit my vision.

Copying? Hardly.

ASSIMILATE

Working toward understanding the tools of the craft, through the application of that learning in the shadow of inspiring heroes makes the journey more fun.

And measurable.

Getting that transition soft on the face, and the eyes bright in the portrait, and that razor thin DOF that so and so did in that one shot back in the June issue of Italian Vogue… that was where the real learning took place.

To assimilate means that the techniques, skills, abilities, tools and working with them becomes second nature. No longer ‘thinking’ about how to make that razor thin DOF, and where to put the softbox to get that transition, we do it instinctively. We begin to see LIKE a camera sees.

After working through all that imitation means we LEARNED how to do what they did, albeit with our own models, locations, MUA’s, wardrobe and such. We became proficient with our tools.

We make it look ‘easy’ as they say.

Easy? After 10,000 or double hours, it better look easy… it better be easy. It is simply gear and technology – AND – it has fixed and known components. Light does the same thing every time, and there are only 8-9 apertures and a handful of shutter-speeds… sheesh. You want hard, try learning the friggin’ cello.

We see images before we pick up the camera. We see lighting where none exists. We can visualize that finished image, see how it was produced and order the lunch at the same time.

Some call it practice… and, yeah, I’m good with that.

I call it assimilation. I believe that it goes beyond ‘practice’ and how many hours one does, as that is not enough. Not enough at all. What if you are practicing and spending all that time doing it wrong. 10,000 hours of crappy playing only means that ‘crappy’ is now your basis for what you do.

To assimilate means bringing in and digesting the best that is offered. Filtering as you go, because you have a measurable outcome to view. Do the images evoke what you want them to, or are they off by a mile?

INNOVATE

And here is where it gets dicey.

Here is where the rubber meets the road. Where the right lane and the left lane merge into the single lane. The funnel.

This is the rarified air… so few get to be in this place.

Taking what we have assimilated, we find ourselves drifting toward a look – a viewpoint, style, vision – that is more us and less ‘them’.

It ain’t easy.

It is dangerously intoxicating, and it is a terrible, mean, unforgiving lover that seems more bound and determinated to destroy than to build.

It is no-mans land… like a pioneer crossing West Texas in a wagon. No mountains for context, no trails to follow, no horizon and really no idea where the hell we are going.

Innovation means making your own work. Sure you are doing portraiture, and sure someone may say your work looks like _____. What, you think NOBODY done what you doin’?

Yeah… well they have, and you gotta simply keep putting your flair, polish, spin, POV, detail and personality into your work.

Innovation is the goal. At least it should be.

The Gods honest truth is, it is probably not the goal for most.

Being able to be ‘as good as’ is good enough. In fact, being ‘good enough’ is often ‘good enough’ for a lot of folks.

And – ya know – I got nothin’ to say bad about that. If that is your goal, then do it and be happy with where you are. Create the work you do and love it. It is still yours, even if you haven’t ‘innovated’ into the next level.

For those that choose to move on, be prepared for a battle. Both internally and externally. Innovation is a target of the status-quo – and not in the good way. In the ‘kill it before it kills us’ way. You will have to be a bit stronger than you imagine.

But today’s innovators will be tomorrows inspirations… and they will initiate the cycle once again.

———————

I was recently on creativeLIVE and have received some rave reviews of the workshop. If you are interested in taking a look at the workshop, you can find it on creativeLIVE’s web site here. I think it is a tremendous value and if you are unable to attend any of my workshops, this may give you a ton of information you will want to have to push your photography to the next level.

Continued from WordPress Basics for Photographers: Part One

We have looked around and found a few themes that may work for us, and now we need to get it and install it.

I of course have my favorite themes and theme designers and there are reasons… Here are a few things I am looking for:

1. Will it be kept up. Free themes are cool, and there are some amazing ones out there. Just make sure you understand that they are free, and as such the developers may lose interest in keeping up with the latest WordPress enhancements. At some point, the Theme may simply not work as well as it used to, or be so far out of date that some of the reasons you want to use WP are gone.

2. I personally like a minimal approach to design. Not a lot of doodads and frills, just get right to the content and the images.

3. The ability to customize the content is very important to me. I like having “Shortcodes” that allow me to do things like add columns of text, drop caps, and boxes. Be aware that some of these codes may not work with Themes that are not compatible… and that can be a problem occasionally. So when choosing a theme with a lot of shortcodes, you may be choosing a theme to stick with for a while.

4. Full width pages – I must have the ability to make a page without any columns. This gives me a place for my portfolio and gallery displays.

5. Built-in Blog. Important if we are going to start to leverage the content we create.

You can see two of my favorite theme builders here on this site, and I am an affiliate. Purchasing a Theme through a link from this site puts a few dollars in my pocket at no cost to you. See the ads at the top of this post and on the right side column – Elegant Themes and Theme Trust both make some of the most attractive themes available.

I also think that a portfolio site should be built ‘responsive’. That means that the site actually changes its look and feel to fit the device that it is being viewed upon. iPhones and smart phones have specific needs, and the site reconfigures on the fly to present within their parameters…

Choose your theme carefully.

Does it give you the ability to do what YOU want to do? Does it reflect your design and interests well? Can you live within any limitations it may have?

Let’s look at a few sites that I think would be very cool for a photographer’s website.

Theme Forest has some beautiful themes with a lot of features.

This is a new theme available at ThemeForest: Mercina.

Jupither is an outstanding minimal site that is also “Responsive”.

The Gallery is very smart and ready for a photographer with a lot of images.

Lens is perfect for the photographer with a lot of project or story galleries.

Simpler has some nice features for the right photographer.

Some lists of themes:

For those of you seeking a free option, these are pretty cool.

You may find something you like in this list of Responsive themes.

This list of 60 premium themes seems full of cool possibilities.

Once you have chosen and uploaded your theme, the first… and I meant the FIRST thing you must do is read the documentation that comes with your theme. I guarantee it will eliminate a lot of headaches and false starts. WordPress has some real power, but that also means it has some complexity as well.

The themes we are looking at here have some extras and customizations that will give your site more power and polish, but also must be learned.

A look at three themes.

I carefully weigh all the needs in my list with what the theme is offering. I want very little trade-off. Preferring to keep the design simple, I have shown you sites I like. But my likes may not be your likes. So find the theme and colors and more that YOU love.

Again, I make a little list of things I MUST HAVE and then check them off on the theme:

1. Big Images
2. Full Width Pages
3. Drop Down Menus
4. Home Page Slideshow
5. Some way to show “projects” or “New Work”
6. “Shortcodes” – the ability to easily insert multiple columns, control the typography and add sliders with a single snippet of code.
7. Clean, modern design that doesn’t get in the way of the images
8. Built in Blog
9. Compatibility with WordPress advances
10. Will the Theme be supported?

I suggest you make a “Theme Must Have” list as well.

How to Prepare the information for the theme you are building.

Getting the information, graphics, text, and images together BEFORE you try putting it into your site will be very, very important. It keeps you from going nuts, even. Trust me – I know.

I use several different methods to plan out my site building. One is to use a tool on my Chrome browser called “Measure It” (here) that lets me find distances on any page or document showing in my browser. I can find out how big to make my images for the site, or the distance between columns etc… It is quite handy for web designers.

I can also do a screen grab of the browser page and put it into Photoshop to find dimensions and sizes and more.

The “View Image Properties (info)” may not work on every graphic, so having a plan B is always a good idea.

In addition, on the home page of every new installation is a great list of links that walk you through the most important aspects of your setup. Do each link carefully.

Look – I hear a lot of people complain about WordPress being difficult and such. In nearly every incidence, it is user error and an approach that seems to be anti-learning how to do it before embarking. It is code, folks… it must be exactly right.

So that is this weeks assignment: Pick a theme. install it and read the manual/do the tutorials. Get familiar with the site.

———————

There are many different ways to get your WordPress Theme installed, but let’s look at one of the most popular: Fantastico.

Fantastico is available at many hosting companies and is accessed by your C-Panel. If you are unfamiliar with this aspect, —————————–

Here are the two Fantastico screens that install WordPress (the environment) on your server:

Fantastico New Installation panel.

If you are doing a new installation, and most of you will be, choose it on this panel.

Now we will do the setup:

A few simple, but important fields to fill out and you are good to go.

Once you have created your WordPress environment, it is time to install the theme.

Of course, we have to have a Theme to install… so off to internet to purchase a good theme.

After uploading the theme and getting it ready, you will want to do your first plug-in installation. We recommend Under-Construction as a way to let you build your site and keep your visitors outside, away from the new graphics and unfinished sentences.

Let’s install the Plug-In when you are ready.

Installing the Coming Soon Plugin for privacy while building the site.

Coming next: Preparing the Graphics and Materials.

———————

I was recently on creativeLIVE and have received some rave reviews of the workshop. If you are interested in taking a look at the workshop, you can find it on creativeLIVE’s web site here. I think it is a tremendous value and if you are unable to attend any of my workshops, this may give you a ton of information you will want to have to push your photography to the next level.

So I simply alluded to a certain three days that my friends and LE followers should bookmark.

Heh…

And now it is Sunday morning, Easter, and the wonderful days of the workshop are behind me. The hours planning and working on exactly what I would say have been spent and now I am sitting comfortably in my hotel room watching an amazing sunrise coming along in the eastern skies over Seattle.

Simply beautiful.

I want to take a few minutes to talk about the creativeLIVE experience. I think it is really important to discuss.

creativeLIVE is a disruption in the status quo. It is a change agent. It is publishing and education stood on end and twisted into something far better. And it is a boon to the artist and artist-to-be. It is a new way of presenting the information for the new realities of learning.

Traditional education is in trouble. It was designed for the masses by industrialists in order to create more worker-bees. When schools realized there were so many vertical channels to use to market to the masses, we found university art departments, philosophy, music and fine arts educations in narrow, easily sold, niches.

That cost $100K. In “Guaranteed” student loans. No worries how much we charge… we will always get paid. The banks loan more so the schools charge more and then the banks loan more and then… well – you get the drift.

And we have students leaving schools with a debt load of tens of thousands to enter a market that neither asks for or demands any formal education at all.

(Now, look – there is nothing wrong with learning 14th Century Art. It is a fine and noble study. But if you have been convinced it is somehow worth the tradeout of your future earnings to the tune of $90,000 then you have been totally misled and most probably caught in the tired old last century approach to education that is not making much sense anymore.)

creativeLIVE smacks that old model. They twist it back on itself and ask what education NEEDS to be. What do the people NEED in order to become creative thinkers, individual entities, and entrepreneurs in the most personal of terms.

They bring instructors that are working professionals, and good teachers, into a small classroom situation, and broadcast that information exchange  to the world. And the world is better for it. It is entertaining, interactive and instructional. It’s all the “good parts” synthesized into the new way of learning brought to us by an expanding network of information points.

The tuition is free for the live exchange, and extremely affordable for the archived material. A typical creativeLIVE show is $149. I have seen textbooks going for that price.

As a working photographer I can tell you how disappointed I usually am when a University photography graduate comes to me for an assistant position. Yes, they have some wonderful historical perspective, and their arty/strange/weird/wonderful (pick two) work is fun to look at.

But they don’t have much of an idea of what I do.

And they owe $75K.

The old model of assisting (apprenticeship) has been slashed by the entry of digital. I don’t need a darkroom person anymore – and that was a big part of assisting. The changes in budgets have been a factor as well. And when someone has a huge student loan, it is a bit difficult to figure out how to get that apprenticeship thing going. Maybe more prudent to get a gig at Kinko’s and keep the hounds at bay.

Sad.

Enter creativeLIVE… real world, real down-to-earth information delivered by industry professionals with a desire to teach and inspire and lead.

For a price that is so far less than a ‘formal’ educational experience that it doesn’t even register.

I am a commercially oriented photographer, not a wedding or portrait shooter. And I can tell you that there is an entire course of material to get any photographer who wants to study and work it hard to a new level in their work. I can say with certainty that a well schooled creativeLIVE student would fare far better with me than a traditionally schooled student would.

The information is there. What you do with it is your choice.

And choices are a bitch. They make us commit. In a world where commitment means nothing, and is sorely lacking, committing to action can be a bit un-nerving.

It shouldn’t be.

If you want a full on, apprenticeship understanding of the world of professional commercial photography, you keep your mouse pointed at these creativeLIVE folks… its there, and it is free or nearly free. (18 hours of education for less than $10 per hour is nearly free in my book.)

If I may be so bold as to make a few suggestions:

Jeremy Cowart’s Portraiture Program
http://www.creativelive.com/courses/experimental-portraiture-jeremy-cowart

Penny De Los Santos’ Food Photography Workshop
http://www.creativelive.com/courses/food-photography-penny-de-los-santos

Zack Arias’s Fundamentals Course
http://www.creativelive.com/courses/zack-arias-again

Matthew Jordan Smith’s Fashion/Beauty Course
http://www.creativelive.com/courses/beauty-fashion-photography-matthew-jordan-smith

John Cornicello’s Home Studio Program
http://www.creativelive.com/courses/setting-home-studio-john-cornicello

Sue Bryce’s Glamour Course
http://www.creativelive.com/courses/glamour-photography-sue-bryce
(Even if you are not a glamour shooter… the Sunday portion of this class is worth about $10K on its own… and I am not kidding)

That’s about $800… less than $8 per hour of instruction. I will let you do your own math on how much less that is than traditional, spend all year learning Photoshop while the world moves past you education costs.

Thank you, creativeLIVE.

I started writing this to thank them for all the wonderful things we did these past four days, but first I wanted to thank them from my position as an educator. They are providing photographers with an incredible new paradigm of learning. And they do it well.

So now to the personal thanks:

Celeste and Craig were supportive beyond imagination… LOL. Consummate professionals with warm and welcoming smiles and were always there to help me figure out what I was doing. No muss, no fuss… just great assistance. Big thanks to the wonderful Kate as well.

Kenna and LaRae are just what you see on your screen. Fun, excited and incredibly interested in the instructors… and always a huge supportive smile when one was needed. And that happens once in a while when you are talking to a bunch of cameras… heh.

The crew. Adam, Niko… all the camera guys… wow. That level of professionalism and good humor is really something. Thanks so much to you guys and gals. To say you made it seamless is an understatement.

John Cornicello is… well, a talented, helpful, fun and very knowledgeable guy who is also just as much fun as you think he would be from watching. Thanks John.

Bret Doss took one of my workshops a few years ago here in Seattle. I have watched him grow from weekend warrior with little idea of what he wanted to do to a professional part time shooter who is doing work for major corporations. Thanks for joining me up here, Bret. (Bret and I are headed out in an hour or two… we are off to make photographs… who knew?)

My students were so much fun (and yeah, we partied all over Seattle – even venturing down to the tourist mecca of the Crab Pot. I had a Salmon burger with bacon… LOL).

Thanks to Kimberly, Lori, Tracey, Ian and Moe… wow. That is all I can say – wow.

Briana was someone who I worked with during a particularly strange year of deciding what I wanted to do, and she has been such a big part of the whole LE thing that I had to bring her along as well. She did wonderfully and is having a blast in Seattle. Thanks Bri. (oh and that’s @briana_model for those who would like to follow her on twitter)

And thanks also to Claudine, Isabel, Natalie, and  Alyssa who also doubled as our makeup artist.

And of course a big shout out to my incredible, talented and wonderful family over at Project 52. You were so wonderfully supportive… I saw the tweets and checked the forum each evening. The gift of the poster was one of the most unexpected, and awesome gifts I have ever received. And I don’t use that word often.

Big shouts out to my buds who happily gave their stuff away to viewers:

Thanks Tony Kuyper: Tony’s Site
I use Tony’s actions on nearly every shot. Digital is flat and Tony’s actions let me add contrast to specific ranges of luminance without affecting the rest of the image. Amazing and cool.

Thanks Steve at Standbagger: Standbaggers
I discovered Standbaggers a few years ago and absolutely love them. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Scott Forman and I have a product we call GalleryPro.
GalleryPro lets a photographer, designer, illustrator or artist show their work across multiple platforms while managing it from a single online page. What does that mean to you… check us out at www.gallerypro.me

And of course to Selina Maitreya who will be giving away an entire Clarion Call series to the winner of our “Jump Start” contest, my deepest thanks. Selina can help you with your goals as a photographer. From portfolio guidance to full vision consulting, she is amazing. Selina is here: http://www.selinamaitreya.com

To the viewers and the well wishers and the tweeters and the folks over on the Flickr forums (Lighting Essentials and Strobist) thanks so much. Your kind words were welcomed.

And to Marian, Shanna, Michaila and Alissa… thanks for being my support at home. Love you and I will see you tomorrow.

THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE CURRENT ENTRIES:

I am just starting the last day of my creativeLIVE workshop.

To say I have had fun is a total understatement… not fun… pure joy. Teaching is one of those things I love doing.

A lot.

I wanted to do something cool for a grand prize, so I have teamed up with Selina Maitreya and we are offering an “Emerging Photographer “Jump Start” package.

This includes a full two day lighting/photography/identity workshop with me in my studio (in Phoenix, so you will have to get there… travel and accommodations are your responsibility), and a full set of Clarion Call recordings from Selina.

The total value of this Jump Start is over $3500…

And it will be won by one photographer.

To enter, tell us about yourself. What are you doing now, and what are your goals. How ready are you to go go go…

This should be no more than 1000 words.

Attach 10 of your favorite images.

They have to be submitted by May10, and you must be able to do this workshop with me by the end of June, 2012.

Send the email with your written material attached as a PDF please.

Images should be zipped and no more than 1000 pixels on the longer side.

And send them to don.giannatti@gmail.com – and I will let you know that we have received them.

Selina and I will announce the winners on May 20, 2012. Here,

You can read more about Selina Maitreya and her incredible marketing work for photographers here.

Great luck to you… I hope you take advantage of this offer and submit your best work.

I also love traditional websites and feel that they do have their place for photographers. But many photographers don’t want to have to learn any coding or programs like Dreamweaver and CoffeeCup. And that’s fine.

Sure, there are other content management tools like Joomla out there… but the interfaces and limitations that make them great for corporate and larger sites make them a bit of a problem for photographers.

The point of this workshop in four installments is to get you up and running on a gorgeous WP Theme and get your work to market.

Part ONE: Choosing a Template

Not all WordPress Themes are created equal. There are free themes, inexpensive themes and custom themes.

If this is your first site, let’s look at getting the right theme for you.

Free themes can be a great bargain. There are some really good ones out there, and I will list a few for you.

Caveats: No support on free themes, and there may not be any updates coming as WordPress keeps changing. That may not be problematic at all for you if you plan on changing themes every year or so.

Inexpensive Themes: (Less than $50). These usually come with support and are backed up by updates. When WP changes or updates a new theme item may be needed to be rewritten, or tweeked.

Custom Themes: We are not going to look at custom themes, as they can run from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars.

The Themes

A Theme is a look and feel design that is overlaid on the WordPress base code. The theme is different than the content.

So if you change themes, you don’t lose your content. It just changes into looking like the new theme you have chosen.

Cool!

WordPress began as a blogging tool. That means the latest post was on the home page, and the “posts” went in reverse hierarchical order. Last post in, first post up.

That was great for blogging, but we need a theme that is more like a website with a home page, additional pages, a portfolio and a blog built in. That is the type of Themes we will be looking at.

Installing WordPress

Most hosts have a “One Click” method for installing WordPress, or will let you know where the WordPress is running on your server. WordPress is NOT your website, it is the system of files and folders that will form the base of your website and allow you to manage your content with ease.

Check with your host for instructions on installing WordPress on your server. I use HostGator and GoDaddy for my servers. GoDaddy has a request form that you will fill out and they will install it and let you know that it has been installed. HostGator uses a tool called Fantastico that is about 2 clicks to installing WordPress and the installation is instantaneous. Other hosts may use different tools.

Choosing a Theme

This is where a lot of photographers get bogged down. There are a lot of choices to be made, and a lot of different theme tools that can be used to advantage – or get in the way – when you start down the road of getting your WordPress up.

Let’s look at what we need:

A “Home” page.

An “About” page.

A “Portfolio” page.

A “Contact” page.

Some “Projects” pages.

And some other assorted pages that you may want to use for your specific business – a “Fees” page, or a “Prints” page.

And we want to feature our photography right up front.

When you are looking for a theme that may be useful for you, consider looking for themes that have a very clean look… I prefer minimalistic designs, but you may prefer something more illustrative or with texture.

Responsive Themes: Are They Important.

Yes.

And no.

I am currently working on my www.dongiannatti.com site and have chosen a responsive theme for it.

What does that mean? It means that the site will reconfigure for screens of different sizes and resolutions. While the new iPads have more than enough resolution to show a site full size, Android and iPhones do not. So instead of the normal thing that we have to do when browsing the internet on our phones… you know… pinching and making parts bigger so we can click and such.

The site will actually reconfigure to be more smart-phone friendly.

While that may be a big consideration for some folks (I am doing it for my design site, but Essentials for Photographers will not be responsive) it may not be for others.

We also have a few plugins that can do the same thing… stay tuned for more on plugins.

Choosing a Theme

When I am looking for a theme, I want to see how many choices are given to me, as well as how easy it would be to customize the site.

Some themes are cast in stone, and some are fairly open. I have some experience in code, but you may not. If you are looking for a theme to be used right out of the box, then the options should be easy for you to work with.

Ask yourself these questions;

1. What do I want to ‘say’ with my opening page?
Are you fun and full of personality, more formal in approach, or somewhere in between? Are you fashionable and ultra-stylish, or ‘Americana’ old world styled. Does your logo give you some ideas on what you are about… and how will that logo look with the style you are looking at?

2. What do you want the visitor to do?

3. Do you want to show “projects” or “stories” to entice the visitor?

4. Will you be blogging? And will you be showing recent blog posts on the home page somewhere?

5. Will this be a very interactive site – blog and portfolio and projects and ‘what’s new’ all wrapped up in there, or a simple “portfolio” site that has the bare amount of pages and a portfolio?

Note that there are no wrong answers and there will be no test later. Heh.

Portfolios:

There are several ways to show your portfolio within WordPress. WordPress ships with a very nice gallery tool and there are many additional types that can be added as a plug in. Most are variations of the “Lightbox” type of gallery – click on an image and it gets larger in the middle of the screen – and they work very well. I like the way they show portfolios, but can be a bit limiting when it comes to ordering and re-ordering the images. But for a basic shooter, they work great.

Here it is in action at Project 52.

You can also use the elegant portfolio tool from SlideShowPro.net.

A few clicks and it is installed.

GalleryPro is another alternative (full disclosure, I am part owner in this).

You can see it in action here on E4P.

So choosing and having a specific look and feel for your portfolio is fairly easy to accomplish.

Themes

So here is our first assignment: Take a look at the themes that are out there.

Theme Trust.

Elegant Themes

Theme Forest

GraphPaperPress

(I am an affiliate for some of these. Purchasing through these links helps support this site with no additional costs to you.)

So take a look and see what is out there.

Look for something that says “you” and that you feel will support your images.

Note: this is Part One.

In Part Two we will look at some specific tools and styles that will work best, so do NOT purchase anything yet. We will get to that after we do Part Two.

Assignment:

1. Begin with making a folder of your images for the portfolio. Do not worry about sizing them yet, we will do that when we know what size your theme is calling for.

2. Research “About Me” pages. What do you want to say about you… and yeah, every site has an about me page so get over it. You will need some biographical material as well as a photograph of you.

3. What will you want on your contact page? Will a map be a good addition? Will you want a form? Start planning how and in which manner you want people to contact you.

4. Take a few screen shots of themes you like. Be sure to name them with information that will allow you to find them again. It is important to see where things lay out when you are planning your theme.

5. Think about colors and textures… will they enhance or detract from your imagery? Will there be any challenges with your current logo? Will your logo work in the space provided by the theme designer?

OK – we are off on Part One.

Next Week will officially look at purchasing and installing the theme you like.

I am teaching a workshop tomorrow, April 5 at creativeLIVE. It runs through April 7. Hit www.creativeLIVE.com for more info and to check out the other great workshops they offer.