Picture This Workshop- Week 5 of 5

Hey there it's Jenny again from J. Van Allen Photography. This is our final week with the workshop. Today we'll be answering some of the questions I've received and we'll be doing a giveaway!

Q & A

1. I'm just starting out can you recommend a good lens, I noticed that I cannot get a small aperture with my lens.
If you' re a Canon user this lens is fantastic and it's under a 100 dollars which is great! The aperture goes all the way down to 1.8 and is fantastic for portraits and has that great fuzzy background that we all love!
I don't want to leave you Nikon users out of the loop either! This is also same type of lens (and just as fantastic) and is around 120 dollars!

2. What type of Software do you recommend for beginners?
When I first started to edit my pictures, I used Photoshop elements. It does all the basic photo editing you would need. Also there are a lot of designers out there making all sorts of actions for photoshop elements to make editing even faster. {what is an action you ask?? An action is little more than a series of steps that you perform on an image, with a click of a button-- with some adjusting here and there of course!}

3.What are some good websites to check out for actions using Photoshop Elements?
*I just wanted to let everyone know that I purely just love these websites and think their fantastic, I'm not endorsing anyone for money.

Here are a couple of websites that have some great tutorials and actions for PSE (photoshop elements) and some are even FREE!

The coffeeshop blog
Pioneer Woman
Flora Bella Collection
MCP actions


Giveaway

These hats are made by Audrey from Ahh Baby Boutique. She makes the most adorable knit hats. I've been honored to feature these posh little hats in some of my newborn photography shoots. I absolutely love them they're so soft and snuggly, perfect for sweet babies. Audrey has generously offered to give away one of her adorable hats.

don't you just love them??

And for all you local Arizonans, I'm excited to give away $50 gift certificate toward a photography session of your choice!

To enter for one of those gorgeous hats check out Ahh baby and leave a comment here letting us know what hat you adore.

Finally to enter the giveaway for the photography gift certificate, click here and become a subscriber to J. Van Allen Photography (just leave your email). and leave a comment here letting me know you're a subscriber and let me know what type of session you'd love to do!

A winner for each prize will be chosen at random and announced here at the top of this site on Monday!

Thanks again for this opportunity and happy picture taking!

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HUGE thanks to Jenny for putting on such a fun and informational workshop series for this month! I have learned so much and can't wait to keep practicing! Please visit her site and her blog and let her know how much you loved this workshop series. Thanks Jenny! Lets do lunch again soon!!!