Thanks for all the great questions you've been sending in to the Photofocus podcast.  This week we're joined by guru and Photofocus contributor Nicole S. Young (nicolesy).  Rich and Nicole tackle some great topics to help photographers.

The music in our podcast comes from the cool folks over at SongFreedom, be sure to check them out!

Get the show here  or get it on iTunes — Don't forget to post a review on iTunes.

This Post Sponsored by:

Drobo. A family of Safe, Simple, and Expandable storage systems for capture in the field, editing in the studio, or backup and archive.

Zenfolio. Looking for more than just a photo hosting website?  Join the tens of thousands of photographers who switched to the best all-in-one solution to organize, display and sell your photography work online.

lynda.com Learn photography anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace—from bite-sized tutorials to comprehensive courses. Try lynda.com free for 10 days by visiting lynda.com/Photofocus.

SongFreedom is about artists supporting artists. We’re a music licensing platform with the best music available–stuff from the radio, or your favorite indie bands and soundtracks.  A place where photographers and cinematographers can find the most powerful song for their story with the click of a button.

Capture Cinematic Weddings with Ray Roman.  A Wedding Workshop Series Traveling the US and Canada. Learn to shoot stunning wedding videos from the master of ceremonies, Ray Roman -- The World Renowned Wedding Cinematographer! Use the code PHOTOFOCUS for discounted tickets.

The HDR Learning Center Check out new ways to use High Dynamic Range photography to make compelling images. Free tutorials and posts to get results. Produced in partnership with HDRsoft.

Thanks for all the great questions you've been sending in to the Photofocus podcast. This week is a two part show. First up, Rich Harrington catches up with photographer and educator Abba Shapiro to tackle some great topics to help photographers.

Then Levi Sim catch up with Ray Roman & Matt Thompson to talk about shooting weddings and making the transition from photo to video. Remember, you can post questions for future shows via Twitter with the #pfqa or send us a note at Photofocus.

The music in our podcast comes from the cool folks over at SongFreedom, be sure to check them out!

Rich Harrington & Abba Shapiro

Welcome to the Show
Enter our New Camera Contest
Thanks to Drobo
What is Abba’s background?
What does he love to shoot?
Suggestions on using underwater gear
Advice for working with models.
Strategies for networking and finding models.
Check out new photo classes on lynda.com
Abba's Favorite Plug-ins
Are you cheating if you use plug-ins?
Enhance your images with onOne Perfect Photo Suite
Cool results with the Perfectly Clear Plug-In
Learn About HDR with Photomatix
Fixing Portraits with Portrait Professional
Advice for using plug-ins
What are the drawbacks and benefits of using auto modes such as auto ISO?
Add the perfect soundtrack with SongFreedom
Can you recover photos from a card that was deleted?
Advice for protecting cards
Should I Have a Digital or Print Portfolio?

Levi Sim with Ray Roman & Matt Thompson 
Who is Matt Thompson?
Who is Ray Roman and what does he do?
What is Ray’s background?
How did Ray get started in wedding videos?
How another photographer saved his business?
Ray discusses his motivation to be the best.
How Ray juggled career and doing weddings?
Being driven and challenging yourself
How is Ray increasing his skills?
Learn to Analyze everything you see
Learn to have a strong foundation
Photographers are half way to shooting video
What gear Ray uses and why?
What sets Ray apart?
Branding talk and how it can elevate your business.
What does Ray teaches at his workshops?
Networking and getting to know others in your industry.
Where can we find out more about Ray’s workshops?
Where can we catch up with Matt?

Thanks for all the great questions you've been sending in to the Photofocus podcast.  This week Rich Harrington and Levi Sim tackle some great topics to help photographers. Remember, you can post those questions via Twitter with the #pfqa or send us a note here at Photofocus.

The music in our podcast comes from the cool folks over at SongFreedom, be sure to check them out!

This Post Sponsored by:

SongFreedom is about artists supporting artists. We’re a music licensing platform with the best music available–stuff from the radio, or your favorite indie bands and soundtracks.  A place where photographers and cinematographers can find the most powerful song for their story with the click of a button.

Adobe Transform your photography. Organize, edit, enhance, and share your images on your desktop or mobile device with the world’s best photography tools: Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom. Get the most comprehensive photography solution for just $9.99/month.

OnOne Software Perfect Photo Suite 9 is a full-featured photo editor that works either as a plug-in to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, or as a standalone application. In any workflow, the Suite provides all the necessary tools for editing your photos, improving portraits, adding popular looks in color or black and white, resizing for large-format printing, and making complex selections with minimal effort.

Drobo. A family of Safe, Simple, and Expandable storage systems for capture in the field, editing in the studio, or backup and archive.

lynda.com Learn photography anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace—from bite-sized tutorials to comprehensive courses. Try lynda.com free for 10 days by visiting lynda.com/ Photofocus.

The HDR Learning Center Check out new ways to use High Dynamic Range photography to make compelling images. Free tutorials and posts to get results. Produced in partnership with HDRsoft.

Thanks for all the great questions you’ve been sending in to the Photofocus podcast.  This week Rich Harrington and Kevin Ames tackle some great topics to help photographers. Remember, you can post those questions via Twitter with the #pfqa or send us a note here at Photofocus.

The music in our podcast comes from the cool folks over at SongFreedom, be sure to check them out!

SongFreedom is about artists supporting artists. We’re a music licensing platform with the best music available–stuff from the radio, or your favorite indie bands and soundtracks.  A place where photographers and cinematographers can find the most powerful song for their story with the click of a button.

OnOne Software Perfect Photo Suite 9 is a full-featured photo editor that works either as a plug-in to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, or as a standalone application. In any workflow, the Suite provides all the necessary tools for editing your photos, improving portraits, adding popular looks in color or black and white, resizing for large-format printing, and making complex selections with minimal effort.

Drobo. A family of Safe, Simple, and Expandable storage systems for capture in the field, editing in the studio, or backup and archive.

Adobe Transform your photography. Organize, edit, enhance, and share your images on your desktop or mobile device with the world’s best photography tools: Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom. Get the most comprehensive photography solution for just $9.99/month.

lynda.com Learn photography anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace—from bite-sized tutorials to comprehensive courses. Try lynda.com free for 10 days by visiting lynda.com/ Photofocus.

The HDR Learning Center Check out new ways to use High Dynamic Range photography to make compelling images. Free tutorials and posts to get results. Produced in partnership with HDRsoft.

Thanks for all the great questions you've been sending in to the Photofocus podcast.  This week Rich Harrington and Levi Sim tackle some great topics to help photographers. Remember, you can post those questions via Twitter with the #pfqa or send us a note here at Photofocus.

Rich Harrington & Levi Sim

Drobo. A family of Safe, Simple, and Expandable storage systems for capture in the field, editing in the studio, or backup and archive.

Adobe Transform your photography. Organize, edit, enhance, and share your images on your desktop or mobile device with the world’s best photography tools: Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom. Get the most comprehensive photography solution for just $9.99/month.

lynda.com Learn photography anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace—from bite-sized tutorials to comprehensive courses. Try lynda.com free for 10 days by visiting lynda.com/ Photofocus.

SongFreedom is about artists supporting artists. We’re a music licensing platform with the best music available–stuff from the radio, or your favorite indie bands and soundtracks.  A place where photographers and cinematographers can find the most powerful song for their story with the click of a button.

OnOne Software Perfect Photo Suite 9 is a full-featured photo editor that works either as a plug-in to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, or as a standalone application. In any workflow, the Suite provides all the necessary tools for editing your photos, improving portraits, adding popular looks in color or black and white, resizing for large-format printing, and making complex selections with minimal effort.

The HDR Learning Center Check out new ways to use High Dynamic Range photography to make compelling images. Free tutorials and posts to get results. Produced in partnership with HDRsoft.

This week's podcast interviews photographers Stephen Eastwood and Mike Kubeisy.  Plus we'll offer some quick resources for touching up holiday photos as well as news about our next camera contest.

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/180242351" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="175" iframe="true" /]

Get the show here  or get it on iTunes — Don't forget to post a review on iTunes.

Stephen Eastwood is a New York based Fashion and Beauty Photographer.  He also is a digital retoucher.  His expertise in both shooting and retouching have led him to be named a Canon Explorer of Light and PrintMaster.

Levi Sim and Stephen Eastwood discuss:

Mike Kubeisy covers everything from crime scenes to crime scenes to Hollywood celebrities. Since 1984, as a Motion Picture and Television Stills Photographer. He is currently shooting on shows being televised worldwide. He's taught everywhere from Photoshop World to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Photo Operations Unit. He is an active member of the Cinematographers Guild Local 600 and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. You can view his work at www.4stills.com.

Vanelli and Mike discuss:

Drobo. A family of Safe, Simple, and Expandable storage systems for capture in the field, editing in the studio, or backup and archive.

Adobe Transform your photography. Organize, edit, enhance, and share your images on your desktop or mobile device with the world’s best photography tools: Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom. Get the most comprehensive photography solution for just $9.99/month.

lynda.com Learn photography anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace—from bite-sized tutorials to comprehensive courses. Try lynda.com free for 10 days by visiting lynda.com/ Photofocus.

SongFreedom is about artists supporting artists. We’re a music licensing platform with the best music available–stuff from the radio, or your favorite indie bands and soundtracks.  A place where photographers and cinematographers can find the most powerful song for their story with the click of a button.

OnOne Software Perfect Photo Suite 9 is a full-featured photo editor that works either as a plug-in to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, or as a standalone application. In any workflow, the Suite provides all the necessary tools for editing your photos, improving portraits, adding popular looks in color or black and white, resizing for large-format printing, and making complex selections with minimal effort.

The HDR Learning Center Check out new ways to use High Dynamic Range photography to make compelling images. Free tutorials and posts to get results. Produced in partnership with HDRsoft.

After a hiatus, we've brought back the Question and Answer format to the Photofocus podcast. We got a lot of feedback at our reader's breakfast and decided to pull the format back out. Our goal is to once a month get answers to questions you have.  You can post those questions via Twitter with the #pfqa or send us a note here at Photofocus.

This week's podcast interviews photographers Roberto Valenzuela and Peter Hurley.  Beauty and wedding photographer Roberto Valenzuela talks about working with medium formats.  Then we join Peter Hurley for some practical advice on working with and directing your subject.

Roberto Valenzuela is a photographer based in Beverly Hills, CA. He developed his unique teaching style by following the same practice regimen he developed as a professional concert classical guitarist and educator.

Roberto believes that it is not talent but deliberate practice that is at the core of skill and achievement. He has traveled to every corner of the world motivating photographers to practice and break down the various elements of photography in order to master them through goal setting, self-training, and constant dedication.

Roberto serves as a judge for photographic print competitions in Europe, Mexico, South America, and the most prestigious International photography competitions held in the United States through the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) in Las Vegas, NV.

Peter Hurley is a New York photographer who found his way behind a camera after starting his career in front of one as a model and actor. He first picked up a camera to photograph his work making the US Sailing Team for the Olympics. This lead to a mentorship with photographer Bruce Weber who encouraged him. He's since gone on to shoot advertisements for Levi's, Reebok, DKNY, Johnnie Walker and Axe Deodorant to name a few.

Learn about:

Drobo. A family of Safe, Simple, and Expandable storage systems for capture in the field, editing in the studio, or backup and archive.

Adobe Transform your photography. Organize, edit, enhance, and share your images on your desktop or mobile device with the world’s best photography tools: Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom. Get the most comprehensive photography solution for just $9.99/month.

lynda.com Learn photography anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace—from bite-sized tutorials to comprehensive courses. Try lynda.com free for 10 days by visiting lynda.com/ Photofocus.

SongFreedom is about artists supporting artists. We’re a music licensing platform with the best music available–stuff from the radio, or your favorite indie bands and soundtracks.  A place where photographers and cinematographers can find the most powerful song for their story with the click of a button.

OnOne Software Perfect Photo Suite 9 is a full-featured photo editor that works either as a plug-in to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, or as a standalone application. In any workflow, the Suite provides all the necessary tools for editing your photos, improving portraits, adding popular looks in color or black and white, resizing for large-format printing, and making complex selections with minimal effort.

The HDR Learning Center Check out new ways to use High Dynamic Range photography to make compelling images. Free tutorials and posts to get results. Produced in partnership with HDRsoft.

This week's podcast interviews photographers Mark Morrow and Matt Kloskowski.  Mark is a landscape photographer and writer for Photofocus.  Matt is the newly appointed VP of Photography at onOne and you may know him from his many books and workshops.

Mark Morrow is an active professional photographer based in Roanoke, Virginia, currently specializing in real estate, fine art landscape and architectural projects. Always an avid student of the craft, he enjoys sharing insight and inspiration with amateurs and aspiring professionals as a contributing author with Photofocus.com.

Vanelli and Mark discuss:

Matt Kloskowski is the new  Vice-President of Photography for onOne.  He was formerly with KelbyOne and is a well known educator and author as well as landscape photographer.

Rich and Matt discuss:

Drobo. A family of Safe, Simple, and Expandable storage systems for capture in the field, editing in the studio, or backup and archive.

Adobe Transform your photography. Organize, edit, enhance, and share your images on your desktop or mobile device with the world’s best photography tools: Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom. Get the most comprehensive photography solution for just $9.99/month.

lynda.com Learn photography anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace—from bite-sized tutorials to comprehensive courses. Try lynda.com free for 10 days by visiting lynda.com/ Photofocus.

SongFreedom is about artists supporting artists. We’re a music licensing platform with the best music available–stuff from the radio, or your favorite indie bands and soundtracks.  A place where photographers and cinematographers can find the most powerful song for their story with the click of a button.

OnOne Software Perfect Photo Suite 9 is a full-featured photo editor that works either as a plug-in to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, or as a standalone application. In any workflow, the Suite provides all the necessary tools for editing your photos, improving portraits, adding popular looks in color or black and white, resizing for large-format printing, and making complex selections with minimal effort.

The HDR Learning Center Check out new ways to use High Dynamic Range photography to make compelling images. Free tutorials and posts to get results. Produced in partnership with HDRsoft.

This week's podcast interviews photographers Tamara Lackey about travel photography Then, we catch up with Bill Fortney to talk postproduction.

Tamara Lackey is a professional photographer, speaker, and author. She focusses on lifestyle photography, from children’s portraits to celebrity portraits. Tamara’s work has been featured in dozens of media outlets, including Parenting Magazine, O – The Oprah Magazine, Town & Country, Vogue, Food & Wine, Men’s Journal, Nikon World, Professional Photographer Magazine, Rangefinder Magazine, Photoshop User Magazine, NBC’s The Martha Stewart Show, ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, PBS’ Need to Know and NBC’s The Today Show.

Rich and Tamara discuss:

Bill Fortney is a professional photographer who has now switched to being a self-described "very serious amateur shooter."  He has spent several years working with Nikon in their Professional Services group. He also has worked for many years shooting landscapes, nature, and sports.

Levi and Bill discuss: