Conquer your small flash and create extraordinary portraits!Roberto Valenzuela is a photographer, author, and instructor who has an unmatched talent for helping others conquer photography's most challenging topics in their pursuit of becoming better photographers. Over the past decade, he has written numerous bestselling books that have empowered readers around the world to break through barriers and improve their craft.Here, in Picture Perfect Flash, for the first time Roberto dedicates an entire book to the subject of using small, portable flash to create powerful, creative, and extraordinary portraits. Flash photography has always been daunting for many photographers. Without a system for thinking about and working with flash, you can easily end up feeling stuck, or you end up flailing--randomly changing settings, positions, and modifiers--and hoping for the best. It's not surprising that this leads to failure and frustration.In this book, Roberto teaches you two systems he created, which will allow you to finally conquer your flash and create photographs that fulfill your intention and vision. Roberto calls these the FACES and NAME systems. The FACES system gives you a framework for thinking about how you want or need to use flash in a particular scene: - Fix: Do you need to fix a low light problem or an unwanted color cast?- Add: Do you need to add more light to boost or enhance the available light or create separation?- Create: Are you creating all of the light in the scene to achieve a certain mood?- Effects: Are you using flash for creative visual effect?- Subtract: Do you need to subtract light from the scene?Once you've found your purpose for the light, the NAME system provides an essential workflow for working through the execution of your flash photography in a methodical way so that you get consistent results: - Number: How many flashes do you need?- Angle: Where does the flash need to be positioned?- Modifier: How do you need to modify the flash?- Energy: What power does the flash need to be?These two systems provide the core framework for the book. Along the way, Roberto explains all the features of flash and flash photography that you need to know: TTL, manual, 1st and 2nd curtain sync, channels, groups, flash exposure bracketing, ratios, stroboscopic flash, flags, using gels, and using modifiers such as grids, softboxes, umbrellas, and snoots. With this technical knowledge, combined with the FACES and NAME systems, you'll have everything you need to know to finally conquer your flash...and make the kind of portrait photographs you've always wanted to create.

Roberto Valenzuela is a photographer and educator who has a talent for identifying areas where photographers regularly hit roadblocks and a passion for developing clear and concise systems that allow photographers to break through those barriers and become better, more confident practitioners of their craft. His two previous books, Picture Perfect Practice and Picture Perfect Posing, shattered the mold of instructional photography books as they empowered readers to advance their composition and posing skills. Picture Perfect Lighting, the third book in the Picture Perfect series, brings that same spirit and approach to teaching lighting. With it, Roberto empowers photographers to embrace lighting as a source of creativity and expression in service of their vision for the image. In Picture Perfect Lighting, Roberto has created a truly original system for understanding and controlling light in photography. After discussing the universal nature of light, Roberto introduces the five key behaviors of light, which are essential to understand in order to improve your knowledge of light. With those behaviors established, Roberto introduces his concept of "circumstantial light," an ingenious way of examining and breaking down the light around you in any given situation. Providing a detailed analysis of circumstantial light, Roberto develops the top ten circumstantial light elements you need to know in order to fully harness the power of the light around you to create an image that is true to your vision. But how will you know if the circumstantial light is enough? The final piece of the Picture Perfect Lighting system is Roberto's "lighting benchmark test," a brilliant method for determining the quality of the light in any given situation. It is with the lighting benchmark test that you will determine if and when you need to use "helper light," the light that is needed or manipulated in order to "help" the circumstantial light so that your vision comes to life. Helper light is created with diffusers, reflectors, flashes, strobes, and light modifiers. Picture Perfect Lighting covers all of this in depth. Don't limit yourself to using only one kind of light, and don't depend on Photoshop actions and plug-ins to create the "wow" factor in your images. That is the job of light. With Picture Perfect Lighting by your side, you will learn to master light. With that mastery, you will finally have the ability to create that true "wow" factor in camera--and in your photographs.

Learn how to confidently build a thriving and profitable career as a professional wedding or portrait photographer! For nearly a decade, renowned wedding and portrait photographer Roberto Valenzuela has been sharing his vast knowledge and unique, systematic approach to making photographs as he has taught workshops around the world and written five critically acclaimed and bestselling books that cover composition, posing, lighting, and wedding photography (his Picture Perfect and Wedding Storyteller series of books). He has helped countless photographers improve their craft. But the truth is that you can create the most amazing photos...yet still have a failing business. And what's the point of being a great photographer if you can't build a career, pay your bills, and feed your family? In order to create a thriving business, you need a different kind of knowledge and a new set of tools to succeed. In The Successful Professional Photographer, for the first time Roberto turns his focus on the business and marketing of your photography so that you can build and sustain a highly profitable business as a wedding and portrait photographer. Roberto shares all his hard-earned knowledge regarding finding clients, marketing and presenting your work, and getting paid what you deserve. Topics include: - Best practices and strategies for Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook - Being found through SEO - Promoting yourself and your work - The role that testimonials and reviews play in your success - Creating long-term client relationships - Forming personal connections with clients with promo videos - Why you should feature your work in publications - Pricing your work and the gentle art of the up-sell - Understanding and conveying the crucial importance of selling prints While the photographs you create are the core of your work as a photographer--being exceptional at your craft is a must--that's only half of the formula you need for building and sustaining success. The other half of the formula is here, in The Successful Professional Photographer. Implement the strategies and techniques outlined here, and you'll have everything you need to succeed and build a long, prosperous, fulfilling career as a wedding or portrait photographer. Foreword by Luke Edmonson TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I: How to Stand Out Chapter 1: Unleashing Instagram's Business Potential Chapter 2: SEO for Portrait and Wedding Photographers Chapter 3: Client Testimonials Chapter 4: YouTube and Facebook Live Broadcasts Chapter 5: The Effective Business Promo Video Chapter 6: Featuring Your Work in Magazines and on Blogs Part II: How to Get Hired Chapter 7: The Impact of First Impressions Chapter 8: Understanding a Prospective Client's State of Mind Chapter 9: Delivering a Skillful First Prospective Client Meeting Part III: How to Make Money Chapter 10: The Perceived-Value Tier System Chapter 11: Client-Centric Pricing Strategy Chapter 12: Anchored Collections Sales Method Chapter 13: A La Carte Sales Method Chapter 14: Final Design and Presentation Conclusion

In Wedding Storyteller, Volume 2: Wedding Case Studies and Workflow, photographer and bestselling author Roberto Valenzuela uses wedding case studies extensively to teach you in great detail the entire Wedding Storyteller Skill Components system that he introduced in Volume 1. Drawing from his highly successful career, Roberto shares multiple case studies from numerous real-world weddings, covering the entire wedding timeline, from the beginning of the day when the couple is getting ready until the last portion of the reception. Roberto goes into deep technical detail regarding how to apply the Wedding Storyteller Skill Components system to help you excel at photographing weddings for your own clients. Copiously illustrated with nearly 700 photographs and illustrations, the book covers: - The five key elements of assessing the getting-ready rooms - The four types of wedding party group photos - Roberto's system for ceremony coverage, TARPP (The Action/Reaction Position Plan), which details the 10 crucial positions for the photographer to use to create the best and most cinematic story of the ceremony - The "situational approach" to bride and groom portraits - The three main locations for family portraits, and how to photograph "elevated" family portraits in each of them - And much more! Also included is Roberto's invaluable advice concerning such topics as equipment preparation, wedding psychology, lens selection and usage, and the importance of including imperfect but "fun" photos in your wedding photography (your clients will love it!). In Wedding Storyteller, Volume 1, you learned the Wedding Storyteller Skill Components system, which provides the foundation for your wedding photography. Here, in Volume 2, you'll learn how to execute that system to perfection. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1: Pre-Wedding Workflow Practices Chapter 2: Implementation of the Wedding Storyteller Skill Components Chapter 3: Working the Getting-Ready Rooms Chapter 4: Bride and Groom Preparation Chapter 5: Preparation Details Chapter 6: Wedding Party Portraits Chapter 7: The Ceremony: The Action/Reaction Position Plan (TARPP) Chapter 8: Bride and Groom Portraits: A Situational Approach Chapter 9: Elevated Family Portraits Chapter 10: Reception Lighting and Execution Conclusion