Guest Post: Stephani Quinn -- Tips for Photo Session Makeup

This week I am so excited to introduce you all to my sister, Stephani Quinn-- hair stylist, makeup artist, and one of the owners of Salon Utopia in Union City. I asked Steph if she could write a guest post for me, with a few tips for photo session makeup. I learned a few things from reading this and I hope it is helpful for you all as well! Enjoy!

Hi everyone! As a makeup artist and stylist I have had the privilege of helping bridal parties, high school seniors, pageant girls and many, many others get ready for a special day! Most of the ladies and girls I work with have their look captured on camera at some point during the event to capture that special moment in time. I have also worked with models, and both they and their photographers ask me how to make sure their makeup compliments them for their pictures. So I have put together this list of tips I think will help anyone getting ready to pose in front of the camera achieve the perfect look!

1. Walk towards the light! I know tans are in and we all want to look as dark as we can, BUT every line and every streak in a mismatched foundation can show. Have a professional match your foundation as close to your skin color as possible so it blends perfectly with your natural color!

2. No SPF This will be one of the only times I say no SPF lotion or SPF foundations, as they can cast a ghost-like reflection when a flash is used.

3. Stay Matte Do NOT use shimmer on the cheeks, and keep any eye shadow shimmer limited only to the eyelid. If you have any fine lines or creases around the eye it is better to stay away from shimmer altogether, as the shimmer reflects the light-- drawing attention to that spot!

4. Lining it up Eyeliner is the place where we see most mistakes made! Liner is designed to make the eye smaller, so when you make too thick of a line all the way across you create a dark shadowed look, and in pictures you'll appear to have dark circles for eyes. It should start towards the center of the eye and be lightly stroked outward; then you can blend slightly inward toward the corners of your eyes. Use a brown or charcoal grey to avoid a heavy dark line.

5. BLEND BLEND AND BLEND Like I stated earlier, every line and every streak will show so make sure you BLEND everything! Go outside or by a window (where the light is most natural) and hold a mirror up. Check every inch to make sure it is all blended well!

6. Over do it! It's ok to go a little heavier with your makeup than normal, even when you are going for a more natural look, because in pictures it won't look so dark. The camera flash always, no matter what, washes out color so be sure to deepen your colors slightly more than you typically do.

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Stephani did the hair and makeup for Kelsey, the model in the images above. If you'd like to check out Salon Utopia or would rather have one of their talented stylists do your hair and makeup for your session, you can find them HERE! Thanks so much Stephani for sharing a few tips with us!

How To: Print Images From Your Smartphone

Growing up, one of our favorite things to do was go through our old family photo albums. My mom had them sorted by year, so we would grab the ones labeled “Ninety-two” or “Ninety-nine” and laugh at our parents’ old hairstyles and our indian-themed birthday parties. We have pictures from trips to the Memphis Zoo, Christmases at our grandparents’ house, and our young, childish faces with missing front teeth.

Now that our 35mm film cameras and polaroids have been replaced by iPhones and digital cameras, it’s a little harder to remember how fun it is to flip through an actual, tangible album and not just swipe across images on a five inch screen. But no worries-- I’m not trying to make anyone hate their smart phone or get rid of their digital cameras! :) Those things are wonderful, amazing tools. I just know it can be difficult for us to remember to actually print our everyday, digital images, and when we do remember, it can be hard to know exactly how to print them. So I’ve listed some ways to do just that below!

1. Photo Printing Apps

This option is probably the easiest, because you can do it all from your phone! First, download the app. There are a lot of these to choose from, but I would recommend looking into something like Mpix or Artifact Uprising first. They have a little better quality products than say, Walgreens, but are still super affordable. After you’ve created your account, you can upload images to the app from your phone’s camera roll, Facebook, or Instagram. Next, just select the size of prints and products you want and click add to cart! They will ship those to you in just a few days. How easy is that?! You can even get extra copies sent to grandparents and your in-laws. You’ll earn some major brownie points for sure. :)

2. Subscriptions If you are bad about actually remembering to order prints from your phone (I’m raising my hand here!) you can subscribe to a print service, like Piccolo or Chatbooks. Picollo sends you prints every month (plans start at twenty images) and Chatbooks will make little photobooks to send to you once you reach a certain image amount. They can connect with your Instagram or Facebook feed, or you can choose which pictures to print-- then they’ll send them directly to your door. At the end of the year, you’ll have lots of fun memories to look back on, whether in a keepsake box or a sweet little book.

3. Cloud Services

If you have a laptop or computer you already use to order pictures from, but don’t know exactly how to get your images transferred to it from your phone, this is the option for you. You can either sign up for a service like iCloud (if you’re an Apple person) or a program like Dropbox. I use Dropbox, which is a free service up to a certain storage amount, but well worth the $10/month if you need more space. I have the app on my iPhone, iPad, and computers, and anything I upload to the app can be accessed on my other devices. So easy, and so helpful! You can even have it automatically upload the pictures in your phone’s camera roll to Dropbox, so if something happens to your phone your images are still safely backed up and accessible on your other devices and at Dropbox.com. Such a great peace of mind if you don’t want to lose those sweet snapshots of your little ones!

I hope this is helpful for you! There are so many options for printing your precious memories, and I hope you explore some and see what might be perfect for you. From photo books, to “polaroid” style prints, to printed Instagram collages, the options are endless. The main thing to remember though, is that your snapshots now will be treasured later. So no matter how you preserve them, it will be well worth the time you take to do it. :)

Three Cameras I Would Recommend for Christmas 2015

Every year about this time I get asked my opinion on cameras I would recommend, for those doing a little Christmas shopping or who are scouting Black Friday ads, and I make up a little list that I send out when I get those inquiries. So I thought this year I would just write a blog post about it, that way everyone can have access to it! This is not exhaustive, I haven't spent hours and hours researching so forgive me if there are better options out there. But this is a good place to start! :) Canon PowerShot SX610 HS Digital Camera

I am starting here in the mid-$200 range, because most of you have smartphones that have pretty decent cameras on them already, so this camera would give you something you don't already carry in your pocket. The feature I love most about this one is the 18x Optical zoom, which means it is actually zooming in and not just cropping into the picture (which is what "digital zoom" means, and what your iPhone does). This camera also has 20 Megapixels and can shoot up to 7 images per second. And another pretty neat feature about this camera is that it has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, for wireless transferring to mobile devices. So it sounds like getting these images onto Facebook and Instagram would be pretty easy! And I have to say, this is such a pretty camera. :) --This camera will be perfect for parents who want to take better pictures at their kids' ballgames and family gatherings, vacationers who want to be able to zoom in close on wildlife and zoom out for mountain and beach views, and business owners who want to post decent-quality images of their products on social media.

Olympus PEN E-PL6 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera

We are moving on up to the $400 range now. This camera kind of brings out the old teenager in me, who loved taking pictures but wasn't quite familiar with what settings like aperture and shutter speed did just yet. I think of this camera as a trainer for a DSLR. It still has interchangeable lenses, but it's smaller than a DSLR and the price tag is great for those who don't want to commit to learning tons about photography yet. This camera boasts 16 Megapixels (I know it feels like a step back from the 20 Megapixel option above, but contrary to popular belief Megapixels aren't everything), up to 8 images per second, and two lenses-- one wide angle and one telephoto. This camera also has a FlashAir memory card, "which enables wirelessly transferring image files to connected mobile devices and computers". So it looks like this one would be able to transfer pictures to your phone easily as well, if you want to post your images on social media. Please note though, this camera does not have a built in flash, so if you need to use flash often this may not be the camera for you. --This camera would be perfect for the photography enthusiast who wants to take their passion for photography to another level. Not quite professional, but a good camera to learn on. Would be perfect for pictures of your kids playing at the park, concert photos (when allowed), and nature photography.

Canon EOS Rebel T5i DSLR Camera

Okay, so you (or someone on your Christmas list) absolutely LOVE photography and are ready to start learning more and investing more into your hobby. Let's move on to the $650 range. This camera is an actual DSLR, has 18 Megapixels, can shoot up to five images per second, and can support more professional lenses and equipment. The link above is for the camera body only, no lens is included. The reason I chose this option, rather than a kit with a body and lenses, is because I always recommend a basic camera body and a 50mm 1.8 lens for those wanting to expand into more of a professional-quality camera. The camera is only half of it now. Every professional knows that lens choice plays a huge role in the look and quality of their images. This lens will enable you to shoot at aperture 1.8, which will be great in low-light and for those of you who love those blurry backgrounds. It is not a zoom lens, but by starting at this mid-range, you can get comfortable with this lens length and decide if you find yourself needing a wider lens or a longer lens, and invest in another lens accordingly. I actually shot my first year of business with this lens alone, and photographed most of my class assignments in college with it, too. Pretty amazing, considering it is only about $125. :) This camera also does not have a built-in flash, and no memory cards are included so you would need to invest in one (I'd recommend a 16 GB or two). --This camera/lens would be great for those who want to take more professional-quality images. I would not recommend this to someone who doesn't want to take the time to learn what the different settings do (such as aperture/shutter speed), because shooting this in auto mode would be wasting most of its capabilities.

I'm going to stop here, because if you are looking into something even more professional than these you really need to do the research yourself and know what features you need in a camera. I hope this helps some of you though! If you purchase one of these I'd love it if you would check in and post a comment below letting me know how you like it. :) Happy shopping!

(For those of you wondering, you can find the camera I shoot with and love here.)