TOVANI DESIGN & PHOTOGRAPHY

Brand & Stock Photography for Businesses, Brands, and Bloggers

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Good Cropping For Headshots

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Good cropping will make your image pop. For business portraits, it draws in the viewer and shows your personality. Modern business portraits are often cropped for a variety of uses on social media.

Our full service headshot packages include a set of cropped photos in a variety of sizes ready to be used on social media.

Headshot packages start at $175 and include a 10 color corrected digital images with a set of sizes to use on your marketing materials, website banners, and social media profiles.

* We can change or remove the background. Create Facebook Page banners, brochures, and other graphic design needs.

*Addtional fees apply for retouching, graphic design and changing or removing backgrounds

This image was taken in our inhouse studio located in midtown in Sacramento.

We can also come to your office or location and set up lighting for business portraits.

Discounts are available if you book several people for headshots at the same time and location.

Changing the Backgrounds Of An Image in Photoshop

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Here are some of the best tutorials that I’ve found for changing the background of an image in photoshop. We’re happy to do this for you.

Selecting a subject from a busy background.

Changing the backdrop.

Blurring Background

How to cut out anything.

 

This is amazing!

HTTPS – What’s All the Hype About?

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As of January 2017, websites should be using HTTPS in place of HTTP.

Why HTTPS is essential on your webpages.

Having HTTPS protects your users against intruders coming to your site impersonating you and tricking users into divulging personal information, tracking their behaviors and identities and injecting ads and malicious content onto their computers.

If you are visiting a website with HTTP, data can be breached from wifi hotspots, a compromised ISP, or a user’s machine. It’s like leaving your door open for intruders to enter and watch everything that happens between you and the information you enter in your browser. This can include your passwords, credit card information and other sensative data.

HTTPS is a requirement for many new browser features, particularly those required for progressive web apps.

Let’s Encrypt is a nonprofit global Certificate Authority resource that helps organizations obtain, renew, and manage SSL/TLS certificates that can be used on websites to enable HTTPS connections.

Don’t Ignore Your Website In Favor of Social Media

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You may be new to blogging and posting content on social media. Perhaps you’re now in a job or an organization that requires you to be a contributor on their website and Facebook or Instagram account, and you have no idea where to begin, or what to say. It can feel overwhelming, and it’s normal. What’s not okay, is ignoring your website. Fear is part of growth and something we all have to face. Don’t let it hinder you.

Mostly, be yourself. I feel that people will be more accepting and forgiving when we have the courage to step into the arena.

Getting comfortable posting content takes some practice, and I’ll explain the difference between writing content for a blog and posting content on social media channels. And, why your blog is more valuable than any social media channel.

Your ultimate goal should be to write interesting and informative articles or stories about your business or organization on your website/blog and share them on social media. It’s easier for your blog posts to get shared over and over while linked to the website.

Social Media

When you’re at a live event, you’ll want to post real-time updates with photos and video to your social media channels as it’s happening. You can also post recaps to Instagram and Facebook with photo captions. You can use #hashtags with a name for your event so that when someone does a search for that hashtag, they see all of the posts related to that hashtag.

Blog Articles

Blog posts take more forethought and time to organize content, while a Facebook or Instagram post can be a caption to a photo or a quick short paragraph.

Decide Who Your Audience Is

When you’re writing an article for your blog, think of the audience. Decide on your tone of voice. I like to write as if I’m talking to a friend. I find it more personal and friendly. I write for small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs who need help with their websites, social media, and design. My work is very social and engaging. If you meet me in person, I’m very social and approachable. The tone in my writing fits with my audience and my personality.

Set Your Tone

You have to decide who you are talking to when you write for your business or organization and how they speak. What are they seeking when they arrive at your website? How did you attract them in the first place? What are their expectations? Communication can be difficult if you’re not tuned into the people you want to engage. Some organizations, for example, speak in a formal tone while the audience they wish to engage with is turned off by such formality and would warm up to a more conventional approach.

“It has been brought to our attention that donuts are being served in the dining room.”

OR

“Donuts are being served in the dining room. Enjoy!”

You have to decide how you’re going to talk to your readers.

Ask Readers to Share Content From Your Website. Make It Easy To Share.

Blog posts have a longer life. You want your website to be the center of all of your marketing efforts. Every social media post should lead back to your website. Content that your audience wants to read and engage with should be on your website.

Content posted directly to social media has its purpose, it’s quick and draws attention while showing you engaging and sharing activities at the moment. The downside is that it has a short life. The content on your website is evergreen and can continue to be seen and shared over and over through the years.

Save These Resources

  • Check the site canva.com. The site makes it easy for non-designers to create cool info graphics.
  • Use Compressor.io to optimize and reduce large images before publishing them on your blog.
  • UnSplash and Death to the Stock Photo, have free stock images.
  • With Pablo, you can create images with quotes and titles to make your posts pop.

For a more in-depth perspective of blog posts, visit Kevan Lee’s article on  How to Write a Blog Post.

Find, Focus, Leverage, and Fail – Secrets of Great Achievers

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It feels natural to wear many hats as an entrepreneur or small business owner. I find myself getting pulled in many directions or FOMO (fear of missing out) with so many shiny new things!

In Secrets of Great Achievers talk, Darren Hardy says that deciding what to do is as important as deciding what not to do.

People try to be good at too many things and they don’t master anything. They become mediocre at many things instead of world class at one or two things. People try to be a jack of all trades and it doesn’t help them be successful.

It’s more cost effective to outsource things to people who are better at it and not waste your time (which has value) doing something that is not that good.

Your time costs you money. You can’t afford to spend major time on minor activities. Don’t try to get better or more efficient at things you shouldn’t be doing in the first place.

We need to stop doing things that don’t matter so we can clear the way for the stuff that will make us successful. Say no to any new shiney object and stay focused on your priorities. Stay the course.

Find, focus, leverage the vital few!

Too many choices creates paralysis.

With too many priorities you become like a deer in the headlights – you don’t move on any of them.

What are you willing to give up so you can become world class?

If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any.

Buffet Method:

  • Write your priorities.
  • Narrow down to your top three
  • Throw away the rest of the list.

Information Overload

People spend most of their days reacting and responding, doing too many things yet not accomplishing anything. We’re over stimulated, overwhlmed, unproductive, and addicted to distractions. It takes 11 minutes to regain concentrated when we’re interrupted.

Getting more done isn’t about doing more.

Shield yourself from responding and reacting to everyone else’s agenda so that you can remain focused. Over tasking, over training, is deminishing.  You need to rest and recover.

Rest and recover – to operate at your highest level using 90 minute jam sessions.

If you can control your focus you can control your life.

Constant Growth and Development – the best investment you can make.

I can’t cover every topic discussed in the video without making this article too long, so I highly reccomend you watch the entire talk. It’s worth it!

Principles of Success:

  1. STOP Doing too much (what fools do)
  2. Master the FEW
  3. Out FOCUS (YOUR competition)
  4. Out LAST (Consistency)
  5. MEASURE Progress
  6. Out FAIL your competition

Web Experience Shapes What People Think About Your Brand

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Your website is likely the first place potential customers will go to learn about you and your business. Today’s consumers can find out all about your business before they decide to contact you.

You have the opportunity to shape how people think about your brand, from what they experience when they arrive on your website. Even if your website looks good and functions properly, it may not attract the correct audience or help you connect with your visitors to get leads and grow your business.

Essentially, all of your online, print and other marketing strategies should pave a way to your website. We believe in crafting strategy-focused websites from the start. Social media is important, but it’s not more important than your branded website.

Our websites are built using WordPress and the Genesis framework. WordPress is the top choice of the internet powering 28% of all websites, that is a content management system market share of 59.0%.

Our process will walk you through the steps needed to achieve your goals through your online presence. We will work together to create a website that is not only stunning but also a powerhouse for your business.