WooHoo!  Clickin’ Moms has extended the deadline for their affiliate contest until July 31.  That means that we all have an extra month!  Digital Photography for Moms is sweetening the pot, too.

If I refer 500 new members to Clickin’ Moms before July 31, I will win a new camera.  This beautiful camera right here:

And one of those 500 new Clickin’ Moms members will win a $150 share of my affiliate commission.

Even if I don’t win the camera, 3 new Clickin’ Moms members who joined from my website will win:

• A 30 minute one-on-one tutorial with me on the photography, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or Lightroom topic of your choosing
• Plus, a write-up on my blog, links to your blog and your favorite photo creations posted here

To enter:

• Join Clickin’ Moms from any link on my website.
• EDIT:  Use discount code FRIEND to save 10%.  That’s less than $4 per month for an annual subscription!
• Comment on this post to to let me know you want a chance to win $150.
• At the end of the contest, I will use Random.org to select a winner.

DPM Readers, we are 1/3 of the way there!

If everyone refers 1 or 2 of their friends to sign up via Digital Photography for Moms, I think we can do it!

Aside from a chance at winning $150 and tutorial with, umm, me, here are the benefits of joining Clickin’ Moms:

• A huge forum where you can ask any question about photography, Photoshop, or “going pro” at any time of the day or night.  And you can expect a quick answer, too!
• Inspiration. Beautiful family photographs to browse through.  Many taken by Moms who have become professional photographers.  And many accompanied by tutorials.
• A new group of friends.  Some of whom might be close to you and looking for someone to practice photography with.
• A great source of affiliate income for your blog.  Think about this – anyone who offers their affiliates a Mark II must have a great program!
• Discounts on photography-related products.  Like tutus and cute baby hats.  Oh, and camera supplies too.

Later this week, a new free action.  Here’s a hint.  It’s called “Oh, the Drama.”  Also, the fastest way ever to improve a photo’s lighting and color.  Change brightness, contrast and saturation with no layers or masks at all!  Subscribe to Digital Photography For Moms via email or RSS so that you don’t miss it.

Big Mozy Sale – Last Chance!

First off, don’t forget to subscribe to Mozy this month so that you can save 15%.  Use discount code JUNE15.  Less than $90 will buy you two years of unlimited backup and complete security.  All the files, photos, videos and music that you have on your computer will be completely protected from hard drive crashes or babies spilling milk on laptops.  The 15% sale, which doesn’t happen often, ends June 30.

Lightroom Presets

Next up, two presets I used for some of the shots I took at my photo session with a professional model.

A reader mentioned that she liked this style of vignette, so I wrote a tutorial on it last week.  There are two presets for you to download.  The first is the vignette only, and the second is the urban look combined with the vignette.

I don’t want to take credit for the creative idea behind the urban look.  It came straight from this book by Scott Kelby, which is a great purchase for anyone learning Lightroom.

And, as the book says, the preset is just a starting point.  You will probably need to adjust Saturation, if not some of your other settings, to suit the preset to the individual picture.  I also added some skin softening and eye adjustments using the adjustment brush.

Download these free Lightroom Presets here.  After unzipping them, load them into Lightroom by saving them somewhere on your hard drive.  (I recommend having a separate folder somewhere in My Documents to store all presets in – this will make upgrading Lightroom much easier.)  After saving the presets, right click on your preset palette in Lightroom, select Import and navigate to the folder where you saved those presets.  That’s it!

 Coming up next week – more info on the DPM contest to share $150 of my Clickin’ Moms earnings.  The contest has been extended throught July 31.  We just might do it!  Subscribe to Digital Photography For Moms via email or RSS so that you don’t miss it.

A reader requested a new version of the Digital Photography for Moms Perfect Workflow action that didn’t produce a duplicate copy of the image.  You’ll find the link to the new action at the bottom of this post.  And, as always, the action is compatible with both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

In case you haven’t used this action yet, here is a glimpse of what it does:

Straight out of Camera:

After Digital Photography for Moms Perfect Workflow Free Action:

After workflow action, vignette and sharpening.

So, here it is.  Click on the image for the reworked action.