By the numbers!

Most Cameras will name your files with a 3 letter designation plus a series of numbers.  When using multiple cameras, things can get confusing.  Example, if you notice dust spots on your images or the lab calls you with a concern, and you are using 3 of the same Brand/model camera, how do you know what’s what? What about an intermittent malfunction, how do you know?  It’s simple, change the three letters at the front of the file name.  For me, I have named my camera’s DC1, DC2 & DC3.  If I have any questions on a file, I know which camera it came from.  There you have it, by the numbers.

Back UP Equipment!

The season is almost here and we are all gearing up for it.  Gear!  You can never have enough.  In the film days, I would always carry 3 bodies with me.  If one went down, I still had two.  The third was somewhat of a security blanket.  Mamiya would usually turn a repair around in less than a week.  (They truly are the benchmark when it comes to customer service.)   No problem.  Then comes Digital.  Send in a body for repair to either C or N, and you could be looking at 2 weeks or longer.  The power of 3!  I had planned on my wedding kit to include two bodies (I just bought them within the last 4 months), but as Murphy’s Law would prove, two is not enough.  So off to the Camera shop I went to buy a third one.  So keep that in mind before the season starts, There is a price to be paid for sanity.

Passing out cards for WWW.WeddingPrints.com

A great opportunity for creating new business is passing out WWW.Weddingrints.com cards at your events. Not only does it give you the opportunity to sell photographs from the event, but the guests are seeing you in action.  If they like what they see at the event and the photographs online, you could be looking at a future client.  

Nikon Updates

Nikon has recently updated CaptureNX, ViewNX and also a firmware upgrade to the D3.  All of these updates pertain to D3 functionality.  Update, Nikon has removed the D3 update due to image corruption!

The importance of using the right color space

Don’t listen to them!!  I saw a speaker at the recent PPAMass convention who told the audience of photographers that if their lab uses SRGB color space, “fire your lab!”  This comes from a man who outputs his own work on his sponsor’s inkjet printers.

What he doesn’t realize is that wedding and portrait photographers who use color lab services (virtually the whole industry) need to use the SRGB color space since the printers the lab uses operate in SRGB color space.  While the Adobe 1998 color space offers a broader range of space, the end result is that much larger corrections need to be made to “rein in” the image to print correctly.  Any extreme corrections, be it in Photoshop or in the nondestructive database corrections used at LusteColor via the Kodak DP2 printing system, cannot give an optimum result.

Bottom line is set your camera to SRBG color space to get the best prints possible for you and your customer.

For a more in-depth look at the differences between color profiles check out this article from Will Crockett.

Competition prints, the basics

Print competition is coming soon, well at least is is usually coming up somewhere most of the year. Unlike years ago where the labs had to engage in a very labor intensive effort to produce prints for competition, nowadays photographers can do the heavy work, i.e., the creative work on their own as a direct result of the digital revolution. You can shape and place your image in the file with creative use of backgrounds and accents. When preparing files, be sure to size them correctly. Either size at 16×20 at 200dpi or 8×10 at 250 dpi, any more than 250 dpi is overkill. Keep backgrounds and accents simple and subtle. Remember the overall presentation is judged, not just the image. Placement of the image is part of the composition. Doing your own work inevitably increases your skill level in Photoshop, imagine that! Be very careful in making adjustments especially saturation and levels. What may look dramatic on the monitor usually doesn’t translate to paper. A good rule of thumb is to back off by about 50% of that “dramatic” look. Over saturation leads to “neon” colors and overdone levels leads to loss of detail in the whites and blacks. Since prints are made darker for competition, loss of detail in the blacks is very sensitive. Helpful guidelines for PPA level competition can be seen by clicking on this link: http://www.ppane.com/merit_image.htm At LustreColor the competition prints can be ordered easily through LabLink Plus. The price includes a glossy print on the regulation thickness mount. If you want the lab to put file together for you, the backgrounds and accents are priced a la carte. Just tell us what you want. I like to use a pinstripe accent very narrow and offset about a 1/4 inch from the image. Some photographers like it directly adjacent to the image. What do you think? When using a background other than black, I prefer to avoid the “blank color” look by adding a texture such as a grain look to the color to combine visually better with the image area. What do you think? Above all stretch yourself, be creative and have fun.

Weddingprints.com….Keeping it Simple!

In our transient society, many wedding clients have moved before their albums can be designed.  One of the great features of www.weddingprints.com is that your client can design their album online, anywhere in the world. England is the farthest I have experienced, between weddingprints.com and e-mail, we had a finished design in less than 9 e-mails back and forth.  I would encourage you to take a look if you have not tried the album builder portion of the website.  Not only can you design Bridal albums, but parent album sizes are also there.  This is a great service to educate your clients about.  You can even order sample albums for display in you studio at a discount.  

Apple updates Safari to 3.1

Apple has updated Safari for both Mac & PC.  Faster page loading, better Java implementation, improved security to name a few.  The update seems to have improved functionality with the album builder portion of weddingprints.com.  Happy Downloading!

What to use for cleaning your camera’s Sensor

I have been made aware that there are two types of sensor cleaners available.  Cameras that use newer CMOS and CCD chips should not use a Methol based cleaner (Original Eclipse).   Sony USA recommends Eclipse E2.  Here is a link to Photographic Solutions website http://www.photosol.com/cameras_bymfg.html .  You will find the latest list of compatible cleaners for your camera.

Quantifying and Reducing Variability Part Two.

Studio lighting is a great unknown to many photographers in the Wedding world.   Color Temperature, UV coated Flash Tubes, Clear Flash Tubes, Ambient Light, Florescent Light, Incandescent Light, Reflectors, Power settings, Flash Duration, Umbrellas, and Soft-boxes, Camera F-Stop and Shutter Speed, all have an affect on the color balance of an image.   Daylight is approx 5500 Kelvin, as the kelvin temp drops, the light becomes warmer (yellow), as it increases, the light becomes cooler (blue).  Each of these light sources have a different color temperature.  Example, let’s say a Mono-light with a reflector has a color temperature of 5800 Kelvin at full power, that same mono-light at minimum power may now have a color temperature of 5100 Kelvin.  Take the reflector off and place a softbox and now the color temp could be as low as 4200 Kelvin.  If you where using all the same type of strobes with the same reflectors or soft-boxes at the same power, everything would look very similar, no problem.  Here is where it gets sticky!  Many times you may be mixing light sources to produce a particular effect in a photograph.  Daylight mixed with strobe can give you some interesting colors in your shadows and highlights.  Incandescent mixed with strobes can also cause issues.  It is what I like to call cross contamination.  Know your equipment.  When you use several types of light modifiers, have color correction filters on hand to fine tune your strobes for better color.  Take a look at Rosco for these filters.