Most artists sign their work and as a photographer you probably (very rightly) want to ‘leave your mark’ somewhere on your images. So what are your options when it comes to including your studio name or logo in Queensberry albums and press books? Here are some actual examples:

On press books you have the option of placing the studio or photographer’s name on the back of designable covers:

The inside flaps of dust jackets are a subtle place to include your logo or any further studio details like your website address:

Titles are the most common place to include a studio name, and all of our templates have a space for this. Here are some examples below.

Horizontal matted title in Futura black with studio name:

Translucent title with studio name:

Or a title set up with your logo instead of just your studio name.

If you’re after something special you could always add your signature to the first layout, or have your logo mounted on the last layout at the end of the album, like Christophe Flers:

Tell us how you leave your mark!

Cheers,
Anna

Email us if you’d like to know more about the options illustrated.

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Not the movie!

I am talking about wedding photography.

OHHHH if only I had a dollar for every time somebody said to me can you airbrush/photoshop me thinner/more beautiful/younger/less wrinkled, and why oh why is it always, I want to look like Brad Pitt or Angelina?!

I would be RICH!!!!! Filthy dirty rich, and in truth I would not have to make any money as a photographer.

Photographers didn’t really invent the lie … Adobe did. Actually that is a lie, it was the first person to do a cave drawing representing themselves (or somebody else) as a bit more upright than they really were, or possibly slightly taller.

Why do we do it? Of ourselves it is vanity. Of others it’s for profits.

In our studio we talk about keeping the lie real.

Real enough that people never ask, “Who is that with your husband?” Nor do they suggest that things “seem to have gone downhill since your wedding” when they note the sudden onset of crows feet, a few extra laughter lines and a dramatic change from porcelain skin to something much more leathery.

A good lie is one that is reinforced by the evidence. So creative body enhancements and beautification needs to be maintained throughout the telling of the story. In the case of a wedding album the same lie needs to be told consistently.

Queensberry is happy to lie on your behalf. They call it “artwork”. It means that you can partially distance yourself from the emotional burden of dishonesty.

This doesn’t come free! There is a price to be paid for bending the truth. But then sometimes a little white lie can make things so much better.

If you would like Queensberry to lie on your behalf,  talk to them about sharing the burden.

Cheers,
Johannes

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Queensberry’s colour correctors are passionate about their work and achieving a result that pleases you, but even if you’re not using their services the way they approach the job is worth thinking about.

When they get an order, the first thing our colour correctors do is open up all the layouts to get a ‘feel’ for the overall colour of the album.

Their goal is to optimise key elements like flesh tones or a bride’s dress, and to achieve a consistent, natural look across page layouts and the entire album. Often we see albums where individual images have been tweaked without thought for how they look alongside their neighbours. The inconsistencies always seem more obvious in the actual album!

It is important to remember that colour is subjective and that every photographer has different ideas about what good colour is. Some people’s preferences are so specific that we advise them to colour-correct themselves and use our print-ready service. But for most, full colour service is cost effective and a great way to reduce the production work in their studio.

With your first order from us you get free test prints. Your feedback helps the colour correction team get to know what you are “going for” in terms of colour. It’s also a chance for them to raise any issues they notice with your files. Sending us some hard copy samples is a good idea, and clearly shows us your colour preference right from the start.

Here’s some tips to help ensure you get great colour, save time and money and have a faster turnaround time for your albums.

• Send the layouts as layered PSDs (Photojunction will prompt you to do this). Yes, the uploads will take longer but we’ll be able to colour-correct professionally layer by layer (image by image).

• Be consistent. A good idea is to keep a few good files on your desktop that you know have printed well, to use as a reference, shoot by shoot.

• Take well exposed images. There can be a wide variation of exposures throughout a wedding and from one wedding to the next and it’s difficult to match colour from such a wide spectrum. The most important thing is to get your White Balance and Exposure right – a silk purse cannot be made from a sow’s ear.

• If two cameras are being used on the same shoot – it’s a good idea to make sure they are using similar settings – for example – either jpeg or raw.

• Take responsibility for what you send us and check your files at 100% in Photoshop. We do check your images but we cannot guarantee that we will discover all the problems that you might notice.

• Flatten any artwork and adjustment layers onto their corresponding images so that the entire image/layer can be corrected as one, or unexpected results can occur. But see Stephen’s important comment below – he suggests not doing this with borders, as their colour would then change along with the image – Ed.

• It is extremely helpful to let us know when the guys’ suits are not black –  eg if they are a dark blue – so we don’t try and twist the files to get black.

• Tell us anything specific we need to know about your files. For example, a note to say that filters or special effects have been used and on which images. That way we can work with you, not against you!

For more on our Full Colour Service and other Lab services, click here.

Cheers, Anna

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It’s not until you see the images of your wedding that you realise how incredibly important they are. That’s how I felt when I looked at my wedding photos for the first time. I cried! – they were just so much more than what I’d expected, and each one holds a moment of absolute goodness.

I’d say it’s the same with an album – it’s not until you see a book so carefully crafted to document your day that you realise how important this object is that holds these memories.

That’s what I have in mind when I’m laying out the images for a Musée. Every shot is incredibly special and chosen because the story would be incomplete without it. And it’s not just about the subject but also the way it’s told.

In terms of the layout of a Musée album, there are dynamic lines created with dramatic white space, small sets of candid moments, intimate impressions and strong portrait layouts that let the images speak for themselves. And the design is enhanced even more with the ability to create multi image apertures (example below) for a filmic style that’s perfect for capturing a passing moment.

Musée is a “design, print and assemble” service using Photojunction. You can either upload the images for us to design the album, or design as much of the layout as you like – however for technical reasons it needs to be finalised with our design team before it’s made.

To place an order just send us the images through Photojunction – along with your choice of Musée album size, cover, and the details of the wedding (names, venue, date, etc). There are also options for a translucent or matted title page and DVD album. The Story Folio (below) is an opportunity for the bride and groom to tell in words the story of how they met, or a love letter they have shared – it’s up to them. We design the album layouts and initial embossing block and then email you drafts of these for your approval. Once you’re happy with all the elements, the album goes into production.

I think it’s the little details that makes Musée albums stand out – and the way they’re made without compromise using the most beautiful materials and design.

As Nigel said – the right album adds value to your images.

Cheers,
Anna

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From v1.46 onwards, Photojunction will automatically install Queensberry’s colour profiles for both our silver halide Lab and our digital-offset press books.

To use them you just need to add them to your soft-proofing set-up (in Photoshop, it’s at View / Proof Setup – and if you’re unclear about it, the process is described in our knowledge base):

However, this new system wasn’t available before Photojunction version 1.46.

That means, if you’ve designed and exported a Press Book using v1.45 recently, but not sent it yet, we suggest you re-export the album using v1.46 before hitting the send button.

Don’t stress too much about this. We’ll be double checking incoming press book orders for a while looking for problems.

If you have any questions, please email us.

Cheers, Nigel

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We’ve just removed the password protection from the knowledge base on our Partner website, making most of it accessible to anyone.

Most of it’s just detailed product and service information that our clients might want to check out from time to time – so it’s not like Wikileaks would be interested! – but some of it’s a bit sensitive, which is why it’s been restricted.

Some of you’ve been saying it’s frustrating having to log in, however, which is why we’ve put most of the content out in the open.

The only exception is the Marketing and Business section which is still locked down. That’s where all the sensitive stuff is now kept, but you can still access it by logging in the usual way.

Cheers, Nigel

PS While we’re at it we also simplified our support home page and the knowledge base index to make them easier to use. We hope you agree. Tell us what you think!

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Jeff Youngren was kind enough to record a short video to share his thoughts on the new Queensberry Press sample book…

Thanks Jeff!

Cheers, Nigel

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People have been asking about our Queensberry Press discounts and deals.

When you order a press book you’ll be offered three deals in Photojunction. Just choose the one that works best for you.

The best deals are our “value packages“, which offer 40% discount on additional products. The deals vary according to the format you’ve chosen. You can only choose one (all we can afford at this rate!) but whatever the format you can always get a copy here less 40%.

If you want additional copies you can order them at 15% off.

The only way to get the original album at a discount is as a studio sample, which is 25% off but will be imprinted as such with “STUDIO SAMPLE ONLY – NOT FOR RESALE” on the back cover.

As we said, just have a think and choose the deal that works best for you.

Cheers

Ian

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A discussion about album upload times (specifically the length of them) last week reminded me of a good post Danny wrote on the Junction a while back, about internet connection speeds, pricing and plans. While we do everything we can at our end to optimise the FTP process, ultimately (album) upload speed is determined by your internet provider, so it pays to understand exactly what you’re getting for your money. Here’s Danny’s post – Nigel

Warning: contains math and abbreviations

From time to time I’m asked for advice about internet connection speeds and pricing plans, so here goes…

Most internet packages are lame (especially in New Zealand: but our internet service providers (ISPs) learned their tricks from your ISPs, so we’re not alone).

Most internet packages assume you’re a consumer … but you’re not a consumer, you’re a producer (so you need upload speed, not just download speed).

Here’s what’s lame. Most ISPs show their speed (how quickly you can download and/or upload information) in kilobits (kb), not kilobytes (kB) (or megabits instead of megabytes) simply to make the numbers look bigger.

To convert kilobytes to kilobits, you multiply by 8… 128 kilobits per second sounds better than 16 Kilobytes per second, doesn’t it?

How to calculate typical upload times

Suppose you need to upload a 5MB (megabyte) jpg to your lab.

5MB = 5120KB

5120KB (size of your file) / 16 KB per second (upload speed) = 320 seconds

So 5 minutes 20 seconds is your absolute best case scenario. Unfortunately though, that’s theoretical (another example of loose standards). In my experience it’s realistic to expect 50% of maximum capacity, so I would double the time, which means:

• 10 minutes to upload that 5MB jpg

• 16 hours to upload a print order of 100 jpegs

• 48 hours to upload a 1.5 gigabyte album order!

That’s asking for trouble. Disconnections, hibernation, and flakey wireless connections all add to the time … and explain why we spent so much time building “resume” functions into Photojunction – so you don’t need to start again!

I used 128 Kbps upload speed as my example because it’s the speed you’re promised when you buy the $39.95/month “most popular” plan from NZ’s most popular ISP.

Something else to bear in mind: upload and download speeds are not the same: ISPs routinely cap upload speeds. 128Kbps uploading may be OK for (some) consumers, but it’s useless to a producer like you.

I want to encourage you to evaluate your internet package and do your own sums. Consider how long things should take to upload, or download for that matter.

Cheers, Danny

PS: Here’s a site where you can test your own speeds (and do your own upload time calculations). Note, it gives the results honestly, in kilobytes, not kilobits!

~ Article originally published on The Junction

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