Remember the very first time you sent a letter? (Or for those who have never posted a letter – sent an email?)

There were doubts – would it get there? Would strangers look at it in transit? Did I have enough postage? Did I have the right address? Do I trust the postie to take great care of my efforts?

The same goes with sending orders to Queensberry through Photojunction for the first time.

We need assurances that I know, as a very regular user, become less relevant with experience.

Photojunction has many ‘safety’ features to prevent people from mucking up their orders.

These safety features exist to streamline the manufacturing process, and to ensure that the order gets through in a usable form.

The tricky thing can be terminology and the fear of ‘finality’, the latter being the fear that when you press the ‘go button’ there is no turning back.

The beauty of Photojunction is that even with all of the automation of process once you have sent your order you get confirmation that it has been received and there are ways to check on its progress via the secure website.

Or if you need more help there are representatives and tech people to assist … not to mention an extensive set of videos on this vimeo link.

But most importantly, behind it all is a human face (or two).

From the very beginning Photojunction wants to assure you that things are right and you can proceed with confidence. Regardless of all this it still feels like a leap of faith.

Take the leap and know that it is not a void at all, it is a place filled with people who care about, and wish for,  your success.

Cheers, Johannes

Further to Anna’s emotional cry to ‘save people in photographs from random and thoughtless amputations’…

I was trying to think of a way to ‘stop the suffering’.

It occurred to me that we could specifically shoot for the panoramic opportunity.

Shoot what you might call ‘the subject image’ and then move slightly to get the ‘rest of the scene’ photograph. Use the spine as the aligned join for these images to create a panoramic effect.

This has two advantages.

The enlargement required is less, keeping the quality up.

You plan more for the placement of your subject so that nobody has to lose an arm.

Important tips for this to work:

-be wary of barrel distortions from wider lenses.

-do not adjust the exposures.

-doesn’t work for crowd scenes unless you can put a deliberate break between the two images.

-be aware of the image alignment vertically and horizontally.

Cheers, Johannes

Yesterday Johannes asked if you could send PJ Support some interesting design questions, and I think you’d better. Methinks his mind’s started wandering – Ed.

The first time you have sex there are so many things that could go wrong.

The second time you know a bit more about what happens, but that doesn’t mean that things are any easier.

If, the first time you had sex, you focused on having fun over getting it right, the experience would probably be 100 times more enjoyable. 100 times more enjoyable because you would be free to get it wrong, or right, without the judgement.

If you watched all the instructional videos you would get points for execution but your creativity would be hindered by the rules of play and the examples you had seen.

Although I am certainly no authority, in having sex there are some fundamentals you must follow (I won’t go into details) but the rest is personal expression.

Making your first album (losing your album maker virginity) can be a traumatic experience too. There are instructional videos, certainly many opinions, and so many ways that things could go wrong.

The lovely people at Photojunction have worked hard to make sure you have a positive experience, and they hope you will embrace and enjoy your first time. It is a time before you have become habitual in your design …. this naiveté is a wonderful freedom to explore.

If it’s your first time, just play. Enjoy, embrace, and be proud … losing your virginity only happens once.

Cheers, Johannes

If you do need a video to get you started (with PJ that is) there’s one here.

I have taken up a temporary position helping out with the Photojunction support team.

One thing that I have noticed is that people seem to have more problems with the mechanics of Photojunction not fitting into their own experience or habits.

Hardly ever does anybody ask for design advice.

I wonder if it is the same with photography. People will ask about technical things like lighting and composition but much less often about content and emotion.

ARE WE TOO SHY?

I don’t think so!

As photographers we are called upon to be the creative voice for our clients. Is it that we don’t like to ask for help?

I just wanted to say we are here to help you in whatever way we can, and in fact a few design questions would make our lives a bit less technical and more visual.

To quote Clint Eastwood, “Go on, make my day…[more interesting].”

Just  a thought.

All the best,
Johannes

Here in Shakey Town (Christchurch) things won’t be ‘normal’ for a long time.

In Queensland they are still drying out the carpets.

In Japan they haven’t even started.

These are all timely reminders of our vulnerability, and a very good reason for having an offsite backup.

The unforgiving nature of these disasters made us think about ways to store information securely and safely.

Our problem is the volume of data we generate every time we head out to shoot.

I just wanted to prompt people to think about it, because for us, one of the first thoughts for our business, after the big quakes, was access to data.

Cheers, Johannes

So you have a few album designs under your belt and you are thinking “I need more!’

Flips and wings are a remnant from early creative album design days, but are in fact a very cool design addition.

They are easy to use and add an element of difference – provided your album maker allows them, as Queensberry does.

A Flip is an extra page that folds out from the outer edge of a standard page while Wings are half pages that fold over the base page and meet in the middle. They are simple to add and can be found in the Layout tab in the Tools window.

Flips and Wings

You can open and close them in the layout window. The album layout preview (in the tools window) will reflect their state (open or closed).

The important thing about having these in your album is ‘Why’.

If you are just doing it because you can, it’s the wrong reason.

We use them sometimes to get extra real estate for the opening for the family photographs, or we use them to give an element of mystery or fun. We even use them to hide some of the chaos. You can use them to create a sense of discovery.

Cheers, Johannes

I used to have a rule, ‘If there is a black and white image in an opening the whole opening should be black and white!’

It was a good rule because it fitted well with my ‘Keep it simple’ approach to album design.

I have however seen some lovely designs from some very talented photographers where they are using the contrast between the black and white image and the colour one to either remind you of colour, or remind you of form.

So I have modified my rule. Use colour and black and white together with intent only. Random meaningless mixing creates visual chaos and disturbs the viewing experience.

After all rules are made to be broken.

Cheers, Johannes

Version 1.27 turned up the other day …. in the usual way, unannounced, with the usual set of promises, and a small degree of suggestive insistence.

I downloaded the update as requested and at first paid little attention to what might have changed … Then I noticed the absence of the album specs from the Tools window … Thinking I had misplaced them I soon realised that they had been relocated.

What a great idea that is!

Now the flowchart approach works simply and logically, tries to minimise the potential for idiocy and is much less mysterious.

Suddenly I feel that PJ has moved on from being the teenager that it was to a robust and effective design tool.

My thanks to Danny, Ian, Stephen and the PJ design team for taking PJ to the next level.

Thanks heaps

Johannes