Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook "Me me me! My favourite word." — Seth Godin The people paying Here’s the key thing about social photography. Those people in your viewfinder are paying your bills. All of your bills. And the images you take are more or less worthless to anyone else. What are your customers after? Why do they want their photographs taken? Actually, do they want their photographs taken? In social photography the trick is to understand that it’s not about the print, or the album, or the photography, or Photoshop, or what your peers think To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook “Measure results, change activities.” — Keith Cunningham Focused I’ve never met a photographer with a more analytical approach to his business than Craig. He was a wedding photographer whose goal was to clear “100k in 100 Days” from 30 weddings. (The actual figures don’t matter — they just sound snappy — so I’m not going to tell you when, where or in what currency.) Many a photographer has built a profitable business out of shooting 30 or 40 weddings a year, bur Craig’s To View More >>

A series about storytelling in album design. Highlight the Heroes Every story needs a hero, and so does your album design - probably one on most layouts! The hero image is the focal point, the main attraction, the place you want the viewer's eye drawn to. In graphic design speak it’s called creating visual hierarchy. The supporting characters help the story along and keep things interesting, but it's the heroes you want to shine. I talked about ways to begin and wrap up a story previously, but the middle of the story is where the action is. People dress up and assemble together, the guy finally To View More >>

In many labs these days the only people who look at your prints are the Dispatch team. Strange as it seems, that makes sense – it's your files they’re printing, and something has to give if you want low prices. But it doesn’t make sense at Queensberry. We critique everything we print, including Print-Ready. The difference is we see the image files with Full Colour Service (because it’s our job to colour correct them) whereas we don’t see Print-Ready work until it’s printed . But why review Print-Ready work at all? Print-Ready means you edit your images yourself, and we don’t modify To View More >>

I got a few pats on the back for my "check your files" post. Chris Meiklejohn, our lab manager, liked it so much that she wanted a sequel. In fact she wrote one! The funny thing was my team mates had already got me one started on a follow-up, and the things on Chris' list were pretty much the same as ours. So, drum roll… (If you like this, I wrote it. Otherwise, it's Chris!) 8 ways to better print files Would you love to have your albums arrive on your doorstep faster, hassle-free, and beautifully printed? You put a lot of work into them, so they might as well be perfect. We definitely want To View More >>

And no, this is not a scam. For those not in the know, I'm based at the Queenberry lab. They put up with me here as long as I sit quietly in the corner. It's a bit crowded as Philip Laing is sitting in the same corner. Anyway, I'm not allowed to speak so I get to listen to what's going on regarding some of the issues that our printers face. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the terms and conditions of most album companies are a bit like the signs you used to see in china shops around New Zealand – "if you break it, you buy it". In other words, if you send us a crappy file, don't blame us if we To View More >>

Ok, the coach has said to pass it to the backs and they will chip and chase. For those who don't know what that means, stop a Kiwi in the street and ask. Or an Aussie. Maybe a Brit or the odd South African … although they do tend to get their forwards to drive it up the middle and kick the pill between the sticks. Sorry, I digress. Coach wants me back on the field, keep it short and get over the line. Come on, Ref, blow the whistle and let's get started! 6. Alignment tools OK, I'm cheating a bit here – this isn't a button but a complete tool kit. But get these working for you and life becomes To View More >>

A while back, in a post about the problem reporter, Ian listed all the possible issues that might pop up in the problem reporter. Beyond alignment, the most common issue seems to be problems with images. The problem most users encounter is missing high res files. The next two are missing low res files, and HR and LR files that do not match. Both the last two problems have the same solution, which I'll talk about here. The Low Res files that Photojunction is referring to are the Low Res Proxies that are created when you import your images into your event. These files are what allow you to layout To View More >>

Hello dears! Those youngsters at Queensberry are very sweet, but sometimes I think they only let me talk to you when there's something that they'd rather not say themselves. I was in vacuuming this morning when Sonya skyped me (yes, I may be 76 but I do have the interweb!) and said there are a few people who don't understand why Photojunction has a problem reporter. They say it's frustrating and they don't think it benefits them at all. Sonya I said, you're a lovely young lady, and I'm rather busy – why don't you tell them yourself? Well it was your idea, Nanny, she said, and besides you have To View More >>

Remix Final 1.30 is the combination of six months hard work, four beta releases and invaluable feedback from our loyal community... It's the most comprehensive, intuitive and effective version of Photojunction Remix we’ ve ever released. We hope you’ ll think so too. But first up, here's a quick review of the major features first released in the beta releases since 1.25. Remix beta 1.26: A feature packed release which included text functionality , importing PSD ’ s as templates and images, and proof sheets . Remix beta 1.27: The game changer - new interface, managed workflow and built To View More >>