This is an important message if you send us layered PSD files. If any of the layers have reduced opacity what you see on screen may NOT match the print - unless you check an obscure preference box in Photoshop’s Colour Settings. In this post we'll tell you what to do about it, and why. In Color Settings’ Advanced Controls you should CHECK the box, “Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma” (as in the graphic). Leave the value set to 1.00. This is considered ‘colorimetrically correct’ by Adobe and will match our settings in the Lab. This check box affects the way that RGB colours are blended and To View More >>

Food for thought... Photographers do a huge amount more now than they used to in the old days - and it's questionable whether they get paid for it. They used to "send their work to the lab", now they ARE the lab. Colour management and colour correction used to be the lab's problem, now they're the photographer's. My thought for the day – you can't afford cheap printing for two reasons: - YOU do all the work - that's why it's cheap. - BECAUSE you do all the work you can't do other, more profitable stuff (or just go home earlier in the evenings). Truth to tell, many photographers would also get To View More >>

Some of our clients enjoy smoother sailing than others. Less aggravation, calmer waters... An interesting thought whichever group you fall into! One important reason for this is that some of you understand our systems better than others. And yes, we accept we don't always do a good enough job of explaining them. One reason for this blog is to address the problem with bite-sized tutorials on topics suggested by you or our own staff. So over the next few days we’re going to discuss a few key issues. Here’s our goal: For you, an efficient, easy-to-understand system that gets you back to shooting To View More >>

If you want your order to sail smoothly through our ordering process, please make sure it's ready to go before you send it. Hopefully this post will give you some insight into why that's so important – why even minor changes to an order can cause a lot of work at our end. For example, suppose you request design or layout changes, or send us new versions of image files or album plans. First we have to call up your original order and work out exactly what you want done to it – not easy when we have hundreds of albums working their way through production at any one time. We may need to, for example: To View More >>

We've been talking a lot about smooth sailing lately, with two goals in mind. For you, an efficient and easy-to-use system. And for us, an order that's accurate, error-free and ready to go straight into production. Fair to say then, that it's in both of our interest to sail through the ordering and production process as quickly as possible. But when your order doesn't sail through - what holds it up? Here are a few simple things that we've found to be the most common cause of delays (long delays in some cases). 1) Missing print files (cover images) are the most common - people just forget to include To View More >>

Last week's post about things that can delay your album made me think of this. Sometimes our staff feel the need to check things in orders "just in case". For example... An unusually spelled name. Could be a spelling mistake – better ask. An image file that's not up to your normal standard. Could be a problem - better ask. If there's something in your order that you know could raise doubts, please let us know: "Yes, the file's a bit dodgy but I have to use it - do what you can." Head off our query at the pass and get your album faster. Cheers, Ian PS Our staff aren't being pedantic, they're just To View More >>

[caption id="attachment_1348" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Photography by Michael + Anna Costa"][/caption] Although we'd love all our clients to print with us, and most now do, we can't expect that everyone will. It's a huge ask to send your images to the other side of the world for printing.  But sometimes, for reasons that have little to do with the printing itself, we need really tight control to deliver you a good result. Duos are a prime example. The design and craft processes that allow us to integrate digital and matted pages, create split mats etc are intensive and very demanding. To View More >>

A couple of weeks ago I posted about aggravating business policies and touch points, and asked readers to tell us about the things we do that's frustrating! We received three comments. One I've mentioned already, and the other two also raise important issues. Katherine (not her real name) emailed her account manager to say she doesn't like Photojunction. More important, she doesn't like feeling pressured by Queensberry into using it. She feels that if QBY were truly customer focused she wouldn't feel this pressure and could continue in the way that's suited her perfectly for the last seven years. To View More >>

Before they invented pixels much of the stuff that we do in post production happened to the image as it was taken. There used to be a vignette you could apply 'on camera', there were wonderful things that you could do using a softar filter. There also was attention to detail. Details of composition, lighting, expression and, dare I use the word, posing. We now shoot a ridiculous number of frames as we become more opportunist and somehow more reckless. Certainly from this reckless/prolific behavior we get some true gems, but we often create more work than is necessary. I just wanted to give a plug To View More >>

Just a quick reminder that we do not offer albums with more than thirty pages (60 sides) inclusive of Wings and Flips. If your 12x12 or larger feature album design requires more than 30 pages (60 sides), you will need to order two volumes. We offer a second cover at 40% discount. With so many pages in them the albums become very heavy, and the purpose of the page limitation is to ensure their structural integrity. To View More >>