Ian likes to talk about the good old days, when colour correction and colour management were a matter of picking up the phone and complaining to the lab. OK … I remember them too. Well, you can still outsource colour correction, but colour management is a shared responsibility now. In my earlier post I talk about screen calibration and soft-proofing, which most of us at least know about - but few people understand that taking all the care in the world over those won't be enough if your working environment is wrong. Try this experiment. First thing in the morning, sit down at your desk (where To View More >>

Colour management is one of the cornerstones of digital photography, it is also one of the most misunderstood. Some photographers are experts, some try to ignore the subject, some don't seem to have heard of it, others have read about it on forums or blogs and (kind of) get it. Years ago when our lab went digital, we brought in the experts to help set up our systems and get the best results from our printers. This relationship was not a one-date wonder. Ian and Jessica from NZ Colour Management have consulted to us regularly ever since. One thing's certain. If you use our print-ready service you To View More >>

I'm often told that brides do all their research online and communicate with photographers only by email. And that it's normal to book a photographer based on such minimal interaction: "Stephen it's no use. They just want a price. It's all about the deal, so I just give them one and hope." I don't believe it. Or at least, I don't believe it's the only possibility. I wasn't going to start these posts this way, but maybe a simple response to this challenge is useful, something you can use immediately. Anyway, here's how I would reply. Rewrite it in your own words of course, but I hope it helps engage To View More >>

Want your album featured on our Facebook page or blog? Thanks to the PJ team, you can now send us ‘My Album's Hot’ submissions for Pressbooks, Overlay Matted and Flushmount albums (previously only available for Duo and Classic Matted albums). Just tick the box in the PJ album setup screen and your album (or book) will be submitted when you send your order. We aim to choose an album a day for our Facebook page, and one a week to feature on the blog. If your album is chosen, you get free publicity and cross-promotion with Queensberry. It’s a nice marketing opportunity and it only takes the To View More >>

This is a long post, so I’m starting with the short story! Some people are upset about the terms of trade for our new web-based lab service, Queensberry Print. We want to clarify that, yes, Queensberry Print products are available to both professional photographers and end-consumers. Certainly, “consumer” means “everyone”, but in reality we believe these products will only be of real interest to professionals, serious amateur photographers, and people who received digital files from a professional and who really care how their photos are printed. Our existing range To View More >>

Since launching the new Queensberry Print website, we’ve had quite a few compliments on the illustrations in the homepage slideshow. So we thought we’d share a bit about Toril Bækmark, the illustrator we worked with to create these beautiful images. Craft, artisanship and attention to detail are close to our hearts, and we believe our lab team are true artisans in an industry where those qualities are fast disappearing. We wanted to express this on the new site, and finding an illustrator aligned with those values was very important. Toril's portfolio shows her high level of sophistication To View More >>

Made By Hand from Queensberry on Vimeo. Want to see what goes into making a Queensberry? We commissioned this brief movie as a way to say thank you to all the terrific people who make our albums … and who make us so proud. Johannes shot the images as he and I walked through the Queensberry Lab and Bindery one afternoon. The photography is all real and unstaged. Johannes created the video and set it to music by Amy Seeley, who has a lot of new fans. Thanks again to everyone involved, including the host of Queensberry photographers whose work you can glimpse along the way. Cheers, Ian PS If you 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 >>

Let me tell you a story about why we're in the album business, why we believe in brand building, and why you should too. Don't tell anyone but you're looking at two early Queensberries from the days when albums weren't everything we do. It may look a bit tired but the old wallet on top has excellent provenance, as they say. In 1990 Stephen brought his new fiancée home from Brisbane to meet his family in New Zealand. He gave her the Queensberry tour, saw the wallet and asked could he have it? Heather gave it to him. (I hope she gave Sonya something too!) Years passed. We stopped making wallets. To View More >>

Nigel and I heard about My Portland Photographer through our friend Randy Kepple. What a great idea, well executed: "A collaborative blog by Portland's finest wedding photographers". On the home page a charming image and post by Craig Mitchelldyer caught my eye. I followed a couple of links back to see if photographers were linking back to the blog from their own websites, but apparently no. I wonder why. You'd win some and lose some, but if you built the google juice together, wouldn't you win more than you lose? Don't know, just wondering. Love it anyway. Cheers, Ian To View More >>