SmugBlog: Pro Corner

Some of you are weekenders, making a few extra bucks in the field you’re passionate about. Some of you are full-time. Either way, post processing remains a big part of our job as professionals. Don’t worry, if you don’t get it right for some reason, in post, because, We’ve got your back!

Have a quick look at that link, where you’ll see that no matter what time, day or night, what day, holiday or trash day, we’ll be there for you to make sure YOU look good for your clients!

Our Guarantee.

Guys, let’s face it: Color, color management, and skin tones are make or break for us. It’s essentially right behind “too-dark” as the number one reason why prints get rejected. Complicate matters with a wedding, where every shot is going to not only be scrutinized closely by the bride, and the families, but they want them to look perfect! We as pros have come to the realization that shooting is 2/3s of the job and what we do in post, in the “digital darkroom,” is final 1/3 of the job. You can choose to become a nut about color, about color management, and about Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, i2e or other software apps. Or you can let SmugMug do it for you.

So here is an example – and one in which many folks need some help, based on the number of problems I see. It is very easy with digital to oversaturate African-American skin, as well as get too much yellow or green. Since there were several hundred shots, all with the same problem, I used i2e to remove the green/yellow cast, and lower the saturation. At the same time, I raised the shadows a notch, as well as the midtones. Finally, sharpening for print and done.

So why am I such a big fan of i2e? It just works, and works well. It cranks through hundreds of images, with stunning results, in no time. While I said that proper post-processing is 1/3 of our job, it doesnt’ mean it has to be time-consuming and a chore that we dread. Sure, I use Photshop every day in my work, both for my own shoots, as well as for SmugMug. But I won’t ever give up my i2e. I believe that tools such as this are going to become more important and more popular… not everyone has the time or energy to become Photoshop Masters!

We as pros have to remember that our job isn’t done after the reception. It’s done when we have prints that the B&G, the parents, the family, will be thrilled with. And order, and buy. But what if things go wrong? No worries, we’ve got your back. Just drop a line, Attn: Andy, to our help desk and I’ll take care of you!

A new year is upon us. Let us resolve to:

1. Improve our technique at time of shoot, so that we get the best possible image.
2. Remember that photography is all about the light.
3. Not post images for sale that are out of focus, too-dark, or otherwise flawed.
4. Put our email addresses and contact info prominently on our SmugMug pages.
5. Get a calibration print, and calibrate our monitors.
6. Use Proof Delay, for happy customers and to avoid cropping woes.
7. Let SmugMug’s Auto Color do the heavy lifting for great prints, if we can’t.
8. Use keywords throughout our sites so that our customers and buyers can easily find us.
9. Explore the many customization options available on SmugMug.
10. Learn from peer SmugMug Pros and make more money in 2007.

So here’s to a Great 2007 for all of us!  What are your resolutions?

So some of you are not yet using Proof Delay for your event or large volume shooting work. Let’s dig deeper into it, mkay? Today, I shot a Tae Kwon Do event. My preparation began yesterday, when I created the gallery for today’s event. Why? Simple, I needed the URL so I could put it on the flyers that I gave to all the parents. Make it easy and simple, and they will buy. OK, at the event, I set my camera to shoot RAW, plus a small jpg – yet the jpg is large enough to handle the biggest size I want to sell. But on my Canon 5D, this still resulted in JPGs of over 1mb, which makes for longer uploading times. So, I quickly made an action in Photoshop, to save the jpgs at compression level 7 (yes, 7…. remember, upon order, I’ll be replacing these with jpg 10 new files!), and I soon had file sizes of about 350-400Kb. Of course, you can also use Photoshop’s Image Processor. I’ve reached my happy medium. I have files that are large enough to support all print sizes, they look good on screen, and they’re small enough to upload fairly fast. BTW, 370 files, about 200megabytes, uploaded in 38 minutes or so. If you are doing events with lots of proofs, or have to upload many many photos at once, I highly recommend you try either (or both!) SendToSmugMug and Star Explorer. So, the first part of the workflow – make it easy for your customers to find the photos for sale, and make it easy for you to get the photos there!

OK now what? Well, the parents will now order And then, because I set a proof delay on this gallery, when they do order, I’ll get an email, telling me about it. And I can look in my control panel, pro sales, and see the order, and the crop that they customer picked. Whoops, look at how poorly the customer cropped…

Well, no worries! Proof and Retouch to the rescue Simply go to the crop button in your pro sales tool, and recrop the image. Of course, if you are retouching, or otherwise changing the photo, you’ll want to do that first, then “replace photo.” THEN do your crop adjustments.

There you have it. Hit the “ship it” button, and off it goes to our lab. Proof Delay is a wonderful tool. If you have any questions at all, just holler for me or any of our Support Heroes, we’ll be there for you!

Tonight, our guest was photographer Jim Fuglestad. Jim took us through his take on on-location portrait photography:

• choosing the location
• working with the clients to get them at ease
• engaging your subjects (not!)
• equipment, workflow, business

iTunes Link

RSS Link

You can also listen by telephone: Playback Number: (641) 985-5033.  Access Code: 1094243#

Next roundtable TBA in January 2007.

New SmugMug Pro? An old hand looking for a makeover? We want to help you with a fast start.

We held our first Pro Roundtable tonight – featuring Pro Photographer Shay Stephens, on the topics:

• publicity and marketing
• getting and keeping clients
• pricing your services and photography
• leveraging web resources

You can listen to the hour-long conference, via iTunes or via this RSS Link.

I hope to make this a regular feature so keep checking in here, and also on our SmugMug Pro Sales Support Forum on Digital Grin!

Just a quickie for your photoshop gurus! We have a new advance review of Dan Margulis’ new book, Professional Photoshop, 5th edition.

Here’s the full review. Enjoy!

It’s really great when you can attract talented people to come work for you! SmugMug is very fortunate to have two new folks join our team this week – to help out on the help desk

Ivar Borst and Barb Gates have been helping many of our customers already on The Dgrin Customization Forum for the past year and more. And Ivar has created a bunch of our Themes!. Both are experience Smuggers and will be wonderful additions to our help desk. So, when you next write to SmugMug Help you may hear back from some new folks!

Today, we announced a major Pro Release Over the coming days I’ll be making posts here and on Digital Grin on how all the new features work, and how you can begin using them immediately! I and the team are also available every day at our help desk to answer any questions you might have regarding all the new goodness:

• Digital Downloads
• Custom Watermarks
• Backprinting
• Pro sales notification
• Proof Delayed Shipping

We’re really excited about this release and we thank ALL of our pros who’ve stuck with us. We hope this is just the beginning of even more great pro features yet to come!