Are You Well Presented?

Keeping in Contact – making proofs

Contact sheets are a good way to provide your client with a preview of the files that you have available from a shoot, be it a wedding or a commercial job. Assuming that the job is small, ie not many images and delivered on CD/DVD then a contact sheet is ideal, and Adobe Bridge is probably the best way to create one. From within Bridge, select the files you wish to send for review/approval by clicking and Ctrl-clicking. Note immediately that you have access to all image formats including your RAW files, a significant advantage over many other methods. Then click Tools>Photoshop>Contact Sheet II from within Bridge. Now choose the image size you require to fit your jewel case. These are nominally 12cm square but check yours before you start. We chose smaller than 12x12 so that we could drag the finished contact sheet onto a pre-prepared background containing content details, contacts and company logos. Ideally you should repeat this information on the body of the CD/DVD – when these things get into a commercial organisation they get taken to meetings and left behind in the CD slot of the conference room computer, never to be seen again! When you print your jewel case slip-in, set the Photoshop driver to add crop marks so that you can trim for a really neat presentation, it all helps to keep things looking professional.

For the larger proof set

For a variety of reasons you may choose not to provide your client with electronic proofs or a slideshow. Assuming that you have to provide some form of images for approval or selection, your other option is to provide ‘proofs’. These can take the form of a bound, small-size proof album (for social pictures), ring-bound A4 sheets with a cover for commercial work (binding saves the images getting lost, mixed up or detached from the contact details – your work may be reviewed along with that of other photographers. Some wedding photographers provide proofs in a neat box. Regardless of how you do it, the most important thing is that the client and photographer should be able to identify the image by its filename. There is a break-even point for the creation of proofs. Suppose that you take 800 frames at a wedding (not uncommon these days). If you were to decide to make 6x4 inch proofs by inkjet then you are looking at about £80 in consumables (assuming 10p per 6x4) and about five to six hours of printing and trimming. This does not allow time for collating and sorting the prints! Assuming that this prospect has scared you into more modest proofing ambitions, here are your options for improving your workflow.

Firstly you should scale back the individual size and then, to reduce the amount of trimming, place multiple images onto either A4 or A3 sheets. This may be done by the process described above for CD slip-ins but remember, even at 10-up on an A4 you are still going to have to make 80 sheets from our notional 800-shot wedding. If you employ an Epson 4800 to make the proofs then you can use the sheet feed tray, which can handle thinner ‘proofing quality’ papers to allow the job to proceed without intervention.

If nothing else, the discussion above should cause you to think hard about your workflow! It makes you realise why some photographers take lots of shots but only show their client those that they, the photographer, have chosen. The downside of this approach is the loss of potential sales – your shot
of Aunty Aggie might be technically awful but if it was the last one before she died on the way home (it does happen!) it suddenly becomes important to the client. It seems that there are as many approaches as there are photographers – the only thing is to sit down, work out the workflow, time it realistically and then ask if your fees represent a good return on your investment of time. Your conclusion could be that which many photographers have reached: it is still easier to let your processing laboratory take the strain! One thing is quite sure, if you work harder to make every shot count and come back with a smaller total number of better quality shots then you will save time and money at every stage downstream from the wedding.

KEEPING THINGS SECURE

One of the dodges we dreamt up in conjunction with Paul McGrail of DPM Wallbank at the recent GF Smith trade day was securing your proofs against fraudulent copying. Paul was demonstrating the HotPress laminator and showing off their Glitter finish. This sets off female and bridal portraiture rather nicely, putting a glittery sheen over the print. However a by-product is that it does not scan at all well as the interference pattern disrupts the image detail when you try to scan or copy it. As such it is a good way to protect yourproofs against fraudulent copying. It overcomes the rather bad impression you can leave when placing copyright notices as watermarks on a print, which can suggest that you do not trust your client – just tell them that the laminate is to protect the contact sheets/proofs so they can write on them!

You’ve been Framed

There are a number of products in the marketplace for creating frames and borders to your pictures. We showed how to create simple effects earlier in this series but if you want to buy ‘ready-made’ then we feature two here – PhotoFrame and, later on, the Bellwood template system. A number of the album manufacturers (such as Spicer Hallfield) and laboratories (such as Loxley Colour and MultiPrint Imaging) provide the utilities free, as part of their services.

OnOne PhotoFrame Pro 3

A number of applications originating from Extensis have been sold to OnOne and the list now includes Genuine Fractals, Mask Pro, Smart Scale, Intellihance Pro, etc. The full list may be found by visiting www.dcp-systems.co.uk. PhotoFrame is a Photoshop plug-in utility for creating frames and borders around your images. The software is opened from your Filters menu and your effects may be viewed in a variety of ways. With 4,293 options available to you (before you start combining them!) it is important that the program provides some order to your world. The borders are initially divided into five, themed sets. However, you may also gather together your favourites as a set for repeated use. At an even simpler level, the ‘last used’ border is always available. While there is no ability to automate the application of a PhotoFrame, it is relatively easy to create a Photoshop action and use that; when the action calls for ‘last used’ you can set up once and run many times. PhotoFrame costs £89.95 ex VAT but may also be purchased as part of a suite of plugins for £229.95 ex VAT. See www.dcp-systems.co.uk

Bellwood Photographer’s Toolbox

Bellwood Photography sells a number of products aimed at making the photographer’s life easier. These include the recently introduced Toolbox 2 set of templates to complement the existing range of Photoshop-ready templates. The sets consist of backgrounds and borders as well as some innovative best-sellers like the ‘magazine cover’ shown right. Similarly the sunflowers are a big hit with the kids, as are the jelly beans from Set 3.

Visit www.bellwood.co.uk to see the full range.

Let's get it on the world

We finish this review of presentation methods with a look at the options for showing your labours in the best possible setting. All prints need a border to set them off, and a frame to hang them on the wall. Most images are improved with a vignette, key line or some other device to ‘hold’ the image and to retain the gaze of the viewer. We showed some simple Photoshop techniques in the earlier part of this feature, but if you are looking for more sophistication or a snappier presentation, we feature OnOne PhotoFrame Pro – brand new from DCP Systems and the latest offering from Bellwood – see
the previous pages. Assuming that you have your image ready, you have to decide on the method of getting it safely into the frame. Here you have a number of choices. You almost certainly need to mount
it onto a stiff board to keep it nice and flat, nothing looks less professional than a cockled print. Also, you may wish, in order to avoid the use of a glazed frame, to laminate the print with a protective layer. The method of preference these days is dry adhesive and is typified by the Hot Press JetMounter system. This is a driven-roller, which draws the print through a set of rubber rollers to stick it firmly to a mount board. This may be followed by another pass through the mounter to apply one of 14 different surface laminates which range from high gloss to textured, including leather and cloth textures. In case you have trouble understanding just how easy it is to apply the adhesives and laminates, the HotPress catalogue is very informative, but they have also produced a free DVD which demonstrates the process in some detail. If you are after a sumptuous, traditional presentation you might look no further than Border Frames which had some gorgeous, deep mounts at the recent GF Smith-hosted trade days. These are made with multiple window mounts, to provide tremendous depth to the image setting and are available in the silver-gilt frames that are currently in vogue – canvas wrap seems to have run its course in the gallery sector, silver is back!

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Photo Quote: The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. - Dorothea Lange