How to Choose a Photo Lab?

 The image has been created, now you need to process that image and deliver it to your client or gallery. For most photographers that means choosing a photo lab that will produce a print, a book or some other photographic product. That “product” is the way that your skill and artistry as a photographer is measured, so it better be good.

With hundreds of photo labs to choose from, and access to virtually any lab in the country, how do you choose a photo lab? A good place to start is by asking a friend or trusted advisor. This is the logical place to begin but if you end your search at this point you are making a big mistake. There is a photo lab to fit everyone’s needs but not all needs are the same. Here is a list of questions that will help you choose the right photo lab and maybe even help you become a better photographer.

Who is my ideal client?

If you are a portrait photographer is your ideal client a family that wants a portrait for their living room and prints for family? Are you a fine art photographer and that ideal client is a gallery or museum? Perhaps you are a commercial photographer and your ideal client will need a large image for a retail display? Your “ideal client” will help you determine the services and orientation of the photo lab you need. Investigate the lab’s website.  The language they use and the testimonials they post should speak to photographers doing your kind of work. A lab that appears to be oriented toward making photo books and canvas wraps is probably not the right choice for your next gallery show. The best labs know what they do well and they market their services to that type of customer.

Can this photo lab be my business partner?

A good photo lab is essential in the success of your business and your art. You must choose a lab that can work with you and your business model. Pick up the phone and start asking questions. Nothing tells you more about a business than how they respond to their customers. Ask if they have any special offers for first timers. Let your perspective lab know you are interested in using their services and see how they respond. They should sound like they want to be part of your team.

Can I work with these people?

What is your working style?  Perhaps the best way for you to work with a lab is online. If this is true, do they have a good online print ordering application or web interface? You may like or need a higher level of customer service. Does the lab have knowledgeable people you can reach on the phone or by email?  The bottom line is that it’s all about service. In photography eventually something will go wrong. Choose a lab that is willing to help you fix problems, but be reasonable.

Do I need more than one photo lab?

Maybe you shoot both digitally and with film. In this case you may want to use a local lab for your film and proofing and another lab for printing. Sometimes one size does not fit all. Don’t be afraid to seek out just the right lab for each workflow or project.

What kind of value does this photo lab provide?

Notice the question is not, “how much does it cost.” Value as stated in the question is a measurement of all factors involved. For example, two different labs make you a print. Both prints are identical in quality, and quality always comes first.  But lab “A” rolls the print and puts it in a tube for shipping. They are slow to respond to questions and have a hard to navigate website. Lab “B” charges 20% more for the same print but they ship the print flat, have a great website and always respond promptly. If lab “B” saves you time and frustration, allows you to bill more work, then “B” is the better value and actually cheaper in real terms.

Finally never forget that it’s your image and you need to make sure it looks fantastic. Run a test with any lab before you start to use them for paying jobs. Find out about profiles and calibration so you can give the lab the best possible image file. Good files make good prints. And remember that what you receive from any lab is your “wholesale” product. Never resell it to a client without the appropriate markup. Simply giving away your image files allowing clients to do whatever they wish says that your talent is of no value. Protect our creative rights it’s the only way to make money as an artist.

Photographers have more choices than ever in photo labs and the products that they produce. Make your lab your partner, let them know what your doing. The best labs have people with years of experience, use that information to help your own business and art grow. A good photography lab can be your greatest resource.

SPE Atlanta: Science, Poetry and the Photographic Image

Imagine someone who is highly educated, passionate about their art, dedicated to teaching and happy to share their ideas with others. This last month I not only found one of these rare individuals but an entire conference full. This amazing reunion was the 2011 national conference of The Society of Photographic Education, SPE.



This amazing conference started for us with keynote lecture by old friend and legendary photographer and educator Abe Morell. Always understated, funny, and thought provoking, Abe’s talk inspired and amazed everyone. He shared many stories about his camera obscura work; we especially enjoyed his new body of work. We also got a great insight into Abe as a teacher from his former student and fellow Guggenheim recipient and SPE Board Member Joann Brennan who gave a wonderful introduction.

We would have liked to attend many of the others lectures but we had work to do. On the exhibition floor we had a great time making new friends such as: Ann Simmons-Myers, Angela Kelly, Vesna Pavlovic the Crew at Bostick & Sullivan and many more who we hope to see at SPE 2012 in San Francisco!

We also saw many old friends: Justin Kimball, John Willis, and Bruce Myren. This is a very incomplete short list and if you didn’t make it that means you didn’t buy me a drink!

We left the 2011 SPE Conference, Science, Poetry and the Photographic Image, enlightened, feeling good, and secure in the belief that the future of photography is in great hands. If you are a photography or film educator you need to be part of this amazing community, they throw one heck of a party.

How to Manage Post-Production (Workflow and Decisions)

Perhaps my greatest joy in traveling abroad is the freedom I feel to be an unashamed voyeur. As a photographer the best way to satisfy my voyeuristic tendencies is through the lens of my camera. There is no better way than photography to discover a foreign location.

Now the travel ends and the work begins. All those images now need to be edited, named, and if they are good enough, processed. If you are interested in the nut-and-bolts of my process read on. If you are interested in the more philosophical aspects of editing skip down to “Decisions.”

There are many excellent tools for editing and processing photos. Lightroom and Aperture are both very powerful, I am somewhat familiar with both but workflow is built around Adobe Bridge and Photoshop. I use Adobe Bridge to import images from my camera to my computer. Bridge is an application in the Adobe CS3 Suite of applications. During the import, I set up the naming preferences in Bridge so all my imported files have a name in addition to a number. For example, the images from my recent trip all start with “CostaRica,” then the date shot, 121710, and the image number, 4112. So the file would appear on my computer as, CostaRica_121710_4112.CR2. The “.CR2” is the RAW format I use, more on that later.

Named files as they appear in Adobe Bridge (click on image to enlarge)

After the images are all loaded onto my computer and named, I view them in the easy to navigate display in Bridge. When I determine an image worthy, I double click (Mac) the image in the Bridge window. The image opens in a new window in my Photoshop application. Because my image is in the RAW format the window that opens allows for adjustments to color temperature, tint, exposure, fill light, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance, and saturation. This particular Photoshop window only opens if the file is in RAW format (.CR2). The RAW format allows the photographer to make numerous important adjustments to the image quickly and in a data rich environment. Finally the image is saved as a .PSD (Photoshop format) file for final tweaks.

This workflow preserves the original .CR2 (RAW) file untouched just incase I made some error along the way. It also differentiates between the original capture and files that made the cut through the post-production process.

Decisions

So now that the image has made the cut what next? Well I think back to my original vision. This image was taken at dawn. The morning was hazy and still. I had ventured out with some friends to see if the mid-tide would bring some promising surfing. I saw another surfer on the beach and felt his contemplative gaze captured the mood of the moment.

Original capture after basic RAW adjustments (click on image to enlarge)

The original capture above is almost monochromatic. The colors of land, ocean and sky hold very subtle variations. This would be a perfect image to process as black and white. Using Photoshop CS3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro (Silver Efex is an excellent black and white conversion plug-in for Photoshop) I increase the contrast and emphasize the red layer to bring out the contrast in the sky. I then adjust the curve, Image>Adjustment>Curves, to bring up the contrast in the mid-tones giving me a deeper black. This makes the texture of the sand more prominent. I eliminated a distracting stick in the sand with the cloning tool and the image is virtually finished. I use Nik Silver Efex Pro to add grain and a slight dark vignette to the sky. As you can see in the finished image below the diagonal sweep of the beach brings you to the surfer and then takes you to the far off shore emerging from the mist. This compositional element is much more dramatic in black and white and is closer to my original fascination with the scene.

Final black and White Image (click on image to enlarge)

I like the final black and white image but what would it look like in color?

So starting with the original .CR2 (RAW) file in Adobe Bridge I double clicked on the image and it opens in Photoshop. Remember how I saved my black and white version as a .PSD to keep the original file untouched? I adjust the color temperature to bring out more of the warm orange in the morning sky. The image is still a bit lifeless for my taste. I go to Image>Adjustments>Selective Color and I choose yellow from the menu. Selective color allows you to change the attributes of just that color in an image. I add more red to the yellow making it more of an orange. I then go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and boost the saturation just a bit to bring up the vibrancy of the colors.

The image is better but the sky and the sand are too close in value. I create a new layer, Layer>New, and using the rectangular selection tool I select all the land and the water including a bit of sky. I copy my selection, Edit>Copy, and paste it into my new layer, Edit>Paste. Now I highlight the new layer and using curves, Image>Adjustment>Curves, I lighten and increase the contrast in my new layer. I then use the eraser tool to roughly erase where the sky and the line of hills in the distance meet. To make it all look more seamless I decrease the opacity in the layer menu to 80%. This has brightened the reflection on the water and lightened the sand. At this point I think I am done. I like the contrast of the warm sky and the surfer in cool shadow. I also like the color reflecting off the water. The final image is below.

Final color image (click on image to enlarge)

Final note:

The surfer I photographed spotted me and waved. I walked over to say hello and show him the image on my camera’s LCD screen. He was from Ireland of all places and also a photographer. We had a nice chat and exchanged information on favorite surf locations. It was a beautiful morning even without a decent swell.

“A secret about a secret”

© Karen Roehl 2010

I was recently at an art opening of my friend, the painter Karen Roehl (Ice Cube Gallery, Denver http://www.icecubegallery.com/i/Current_Exhibit.html ). Karen is an abstract expressionist painter. Her work deals with traditional issues of the genre, but her work is fresh and dynamic and the show was inspirational. Karen’s large abstract works got me thinking of art, photography and as usual, black and white photography.

Diane Arbus said, “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.”

Photographs are by nature an abstract representation, an interpretation of a moment. That is what makes photography so wonderful. In a photograph a little girl becomes an angel, a foggy morning a tale of mystery, a shadow a memory. All these are as Arbus states, “secrets about a secret,” images full of meaning to the viewer but of an uncertain reality and origin. Like my friend’s abstract paintings a photograph’s meaning may have nothing to do with the artist’s intention, however, this makes that image no less wonderful.

© Francine Zaslow 2010

Even in representational photographs, such as a recent exhibit by Francine Zaslow at the Griffin Museum’s gallery at DSI ( http://digitalsilverimaging.blogspot.com/2010/09/circles-of-life-images-by-francine.html ) , the artist takes something familiar and transforms it into something else. Zaslow’s black and white images of food render eggs, fish. and even pig’s feet, in a sculptural manner. Simple foods become monuments of form, light, and texture. The images are of food but their delight is in the representation of them as objects of beauty. It is my understanding that these images were originally produced to illustrate a cook book. In the gallery the images take on a life of their own and become something all together different. Again Arbus is right, “The more it tells you the less you know.”

I am going to try and hold on to these musings the next time I pick up my camera or paint brush. My thanks to Karen Roehl and Francine Zaslow for providing such excellent inspiration.

A Digital Holga?

Image © Saikat Biswas

In the late 80’s my wife (then girlfriend) and many other of our art school friends started using “toy” and “novelty” cameras. I believe the attraction to these cameras was the purest form of wonder that photography can create. The images from these devices was unpredictable with odd erratic depth of field, inconsistently exposed, and spontaneous.

Now through the wonder of the internet a designer, Saikat Biswas, has posted a detailed plan for what appears to be a digital version of the Holga. The Holga is currently in production in China and uses 120 film. Biswas’s version, the Holga D, if produced, would be a digital version or the original Holga.

I admit that I am intrigued by the possibility of the Holga D. Biswas has created an elegant and beautifully simple design. He has even posted “simulated images.” In some ways the proposed Holga D is too slick. There is too much control afforded the photographer. Perhaps the controls should be as minimal as the original film version?

I think that given the popularity of such digital camera accessories as the Lens Baby there certainly is a market for this camera, but you be the judge.

Link to site:

http://www.saikatbiswas.com/web/Projects/Holga_D.htm

Review: Nik Silver Efex Pro Software

Silver Efex Pro, is a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop©, Lightroom© and Aperture©. After spending just an hour with Silver Efex Pro I have concluded that this software is by far the quickest, easiest, and best way that I have found to convert, correct, and prepare digital images for black and white printing or display. What makes Silver Efex Pro so great? This is my “short-list” of outstanding features.

The image on the left is the original color image and the image on the right is the image converted
to Black & white using Nik Silver Efex Pro

1. Nik Silver Efex Pro retains all your RGB channel data. This gives you the maximum amount of control over your image. Even though your image is black & white retaining the RGB data makes printing more controllable and allows you to go back and make changes to your black & white files. Just think about it, there is a lot of information in each color channel, why just throw it away? In addition Silver Efex Pro has an intuitive interface. If you’ve ever worked in a darkroom Silver Efex Pro instantly makes sense. This plug-in has lots of features but is not confusing or loaded with dozens of effects that are only minimally different.

2. Control Points: You can set a point anywhere in your digital image and adjust the selected area’s brightness, contrast and structure*. You can create dozens of control points in an image, or copy and paste a control point to automatically apply the identical changes from the copied control point. Control points allow you to easily make changes without time consuming masks and multiple layers. This feature alone would be worth the price of the software as it can save you hours of image editing time.

Control point placed on image and brightness, contrast and structure adjusted

3. Select a Film Type: Silver Efex Pro has amazing presets that allow you to emulate the look and grain of a broad variety of films. The folks at Nik have also figured out how to make the “grain” in your digital photos look like real film grain. The pattern and density varies depending on the density and contrast in the image.

Tri-X 400 is selected from the Film Type menu

4. *Structure: I still haven’t figured out exactly what structure is in the technical geek-speak of software engineers but I know what it looks like. Structure adds the kind of depth and well structure the way that can be obtained in tradition film processing. My example is the way that Tri-X looks if you processed it in D-76 at a higher temperature…ya know what I mean? Well for those of you who are exclusively digital it also appears to add more tonal separation especially in the mid tones.

1. Preset Style Menu, "High Structure" selected 2. Brightness, Contrast and structure Sliders 3. Loupe for magnifying specified area 4. Zone System Scale

There area also a plethora of other features that make Nik Silver Efex Pro a “must-have” for anyone working with grayscale digital images. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Nik allows you to download Silver Efex Pro, and use it for FREE for 15 days (I am including the link below). I highly recommend Nik Silver Efex Pro and I can honestly say I actually had FUN learning to use this product!

Download Free trial version of Nik Silver Efex Pro via this link:
http://www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro/usa/entry.php

All images © Andrea Zocchi 2010