Postal Pix Discount Code

I recently wrote a review of the Postal Pix iPhone app on the Current Photographer web site. The Postal Pix folks liked the review and offered readers a 25% discount on their first order. Just use the discount code, "current" to receive your discount.

Check out the review here by clicking here. 

In the interest of full disclosure, this is not an affiliate agreement and neither Current Photographer.com nor I receive any money if you order from Postal Pix. You simply receive a one-time discount.

Hope you enjoy. I've tried this service and like it. Mike

ZaZa Gallery Canvas Prints

A couple of weeks ago I was offered the opportunity to receive a free 16" x 20" canvas gallery wrap in exchange for a review and link on the blog. Always happy to add to my collection of prints (especially for free), I emailed my image to the ZaZa Gallery folks late in the evening of January 3 and yesterday I received the canvas. The image that I chose is a shot of my son, Lane sitting on the banks of Little River in the Great Smoky Mountains. That photo has been posted here before, but I decided to tone it down a bit by adding a vignette. The result is what you see here.

So how did our friends at ZaZa Gallery do? I should first say that I have only ordered canvas gallery wraps from one other company, so that is the only comparison I can make.

What can I say? It looks just as good as or better than the other canvas wraps we own. Can I honestly say it looks a hundred times better? No. However, I can say that I cannot tell the difference in the quality of this print and any of the others I have had made. With that in mind, it seems to come down to price and service.

It is a little hard to talk about service since I simply emailed my image to ZaZa Gallery and they sent the wrap to me. I didn't use their order entry system although I did walk through an order up to the point of ordering and found it very easy to navigate and use. I was most impressed that on the upload page there is an actual phone number that you can call if you have questions or difficulties in uploading the image. The wrap was packaged well and even though the box was a little crunched on one corner when it arrived, the print was in excellent shape.

So what about prices? I decided to look up prices on what might be a typical order for me and compare the bottom line pricing. For the sake of example, let's assume that we plan to order a 3/4 inch 16" x 20" gallery wrap, and a 1 1/2 inch 20" x 30" gallery wrap of two different images. The entire order from another supplier of canvas gallery wraps (from which I have previously ordered) would cost $254.95, including shipping. The same order from ZaZa Gallery would cost a total of $221.99.

So...what is my recommendation? Based on the quality of the gallery wrap I received from ZaZa Gallery I would not hesitate to entrust them with the printing of my favorite images. In fact, I expect that my next canvas order will go to ZaZa Gallery. I encourage you to check them out. You'll be happy you did.

My thanks to ZaZa Gallery for inviting me to review their product. I am pleased to provide a link to their site and am even more pleased to become a customer.

All the best... Mike

iPhone Photo Apps

For the past several weeks I have been reviewing iPhone apps for Current Photographer. While I am having some great fun writing the reviews, there is a bonus advantage to writing these reviews...Because I am purposefully looking for new apps that are helpful for photographers, I download a lot of photo apps and take some time to play with them--and many of them are lots of fun.

While I will not republish the reviews here, I will occasionally share examples of what I am doing with the new iPhone apps I am using as a result of this experience.

The first one was taken and edited on Camera+ photo app. It was taken at about 3:30 pm in Scottsboro Alabama as we crossed the Tennessee River. (I wasn't driving, by the way). You can't really call it a sunset, but the sun was low in the sky and there was a layer of fluffy clouds that really filtered the sun. I applied the vibrant effect and the vignette frame in Camera+. I like the results.

The second photo was actually taken by mistake but I liked it so I kept it. I was out in my front yard while we still had a layer of ice over several inches of snow. As I walked across the yard I found that the ice had cracked. I squatted on the ice to try to get a photo but couldn't see the phone screen because my auto-darkening eyeglasses were so dark. The front-facing camera on my phone was active, so instead of taking a shot of the ice, I took a pic of myself. However, once I took my glasses off (ouch! it was bright) I found that the front-facing camera had captured a shot of me with some cool clouds in the background. My hair is a mess, but it had promise.

Enter iPhone apps. I first cropped the image using Camera+ and then added an additional effect with Pic Grunger. The third photo is the final result. Again, this is not exactly what you are going to use for a portrait, but I think it is a fun photo. Did I just reach the top of Everest? (Yeah, right...) Perhaps I just got out of my vintage WWI airplane? (I wish). In reality I just got off my Kubota tractor, but Pic Grunger makes it look like I just did something much cooler.

I hope you have as much fun with these apps as I have. Click here to check out my reviews on Current Photographer.

Best...MK

Workflow Using Lightroom 3 - part 4 File Structure

We have been talking a lot about digital workflow lately, but realized that I might should have talked about file structure from the start. Oh well, there's no time like the present so let's jump right in.

My file structure is pretty straightforward and makes good sense to me. However, the most important thing about selecting a file structure for your photos is that it makes sense to YOU! This is how I do it.

I start a new folder each year on my hard drive. With the exception of my backup files, all my photos for the year are located within that folder. From there, I create a folder for each month. Under that folder, I create a folder for each photo shoot.









My camera makes the next two folders, one of which is handy when a shoot runs for more than one day. These, of course, could be removed. You find all the RAW files in the main folder and I make export folders (800 pixels or PRINT) to hold my finished images.

I always retain the original file number, which helps me to find the original file later should I need it. For instance, if I want to go back to the original RAW file from Cody's haircut, I can search for 3736 and easily find it. Since hard drive space is not unlimited on my computer, I archive my files about twice a year on a separate hard drive from the original backup. 

I hope this has been helpful as you develop your workflow systems. My system is certainly not perfect, but it is a start. Perhaps you can use something we have talked about here.

All the best...Mike

Workflow Using Lightroom 3 - part 3

If you have been keeping up with recent posts you'll find that we have discussed importing, backing up and initial weeding of photos in part 1; and post processing steps in part 2. In part 3 we will discuss exporting files in JPG format and saving for print and/or web use. Again, there are a number of ways to do this. I am just sharing one way to do it. You may choose to adopt my methods or adapt them to suit your needs.

We have been snowed in all week and my son Cody wanted his mom to trim his hair. So while he was confined with the scissors, I got out my 24mm 2.8 and took a few shots. Let's use this one to discuss exporting.

It is in Lightroom and all I have done with it is to decrease the sharpening and to apply a bit of noise reduction since I shot it at ISO 640 (f2.8, 1/30 sec).

At this point I will export a copy of
 this image without applying any presets or effects. Since it will be for web use I will save it at 800 pixels on its longest side. Let's look at how that will look. I go to File and then to Export, which brings up the Export dialog box. I always save the file in the same folder as the original photo and place it in a subfolder labeled "800 pixel" for typical photos that I will post online or "Print" for those that I will print. I will rename using "Custom Name - Original File Number" with the custom name being something descriptive of the photo shoot, perhaps something like "Washington DC", "Miller Family", or "Christmas Lights".

 I use JPG format with a quality of about 74 and use the sRGB color space. I will resize the long edge to 800 pixels at 240 pixels per inch for the web. For print, I would save in full size at 100 quality. Here is where I will apply sharpening presets for either screen or print settings and add a watermark, if appropriate.

 At this point I am ready to export this one. So what if I want to add a preset in Lightroom and offer another look to this photo? All I do is to select the develop preset I want. In this situation I chose Seim Effects Old Holga BW preset so I exported it as Cody's Haircut Seim Holga BW into the same folder that holds the other exported photos from that shoot. In case you want to see what the photo looks like, here it is.

The preset gives it a vintage haircut vibe, I think, and I can easily find that photo whenever I need it. So how do I find these photos, the original RAW file, or the backup file? Look for that in part 4 of this series.

Until then...All the best...Mike