Thursday Tip: Watermarking

Can you imagine walking into an art gallery, picking up a painting and merely walking out with it? Absolutely not! Unfortunately, it is SO much easier to steal artistic work, including photographs, when it is posted on the internet. As artists, there are things that can be done to minimize the possibility that someone else can steal our work. One way to do that is by using a watermark. It is not a fail-proof method, but I use it in an attempt to deter people from taking my images. I purposefully put part of my watermark over important parts of the picture, including skin, face, body parts, detailed clothing, etc. While it is always possible to clone it and crop it out, I try to place it strategically so that it would take more work than it is worth to do so. Additionally, I always lower the resolution of the image, which means that if you try to save it and later enlarge it to print (for any purpose), the image will not look the same and will be of much lesser quality.

When you receive your CD with the images from your session, there are two different folders and one PDF document. One folder contains images for you to print (Final Prints), one includes images for you to post on the internet (Web Images), and the PDF document is a signed document with permission for you to print your images wherever you choose. I do not put watermarks on any of the images that I prepare for you to print. I do not see any need for it to be on any image that you are printing to hang on your wall or give to family members,. While I post some images on my Facebook page and blog, I do not post all the images that are included with your CD. However, should you want to post any of the pictures, the folder that contains the web images contains all images from your session with the watermark and lowered resolution. Per our contract, those are the ones that you can post on your Facebook page, blog, website, etc. I ask you to post those images with the watermark for the same reason I do: to protect my work. You have paid me to produce a work of art for you, and I trust that you respect me enough to help protect me by not allowing others to easily steal my work.

It's unfortunate that we have to worry about others stealing images so easily, but it is a very real threat. For that reason, I choose to watermark any work I do that is displayed online.

Thursday Tip: Professional Prints

(Photo taken from Google Images)

I don't think I ever realized how different photos could look depending on the printer! When you are considering getting professional prints, I would encourage you to think about how different a print can look from the original image depending on where you print it. You've just paid money to have profession pictures taken and you deserve to have those same pictures to display in your home. It is important to me that you have accurate prints. My monitor is calibrated and reflects accurate color, and I have tested mulitple print labs to see which one offers prints that truly match the images I have prepared for you.

Because I want my clients to be able to afford professional prints, I have listed my prices as low as I can.   I am only making a minimal amount to pay for my time, fees, shipping, etc when you order your prints. You are welcome to order prints from me at any time after your session. I keep all my images for at least a year.

Thursday Tip: Newborn Sessions

I absolutely love newborn sessions! Photographing a precious new baby ... ah ... I get excited just thinking about it!

Newborn sessions are very different from most other sessions and can be stressful if you don't know what to expect. I've been there with my own kids ... you want them to be perfect, act exactly the way you think they should (ie. smile for the camera), and when they don't: stress!

These sessions are all about patience. Newborn babies want to be held and fed often. They like to stay warm. We want them to wear hats, headbands, wraps, cute outfits, and finally, we want those cute naked baby pictures! If we want the baby to cooperate (sleep), we need to keep them happy during the times we aren't shooting photos and take photographs quickly once they are happy and sleeping. Soothing takes time (it will be what we are doing most of the time), and if we aren't patient, we will never get the shots we want. For this reason, we plan for a regular newborn shoot to take 3-4 hours. They don't need to last that length of time, but that is the time I plan on spending with you and your baby.

Most newborn sessions are done at your home. Having a new baby is an adjustment and being in your own home is one way for you to be a little more comfortable than you may be in a studio. You can go somewhere you are comfortable to feed and soothe your baby. We will set up an area to do the shoot in a main room with good lighting. I will bring everything we need to get amazing pictures with neutral backgrounds, including backdrops, flooring, blankets, headbands, hats, and other props, but I love it when parents have special blankets, outfits and other accessories that they want to have in the pictures. You will want to keep your home warmer than usual to help keep the baby comfortable while we are shooting.

Plan on scheduling your newborn session before the baby is born, and we will set a concrete date after his/her birth. Photographing these little ones is usually easiest when it is done before the baby is 10 days old. They are usually still sleepy and willing to let us move them around more while they are still young. I will not schedule a client if I am sick or worried about bringing any contamination to your new baby. I always wash my hands before touching your baby and am happy to wash them as many times as you would like me to during the session. I have little ones and understand how important it is to keep them healthy, especially when they are so small!

I encourage parents to be a part of the photo shoot. Most shoots will be of the baby, but there is something beautiful about capturing the new relationship between mom, dad, and baby (as well as siblings). I completely understand not wanting to be a part of any pictures after just having a baby, but I wish that I had more pictures of me with my kiddos when they were tiny.

While these sessions require patience, you will be greatly rewarded if you can be calm and listen to what your baby needs. My hope is to make this a great experience for the entire family and capture some beautiful photos of your beautiful new baby!

Thursday Tip: Crop Ratios

Have you ever uploaded your photos to be printed, waited in anticipation to pick them up, and pulled them out to see how amazing they are only to find that part of the head/arm/leg/anything is cut off? How frustrating is that?!?

There were a few times this happened to me when I was printing baby pictures of my little {M}, and it made me so mad! I wanted good pictures of my baby to show off! I now understand that there is a ratio to a photo, and that when you upload an image that has been cropped to a certain size and you choose a size that is different than the original ratio, the printer will decide what should stay and what should go! A computer decide what part of the image is important to me ... no thanks!

The basic ratio is 2x3. Photos aren't usually printed at 2x3, but they are printed in 4x6 (a 2x3 ratio). Unfortunately, we often print them at a 5x7 or 8x10 or 11x14 size as well. When we print them in those sizes, we lose part of the image. Ever wondered how much? Check out the awesome images below from Pure Photoshop Actions that show exactly what happens.

 

Wow ... that is a lot that we lose anytime we make it a 8x10 or larger print (even the 5x7 is too much)! It is uncomfortable (for me, anyway) to look at the image with so much sky on one side and nothing on the other! When you upload this picture to be printed, you want to move the crop so that the people in the image are in the center instead of leaving it up to the computer to decide what you want in your picture. Once you find where it is for your printer, it is usually a very simple step to take before you submit that final order. Best of all, that simple step will make you be much happier with the results!

Same thing here! We lose anytime we make it a 8x10 or larger print! If you uploaded this image to be printed and didn't make any changes, you could easily lose the bottom of the picture and it would look like they weren't standing on anything! Once again, figure out how to change it with your printer, and adjust the crop lines so that you don't lose any part of the picture that you want when printing your images.

Because I don't want my clients to lose important aspects of their pictures, I always crop to a 2x3 ratio, and I generally leave a little more in the image than I do when I make a print of it. I do this because you lose parts of the image whenever you make an enlargement (as shown above) and it wouldn't be a great picture if the biggest you could get was a 4x6 without cutting off the head! I am always happy to crop to a different ratio when requested, but this is the size of every image on a client's disk.  That way, enlargements can be made and you can decide what you want in the picture! Don't forget, you are always welcome to buy professional prints, in which I will adjust the crop to make sure it looks perfect with nothing important missing from your priceless image!