Back to School - So what can I DO with my photos?

OOOOOoooooo now This is the fun part!

All of our Wedding Packages contain a DVD of images. We believe that you deserve digital versions of your images, as we do live in a digital world and we like to show off our images on Facebook, or other social media, email them to Auntie Martha in the UK, or even make a funky Wedding Website for your guests.



The downside of this digital revolution is that your images are not treasured the way they were 10-20 years ago. Your images stay in digital form, sitting on your hard drive, hidden on a disk in a draw, or printed on substandard paper, with bad colour reproduction.

The work we do producing your Wedding Images is substantial, the time and talent taken to create this work of art needs to be treated kindly, and with reverence. Any image that is shown as an enlargement needs special care and attention, to show it off in the best possible way.

These is why we provide you with your images, but also encourage you to transform these images into stunning works of art in forms of Enlargements and Wedding Albums, so you can enjoy your precious memories the way they are intended to be viewed.


Our Image DVD's come in 3 versions

1) A Medium Resolution DVD
This is a restricted sized file, 1800x1200p, approximately 700kb Jpg files. They are excellent for online viewing, easily uploaded to Facebook and other social media sites, and can also be printed to 4x6" standard photo size. They are of Proof Editing standard, and This is the DVD that comes with our base Essentials Package.

2) High Resolution DVD
These files are of the same resolution that we use in the studio for 95% of our work. 3500x2300p approximately 2.5MB Jpgs files. These files will print up to an 8x12" photograph without loss of image quality. These DVD's are available in all Album packages and as a option upgrade. Again, these are at Proof Editing level.

3) Platinum Upgrade DVD
As explained in a previous 'Back to School' we have 2 levels of editing, Proof and Premium. A Platinum Upgrade DVD contains 100 of your favorite images, all with Premium Editing applied to them, at a High Resolution size. This DVD comes with our Enlargement Package, and as an optional extra.



So, once you have your DVD, what can you do with it?

Firstly, we recommend you back up your DVD onto your personal computer Hard Drive. This means you are far less likely to loose your precious images!

You’re entitled to print your images for personal use only. This means:

• You CAN print photos for family and friends, and of course for yourself
• You CAN show off your images on Facebook, Wedding Forums, The Sunday Times or enter Wedding Competitions. We welcome this, but do ask you credit the images to us when using them in this manner.
• You CAN give the images to your other wedding vendors, but please advise us first as we may provide images in another manner to vendors.

• You CAN NOT sell your images to 3rd parties, or use them for commercial ventures, advertising or anything that creates revenue from the images.
• You CAN NOT alter the images in any way other than standard cropping for enlargement purposes. This means you can’t change the colour, remove elements, create effects in Photoshop or extremely crop the images. - This one is very important as it completely changes the integrity of our artwork, and is in violation of Copyright laws.


We also prefer you didn’t create products from the images, such as Thankyou Cards, photo books and montages, as we do offer all these products, but this is simply a request. This is because we have strict quality standards on our products and items made by 3rd party companies can not be guaranteed.

And last but not least.....

We always recommend anything larger than 8x12 to be printed though the studio. This is because we have VERY strict quality control, and nothing goes to our clients without a thorough checking for colour, print quality, scratches etc etc - a service thats not always offered by your local print shop - AND you should only ever have the very best displayed on the walls of your home.

Next episode - Im going to run a little experiment to find out exactly what the local labs are producing, and recommend the very best place to get your reprints!

Back to School - Proof Edit vs Premium Edit

So whats the difference?? I never usually show my images straight out of the camera. Raw images, as explained in the last BTS episode, are unfinished, undeveloped 'negative' files. But for the sake of education - here we go!

This is an images from one of my very first wedding sessions back in 2006 -



as you can see it looks pretty horrible! The colour is all wrong, its flat and wishywashy (very technical term there) and no one in their right mind would have that on their wall!

But with the wonders of modern science, education, and Adobe Lightroom....we get THIS!



This is what my clients see, what is in their Proof Books and what is on their printable DVD's. It has punchier contrast, correct skintones, dust spots are removed, and looks rather lovely!

This base edit takes approximately 10-30 seconds per image - so for an average wedding of 800 images, so around 4-5 hours per wedding to edit and convert all the Raw files to usable jpgs.

Then we have our Premium Edit.



This is the standard if editing that goes into every print ordered though our studio, all Album prints, and those selected for Platinum DVD's. Its far more time consuming as all areas of the image are photoshopped and can take from 5-30+ mins per image, depending on how much finishing they require. If I did this level of finishing to the entire wedding it would take around 8 days, up to 4 WEEKS of editing time - which is hugely time consuming - and would either make your Wedding Photography exorbitantly expensive, or Id be working for 12c/hr :)

The base edit can also mean converting the image into Black and White. Contrary to popular belief, Black and White conversions are not to hide any imperfections in the original capture :) It is an artistic decision, based purely on what will work best for the image at hand. Sometimes an image will simply work far better in Black and White, as when you remove colour from an image, you get down to the basic shapes and flow of the image - which brings out the raw emotion and feeling behind what is happening, without the distraction of all the colour.

I always have my more photojournalistic images in Black and White for this very reason. The exciting moments just after the ceremony when everyone is congratulating the bride and groom, the frenzied last minute preparations, and those fun times just hanging out with your bridal party. It brings the moment down to the basic principles of emotion.

It can also be super arty :)



So there you go!! the 3 levels of image.

Back to School - Raw vs Jpg

So i get a few inquiries about whether i supply the RAW files to my clients. Now this question raises a few issues...1) what is meant by RAW and 2) Is what I consider to be a RAW file the same thing as my proposed client thinks is a RAW file?

Digital SLR's, and some higher end Point n Shoot (PnS) cameras, can shoot in both RAW and Jpg modes. Jpg is your standard file that you can use straight out of the camera (SOOC), and is a format most people are comfortable with. I liken them to digital versions of the prints you used to get from your developed Film in the 'Old Days'

RAW files are the undeveloped negative files - the roll of film you used to drop off to your photo lab. The roll of film went though the fancy machines and came back as prints. RAW files do need certain things done to them to make them usable. The work the fancy machines used to do to your roll of film, is now done on the computer, though various programs, by your photographer, instead of the lab technician.

RAW files are unusable to the general public, and they also large bulky files and unfinished. Just like you wouldn't ask Leonardo DaVinich to give you an unfinished painting, RAW files are unfinished work.

Sometimes people consider a Jpg file, that is SOOC, to be a raw file, but this is more raw in the sense of an unbaked cake - more literal.

mmmmmmmmmmmm cake......

In our studio, RAW files are never distributed. They are the unfinished negative out of which our beautiful images emerge.

next week - the difference between SOOC files and what YOU receive!

Back to School - Whats does 'THAT' mean???

The Digital Era

I get allot of requests nowadays for purchase of Copyright, or asking if my packages include Copyright, asking for High Res negs, or even Raw Files. In this digital age, everyone wants to get their photos in a digital format, and that's great! It makes thing so much easier to show off your images on Facebook, or email a photo to your Auntie in England who couldn't make it over for your Wedding, or to get a few reprints made at the local digi-lab. Its also excellent for Backup purposes as I'm sure we have all had a DVD or Harddrive fail on us one time or another.

I want to take some time to educate my clients - past present and future, and all those out there interested in photography in general, to what all these things actually mean, as sometimes the terminology can get lost in the excitement. Not everyone has a degree in Photography or Digital Management (not even me! I have a Diploma and 8 years work experience) so a little extra info never goes astray.

Wednesday will be my Back To School posts, where i try to demystify what some of these terms actually mean in real life, and what they mean to YOU and your photos, and how you can get the very best out of your Wedding and Portrait images.



Some of the topics I hope to cover are....

• Whats the difference between Raw and Jpg
• How big do I really need my files to be to get a decent print out of them?
• What is the difference between Copyright and Printing Rights?
• Why do I need to purchase prints from the studio when I already have printing rights to my files? Is there a difference? (oh yes there is!)
  
• What can I DO with my files now that I have them?
• Where is the best place to go to get prints?

And maybe mooooore!!! Let me know what you would like to have answered!

And to answer the question - Do my packages include Printing rights?? Ahhhh well you will just have to wait and see ;)