Post-Production Pro Tips: Calibrate Your Monitors

Calibrate Your Monitors We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s so important that it bears repeating every so often.  Monitor calibration is absolutely necessary for color-correction work whether you outsource the work to PWD or do it yourself. When outsourcing color-correction, the only way to ensure you see the same thing that your editor does is for you to both have calibrated monitors.  If you look at the editor’s finished work on an uncalibrated monitor, there’s no telling what the images will look like. Say you then instruct the editor to readjust the images because they don’t look right on your monitor.  When the images come back a second time, they may look better to you, but they’re actually now skewed.  When you send them to a printer, they won’t come back like you expect. If you do your own correction, you may think calibration is unnecessary because none of your clients calibrate.  While it’s true that the majority of consumers don’t even know what calibration is, it’s still in your best interest to give them as correct a file as possible because you don’t know just how skewed their monitors will be.  And if there’s any chance that the images will be sent to print, you’ll definitely want to make sure you got the color right to begin with.
Quick-Tip: Are you a Pictage member? Did you know you can link your Pictage and PWD accounts to make ordering easier?  Log in to your PWD account and go to the Account Settings page to find out how.	Quick-Tip: Need your images back fast? PWD’s standard turnaround is a blazing four business days, but we can go even faster.  Ask about our 2 and 3 day rush turnaround.

Free GPPA Trade Show Pass

Georgia photographers, meet the PWD crew at the Georgia PPA Convention and Trade Show.  The Convention will be in Athens on April 1-2.  Click below for a free trade show pass.

We’ll see you there!

Post-Production Pro Tips: Receiving Sequenced Images From PWD

Receiving Sequenced Images From PWD You may have noticed that the PWD post-production order form only allows you to request sequenced images when your output type is either JPG or Lightroom catalog.  To return sequenced JPGs, we just need to rename the files in order and you’re good to go.  Lightroom catalogs are just a bit trickier, and we’ll cover them below. But first, a word about why XMPs cannot be returned with sequencing intact.  It comes down to the simple fact that sequencing data cannot be stored within XMPs.  Why not rename the XMPs in order like we do with JPGs?  Well, then the XMPs wouldn’t match up with your RAW files, rendering them useless. But let’s say you receive a Lightroom catalog back from PWD, and you know we sequenced the images.  How do you make sure you’re seeing them in the correct order? Lightroom has a number of sorting options: you can sort images by file name, capture time, rating, etc.  You can also sort by User Order, and this is the one we’re interested in. Open up the Lightroom catalog you received and choose the folder with your images.  Towards the bottom of the screen, choose the “Sort” pop-up and select “User Order.”  This displays the images in the sequence we put them in.  If you wanted, you could drag and drop the images to further tweak the order.  Or you could export JPGs (being sure to rename them during the export so they retain the sequencing). Note that User Order has some limitations.  It only appears as a sort option when you have an actual folder selected.  If you choose a collection or a top-level folder that contains subfolders, the User Order option will not be available.
Quick-Tip: Are you going to WPPI?  We’re spotlighting some of our favorite speakers whose classes you might want to attend.	Quick-Tip: And be sure to stop by our WPPI booth for more must-see speakers, your chance to win an iPad 2, and a great show special!  Details here.

WPPI Speaker Spotlight – Jared Platt

WPPI is almost here, and we want to take some time to recommend a few talks that you might be interested in attending.  Today is our buddy, Jared Platt.  You can learn more about Jared’s talk and add it to your WPPI planner by clicking below.  Or view all of the PWD speaker spotlights here.

WPPI Speaker Spotlight – Emily Potts

With WPPI fast approaching, we want to take some time to recommend a few talks that you might be interested in attending.  Today is our good friend, Emily Potts from Moms With Cameras fame.  You can learn more about Emily’s talk and add it to your WPPI planner by clicking below.  Or view all of our speaker spotlights here.

Post-Production Pro Tips: How PWD Labels Images in Lightroom

How PWD Labels Images in Lightroom This week’s tip is for PWD post-production clients who receive XMPs or Lightroom catalogs as their output method of choice.  When we return these file types, we code the files with typical metadata options (star ratings, color labels) in order to help you know what’s what.Once you’ve opened the Lightroom catalog or imported the XMPs, you’ll need to know a few things about how we organize images: Star Ratings If we performed image selection, we labeled the keepers with 5 stars and the discards with 1 star. To see just the keepers, use a filter to show only images rated with 5 stars. To change an image from a keeper to a discard (or vice versa), just change the image’s star rating. Color Labels Color labels are used to indicate images which have had different PWD services applied: Red – Black & White images Yellow – Vignette images Green – Artistically styled images (These will only be seen when a Lightroom catalog is returned.) Purple – Portfolio images or retouched images (These will only be seen when a Lightroom catalog is returned.) Blue – Indicates something is wrong with the image (ex: corrupt images) or it is questionable (ex: it’s blurry, and we’re on the fence about keeping or discarding it)
Quick-Tip: Are you going to WPPI next month?  We’re spotlighting some of our favorite speakers whose classes you might want to attend.	Quick-Tip: And be sure to stop by our WPPI booth for more must-see speakers, your chance to win an iPad 2, and a great show special!  Details here.

WPPI Speaker Spotlight – Moshe Zusman

With WPPI fast approaching, we want to take some time to recommend a few talks that you might be interested in attending.  Today is our friend Moshe Zusman.  You can learn more about Moshe’s talk and add it to your WPPI planner by clicking below.  Or view all of the speaker spotlights here.

Free WPPI 2012 Trade Show Passes

Looking for a pass to the WPPI 2012 Trade Show?  We’ve got ‘em free!

Follow the link below to register for a free Trade Show Only pass.  Then be sure to come by booth 1001 and say hi to the PWD gang!

Register for a free Trade Show Only pass