Post-Production Pro Tips: Can I Afford That New Camera?

Free Guide – Can I Afford That New Camera? “Can I afford that new camera?”  It’s a question every photographer faces, but many don’t know how to legitimately answer it.  If you really want to know whether you can afford a new piece of gear, this guide is for you.  Written by Jerry Weiner – PWD Labs CEO and Business of Photography speaker, – this fun and easy-to-follow guide requires no accounting experience, instead walking you step-by-step through the process of creating a simple cash flow table that can be used to monitor your business and plan for that shiny, new camera. Click here to download the free guide.
Quick-Tip: For additional reading, don’t miss Jerry’s series of articles on the Business of Photography.	Quick-Tip: And check out our free post-event workflow guide as well. This tip-packed guide helps you get organized and be more efficient behind the computer.

Post-Production Pro Tips: Pre-calibrated Monitors

Pre-calibrated Monitors If you’ve been following this series of tips, you’ve seen us sing the praises of monitor calibration on multiple occassions. Calibration is essential to the post-production process, whether you edit your own images or send them to PWD. But what if you buy a monitor that claims to be pre-calibrated? Does that free you from the task of calibration? Unfortunately, no. Manufacturers tend to calibrate their monitors so they look good in stores, under bright lights. They turn the brightness up so they look shiny and attractive to customers. When you bring it home, however, those settings are not appropriate for professional photography. Also keep in mind that monitors shift over time. Even if it arrives perfectly calibrated, it doesn’t stay that way. That’s why we calibrate every week at PWD.
Quick-Tip: Our friends at X-Rite offer a wealth of knowledge and tools related to color management. Check out X-Rite to learn more.	Quick-Tip: Is your calendar filling up with shoots? Contact PWD to see how we can keep you ahead of the curve on your edit work.

Can I Afford That New Camera? – Free PDF Guide

“Can I afford that new camera?”  It’s a question every photographer faces, but many don’t know how to legitimately answer it.  If you really want to know whether you can afford a new piece of gear, this guide is for you.  Written by Jerry Weiner – PWD Labs CEO and Business of Photography speaker, – this fun and easy-to-follow guide requires no accounting experience, instead walking you step-by-step through the process of creating a simple cash flow table that can be used to monitor your business and plan for that shiny, new camera.

Click here to download this great guide.

Post-Production Pro Tips: How Long Will My Upload Take?

How Long Will My Upload Take? No matter the upload method (FTP, web upload, ROES, etc.), the amount of time the transfer takes depends on two things: Total file size you’re sending.  Your operating system can tell you this. Your upload speed (not download speed).  Find this using a speed test site like http://speedtest.net/. Once you have this info, use the table below to approximate your upload time. Total File Size 10 MB (about 1 image file) 500 MB (about 50-70 files) 1 GB (about 100-140 files) 2 GB (about 200-280 files) 3 GB (about 300-430 files) 10 GB (about 1000-1430 files) Upload Speed 56 Kb (Dial-up) 25 min. 21 hrs 42 hrs 83 hrs 125 hrs 416 hrs 64 Kb (DSL) 22 min. 18 hrs 36.5 hrs 73 hrs 109 hrs 364 hrs 128 Kb (Cable) 10 min. 8.5 hrs 17 hrs 34 hrs 51 hrs 171 hrs 256 Kb 5 min. 4 hrs 8.5 hrs 17 hrs 26 hrs 86 hrs 1.5Mb 1 min. 45 min. 1.5 hrs 3 hrs 4.5 hrs 14 hrs With your estimate in hand, it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth waiting for the upload to complete. If you’re looking at an upload of a few hours, it shouldn’t be an issue. If you’re looking at a few days… again, we’ll leave that decision to you. Quick-Tip: Always turn off the power saving features on your computer when starting an upload of any significance. It’s very frustrating to come back in the morning and discover that your computer went to sleep 30 minutes after the upload began. Quick-Tip: If your uploads and downloads continually fail, the culprit might be wireless. We find that connecting a computer via wire provides more consistant results (and higher speeds).

Post-Production Pro Tips: What’s Your Color IQ?

What’s Your Color IQ? Did you know that 1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men have some form of color vision deficiency? If you’ve ever wondered how well you perceive color, check out this fun color test from our buddies at X-Rite. X-Rite Online Color Challenge When you get your score, note that, like golf, lower is better. Have fun!
Quick-Tip: “Colorblind photographer” is not an oxymoron. Though color is, of course, important to photography, there are ways to manage color blindness. One method is to have PWD color-correct your images.	Quick-Tip: X-Rite offers a wealth of knowledge and tools related to color management. Why not take a look around their website after you complete the color test?

Post-Production Pro Tips: Make Your Weekly Schedule Sing

Make Your Weekly Schedule Sing An additional benefit of outsourcing post-production that many people overlook is the consistency that comes with it. Not only do you have more time and quick turnaround on your images, but you can plan your week out because you know exactly what to expect. Here’s an example schedule for a busy photographer. Does a schedule like this sound appealing to you? Saturday: Shoot a wedding. Backup the files. Sunday: Perform any prep work such as selecting the keepers. Start the file upload to PWD to run overnight. Monday: Send a note to your clients thanking them for being wonderful. Tuesday: Meet with potential clients and book an awesome gig. Wednesday: Work on new marketing and business strategies. Thursday (or sooner): Receive files from PWD. Peform any finishing touches. Friday: Deliver beautiful images to your clients. Oh, wait. Your clients aren’t even back from their honeymoon yet! Well, now you have time for ordering proofs, preparing an online gallery, and selecting images for a PWD album design.
Quick-Tip: Outsourcing isn’t just for the busy season. You’ll appreciate the extra time, quality images, and quick delivery year round.	Quick-Tip: For those situations where 4 days just isn’t fast enough, PWD also offers 3- and 2-day rush service.

Post-Production Pro Tips: Prepare for the Busy Season

Prepare for the Busy Season By many accounts, 2012 is shaping up to be the best year in a while for professional photographers. If your schedule is filling up, you’re probably preparing for the coming busy season.  Well, don’t forget to prepare your post-production workflow. If you plan to outsource your post-production work only when you get too busy to handle it yourself, think again.  There is some setup work and a learning curve involved in working with a new post-production company.  The middle of the busy season is not the best time to start looking around for help. Even if you have all the time in the world to work on your own images right now, consider outsourcing your very next shoot (or even an older one).  When the busy season hits, you’ll be glad you already learned how to use that web uploader, gone back and forth with your editor about your style, and figured out which file type you want back. When the busy season hits, you’ll be glad you can concentrate on your clients.
Quick-Tip: PWD’s Signature Correction service matches your personal color style. It may take a couple tries to get there, though, so start early.	Quick-Tip: If you know you need help but aren’t sure exactly what with, give PWD a call. We can suggest ways to best fit outsourcing into your existing workflow.

Post-Production Pro Tips: XMPs vs Lightroom Catalogs

XMPs vs Lightroom Catalogs – What’s the Difference? When submitting RAW files for post-production work, you can request back either XMP files or a Lightroom catalog.  So what’s the difference between the two? XMPs and Lightroom catalogs contain a lot of the same information.  With either choice, you get the develop settings your PWD editor applies to your images.  But Lightroom catalogs actually contain some information that XMPs cannot. Sequencing – If we sequence your images and then send back XMPs, there’s no way to retain that new sequence – it’s just gone.  If we send back a Lightroom catalog, however, the sequencing remains intact. Virtual Copies – To make black & white copies of your images, we create virtual copies in Lightroom.  Virtual copies cannot be exported as XMPs, so we return them as JPGs (with the corrected, color version being returned as XMP).  If we instead return a catalog, the JPG export is uneccessary. The other differences between XMPs and Lightroom catalogs are more minor but may sway you one way or the other: Size-wise, Lightroom catalogs are bigger.  A set of XMPs is usually well under 1 MB, while a catalog often ranges anywhere from 2 to 20 MB.  Though larger, a Lightroom catalog is still a pretty quick download. Upon return, each needs to be linked to your original RAW files.  The process is slightly different, though both are quite easy.
Quick-Tip: Don’t forget about JPG output!  If you just want final, usable files to send to your clients or hosting site, we can convert to JPG for you.	Quick-Tip: Lightroom catalogs  aren’t just for RAW shooters.  When you submit JPG files, we can return a catalog, cutting your download time significantly.