Adobe Lightroom 4.0 Beta–Producing Books

 

Over the last couple of weeks I have been using Lightroom 4.0 beta from Adobe.  There are many new features to like in this beta.  One that has been particularly interesting to me is the new Book tab.  Adobe has partnered with Blurb for book creation who produces really nice books.  I have used Blurb in the past and I have been really pleased with the quality of the books.   I don’t create books as much as I like to because the jumping back and forth between Lightroom and the Blurb software.  With the new integration, this has been eliminated.

I have been working on a book from our trip last summer to the Grand Canyon area.  I wanted to create a book with pictures from not only my camera but my two sons.  I used Lightroom 4.0 to organize the photos based on location.  Once I had accomplished that, it was really easy to create the book.  What’s interesting when you create a book with Lightroom 4.0 is that LR will create a collection for the book.  You simply drag photos into the new collection.  In the Book module, the photos are tagged how many times they are used in the book.  This makes it easy to identify which photos still need to be placed in the book.

The key advantage to me in using the Book module is the ease of going back to the Development module and making changes.  Previous to LR 4, you have go back into LR, make changes and export the image back into the Blurb software.

Try it out, I think you will like what your see.

The Big Picture

One of the areas I am intrigued by is creating big pictures.  I have been listening to Gavin Siem’s podcasts over on ProPhoto Show and he has been very excited about creating large prints.  Large prints give the impression as being a large painting and make the print a center piece of your room or home.  I wanted to create a large print of my two sons over our fireplace.  About four years ago, I had created a 30x40 inch B&W print for that space.  Instead of having it framed professional, I hand built my own frame.  The frame was not hard to build.  I used some molding from the local hardware store as the frame.  The problem I had when I built the frame was I couldn’t find a mat board large enough for the picture.  I ended using two pieces of mat board and splicing them together.  Once I completed the project, you really couldn’t see the two mat boards unless you got really close.  Print also looked really good even though it was from a Canon 10D.

This time around, I wanted a more professional look that I could use to show to potential clients.  Again I select 30x40 as the print size and this time I used a color photo.  The problem now was to find a way to frame the print with mat border.  I looked around and couldn’t find anything until I looked  at pictureframes.com.  I found out that if you select a wooden frame, you can add a linen border or a liner as they call it to the frame in various widths and colors (black, white or natural).  Below is part of the ordering form that shows you the selection for the liner.



The liner is what gave me the mat like border I was looking for.  Pictureframes.com has a really nice ordering process for their frames.  You can even upload your picture to their site so you can how the picture and the frame look together.  The frame arrived in about five days packed very well and assembled.  Within a short period of time I had the picture framed and ready to hang.  I now looks great over my fireplace.

I learned one lesson from this process.  Normally when you order a precut mat board, you specify an opening slightly smaller (“1/4”) than the print so there is some overlap of the mat board.  For this order, I ordered the opening slightly smaller than my print.  Come to find out, with this type of frame/liner combination, you don’t need to do this.  The frame and the liner are put together as one piece.  The print, backer board and plexiglass sit within a rabbit that is cut into the linen liner.  The final opening is about a 1/4” smaller than than the opening you specify.  So I should have ordered the opening size as 30x40 inches.

The one drawback to this type of setup is that the plexiglass sits right on top of the print.  Normally with a mat board type of frame, the print is separated from the plexiglass by the mat board.  With have the print in direct contact with the plexiglass may affect the overall life of the print or it may create a moisture problem.  I’ll keep an eye on that and let you know if I see an problems.
I highly recommend Pictureframes.com.  I have used them in the past for other framing needs and those have always done an outstanding job.

My New Booth Setup

 
Last year I participated in the Loveland Art Festival in Loveland, OH. This was my first festival so I really didn’t have much of an idea on how to setup a booth. Needless to say I learned lot about setting up a booth last year. (BTW, tents can fly if not properly secured). I probably made all the first timer mistakes and I am sure the people around me saw me having “fun”.
After my fun last year, I spent more time looking around and talking with people about setting up a booth. Here are three things I changed with my booth this year.

 

Displaying Pictures

Last year I saw lot of people using mesh panels to hang their artwork. These mesh panels act as wall and you can hang artwork on both sides. I really like this setup because it does allow you to display a lot of artwork in a small space. I found Flourish (www.flourish.com) on the network who has some very nice panels. I talked to the staff at Flourish and they were very help in deciding what I need and also gave me advice on setting up a booth. I now have three mesh panels for my Caravan Popup Tent. I did buy the indoor frame so I could setup the display in my basement and test out various configurations. They do have a full tent setup which is really nice. I bought my indoor frame with the thought of upgrading.
Hanging pictures on the mesh panels is really easy. You use common s-hooks which you can by at any hardware store. The mesh panels also allow you to arrange your artwork to dreams content.

 

The Artwork

Last year I featured both matted prints and gallery wrapped canvas prints. The gallery wrapped prints were very well received and I will offer them this year. Right now I order my gallery wrapped prints from White House Custom Color (www.whcc.com). They do a real nice job of printing and framing the print. The only downside is the cost. If I continue to see interest this year in the prints, I might consider buying a larger printer so I can do it in house.
The change I made this year was moving from matted prints to framed and matted prints. A lot people I talked to said that framed prints are the way to go because people like to buy a completed project and not have to worry about the finding a frame frame. Framing a print also solved my problem of how to hang my artwork on the mesh panels. This year I will primarily have framed prints but will still offer matted prints just not as many.

 

Show Me the Money

Or not. Last year I could only accepted cash and checks. I had looked into using a credit card processing system but that was simply too expensive unless I was doing a lot of shows. I know I lost a number of sales last year because I couldn’t accept credit cards.
This year, that has changed. Earlier this year, Intuit introduced GoPayment which allows you to use your smartphone and a small card reader to accept credit cards. Intuit does not require a monthly fee as they only take a small percentage of each transaction. They also provide the card reader for free.
Problem solved.

 

Hopefully a better year

I feel that I will have a better show this time around. I am sure I will learn new things and make some mistakes but at least I am not a first timer. If you are at the Loveland Art Festival this weekend, please stop by.

My New Year’s Resolution

I think everyone starts off their new year making a list of resolutions and I also follow that long held tradition.  Though I tend to think of my resolutions as goals and make them positive.  So here are my resolutions (goals) for this year.

• Blog more.  I haven’t blogged much and I really don’t have any good reason not to.  I am hoping by sharing my experiences others can benefit.
• Take more pictures. I see a lot of opportunities for great pictures but don’t always take the time.  If I look at my trend over the year,  I take a lot of pictures during the sports seasons of Spring and Fall but not in the Winter or the Summer.
• Print more pictures.  I never seem to get to the final complete version of the picture.  I find myself always going back and tweaking the picture.  I want it to be perfect.  I am going to have to convince myself there is no perfect image and print the darn image.  Also printing gives you an opportunity to study the image and think about how you can improve future images.
• Participate in Forums.  Getting feedback on your images is the best way to improve as a photographer.
• Stock or Microstock?  Might be a possibility this year.  I have read and researched stock photography.  A lot of changes have occurred in this market.  I am not sure the effort vs. reward is there for me but it would be nice to make a profit to justify buying new photo equipment.
• Have Fun!