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PPS Reader Deals. Nik Software, Photomatix, & More. Coupon codes.

Published

on April 15, 2009

in Aperture, Gavin Seim, News, Photoshop and Software

. 2 Comments

by Gavin Seim: There’s some great photo tools and plugins out there, but they can be expensive and we all hate paying full price. To get you more bang for your buck I’ve been arranging vendor affiliate deals and discounts.

We’re getting a nice collection of savings and here they are compiled in one place. I’ll keep working on more deals and update this page with the latest deals. In the meantime you’re welcome to pass these along to your friends and save them some money too.

Current Special Sales…

Everyday Discount Codes…

Seim Effect Tools. Save 15% Promo code: PPS
My own simple and FAST editing presets & actions
NEW – Trey Ratfliffs Texture Packs. Save 15% Promo code: PPSH
I’m liking Trey’s textures. Great way to add spice. Comes with videos too.
Topaz Labs. Save 15% Promo code: PROSHOW
DeNoise, Adjust, Enhance and more.
Imagenomics. Save 15% Promo code: PPSIMG
Portraiture, Noiseware and more.
Nik Software. Save 15% Promo code: PPS
Dfine, Viveza, Silver Effects and more.
Photomatix Pro. Save 15% Promo code: PPS15
The all time favorite HDR software.
OnOne Software. Save 15% Promo code: PRPHTPC
Genuine Fractals, Mask Pro, Focal Point and more.

In Design CS4 Photographers Look. The Lightroom Of Album Design

Published

Gavin Seim

on March 14, 2009

in Gavin Seim, ProPhotoShow, Review, Software and Weddings

. 4 Comments

by Gavin Seim Updated 11/09:

Images stuffed into mat pages, then an album covers is becoming less and less attractive to clients. If you’re designing wedding, event, or portrait albums you’ve probably played with making layouts in Photoshop or another program to then have printed as flush mount albums like Kiss or Asa Books, You might have also used press books like the ones from WHCC. Once you have a good design there’s loads of choices, but it’s the design that’s the challenge.

As many people know the service and support of Adobe has gone in the toilet in recent times and while they need some competition to slap them back on track, their software is still great. Today I want to talk about In Design CS4 and how it relates to album deisgn. I’ve tried various tools for album design, some of which worked really well. When it comes to crunch time however, I’m finding In Design is the king.

I learned the basics about using ID for albums from a video that Kevin Swan made. And now gives free on the Kiss books site. Not required but it was sure a great crash course and I use it often to hone up my knowledge. The bottom line is that it’s fast, easy and powerful. Once you get the hang of it.

In Design was not actually designed for photographers to make albums. Rather it’s the industry standard for designers doing layouts on magazines and other published material. It turns out however that it works a treat for doing albums. Bear in mind it’s not a photo editor. What ID rocks at, is laying out pages and doing it fast.

I cringe when I think of doing individual pages in Photoshop. It’s not a page design tool and it’s tedious to do layouts with. What I love about ID is that the entire project is contained in a single file. All images on the pages are referenced to the original files on your computer similar to when one makes a web page. You can edit and change you design in one place and when it’s finished just export the final file as a PDF of JPEG’s. Kinda like the way we use Lightroom.

Continue reading ‘In Design CS4 Photographers Look. The Lightroom Of Album Design’

Mini Product Review: MonoSlideShow Gallery Plug-in

Published

Alan Hutchison

on February 24, 2009

in ProPhotoShow, Review, Software and Web Design

. 0 Comments

For my first article on Pro Photo Show I’d like to draw your attention to a product that I’ve been using for a travel industry website that I’ve been working on, but which would make a great addition to any photographer’s website or blog. That product is called MonoSlideShow.

Monoslideshow is a photo gallery plug-in that can be inserted into almost any website. It is written in Flash, and has been designed from the ground up to be fully flexible and to be a true showcase for beautiful photography.

For photographers who insist on having traditional HTML-based websites rather than Flash (generally for reasons of search engine optimization), this product offers the perfect compromise between design and “searchability”. Plugging this product into any blog will instantly add a bit of “WOW” to the site and bring a huge amount of functionality in the process.

The key to MonoslideShow’s flexibility is its XML-based configuration file. XML is simply an agreed format and standard for a markup language, and even if you are not familiar with it, you will still be able to use the product using the handy XML file generator that the product’s author provides on their website.

The product is extremely flexible and can go from a simple image viewer, basic slideshow, or full blown gallery browser, and at whatever size you wish. It even includes wonderful transition effects and a Ken Burns style panning and zooming effect to add a bit of dynamic movement to your images.

For copyright and or branding, logo’s and text can also be automatically overlaid on top of images. You can even incorporate marketing messages into your images as they appear. Continue reading ‘Mini Product Review: MonoSlideShow Gallery Plug-in’

How To Market & Sell Your Photography:

Published

Gavin Seim

on January 16, 2009

in Biz Sense, Gavin Seim, PPS Photography Tips, Portrait, Software and Weddings

. 0 Comments

By Gavin Seim: Being a fabulous photographer is great, but if you want to pay the bills with your passion you have to make sales and take great images. Here’s some great content from PPS and some other great sites to help out. I’ll be updating this post as I find great content on how to market and sell to your clients and a few posts dealing with shooting itself. If you know of some great articles on selling, post em up in the comments. For more good stuff see the Best Of Pro Photo Page

Good reads.

14 Steps To A Successful Sales Presentation:
Another good Ziser post. Fourteen steps David uses in his presentation to help him make great portrait sales.

How to Logo & Brand Your Images:
Branding is important and if you’re sending portraits out the door without it you’re throwing away money.

Selling to an out of town client:
Another Ziser classic. Full of tips on how you can keep sales high, even when you can’t meet in person.

The Portrait Consultation: Part1, Part2 A multi part series from David Ziser (we’ll update it as he publishes them). Selling a portrait is not just about getting a session booked. It’s about selling large prints and making the session profitable.

Large Wall Portraits. Why the 8×10 is stealing your thunder.
One of the host hotly discussed and perhaps the most valuable marketing articles ever on PPS. The ideas may be bold, but they absolutely work. whether you choose to listen or debate them is up to you. Join the discussion.

Copyrighting Your Images: It’s a part of the business that we tend to avoid, but it’s important and once you get the hang of it it becomes easy.

20 Ways To Appreciate Your Customers:
Can’t go wrong making happy customers.

Podcasts…

Pro Photo Show #60. Not Wearing Pants: A good episode overall, but starting at 1:34:10 we start getting into standing out and being something more than a weekend warrior. Then we move right into selling large portraits and how key it is. Be prepared for a few Gavin rants.

Pro Photo Show 53: This episode is a favorite and it’s full of good stuff. The whole show is well worth a listen, but starting at time index 44:28 we’re joined by Kevin Swan. Listen through to the end because the longer he talks the more you’ll glean.

Pro Photo Show 51: Another fun roundatble. At time index 52:33 guest photographer Scott & Adina Hayne talk about the marketing they used to build their wedding business in record time. This is also where they share info on leveraging Facebook to held build your business.

OnOne Plug-in Suite 4: Straight Dope Review

Published

Gavin Seim

on December 27, 2008

in Canon, Gavin Seim, News, Photoshop, ProPhotoShow, Review and Software

. 0 Comments

The Product: OnOne Plug-in Suite 4 for Photoshop: Overall PPS Rating, 7/10
Includes Six plugins. We’ll review each separately below. Review by Gavin Seim

OnOne has given PPS a 15% off discount for readers. Use Promo Code PRPHTPC

The Hot:

Product interfaces have become mostly unified making them easy to work with.
When purchased as a suite, it’s a good value. You’ll have plenty to play with.
Effects and tools are effective and generally simple to use and customize.
Aperture & Lightroom* integration on certain apps

The Not:

No auto update makes in version updates a hassle and easy to overlook.
When purchased separately there’s STD/PRO options adding confusion and making the prices too high (not unlike many plugin companies. These so called Pro versions do not have enough extra features to warrant the cost. The full suite does include the pro versions where applicable however.

The Bottom Line:
This is a great collection of plugins. If you want to broaden your editing arsenal in one shot, Plugin Suite 4 is a great place to start. While the whole suite is the best value, all plugins can also be purchased separately.

*One thing to note is that Lightroom integration is little more than export plugins and not self contained integration in LR. This is probably due to limitation with Lightrooms support for plugins, but it’s still a disappointment.

Promo’s and discounts:
OnOne gives PPS some specials as well. Promo code PRPHTSHW is good everyday for 10% off any OnOne product. Also thru Dec 31st, here’s a promo page that will save you $100 on the suite. Note that OnOne has no say in this review, and it contains only my honest opinions.

Individual Product Reviews:

Genuine Fractals 6: Review 9/10
Genuine Fractals is a standard among many photographers when it comes up scaling image resolution. I use it whenever I make large prints. It can quickly take those pixels and make a 300DPI file for whatever print size I need. It can even add sharpening in the same pass (though I usually sharpen separately) GF just gives something more than built in Photoshop up-conversion methods and I really like it.

Continue reading ‘OnOne Plug-in Suite 4: Straight Dope Review’

Pro Photo Roundtable. Podcast #53. Wild Christmas Party:

Published

Gavin Seim

on December 17, 2008

in Canon, Dennis Zerwas, Gavin Seim, Lightroom, News, Photography Podcast, Photoshop, Pro Photo Show Podcast, ProPhotoShow and Software

. 11 Comments

Click To Listen>> Photography Roundtable Podcast PPS #53

Give us a present: Review in iTunes, or Vote on Podcast Alley

~Today’s topics. D3X, 5D MKII, Gadgets Galore, Marketing, Web~
The Panel:
Gavin Seim ~ Seim Studios
Kerry Garrison ~ Camera Dojo
Dennis Zerwas ~ DZ Photography
Scott & Adina Hayne ~ Hayne Photography
Kevin Swan ~ Kiss Books, New School, Weddings

Notable Time Indexes:
29:00 Gadget Guide
44:28 Kevin Swan joins the show. He has some great marketing tips.
1:57:30 After Show (Marketing and wedding talk)

Disclaimer: Do not use film cameras as fireplace fuel. They could cause hazardous fumes.

News & Info:

PPS deal page has various vendor discounts.
SeimEffects presets and actions SAVE 15% of all products with promo code PPS

Podcast #53 Forum Discussion:

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