Getting something for free is always cool but if you are a photographer without the capability of doing your own larger format printing (or even if you can I guess), then a free print on canvas should be of something of interest.
I work with FinerWorks.com an online print on demand service. We have a blog section on the site for our registered users but getting them to write something is like pulling teeth sometimes. We probably need to revamp the blogging system we are using but that is for another topic.
Our marketing director told me the other day that we really need to get more photographers to write something about their experience with our services. She says we get a lot of artists doing this but not enough photographers. I am not sure why since we have a pretty even number of both.
Anyway what we want to do is offer “Serious” photographers who blog the opportunity to see what we are about. Being in charge of print quality I also need to get some feedback as well since we made some recent changes to our canvas. So we want to get feedback on everything from the ordering experience to the actual print and even how it might compare to some of the other photo labs you might use.
It will be pretty painless. We will provide you a promo code for a free 16×20 canvas, stretched and mounted, shipping included. It will be printed on Epson Premier Satin Canvas with a protective finish and stretched and mounted using our standards stretching and mounting option.
I setup an email address you can send your infomation to for the gift certificate. Post a comment to this post so we can see that you are a legit blogger then e-mail temp_email12@finerworks.com. Include the link to your blog in the e-mail so we can compare it with the post for verification.
Out of fairness to all that e-mail we only allocated a handful of free prints and are posting a similar message elsewhere so this is a first come first serve type of thing.
Some of the most impressive fine art photo prints are those that are photos of the American Southwest and Rockies. Every day at FinerWorks we have the priveledge of printing images like these and are always talking to people that would love to have the opportunity to capture these images. What is also amazing is how bug a market there is for large scenic prints of this nature. Based upon that I am republishing and article (with permission) from WikiHow that discusses how to photograph the Grand Teton National Park. If you plan to take a trip there anytime soon, make sure you read this article.
Want to make sure you go home with great photos of this spectacular national park?
This article assumes that you will be entering Grand Teton from the south (Jackson, WY) entrance.
Steps
Get up and moving before sunrise. This is the best time for wildlife viewing.
Stop at Mormon Row. You’ll want to make this shot at the utter crack of dawn. Go north out of Jackson into the park. After passing Moose Junction start watching the right hand side of the road, you will see a sign for Antelope Flats Road. Turn right and proceed slowly, there can be substantial herds of bison in this area. You will pass some roads going into residences, you are looking for a wide spot on the left where the road going north is chained off. Park here. Walk north on the dirt road, if it’s still dark, don’t wander off the road, there is a small creek that you can fall into if you don’t pay attention. You will find the most photographed barn on earth very quickly. Set up and wait for sunrise. Shoot like crazy. Get back in your car, turn around and go south on the same road to find the other barn that is a must get shot.
Stop at Schwabacher Landing next. Go back to the main road and turn right, heading north again. Schwabacher Landing is not marked as you drive north (it is coming south though). You will probably overshoot it, if you reach Teton Point turnout, you’ve passed it. The road is a small dirt road on the left side of the highway. This is a gravel road with a lot of washboarding, you do not need 4WD, simply drive slowly. There are two areas down here, it is the second one that will give you the best shots. There is a nice parking area here and you will probably have plenty of photographers as company.
Go back to the main road and proceed north again. Stop at Teton Point turnout if there is really good sky available. If the sky is only so-so, you can probably pass this one by.
Keep driving north, the next stop is the shot that you see on all of the postcards, Mount Moran reflected in the Oxbow Bend of the Snake River. You will come to a T in the road, the right side goes to Dubois, the left to Moran Junction. Turn left to Moran, go through the entrance station and keep going. You will have no trouble finding the Oxbow Bend pullout, it will be packed with photographers. Spend some time here, there are probably a dozen shots to be made. Walk a ways down the road and there is another nice marshy area, if you’re lucky there will be some geese or ducks floating on the Snake.
Note:The above are the “have to have” shots in Grand Teton. There are other areas to visit if you have time to spend. The Chapel of the Transfiguration just outside of Moose is a great morning shot, but not a crack of dawn shot, the sun has to clear a ridge before it will be well lit.
Tips
There are several spots along Jackson Lake that are good, but only in the springtime when the lake is full, it gets ugly in the summer as it gets pulled down for irrigation. Willow Flats is a good spot to look for moose, as is the Moose-Wilson road. All of these spots are on the NPS map provided to you when you enter the park.
If you are at all interested in wildlife, keep your longest telephoto zoom on the camera at all times when not shooting landscapes. A beautiful bugling bull elk can disappear into the brush in a matter of seconds.
The only filter you should need is a polarizer, possibly a split ND for the earliest shots.
However much card space/film you think you will need, double it.
If you’re shooting digital, take a spare battery pack and a car charger. You’ll burn through the first battery before noon if the day is good to you.
Warnings
Respect the wildlife, this isn’t Disneyland. An annoyed bison can charge at 30 mph. They can run faster angry than you can run scared. A lot faster. You can be killed by an enraged buffalo easily, and this author is unaware of any “tricks” to save oneself.
Ditto for bears, they can kill with a swipe. Never get between a sow and cub. Always make noise when traveling on foot in back country. If you’re planning on going out into the sticks, carry bear spray. If a bear charges, drop to the ground, curl into a ball and use your arms to protect the back of your neck. Never remove your backpack, it may save your life when you drop. Never run from a bear, this will only provoke the bear’s prey response. Also remember that bears can climb trees better and faster than you can.
Cell phone service is spotty in the park, don’t rely on a cell phone to get yourself out of a bad situation.
All of the roads in the park, even the dirt ones, are passable in a regular car in good weather except for River Road (this runs along the west side of the Snake River). Don’t try River Road in a low clearance vehicle, it won’t be fun at all.
Things You’ll Need
Camera, digital or film.
If using and SLR, long telephoto zoom lens for wildlife and wide angle for landscapes.
Tripod.
Spare batteries, film, digital storage cards, car charger.
Polarizer.
Free map from NPS given out at the entrance stations.
Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Photograph Grand Teton National Park. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.
Many people think they’ll improve their photography by buying a spiffy new
camera. The truth is, in photography, technique is much more important
than equipment. And taking good pictures is something anyone can do with
any camera, if you practice enough and avoid some common mistakes, especially before printing large on canvas at a printing service like FinerWorks.
Steps
Read the camera’s manual, and learn what each control, switch, button, and menu item does. At the very least you should know how to turn the flash on, off, and auto, how to zoom in and out, and how to use the shutter button.
Set the camera’s resolution to take high quality photos at the highest
resolution possible – this is especially important if you plan to make large
prints. Low-resolution images are more difficult to digitally alter later
on; it also means that you can’t crop as enthusiastically as you could with a higher-resolution version (and still end up with something printable). If you have a small memory card, get a bigger one; if you don’t want to or can’t afford to buy a new one, then use the “fine” quality setting, if your camera has one, with a smaller resolution.
Start off with setting your camera to one of its automatic modes, if
you have a choice. Most useful is “Program” or “P” mode on digital SLRs.
Ignore advice to the contrary which suggests that you operate your camera
fully manually; the advances in the last fifty years in automatic focusing
and metering have not happened for nothing. If your photos come out poorly
focused or poorly exposed, then start operating certain functions
manually. With that said, most people don’t look at large
prints close up so a little out of focus is okay but do not be too lax
here since out of focus shots are magnified
when you enlarge the image
Take your camera everywhere. When you have your camera with
you all the time, you will start to see the world differently; you will look
for and find opportunities to take great photographs. And, of course, you
will end up taking more photographs; and the more you take, the better
a photographer you will become. Furthermore,
if you’re taking photographs of your friends and family, they will get used
to you having your camera with you all the time. Thus, they will feel less
awkward or intimidated when you get your camera out; this will lead to more
natural-looking, less “posed” photographs.
And you will be amazed at the response from your friends and family when you
start to decorate your home of office with
prints of those shots.
Get outside. Motivate yourself to get out and take photographs in
natural light. Take several normal ‘point and shoot’ pictures to get a feel
for the lighting at different times of the day and night. Go outside at all
times of day, especially those times when anybody with any sense is sleeping,
eating, or watching television; lighting at these times is often dramatic and unusual to many people precisely because they never get to see it!
Keep the lens clear of caps, thumbs, straps and other obstructions. It’s
basic, yes, but it can ruin a photograph completely. This is less of a
problem with modern live-preview digital cameras, and even less of a problem
with an SLR camera. But people still make these mistakes from time to time.
You might be able to correct some of these issues in Photoshop but again, when
you start to enlarge your images for printing imperfections will become
more visible.
Set your white balance. Put simply, the human eye automatically compensates for different kinds of lighting; white looks white to us in almost any kind of lighting. A digital camera compensates for this by shifting the colors certain ways. For example, under tungsten (incandescent) lighting, it will shift the colours towards blue to compensate for the redness of this kind of lighting. The white balance is one of the most critical, and most underused, settings on modern cameras. Learn how to set it, and what the various settings mean. If you’re not under artificial light, the “Shade” (or “Cloudy”) setting is a good bet in most circumstances; it makes for very warm-looking colors. If it comes out too red,
it’s very easy to correct it in software later on. “Auto”, the default for most cameras, sometimes does a good job, but also sometimes results in colours which are a little too cold.
Set a slower ISO speed, if circumstances permit. This is less of an issue with digital SLR cameras, but especially important for point-and-shoot digital cameras (which, usually, have tiny sensors which are more prone to noise). A slower ISO speed (lower number) makes for less noisy photographs; however, it forces you to use slower shutter speeds as well, which restricts your ability to photograph moving subjects, for example. For still subjects in good light (or still subjects in low light, too, if you’re using a tripod and remote release), use the very slowest ISO speed that you have.
Compose your shot thoughtfully. Frame the photo in your mind before framing it in the viewfinder. Consider the following rules, but especially the last one:
Use the Rule of Thirds, where the primary point of interest in your scene sits along “third” lines. Try not to let any horizon or other lines “cut the picture in half.”
Get rid of distracting backgrounds and clutter. If this means
you and your friend have to move a little so that a tree does not appear to
be growing out of her head, then do so. If glare is coming off the windows
of the house across the street, change your angle a bit to avoid it. If you’re
taking vacation photographs, take a moment to get your family to put down all
the junk they may be carrying around with them and to remove backpacks or hip
packs as well. Keep that mess well out of the frame of the picture, and you
will end up with much nicer, less cluttered photos. If you can blur the background
in a portrait, then do so. And so on.
Fill the frame with your subject. Don’t be afraid to get closer to your subject. On the other hand, if you’re using a digital camera with plenty of megapixels to spare, you can crop it later in software.
Try an interesting angle. Instead of shooting the object straight on, try looking down to the object, or crouching and looking up. Pick an angle that shows maximum color and minimum shadow. To make things appear longer or taller, a low angle can help. If you want a bold photo, it is best to be even with the object. You may also want to make the object look smaller or make it look like you’re hovering over; to get the effect you should put the camera above the object. An uncommon angle makes for a more interesting shot.
Ignore the advice above. Regard the above as laws, which work much of the time but are always subject to judicious interpretation — and not as absolute rules. Too close an adherence to them will lead to boring photographs. For example, clutter and sharply focused backgrounds can add context, contrast and colour; perfect symmetry in a shot can be dramatic, and so on. Every rule can and should be broken for artistic effect, from time to time. This is how many stunning photographs are made.
Focus. Poor focusing is one of the most common ways that photographs are ruined. Use
the automatic focus of your camera, if you have it; usually, this is done by
half-pressing the shutter button. Use the “macro” mode of your camera for very close-up shots. Don’t focus manually unless your auto-focus is having issues; as with metering, automatic focus usually does a far better job of focusing than you can.
Keep still. A lot of people are surprised at how blurry their pictures come out when going for a close-up, or taking the shot from a distance. To minimize blurring: If you’re using a full-sized camera with a zoom lens, hold the camera body (finger on the shutter button) with one hand, and steady the lens by cupping your other hand under it. Keep your elbows close to your body, and use this position to brace yourself firmly. If your camera or lens has image stabilisation features, use them (this is called IS on Canon gear, and VR, for Vibration Reduction, on Nikon equipment).
Consider using a tripod. If your hands are naturally shaky, or
if you’re using very large (and slow) telephoto lenses, or if you’re trying
to take photographs in low light, or if you need to take several identical
shots in a row (such as with HDR photography),
or if you’re taking panoramic photos, then using a tripod is probably a good idea. For very long exposures (more than a second or so), a cable release (for older film cameras) or a remote control is a good idea; you can use the self-timer feature of your camera if you don’t have one of these.
Consider not using a tripod, especially if you don’t already
have one. A tripod infringes on your ability to move around, and to rapidly
change the framing of your shot. It’s also more weight to carry around, which
is a disincentive to getting out and taking photographs in the first place. As a general rule, you only need a tripod if your shutter speed is equal to or slower than the reciprocal of your focal length. If you can avoid using a tripod by using faster ISO speeds (and, consequently, faster shutter speeds), or by using image stabilisation features of your camera, or by simply moving to somewhere with better lighting, then do that.
Relax when you push the shutter button. Also, try not to hold the camera up for too long; this will cause your hands and arms to be shakier. Practice bringing the camera up to your eye, focusing and metering, and taking the shot in one swift, smooth action.
Avoid red eye. Red-eye is caused when your eyes dilate in lower lighting. When your pupils are big, the flash actually lights up the blood vessels on the back wall of your eyeball, which is why it looks red. If you must use a flash in poor light, try to get the person to not look directly at the camera, or consider using a “bounce flash”. Aiming your flash above the heads of your subjects, especially if the walls surrounding are light, will keep red-eye out. If you don’t have a separate flash gun which is adjustable in this way, use the red-eye reduction feature of your camera if available – it flashes a couple of times before opening the shutter, which causes your subject’s pupils to contract, thus minimizing red-eye. Better yet, don’t take photographs which require a flash to be used; find somewhere with better lighting.
Use your flash judiciously, and don’t use it when you don’t have to. A flash in poor light can often cause ugly-looking reflections, or make the subject of your photo appear “washed out”; the latter is especially true of people photos. On the other hand, a flash is very useful for filling in shadows; to eliminate the “raccoon eye” effect in bright midday light, for example (if you have a flash sync speedfast enough). If you can avoid using a flash by going outside, or steadying the camera (allowing you to use a slower shutter speed without blur), or setting a faster ISO speed (allowing faster shutter speeds), then do that.
Go through your photos and look for the best ones. Look for what makes the best photos and continue using the methods that got the best shots. Don’t be afraid to throw away or delete photos, either. Be brutal about it; if it doesn’t strike you as a particularly pleasing shot, then ditch it. If you, like most people, are shooting on a digital camera, then it would not have cost you anything but your time.
Practice, practice, and practice. Take lots and lots of photos — aim to fill your memory card, or to use up as much film as you can afford to have developed. The more pictures you take, the better you’ll get, and the more you (and everyone) will like your pictures. Shoot from new or different angles, and find new subjects to take pictures of, and keep at it; you can make even the most boring, everyday thing look amazing if you’re creative enough about photographing it. Get to know your camera’s limitations, too; how well it performs in different kinds of lighting, how well auto-focus performs at various distances, how well it handles moving subjects, and so on.
Soft proofing is one of the best ways to emulate what your photo or art will look like before you take the time and spend the money to make it into a print. This video I posted below shows you how to use Adobe Photoshop’s soft proofing tool to setup and get accurate colors for your prints. Soft proofing is the practice of loading your image in a program like Photoshop, selecting the correct color profile then reviewing the picture to make sure the colors are shown on your monitor how you want them to look like. One thing I want to point out before you continue, we originally posted this info at FinerWorks.com for our customers but the principals apply to printing at home as well as through other printing services.
To start you will want to know what profiles refer to when it comes to color. Color profiles are the ICC or ICM files located on your computer which tell various software programs how to display colors on your screen. In other words they defined the range of colors available to an image being displayed. Some of the most common profiles are sRGB, AdobeRGB, Color RGB. These files will end in either “.icc” or “.icm”
While the profiles can help to display an image to its best ability on your computer screen they may not always accurately display how an picture will look when printed. For that purpose we have custom ICC and ICM profiles which printer manufacturers and those in the digital printing industry will create to better match what will be printed. These look at 3 elements: model of printer, types of inks and the substrate (paper or canvas type) on which you will be printing. For instance, you might print a photo on a specific glossy photo paper type but need to use a different color profile than that used on a matte fine art paper even if they are printed with the same printer and ink set. This may sound a little confusion but that is okay. The important thing to remember is for best results you want to find the color profile specific to those 3 elements.
Where do I find the color profile I need?
If you are printing through a printing service, any reputable printing company should have the color profiles you need and can be downloaded on their website. At FinerWorks you can download the color profiles here. If you are doing your own printing at home, you can usually find the profiles you need on the printer manufacturer’s web site unless you are printing on a paper or canvas not provided by the same manufacturer. In that case sometimes you can find the color profiles you need on the paper or canvas manufacturers web site if you are using a printer that is widely used. Unfortunately in many cases the color profiles you need are not available on off brand media types therefore you will need to either create your own custom color profiles or have someone create them for you.
How to Load Color Profiles
Most of the time when you install your printer on your computer the color profiles that come with the printer are installed automatically. If they are not or you are downloading your color profiles from a website you can easily place the file in the appropriate directory by either clicking and dragging the file there or downloading it to the proper folder directly. Below are some common paths used based upon the operating system your computer uses.
Mac OS X: /Library/ColorSync/Profiles or /Users/YourUserName/Library/ColorSync/Profiles
Mac OS 9.x: System Folder:ColorSync Profiles
Windows XP/Vista: \Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color
Assuming you have access to the color profiles you need and have saved them to the appropriate location the next thing is to use them as part of your image preparation or printing workflow.
I spend much of my day talking with local artists and photographers and one thing that truly amazes me is how often the professionals forget the essentials needed for producing a good print. One of my regular clients is San Antonio’s largest commercial portrait studios while two others are well established high end wedding photographers. I see these people almost daily and almost daily I am later on the phone with them asking “are you sure you want to print it this way”. What happens is there usually is either a discrepancy the image and the size they want printed or there is a problem with the image itself. Below are a few tips I am constantly reminding them and perhaps these will serve you too.
Tip 1: Use a good quality image
This means an image file that is of suitable resolution and clarity. A poorly focused shot when enlarged will be more obvious than when you print it as a 4 x 5. One of the above mentioned clients had us recently produce a large 40×30 inch canvas stretched and mounted. The shot was well composed but the image was too low a resolution. When I asked him about this he said, no go ahead and print it. Turned out he supplied the wrong file.
Tip 2: Closely Scan Your Image Prior to Submission
Again, when you enlarge your print it will show any defects that might not be as visible when your print a smaller print. For instance that bridal dress may have a speck on it that you did not notice before. This happened recently with another photographer. The speck was part of the image so it was printed and not noticeable until the image “was” printed.
Tip 3: Crop Your Image before submitting it
The most popular portrait sizes are going to be in a 4:5 print ratios such as 8×10 and 16×20. Most shots that you will be printing will likely have been shot in a 2:3 ratio which is different than the above print sizes. This is great because it gives you more image than you will need for that 16×20 inch print however if your shot is too tight, then you might not have room to crop. This is especially true with portraits. For instance, you want to avoid cropping out part of the hands if the hands are holding something or are part of the pose. Other examples that show poorly composed shots are not enough clearance with the top of the head or cropping at the ankles. If by chance you cannot crop the image than you will likely need to look at an alternative size. One word of warning is that it might be more difficult to find a ready-made-frame for some 2:3 ratio sizes.
Tip 4: Choose a Reputable Printing Company
Obviously I recommend FinerWorks, especially for canvas prints but if you have been using a lab in your area for years and have been pleased with the rates and results I won’t try to convince you otherwise. If you are seeking a printer make sure they are using archival grade inks and substrates. I know that a lot of printers are using the latest large format printers by HP, Epson and Canon so you know the ink sets are up for the job but is your printer using archival grade substrates.
Tip 5: Select Good Photo Paper
There are several well known online printing companies favored by photographers that print on canvas. In full disclaimer, these are competitors of our however it should be pointed out that even though they use the same supplier we do they use their lower grade canvas to try to save money. On the surface the canvas looks the same as the higher grade canvas however it has been reported that because of the chemicals used (optical brightening agents) the prints may start to fade or yellow after a couple years regardless of the ink used.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article gives you some insight on producing great prints for your clients.
During what appear to be more difficult economic times many people are in search of investments that will appreciate over time. Far be it to provide anyone with financial advice since I am no expert when it comes to the stock market or the banking industry however I do know a little bit about art and photography when it comes to marketing.
Many clients of mine in the past have asked me how do I get my prints to sell. First I give them the slew of tips and tid-bits I have learned over the past decade or so and then I usually dwell on niche marketing. Niche marketing is different than finding your niche and trying to capitalize on it. Niche marketing is the practice of targeting a specific market for your goods. Since as artists and photographers we have an endless supply of product in the form of prints and usually have a place to have those images printed (if you do not have a lab that does your printing check out my website FinerWorks which specializes in printing artwork and fine art photography for artists and photographers), it behooves us to focus on where to sell your prints. If you have read some of my previous advice about getting your work into galleries, a lot of the same principals apply. First make some prints you can show, the second is to focus on that niche.
One of my favorite recommendations came to me when I was getting lost in the halls of a hospital. A family member was being treated and I took a wrong turn (or perhaps a right turn in this instance) which led me down a series of hallways decorated with large giclee prints of beautiful black and white prints printed on what appeared to a be a nicely textured fine art paper. While the photography was decent the impact of seeing all the wonderful prints had a certain calming and luring effect. I could not help but stop and admire some of the work.
Once I finally made my way out of the building it dawned on me that why not suggest this to some of my clients. A little further researched yielded that many medical facilities such as hospitals, clinics and retirement homes are eager to decorate their walls. Some , especially new hospitals are eager to decorate their halls to get away from the stale antiseptic look usually associated with medical facilities. Many are also looking for work that reflects either some theme (say children in a pediatrics section) or local attractions that hi-light familiarity in a tasteful or artistic fashion. Some will also be looking for general imagery such as wildlife and landscape.
While I won’t go into detail as to how to best display your imagery such as size, type of frame or what information about you should be displayed I will say that it is not only a chance to get some decent exposure but also a chance to sell your work. Sometimes an intial investment will be required so that those that make the decisions can see a sample of your work m the fashion it will be displayed but if you thoughtfully seek out these sort of contracts it is not difficult to walk away with a nice paycheck at the end of the day.
Almost every day I hear the same question at our printing studio. How do I get a great print that I can hang up on the wall? The type of prints usually referred to in these questions are giclee prints or photos prints on canvas. I answer this question by telling them getting a great print is not about the composition but about providing a good quality image. This is where I have seen too many customers drop the ball and it is usually because of a lack of understanding on certain concepts related to digital printing.
First I tell them composition is great but how your picture is composed will make other people appreciate your print. Right now we should not worry about that but we should be concerned if the image being printed is suitable for printing. Plain and simply said, this means the image file needs to be large enough for the size you plan to have printed.
For most digital cameras out today, this is not a problem as much as it had a few years ago. As we all know, people measure the power behind a digital camera in megapixels. This is the total number of pixels the camera is able to generate when capturing an image.
These pixels are merely the mosaic light pattern of colors that make of the picture shown on your computer screen. This has a direct bearing on the quality of the print. You see, when ever a digital photo is printed either on your inkjet printer at home or at a pro-lab like ours, the computer has to translate those pixels into a hard copy print. The more color data it has, or the more pixels it measures in width and height, the better the print quality.
Now there are some other issues of course such as camera shake and exposure settings that can wreck havoc on an image and result in what appears to be a poor quality print but the reality is the printer simply prints what is given to it so the print quality may be great but the shot itself might not live up to the potential of the printer.
What this all means is the larger the image file the better print you will get. A 12 megapixel camera shot should therefore yield a better quality printed imagery then a 6 migapixel camera shot when printed at the same size.
Under our hints and tips section at FinerWorks.com we have a chart that provides an general idea as to what a camera is capable of when using megapixels as the guide.
I know that a lot of regular readers of this blog were wondering what happened to FinerWorks.com today on October 8, 2008 around noon Central Time. All is back online now but we had to temporarily take the site down while the main database underwent some maintenance. Without getting into the technical issues, some accidental changes were made to the site last night by one of our web technicians which resulted cetain gallery pages not being found or showing up as errors. This accidental oversite has been corrected and the site is fully functional now. Unforuntately there were about a dozen members that may have posted new images this morning to their gallery which were lost in the shuffle. We recovered all but a few and apologize for any incovenience.
If you placed an order to have your photos or artwork made into prints during this time, your order was not effected and is on schedule.
FinerWorks.com has recently begun to offer gallery wrapped canvas prints as an online ordering option. From the start, beginning in 2003 the canvas printing company had been printing on canvas for artists and photographers all over the world. Initially the gallery wrapped style of prints in which the image would wrap around the sides of the frame were being offered alongside the standard mounting method in which the canvas is secured by staples on the sides. While very popular the satisfaction rate with the galley wrapped canvas was below what we deemed acceptable. This was due to the imagery not being composed or sized correctly for a gallery wrap prior to submitting it online for printing.
Talking to other businesses that performed the gallery wrap method, they too had difficulty with orders in which the image was not formatted correctly. Examples were signatures wrapping underneath, people’s heads wrapping around the top or other parts of the subject matter not being visible from the front. Many of these companies continued to offer this option however had to charge hefty prices due to the amount of manual adjustment required, back and forth communication with the customer and so on.
Composition is the important thing with a gallery wrap and unfortunately FinerWorks quickly decided based upon their more streamlined approach they could only offer the gallery wrap for certain custom orders.
Well last week the company has once again begun to offer the public the option to have their canvas prints gallery wrapped. In order to eliminate the problems associated with poor composition, FinerWorks came up with version 5 of their online Create-a-Print system. This system displays prominently what will wrap around the mounting frame and what will be displayed on the face (or front) of the canvas print.
Now photographs, artwork, digital imagery can take advantage of the gallery wrap style at FinerWorks. Right now the company only offers it on the ¾ inch deep mounting frame however sometime during mid October 2008 they will be offering it on the heavy duty mounting frame as well which measures 1-1/2 inches deep.
You can begin to order now at FinerWorks by going to http://finerworks.com . Right now the company offers a buy one get a second for half off.
Developing your “web presence” is paramount to any artist or fine art photographer who hopes to sell their art. Sure you can look toward the traditional galleries but unless you are known by collectors and have a publisher, chances are you are still in the do-it-yourself mode when it comes to selling prints of your work.
There are many resources you can use, some free and some that will require an investment. They will range from allowing you merely post a picture and some text to create a fully functional website with a gallery. If you are like me, you probably will want to check out the free places first so do not discount them. One of them is my own site FinerWorks.com which allows you to setup an online gallery and sell your work as prints but as the title suggests in this blog, you will want to look at using the wonderful world of blogging.
If you are just getting started, a place like WordPress.com, Live Journal, and Blogger.com are a great place to start. Actually, even though Here is the approach I suggest when using a blogging service:
Signup with one of the blogging sites like WordPress.com or Blogger.com. I personally like WordPress a little better since it seems to send traffic (visitors) to my work right away. Without getting into too much detail, both will let you customize the look and offer a number of options so that in a sense you will actually be creating more than a blog but a fully functional website. I must be honest with you at this point. While this is probably the easiest and cost effective option (free) you will need to study your account settings and the options it allows so that you can get the most.
Setup an “About” page on your blog site. List your accomplishments, what inspires you etc. Make it interesting because you are trying to promote yourself and make yourself stand out among thousands of others.
Create a contact page. If you have the ability to setup a contact form on your blog, do so. Post your phone number, mailing address but try to avoid listing your e-mail address unless you want to start getting tons of spam in a matter of days at that e-mail address. If you can’t setup a contact e-mail form post a temporary e-mail address that you can periodically change once the amount of spam becomes unbearable.
Finally start posting your work. For each picture you want to display give it a title, description and what inspired you. Try to make that page devoted to that picture as descriptive and as interesting as possible. Try to avoid writing in abstract terms and make it as to the point at possible.
