Because of the high number of downloads of the Microsoft Excel version of our Estimator, we’ve just launched a new and improved version you can access right from within your web browser – no download required.
Why You Should Care
It’s important to make smart decisions or your business could easily stagnate instead of flourish – especially these days. Yet I’m constantly surprised at the number of photographers who haven’t done the math, or fail to truly explore whether outsourcing their post-production would be appropriate for their situation. After all, ignoring any potential business improvements that may provide a cost advantage is not a good idea.
We’ve Done the Work, You Have the Easy Part
Just plug in 7 numbers that I’m sure you know off the top of your head and you’ll have an answer. The Estimator will make all of the calculations for you. What have you got to lose?
8GB and 16GB Swivel Drives from Pexagon Technology are not only handy to have on hand, but are a great way to send your larger orders to us. Both sizes come pre-loaded with our required folder structure and are emblazoned with our logo. A black lanyard and box are included.
The busy season is in full swing. Pick up one or two today and you’ll be prepared when it’s time to send your next order.
16GB Swivel Drive was $54.99, NOW $44.99 – You Save $10! 8GB Swivel Drive was $31.99, NOW $24.99 – You Save $7!
Demystifying “Basic” vs. “Custom” Color Correction
If you need a good, basic color correction that targets the skin tones, then you should consider using our Basic Color Correction Service. There are a couple of significant differnences between our Basic and Custom Color Correction Services. Let’s review them here:
Our Basic color correction is a great option for anyone needing a quick turn around time and a solid proof-quality color correction. That, combined with the convenience of image upload and download and a lower price make this an attractive option when time is of the essence, but you still need great quality.
Here’s how you place a Basic Color Correction order:
Click the “Catalog” dropdown in the middle of the left panel of the application window and select the “Color Correction” option.
The center panel will change to the “Color Correction” option.
In the bottom of the right panel, click the “Folder” button and navigate to the folder containing your JPEG images.
Drag the JPEG images you want color corrected into the blue “Color Correction Drop Box” square in the middle panel of the application. You can do this multiple times if necessary to add images to your order.
You can click “Review Order” in the bottom of the middle panel to review and complete your order.
That’s it! Within 1-3 days you will receive an email that the corrections are complete and ready for download.
When I went digital in 2002 I needed some serious help. I heard about this guy, Kevin Kubota, who was the undisputed master of teaching everything I needed to know. So I signed up, packed up, and left for a four and a half day experience that truly changed my life.
Kevin’s Digital Photography Bootcamp® covered it all. I learned everything I came to learn and then some. Camera settings, shooting techniques, workflow, marketing, it was all there. Including ideas on how to keep the creative juices flowing. This was by far the best investment of time and money I’ve made in my photography career. To this day, I continue to benefit from my experience.
So charge your batteries, pack your bag, and prepare for one of the best investments you can make in yourself. I promise you won’t regret it.
Bootcamp Highlights:
Staying creative and motivated throughout your career.
Lifestyle posing, capturing natural expressions and images with irrefutable value.
Complete workflow system using Lightroom™ to cut your workflow time in half.
Enhance your images in 2 min. or less in Photoshop® for maximum impact.
Techniques for Selling without Selling. Step-by-Step Marketing, Building your Brand, and creating lifelong clients.
Social networking simplified and effective in the minimal amount of time.
Bootcamp is for seasoned pro photographers looking to perfect their systems and new photographers looking for a complete set of studio tools and techniques for success.
The May, 2010 Digital Photography Bootcamp® is in it’s 19th season! Perfected over the years to include the newest software technologies (including Lightroom® 2 and Photoshop® CS4), in addition to the very latest tips and techniques for inspiration, creativity, capture, sales, marketing, presentation & more.
Take Action!
Digital Photography Bootcamp® with Kevin Kubota and his team – May 16th- 21st, 2010 with guest presentations by: Vicki Taufer – the illustrious woman behind the camera at V gallery.
Zen and Neo Classic Books make quite a splash at WPPI
AsukaBook has added two cool new offerings to their lineup – Zen and Neo Classic Books
Zen Lay-Flat Book
Zen Lay-Flat books have a new binding system that allows the pages to lay flat for a great presentation. Losing part of your image to gutter loss is a thing of the past! You can order the book in 12×12, 10×10, and 8×8 sizes, with laminate matte or glossy paper finishes. The book comes delivered in a frosted plastic case.
The book comes in Hard Cover and EX versions with designable covers. You can order between 20 and 100 pages in increments of 10 pages.
If you’re looking for a more traditional book, you’ll want to check out the Neo Classic. With thicker board-type pages and 6-color printing your images will look fantastic. You can order the book in 10×10, and 8×11 sizes, with laminate matte or glossy paper finishes. With a slide-in case, designable cushioned hard cover, and place to insert a CD or DVD this one has all of the bases covered.
You can order the book in 20, 30, or 40 page sizes.
That’s right, we’ve started a ’Silver-Bucks’ Reward Program for our Plan customers. Each time you order one of the Plans in our Post-Production category, you will receive Silver-Bucks that can be used toward the purchase of a Plan in a future transaction. One Silver-Buck equals one dollar that you can apply to a future Plan purchase. The Bucks you earn will allow you to get a Plan for free after 10 Plan purchases! On our 1000E plan that’s a $720 value!
No action is required on your part to participate in the program. Silver-Bucks automatically accumulate with each Plan you purchase. You can track your Silver-Bucks by looking in the ‘My Account’ page, and can apply them to your purchase at checkout1. You can use the Silver-Bucks you’ve accumulated any time, there’s no need to wait until you’ve purchased 10 plans. Once you exhaust your Silver-Bucks account balance, you’ll start earning Bucks again with your next Plan purchase.
We value your loyalty and our Silver-Bucks Reward Program is just a one way of saying ‘thank-you’ to our valued customers. If you haven’t become a customer yet click here to sign up!
1 Silver-Bucks are only awarded to your account through Plan purchases, and may only be used to purchase a Plan.
Every year at WPPI Kubota Image Tools comes out with something new and this year I was wondering what it would be. I had an opportunity to checkout the new “Dashboard 3 Pro” for Photoshop®. Trust me, you’ll want to get this time saving tool.
Dashboard3 Pro – $49.00
If you’re a heavy Action user, this is an absolute must have. The pro version of the time-saving Dashboard allows you to totally ignore your Photoshop® action pallet. That’s right, after you install the Dashboard3 Pro you can minimize your Photoshop® action palette and forget it’s even there. That’s because Dashboard3 Pro reads all of the Action Sets and underlying actions from the Action Palette no matter the source. So Dashboard3 Pro organizes your Kubota actions, any actions you’ve created, and any actions you’ve purchased from another source. Kevin has brilliantly made Dashboard THE place from which to manage and launch all of your actions.
Favorites
By CTRL-clicking on any action you mark it as a favorite. This feature, also available in the basic version of Dashboard, is invaluable. Now, after you’ve marked those dozen or so actions that you constantly use as favorites, you can immediately access all of them as a list by selecting the “Favorites” category in Dashboard. Then simply select the action you want to use from the list, click “Apply” and let the magic happen.
Keywords
You can also apply your own searchable keywords to any action to create a quick and easy way to access them. Think about it. You can tag all of the actions you use to enhance your senior images with the word “Senior.” All of the actions you use to create your studio’s wedding look with “Wedding.” And all of the actions you use to do those tedious but necessary adjustments with “Tools.” They all become immediately available by typing a single word. What genius!
Dashboard3 Pro isn’t available in the KIT web store yet. We’ll add a link to this post when it is.
Imagine this, you’re busy at work in Lightroom® and want to make an adjustment to an image. Maybe you want convert it to black and white using the Kubota Lightroom® preset you love – B&W Warm 2. Instead of hunting for the preset in the Presets Panel you simply press a key on the wireless keypad and boom, you’re done! SpeedKeys also speed up culling, and tweaking your images.
Don’t believe me? Read Nick’s review and watch this video showing how easy this thing really is!
Nick Adamson, here at Silverback had the pleasure of kicking the tires on Kubota’s RPG SpeedKeys. Here’s what he found.
“The Kubota Image Tools Team has done it again! As the Co-Owner and Director of Operations here at Silverback Imaging & Design, a company that handles post-production work for many photographers, I am always looking for new ways to provide quick and effective adjustments to images. The Kubota RPG SpeedKeys is an answer to my prayers. After using it, I noticed a dramatic decrease in the time it takes to process a job.
Installation is incredibly easy and quick. It is very intuitive to use and you don’t need to be a whiz with Lightroom® to use SpeedKeys. The learning curve was very short and I was humming through images at a very quick pace in no time at all. Even better, after getting used to where my favorite adjustment keys were located on the key pad, I was able to edit images without looking away from my monitor.
I highly recommend the Kubota RPG Speedkeys to anyone. Whether you are a new photographer just getting started or a seasoned shooter, the Kubota RPG SpeedKeys can significantly reduce the time you spend in front of the computer, allowing you to spend more time doing what you love… shooting!”
I have a small Think Tank Airport Airstream rolling bag that I use for travel and very small jobs that I absolutely love. Not only does it have wheels and meets virtually any airline carry-on size requirements (I’ve even been able to fit it in the overhead of every puddle-jumper I’ve been on), it holds all of this gear:
Nikon D3 body
MH-22 Quick Charger and cord
Spare EN-EL4 Battery
Lenses
70-200mm f/2.8
28-70mm f/2.8
17-35mm f/2.8
50mm f/1.4
85mm f/1.4
60mm f/2.8 macro
16mm f/2.8 fisheye
2, SB-800 Speedlights
Lexar Media compact flash card wallet (holds 8 cards)
Digital Calibration Target
and other miscellaneous caps, cords, tungsten and fluorescent gels, and other accessories
That’s a lot of stuff that I can load into a very small bag that rolls effortlessly!
Now that many of us are shooting a combination of still images and video, we need a solution that will accommodate both – Think Tank to the rescue! They’ve come out with a series of bags and accessories designed specifically for the still/video shooter. You’ve got to check out their Multimedia ‘Wired Up’ collection. It allows you to shoot effortlessly whether you’re capture stills or video and manages all of the a wires and other stuff you’ll need.
Check out this video and I’m sure you’ll agree that Think Tank can help make your life easier!
It’s Online and Totally Free!
Silverback Imaging and Design
Neo Classic Book
Imagine this, you’re busy at work in Lightroom® and want to make an adjustment to an image. Maybe you want convert it to black and white using the Kubota Lightroom® preset you love – B&W Warm 2. Instead of hunting for the preset in the Presets Panel you simply press a key on the wireless keypad and boom, you’re done! SpeedKeys also speed up culling, and tweaking your images.