Let's wrap up this Problem reporter series and stop ignoring the elephant in the room… Who needs a problem reporter anyway? After all, as we confirmed at the webinar it drives some people nuts. Well I'm glad you asked! I should start by saying it's not an unusual concept. Try googling "pre-flight", for example, and check out the Wikipedia and Adobe listings in particular. What the pre-flight process does in the printing industry is ensure that digital files sent for printing are all present, valid, correctly formatted, and of the desired type. Why? Because, if they're not, the job can't be done. To View More >>

Gotta love her: Bride by Steve and Cheryl, photography by Johannes, album by Queensberry Why do images look so good in books? I asked myself that question as I walked out of the new Aussie movie, Tomorrow when the war began in which the main character delivers a satiric line, "The book usually is better than the movie"... Take an image accompanied by a line of text in a great print ad. Or a series of images of a bride walking down the aisle in an album. Or a double page spread of a horizon in National Geographic. I reckon it's because the real beauty of the images is only discovered when they're To View More >>

While we were finalising our wedding album, our photographer asked us what I thought was an insignificant question. Having received the album, I now understand why, and I think it's important. The question soon, but first the back-story. The first time my wife Kayla and I saw our photographs was as a slideshow. If you've ever seen one of Johannes' slideshows, you'll know how beautiful they are. We were drawn in by the imagery, the music, the timing. And having not seen our photos until that point, we instantly felt a strong connection to them. Framing them in a slideshow format helped tell our To View More >>

I'm looking at a truly beautiful print (sorry I can only show you a 233K JPEG). Where does it's beauty come from? It starts with a beautiful flower. I don't know who bred it or nurtured it, but I wish I did. It's a beautiful composition. I do know that the stylist was Katie Lockhart, the photographer Sjoerd. It's a beautiful file, worked to perfection at Alt group as part of our re-brand last year. And it's beautifully printed. Here's the thing. The beauty in the print is totally dependent on everything that went before. Break the chain and you're left with ordinary. Normally in our business we're To View More >>

A discussion about album upload times (specifically the length of them) last week reminded me of a good post Danny wrote on the Junction a while back, about internet connection speeds, pricing and plans. While we do everything we can at our end to optimise the FTP process, ultimately (album) upload speed is determined by your internet provider, so it pays to understand exactly what you're getting for your money. Here's Danny's post – Nigel Warning: contains math and abbreviations From time to time I'm asked for advice about internet connection speeds and pricing plans, so here goes... Most To View More >>