Yesterday I had a good friend of mine stop by our location to pick up a nice order he had placed for Canvas Gallery Wraps of his children. My friend had ordered 29 16×20 or larger to decorate his house with, and after my many grateful thanks, we talked about the pictures he had captured and some of the problems we had in printing them.  When he initially emailed his files to me, many were low resolution, so we had to track them back to the original files.  Others were GREAT shots of his children, but they were shot too tight to allow for the gallery wraps, so we were forced to apply a colored border for the edges of the prints so we did not wrap the subjects of the prints. (see example below)

My friend told me he was excited to hang these prints down at the beach, the same location many of the prints were taken, and I told him to prepare for his future prints and his Christmas Cards.  My buddy is also nice enough to allow Mastercolor to print his Holiday Card each year, and in each year we run into the resolution problems, and the cropping problems so I told him to PREPARE for them.

After my friend left I found myself singing the annoying song from “HOODWINKED”, “Be Prepared” in my head.  This cartoon was a constant at my house two years ago, and my kids pulled it out this past Memorial Weekend when my they took a break from the sun and the quick rain shower one afternoon.   As you can tell from the song title, the theme of this song is to “be prepared”.  So how does this relate to a Blog on a photography website?  Well most of the prints you see displayed at a family’s home are from their summer vacations, or activities that they did outside when the weather was nice.  Of course there is the random “snow” picture or “leaves from Fall ” but the majority of the prints people save and later use are taken in the summer, so BE PREPARED.

Be prepared to use these images later.  Be prepared means backing them up properly (see my earlier blog), but in a nut shell :

1. save your original files twice a month (minimum) from your camera’s card to your computer.
2. Copy those files to a external hard drive,
3. and for the really cautious, burn your files annually to two sets of DVD’s and keep them in separate locations.

I know this sounds over the top, but explain that to another friend of mine who recently lost his hard drive.  His I.T. person compounded the problem and erased what little data there was, and now he is left with only his hard copies.  Which brings up a very valid point, PRINT YOUR PICTURES, and if you do we hope that you will upload your files to Mastercolor using our ROES software.

Be prepared when shooting your images. With digital photography it is so easy to crop when printing so PLEASE, take two steps back before you capture your image, I promise with today’s cameras you will not lose any of your resolution on your print  when increasing your field of capture this little bit.  Taking two steps back when shooting  will allow you to  create the extra space needed when framing, allow for the area needed for a Giclee Canvas Wrap, allow you to position and crop in your Holiday card, and overall create a more eye pleasing photograph.  Please keep in mind these basic tips are not for professionals, just those wanting to shoot like one.

Be Prepared means, TAKE YOUR CAMERA WITH YOU!  If you don’t have a camera to capture the fun memories as they happen, it will be hard to share them later with your friends and family.  Look for our end of the Summer Holiday Card special.  For a limited time you will be able to save 25% on our already low prices on folded cards.  Don’t wait for the seasonal rush, have your cards printed in advance and save on time, frustrations and MONEY!

“Be prepared, be prepared….. unless you gotta sparrrrrreeeeeee”

By far the most popular and growing style of prints that we make. Gallery Wrap Giclee prints are perfect for every subject that you can capture with your digital camera, or create through photoshop.   When Mastercolor first started printing on Canvas it was mostly for Bridal portraits and landscapes.  Our customer base now ask for all subject to be printed as a Gallery Wrap, family vacations, graduations, maternity, abstract art…it all looks great as a Gallery Wrapped Giclee print. I think one of the main reasons people have found this so popular is the amount you save on framing.  If you take the cost of the frame for a standard photographic print, add it to the cost of the print and BAM!  you are now in the Ball Park of what your cast is for a Gallery Wrapped print.   Ever tried one?

It seems whatever digital camera you buy, there will be an editing software included.  Many of these softwares will also point you on the direction to where you can host your images, or have them printed.  Wonder why they give this away free?????  Because, if you chose the easy route of locking into their software, you have done exactly that, locked yourself in unless you save your files on your computer or external storage.

Most us these storage sites or printing houses store your files for free, but then only let you access the images in a much smaller format UNLESS you are buying from them.  We run into this issue constantly when we are printing Holiday Cards, Giclee Prints or even simple digital prints or enlargements.  I am not saying to avoid these services, but make certain you back up your files so that you have a copy of them at their original files size, and not the 900k file that they are quick to share.

• Whenever I am clearing my card I simply transfer my files to a new folder on my desktop, a folder that I either tittle by the event that I just took or by the date of the transfer.  Storing files by date can really help find an image down the road when you need it.  Folders that contain your files at their original resolution as jpegs or tiff files can easily be uploaded to our ROES Software.  Then when your files are transfered to us through the ROES software, we will receive them at the digital print size requested @ 300dpi.  Use the ROES software to order Giclee Prints (Gallery Wrapped or flat art work), folded note cards, or any size digital photograph ranging from 30″x40″ down to simple wallets.

• Once you have your files on your desk top in your new folder, save them to your Hard Drive in a Master Folder, and the master folder can be divided into sub folders named by the month they were created.  Once the year ends, put all these files in a Yearly folder.  I know this sounds simple, but one of the most frequently asked questions we receive at Mastercolor is what is the best way to store my files?

• Always back-up your files, either to to CD or DVD, and also to an external hard drive.  Can you tell I am paranoid about losing my files?  You would be amazed by the number of customers Mastercolor has had that come in ready to build a photo album of all their children’s memories, or order a portrait, but only have the 900k files they downloaded from their free hosting site or they have lost them due to a “dead computer”, or that they just do not know where their files are saved.  They ask how we can help, and the only thing we can offer is our sympathy.

Please back-up your files.

C.Wright