A few months back I decided that I wanted to try a new print service. The rage on social media seems to be White House Custom Colour (WHCC) (www.whcc.com); so, I thought I would give them a try. One of the greatest things I found about using WHCC is there free test prints. Yep you heard right, I got to submit five different photos and receive five free 8x10 test prints.
My five free prints (on lustre photo paper) were part of my welcome packet to WHCC, also included in the packet were samples of all WHCC photo and press papers and marketing tools they created for clients. I thought heck this seems to be a good deal, right off the bat I get five free prints, so even if I didn’t like the outcome of the prints I was out no money. Since receiving my welcome packet and prints I have made two orders with WHCC (12 prints total). Both orders I selected two sizes 12x18 and 8x10 on deep matte and glossy paper. I must say the quality of the prints is excellent and I was very pleased with the results. For you to order prints you must download a program called “ROES”. ROES Lab is the industry standard for professional photo lab, which offers a desktop and mobile tool to order prints. There are many sites out there that offer the same features as WHCC and I’m not familiar with them all. In the past I’ve used SmugMug, but I’m slowing changing the way I do business. When deciding on your paper or print size, WHCC offers four different types of paper for photo prints, Lustre, Deep Matte, Glossy, and Metallic Paper. The size of your prints varies from wallets to 30 x 45; of course, depending on the size of your print and how you have adjusted that size in LightRoom there may be some cropping done to a photo. If for some reason you don’t see the size you need, WHCC says they will trim your prints to the desired size for a fee of $1 per trim. As for fees, I find WHCC is reasonable; depending on the style of paper and the size of the print the price will vary. For example, a 12 x 18 Glossy is $6.30 where a Deep Matte paper will cost you $8.51. For some comparison SmugMug will charge you a little more for both a Glossy for $9.99 and a Matte for the same price. Both Lustre and Metallic are a little pricier than WHCC. Of course, WHCC offers additional products such as proofing, cards, wall displays, books and albums, boxes, cases and packaging, display products, etc. all of which you can find at www.whcc.com Overall I’m impressed with the prices, the ease of ordering prints, and the fast shipment of the prints I’ve ordered. Not to mention the quality of the printing is excellent. All the prints I’ve received have been mailed to me flat, in card board and foam like protection. Which is much different than SmugMug, who rolls their prints for shipment. If you are looking for a print friendly website, savings and a fast turnaround is something you need, then you might consider White House Custom Colour. Besides with their welcome packet you have nothing to lose and you gain five free prints. That’s a Win, Win!
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It has been a long while since I've posted anything in the blog; I hope to start publishing things again soon. Things that I will be discussing over the next few blog entries will be White House Custom Colour, Westcott Products, and a few other topics.
Apparently there is much confusion about your rights as a photographer, for the most part it is pretty clear, but there are some gray areas. Bottom line is if you are on public property anything is really game to be photographed. If you are on private property you must have permission from the property owner to take photographs. I have provided a few links below that will spell things out in a more clear and concise manner. Some very good info and the link that provides the PDF file is something you might print out and have on hand just in case you need a reference.
Happy photographing! Bert P. Krages II Arttorney at Law - The Photographer’s Rights PDF American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – Know Your Rights: Photographers - link Boarding Area (by Christopher Elliott) - Want to take a picture on the plane? Read this first - link Photo District News (by David Walker) - Judge Dismisses Privacy Lawsuit Against “Voyeur” Artist Arne Svenson - link Wondering if someone without your permission has used your picture on the Internet? Tineye allows you to do a reverse search on your picture: “TinEye is a reverse image search engine. It finds out where an image came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or if there is a higher resolution version.”
I tried a few of my own photographs and got zero results, the results indicated that TinEye had searched over 10.869 billion images. TinEye indicates they are “crawling the web and updating their image database regularly”. As of March 30th TinEye has added “over 72 million new images, brining the TinEye image database count to 10,678,649,077.” It appears they do a search approximately 3-5 times a month. So, how does it work? According to TinEye’s FAQ section on their website. When you upload your picture it creates a “compact digital signature” a “fingerprint” of sorts and compares that to other images on the Internet. Worth a try if you are worried that people are using your photos. TinEye website Having a hard time working with out door light. Take a look at The Bastards Book of Photography by Dan Nguyen. A great read, quick and easy, and a lot of good information about dealing with light out doors. The author will take you through your manual settings, show you how to adjust for over and under exposures. I found it very informative.
The Bastards Book of Photography |
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