Even the act of displaying a photo on a monitor puts it a screen capture away from being saved by the viewer, and a digital file can be reproduced an infinite number of times without loss of quality. All the files you view in a webpage are saved into a special file on your computer (the browser’s cache), which is periodically cleared out.

In trying to get a handle on how much of a problem unauthorized image usage is, I spoke to Niran Amir, the Director of Marketing & Sales for PicScout (www.picscout.com), a company that specializes in using its proprietary image-recognition technology for finding its client’s rights-managed images being used online in commercial projects. (Their client list reads like a who’s who of stock photo agencies.) All matches found by their Image Tracker technology are passed on to the client, and if a use is determined to be unlicensed, PicScout will assist in recovering financial compensation for that use. According to Niran, 80–90% of the matches they’ve found were illegitimate uses. (I expected the percentage of unauthorized uses to be high, but that’s a staggering figure.) Reasons for unauthorized uses by image consumers include ignorance of copyright, mistakes in the image acquisition and approval chain, and plain old bad decisions.

While it may be impossible to prevent a determined person from using your work without your permission, there are a couple of things you should do to protect your work: Establish yourself as the copyright owner; make it harder for the wrong people to use your work; and make it easier for the right people to find and contact you when they want to use your work with your permission. Compromises may have to be made and costs considered, and although not every solution will be suited for every place you upload images, it’s best to focus your attention on the areas that are within your control—right before you click the Upload button.

Register your copyright
According to U.S. Copyright law, you own the copyright to your original work the moment it’s created (assuming it’s not a “work for hire”) without having to register it and without having to affix a copyright notice on the work. Registering your work with the U.S. Copyright Office creates a public record stating that you’re the copyright owner. In this digital age, everything you can do to cement the connections between you and your work is in your best interest.

While this won’t prevent your photos from being misused, it’s a required legal formality before you can file a copyright infringement suit. If you register your work within three months of publication, or prior to an infringement, and a court decides an infringement took place, you’ll be able to recoup legal fees and punitive damages in addition to actual damages. If you register your copyright after an infringement has taken place, your award is limited to actual damages, which means your legal fees come out of your pocket!
You can register both published and unpublished work through the U.S. Copyright office (http://copyright.gov) by mail for a fee of $45 per registration. With an eye to the future, the Copyright office is now offering an online registration service called eCO (electronic Copyright Office), which is intended to be faster and cheaper ($35) than the traditional paper-based method. Go to http://copyright
.gov/eco if you’d like to give this new service a try. Keep in mind, however, that you’re limited to a 30-minute upload session, so your connection speed will determine the number of photos you can upload per $35 fee.

Pros: Creates a legal public record of your copyright ownership, required before filing a lawsuit, and increases amount of award
when infringement is determined.
Cons: Costs a nominal fee and takes some time.
Verdict: So, what are you waiting for?

Embedding metadata
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s all too easy for the end user to strip out the metadata, but just because someone could remove it, shouldn’t prevent you from including your copyright notice and contact information in every photo that leaves your computer. Plus if you’re using Adobe Photoshop, Bridge, or Lightroom to manage your photos, you already have the means to add this to your workflow at no additional cost.

With Bridge and Photoshop, here’s how to create a metadata template that contains your essential copyright and contact information (feel free to add more information) and easily apply it to all your photos:

1.
Open a photo in Photoshop, or select one in Bridge, and go to File>File Info to open that dialog.
2.
Choose Copyrighted from the Copyright Status drop-down menu and then enter your Copyright Notice and Copyright Info URL.
3.
Select IPTC Contact from the list on the left side of the dialog and fill out all fields.
4.
Select IPTC Status and fill out the Rights Usage Terms.
5.
Click the flyout menu arrow at the top of the dialog, choose Save Metadata Template, give it a name, and click Save. Then click OK to close the File Info dialog.

In the future you can easily apply this metadata template to all your work via that same flyout menu.

If you’re using Lightroom, it’s just as easy to create a similar metadata template that you can apply to every photo as part of the Import process. Here’s how to do that from the Import Photos dialog:

1.
Click the Metadata drop-down menu and choose New,
which will launch the New Metadata Preset dialog.
2.
Complete all the fields in the IPTC Copyright and IPTC
Creator sections.
3.
Enter a name in the Preset Name field and click Create.

You’ll see that your preset name appears in the Metadata field back on the Import dialog, which means that information will be applied to the metadata of all your imported files. Just make sure that you always select that preset on future imports as well.

Of course, the key here is not to strip this data out when saving your JPEG file destined for the Web. In Photoshop, if you choose File>Save
As, then all the metadata is preserved, but if you choose File>Save for Web & Devices, only your copyright notice and copyright URL are left in the metadata, unless you check Include XMP from the Save for Web & Devices flyout menu. In Lightroom, just remember to leave Minimize Embedded Metadata unchecked on the Export dialog, or it will leave only your copyright notice, usage terms, and copyright URL in the exported copies. Tip: If you do need to strip out all but the copyright notice and copyright URL for certain uploads, make sure there’s adequate contact information for you at the copyright URL you designate.

Pros: Embeds your name and detailed contact information into the photo, no cost involved, and easy to incorporate into your workflow.
Cons: It’s not permanent and easily removed after it leaves your control.
Verdict: Make it part of your workflow now.

Adding a visible watermark
With the legal formalities out of the way, the next consideration is the application of a visible watermark, which can be anything (name, logo, copyright symbol, etc.) that’s placed somewhere on the photo and “burned” right into the pixels. Ideally, adding a watermark should serve three purposes: making the photo less useful to those who may download it; stating that it’s copyrighted; and identifying the copyright owner. According to Carolyn E. Wright (a.k.a. the Photo Attorney), a simple watermark that includes the copyright symbol and your name works great to achieve those ends. Think of it as digitally “signing” your work. With that kind of visible notification embedded in the image, it reduces the number of people who can claim they didn’t know it was copyrighted; it further cements the connection between you and your work; and it may facilitate the right people making contact with you for legitimate uses.

Three key variables to consider when applying a watermark are: size, location, and opacity. While you want to deter people from stealing your photos, you don’t want to turn off your paying customers, so finding that sweet spot between just enough and too much is a subjective decision that we each have to make.

There are a slew of free watermarking tutorials for Photoshop out there (including some at www.layersmagazine.com). Just do a search for “watermark.” But the simplest way is to use the Type tool (T) to enter the © symbol and your name. (To create the copyright symbol, just press Option-G [PC: hold the Alt key and enter 0169 using the numeric keypad]).

When exporting photos from Lightroom, you can leverage the copyright metadata you already entered and check the Add Copyright Watermark box on the Export dialog. This pulls the data you entered in the Copyright field and displays it as a small white watermark on each exported photo. For a more configurable watermark option from Lightroom, I highly recommend the LR/Mogrify Export plug-in (donationware) at http://timothyarmes.com/lrmogrify.php. And there are also low-cost watermark applications for both Mac and Windows, such as iWatermark (http://scriptsoftware.com/iwatermark) and Dropwatermark (http://dropwatermark
.com) that are great for batch watermarking large groups of photos.

Pros: Literally puts your name on your work where people can see it, and there are lots of options for how it looks.
Cons: Can detract from the eye appeal of the photo; may not be appropriate for every place you upload photos to; and can be digitally cropped or removed.
Verdict: Do it when you can, and as appropriate for that outlet.

Diminish usefulness with diminished sizes
People can only use what you make available. The usefulness of a photo decreases as its pixel dimensions decrease, and of course the eye appeal decreases at the same time. The sweet spot you’re looking for is just large enough to meet the needs for which you’re uploading the image—and no larger. Whether you’re making comps available to potential customers, posting photos to Flickr, or uploading them to your blog, the reason you’re uploading the image is the determining factor in how big is big enough.
Before we go any further, there’s a huge point of confusion around the word “resolution” that often enters this type of discussion. On the Web, the resolution of a photo is simply a function of its pixel dimensions (that is, x pixels long by y pixels wide). You may often hear people say, “Only put photos at 72 ppi on the Web,” but the term “ppi” (pixels per inch) is meaningless in regards to Web display; it’s just a metadata tag that tells a printer how large to print a given photo. Onscreen, however, it’s pixel dimensions that determine the size (and usefulness) of the photo.

For example, if you take a photo that’s 800×600 pixels into Photoshop and open the Image Size dialog (Image>Image Size), you can uncheck the Resample Image box and set the Resolution field to any number you desire. Let’s say we set it to 300. All we’ve done is set the document size to print that photo at 300 ppi—the photo’s still 800×600 pixels.

Now, keep Resample Image unchecked and change the Resolution to 72 to set the document size to print that photo at 72 ppi. But it’s still the same 800×600-pixel image we had before. Nothing about the pixels has changed.

If you saved a copy of that photo at 300 ppi and another copy at 72 ppi and put them both in a webpage, they’d both take up exactly 800×600 pixels onscreen. There would be absolutely no difference in the quality of the two photos and anyone who downloaded either one could just as simply set the resolution to any value just as we did.

So, how large is large enough will vary with your needs. After polling some of the staff at Digital Web magazine (thanks to Nick Fink and Matthew Pennel), a slew of photographers, and the Photo Attorney, the dimensions of 800×800 pixels seemed to emerge as the upper limit you should consider making images available for display purposes.

Pros: Easy to implement, resulting in smaller file size, which leads to faster upload time and less storage requirements.
Cons: Too small size can reduce visual impact.
Verdict: Err on the side of being a little too small.

JPEG over-compression
While I’m not a big fan of this method, it’s used often enough that we’ll address it here. Some people use the lossy nature of the JPEG-compression algorithm as a means to slightly degrade the photo in an attempt to decrease its usefulness to others. While this can be effective to a certain extent, I find that degrading the photo quality usually runs counter to most reasons for why you’d put the photo online in the first place. It may also give the impression that the quality of the original file is poor, which is the last thing you’d want people to think.

Saving images as JPEGs is part and parcel of putting them online, so choosing a compression level will always come into play. Generally speaking, you always want to use as much compression as possible to reduce file size (which has ramifications for file storage and bandwidth), but without introducing visible JPEG compression artifacting. If you want to use artifacting as a theft deterrent, then you’d add a little more. This is very subjective and you, as the artist, need to be satisfied with how your work is displayed.

The Save for Web & Devices dialog in Photoshop is great for getting a visual on the effect of the amount of JPEG compression being applied. It even has five JPEG presets (Low, Medium, High, Very High, and Maximum) that correspond to the Quality setting being used. The High preset uses a Quality setting of 60, which is often a good starting point, as it reduces file size quite a bit with minimal artifacting. You can then adjust the Quality slider as needed. Here’s an example at the Low setting that works as advertised. Note: I’m referring specifically to settings used for displaying your work, not for delivering to a client or stock agency where high quality trumps file size and minimal compression is desired.

Lightroom doesn’t offer a visual during export, but it does use the same 0–100 quality scale, so start with 60 and check your results.

Pros: Reduced file size, speeds upload time, and decreases storage demands.
Cons: Too much compression can degrade visual impact.
Verdict: Use with caution, as you don’t want to give the wrong impression.

Finding your photos in use
Okay, so you’ve registered your copyright, embedded your metadata, applied a conspicuous (but not too obtrusive) watermark, resized the photo to a size you feel will get the job done, applied a suitable amount of JPEG compression, and released your photo to the wilds of the Internet. Now what? How will you know if they’re used without your permission? Admittedly this isn’t an easy task but there are some interesting technology solutions available.

We already mentioned PicScout and if you’re a photographer dealing with rights-managed work and not already using the service (or not submitting work to an agency that is), you might want to consider giving it a test drive. There are fees involved but there’s also great potential to recoup losses on unauthorized usages. Go to www.picscout.com to learn more.
For the rest of us, there’s an interesting alternative called TinEye that’s currently in private beta release. This image search engine uses its own proprietary image-recognition technology to compare your photos against its (growing) search index of images found on the Web. TinEye is constantly building its search index by crawling the Web and analyzing each image it encounters. With more than 1 billion images already indexed, Leila Boujnane (the co-founder and CEO of TinEye’s parent company Idée) expects to have tens of billions of images indexed by 2009. To use this technology, you just upload a photo, paste in a link, or use a browser plug-in to quickly search the Web to see if your image is found. Head over to http://tineye.com to learn more and request an invite. The days of wondering where your images are used online will soon be over.

Putting your photos on the Web involves a series of decisions and compromises, but there’s a lot to be gained. While you should never put any work on the Web that you absolutely wouldn’t want to see used without your permission, you shouldn’t be afraid to share your work with the world. Just remember that the power to protect your copyright starts with you.

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Working with Flash Sound by Tom Green
Tom Green’s got the right idea here - it’s all about the playing around! In this video, he talks about the process of taking code to audio visualization in Flash CS4, and without having to delve too deep into it, making changes to it for some interesting results. Its very interesting listen, and even comes with some cool Jazz. Click on the link below for more information:

Flash Audio Visualization by Tom Green

Shooting a Silhouette by Jean Francois Okane
Jean Francois is back at it again with a new video on shooting Silhouette images. Definitely something cool to check out. Click on the link below to see the video.

Lighting and Shooting a Silhouette

OK.. so i’m off to see if I can do some shooting this weekend. Wish me luck! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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Begin in Illustrator
As you can see, the sign is made up of colorful letters that are embedded in metal shapes that extrude from the edge of the building. Begin by drawing the paths that make up the basic letterforms of the store logo in Adobe Illustrator, and then export the basic shapes to Photoshop via Edit>Copy in Illustrator and Edit>Paste in Photoshop. Select Path in the Paste dialog. These paths will be used later as selections for the basic metal shapes and colored parts of the letters.

In Illustrator, you can create the extruded sides of the metal casings using the 3D tools. Start by giving the shapes a black Stroke with no Fill color. To achieve the slight depth visible on the sides of the logo facing the viewer, choose Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel. Modify the x- and y-axes slightly, just enough to get the desired visible edge, then set the Perspective to a value that matches the viewing angle for the overall image.

Now set the surface lighting to give the shapes added dimension and highlights, making them appear to be made of metal. In the Surface section of the 3D Extrude & Bevel dialog (click the More Options button if you don’t see it) set the direction of the light, as well as its parameters, to give the appearance that the light is coming from below, as it is in the actual scene. The black outline extruded the letters in black, demonstrating the reaction to light with a series of gray values.

To get the sides of the letters on the left part of the sign that’s facing away from the viewer, duplicate the layer by dragging it to the Create New Layer icon in the Layers panel. Hide the original layer and then target all the paths in the duplicated layer. Open the Appearance panel (Window>Appearance), and click the 3D Extrude & Bevel effect to edit it. Further modify the x- and y-axes with a greater emphasis on the y-axis to turn the letters away from the viewer, thus exposing the entire sides. The Perspective remains the same as before but adjust the Extrude Depth to give the shapes the appropriate depth. Make sure you adjust the highlights too.

Assemble in Photoshop
Once the two different sides of the logo are complete, send each layer to Photoshop via Edit>Copy in Illustrator and Edit>Paste in Photoshop. This time, however, paste them as Pixels. Because the gray values were created in Illustrator, this will import the shapes into Photoshop with all their appropriate tonalities in place. If you paste the layers separately, each shape will be imported into its own layer.

After moving each layer into position, the face of the letters is next. With the Path Selection tool (A), place the originally imported paths in position over the their three-dimensional counterparts. Click the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, choose a gray color, head over to the Paths panel, and click the Fill Path with Foreground Color icon.

Create another new layer to fill each individual letter shape with the bright colors that match the actual sign. Because the entire logo is a set of paths, use the Path Selection tool to select each letter, and fill the letters with the appropriate colors with the Fill Path with Foreground Color icon in the Paths panel. Now click the Add Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Inner Shadow from the list. This will make the letters appear slightly indented into the metal cases. With the Layer Style dialog still open, choose Stroke from the Styles list. Adding a Stroke layer style gives the letters an edge, thus making them look separated from the metal shapes of the cases.

Now create a clipping group with the brightly colored letters layer and the layer containing the gray letters. To do this, press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and click between the two layers in the Layers panel. Using the Move tool, move the colored letters to the right and down slightly to expose the gray letters underneath. This creates the effect of seeing the inside edge of the metal shapes where the colored letters are indented.

More detail
To add a little more dimension to the inside edges of the metal casing visible along the edge of the colored letters, use the Dodge and Burn tools to create highlights and shadows along the inside edge. Because the inside edge is made of metal, it’s necessary to add these shadows and reflections to complete the effect. In the two-dimensional workspace of Photoshop, how you handle highlights and shadows will give an object a sense of what material it’s made of.

With the colored part of the letters visible, move them further down than they should be to allow the highlighted edge to be easily visible. Can you see how the shadows and highlights give the edge that added dimension, making the whole image appear three-dimensional?

What’s next?
Once all the elements are in place, we’ll add the final details to make the sign look real. One of those details is the presence of dirt. What would a New York scene be without a little dirt here and there? This painting will take at least another year to complete.

Though the concept of 3D tends to scare many people, it’s there to make things easier. Understanding how it works will open the door to creating many effects that before required many convoluted steps and still didn’t guarantee the best results. I love telling people, “Sit there and play.” Think of yourself as a sculptor and create shapes. What about lighting? You can add and position multiple light sources and create a mood, as you would for that perfect photograph. The only difference in this lighting is that you’re using a lot less electricity. That’s important nowadays. Have fun!

The Nikon Screening Room
I got this in the email and thought it was very cool. Nikon has released The Nikon Screening Room, a place where you can see videos taken from the D90 and the D5000. The site is also augmented by the addition of videos from Award Winning Director of Photography - Harris Savides:

“Nikon Inc. today announces the official launch of the Nikon D-Movie Screening Room (www.nikondmovie.com), an online collection of creative and inspiring videos captured with Nikon’s D90 and D5000 D-SLR cameras. Award-winning director of photography Harris Savides showcases an artistic compilation of life’s most common, anonymous and beautiful moments. Savides, known for his work on Gus Van Sant’s Milk and Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, will be joined in the screening room by other accomplished professionals, as well as aspiring film makers and D-SLR photographers.”

Click on this link to be taken to the Nikon Screening Room

Review of NIKKOR AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G
Mike McKenzie also goes over the NIKKOR AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G lens for us:

“If you’re a Nikon shooter and you’ve been contemplating buying a reasonably priced, professional prime lens, you should give serious consideration to the new NIKKOR AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G. What makes this lens so special? For less than $200, you get a fast, lightweight, well-made lens that features Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor, so focusing is quick and quiet.”

Click here to read the rest of the review

To download a copy of this file and follow along, click here.

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The Pen tool is a very polarizing tool - you either really love it, or really really really hate it. More often than not if you hate it, it’s usually because you started clicking and draggin willy nilly (I just love that saying) and didnt really ‘get’ what all of the lines that were coming up were. The Pen tool is one of those tools that you cant really just play with - to learn it and master it you really need to sit down and learn it within a specific context. On this week’s Layers TV I go through an example of how -i- use the pen tool, and if you can grasp the concept, you’d be surprised as to how much easier the Pen can be. Mastering the Pen can not only help you in Photoshop, but will take your Illustrator work to the next level - It’s in almost every Adobe app. You owe it to yourself to check it out!

Click on the player to the right to get to the episode. This is one that I -definitely- recommend watching the bigger version though. Want to keep it and share it with everyone? Well, you can always Subscribe in Itunes!

Corey Talks About The Adobe Exchange
In today’s video you’ll see Corey talking about Adobe Exchange. It still surprises me just how little people actually use the Adobe Exchange. This place has a TON of resources available to you.. and are all FOR FREE. I’d definitely check this out. Click on the link below to get to the tutorial:

Corey Barker - The Adobe Exchange

Client:
WS Photography - www.wsphotollc.com

While Wilson would like to maintain an open and friendly look, he’d still prefer something more professional.

Rio, Wisconsin, home to Roger Wilson and WS Photography, is a small town of fewer than 1,000 people located about 25 miles north of Madison. Wilson runs the business—now in its second full year of operation—with his stepdaughter Heather, who lives in a larger town nearby. According to Wilson, their customers are mostly local, from within 40 miles of Rio.

The photographers specialize in portraits of graduating seniors from area high schools; they also do family and maternity portraits. “We don’t do weddings,” says Wilson. Most of the work is on location, in the customer’s house or yard, though they do have a small studio in Wilson’s garage. Promotion is mainly by word of mouth; they also run some ads in the local free shopper paper, maintain a small portfolio on SmugMug, and send out business cards with their finished work.

Wilson says that what distinguishes WS Photography is its fresh approach to senior portraits, which he credits to his stepdaughter’s youthful sensibility. At the same time, he says, they’re more than willing to throw their own ideas aside and go with the customer’s point of view. “We want to do what the customer wants,” he says.

Wilson has made two business cards himself, the first in Broderbund’s PrintMaster and the second in Adobe Photoshop. He prefers the second because “it’s a little more elegant, less cluttered, and more refined.” But, he thinks the background texture is too distracting and he’s not really fond of either of the attempts to turn “WS” into a logo. Most of all, he thinks both just look homemade. While Wilson would like to maintain an open and friendly look, he’d still prefer something more professional.

We asked three designers to create a more flattering portrait of WS Photography and use it on a new business card.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Scott Robertson

The client was fond of the old business card’s elegance, so I decided to base the redesigned logo on another script font. The “WS” is done in Kon Tiki Enchanted from JAW Fonts; I used Adobe Illustrator to join the two letters together. The result is elegant but still personal, rather than a slick and corporate one, which is just what a small-town photographer needs.

My approach to the business card started with the color scheme. Since the client’s specialty is photos of graduating seniors, I called up the local high school and found out that the school colors are red and white. That’s perfect: I could now make this a budget-friendly, one-color job. The deep red is very readable, and picking up the school colors will give Wilson a slight competitive edge with the local students.

I liked the slogan from the original (“Your Life, Your Images…Your Story”) and elected to keep it. I decided the best thing to do was add visual interest when implementing it, and the idea of a filmstrip came to me. That addition adds character to the business card.

The layout relies on a strong left-right balance, though it’s not immediately apparent with the large logo in the upper left. The contact information at upper right is placed even with the top of the logo—this adds tension and keeps the eye moving. All the non-script text is set in Geo Sans Light, a free Avant Garde imitation. The word “Photography” contains a lot of round shapes in the p’s and o’s, and choosing a font with the roundness of Geo Sans let me bring out that shape in the g and a, as well.

This new business card is much more attractive and personal than the original. It’s a card Wilson can hand out without looking like a celebrity photographer, but rather a talented member of the community who is at your service.

“Photography” contains a lot of round shapes in the p’s and o’s, and choosing a font with the roundness of Geo Sans let me bring out that shape in the g and a, as well.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Scott Robertson
Scott Robertson is a computer graphics major attending school in South Jersey. He was introduced to graphic design in 10th grade while taking a graphic communications course, and was soon designing everything from the school calendar to honor roll certificates to graduation programs. While he enjoys all things print, his passion is T-shirt design.

While still attending college full-time, Scott recently began freelancing, working on building an ever-stronger portfolio. He currently oversees some computer graphics labs at his college—helping students with software and assisting with design. After completing his studies at Camden County College, Scott plans to attend Drexel University in Philadelphia. Then after college, he hopes to run a small clothing line, silkscreening in his own small shop. And besides running the clothing company, he’d like to work his day job as an art director or graphic designer for an ad agency. Scott says he’s “a true graphic design nerd, a fan of Helvetica, and he can’t stand poorly designed menus.”

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Illustrator CS3

AFTER

DESIGNER: Elizabeth Rose - www.elizabethrosestudio.com

WS Photography needs a look that represents the company and speaks to their target market. Their current cards look homemade and don’t convey the image of a professional photography business. In the more recent version, the marbled background is a distracting element and the typography is fussy, making the company name hard to read. Overall, the card feels more like it belongs to a wedding photographer than a business specializing in portraits for high school seniors.

The bulk of WS Photography’s business comes from students, so the logo should be fresh and appealing to young people while not being so funky that it scares away other potential customers. As a starting point, I took a look at their website to get a feel for their work, then I created a clean, simple logo, using color to give it a more youthful vibe. The circle represents a camera lens without being too literal an interpretation.

Once the basic logo concept was done, I tested out a variety of fonts: Highway Gothic and Adobe Jenson Pro gave me the balance of modern sans serif and classic serif that I was looking for. For the color scheme, I chose to use black as a neutral and to pair it with a bolder color. The greenish-yellow has a nice bright feel without being overpowering—it gives the design some punch. Also, the logo can be updated with a different second color in the future, allowing the company to refresh its look without changing its branding. I included the tagline from one of the original cards because it adds a nice marketing element to the logo.

In designing the business card, I wanted to continue the clean, fun feel that the logo established. The color bar at the bottom helps ground the card and offers a nice contrast to the black-and-white text. I used only Highway Gothic to set the text, so that it would continue the clean, contemporary feel of the logo.

…the logo can be updated with a different second color in the future, allowing the company to refresh its look without changing its branding.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Elizabeth Rose - Elizabeth Rose Studio
An independent graphic designer with 12 years of experience in the field, Elizabeth Rose has a dual degree in communication design and social history from Carnegie Mellon University. She’s worked as an in-house designer and agency designer in a variety of industries involved in projects ranging from traditional print design to tradeshow booths, and even some simple product design.

In 2007, she started her own business, focusing on working with small businesses and nonprofits to create “great design work on an affordable budget.” Her clients range from food-related businesses and restaurants to colleges. Specializing in print design—logos and branding, brochures, ads, and posters—and the occasional website project, Elizabeth also creates and maintains email marketing campaigns for clients. She’s creating her own email newsletter that focuses on design issues for small businesses. Elizabeth lives in Natick, MA, with her husband and dog, and in her spare time, she’s working through a drawing and painting program at Rhode Island School of Design.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS3

AFTER

DESIGNER: Paul Kazmercyk - www.granitebaydesign.com

To see the natural relationships that occurred between the letterforms in the logo, I experimented with a variety of old-style and contemporary faces and found a few interesting possibilities in some scripts. In each case, however, I felt the results were too old-fashioned or too ornate. I thought that Roger and Heather’s small-town photography business called for something warm and inviting without being overly ornate. I found exactly the right balance in Montoype’s Colonna typeface: The openness of the letterforms and the fact that these two characters actually contained five distinct forms inspired me to experiment with adding color to the logo. I wound up with a spectrum: colors starting with cool blue on the left and moving to warm red on the right. (The dual colors can also be a metaphor for two distinct people/personalities).

The words “Photography LLC” as well as the balance of the text on the card are in Adobe’s Hypatia Sans Pro. I like the way this friendly typeface works on its own and nicely complements the logo type. Placing “Photography LLC” in a 35% black bar with rounded edges not only serves as a soft base for the “WS” letterforms but also draws more attention to the word “photography,” which is, after all, what Roger and Heather are selling. My design is intended to be printed on white stock with subtle fiber and fleck inclusions to enhance the feeling of warmth.

One final note about their existing cards: Neither said anything about the type of photography one could expect. The slogan on one card (“Your Life, Your Images…Your Story”), while interesting, still didn’t address their specialties. My final design retains that line of text but is followed by “Portraits by…” One of my earlier drafts (perhaps a better alternative) instead read “Graduation, Family, Senior, & Maternity Portraits at Your Home or Our Studio.” I’d probably advise the client to consider that as a possibility.

Placing “Photography LLC” in a 35 % black bar with rounded edges not only serves as a soft base for the “WS” letterforms but also draws more attention to the word “photography”…

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Paul Kazmercyk - Granite Bay Design
Paul was born and raised in Connecticut and, though he loves to travel, has remained there—now in his 23rd year as a home-based, self-employed, graphic designer. His company, Granite Bay Design, is named after his Branford shoreline neighborhood.

Blessed with creative genes from both parents and inspired by Bewitched’s Darrin Stephens, Paul thought from an early age that a career in advertising looked liked fun.

He obtained his BFA in graphic design with a minor in printmaking from the University of Bridgeport in 1976 and learned design and production in the days of mechanical boards, Rubylith, Rapidograph pens, and metal type. He was quick to adopt digital production methods when the Macintosh II appeared in 1987 and was among the first designers in New England to begin four-color production exclusively from digital files.

Paul lives with his wife, Donna; daughters Melanie and Jamie; and dog, Gracie. He can be reached at paul@granitebaydesign.com.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe InDesign CS4

Worldwide Photo Walk Update
With the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk less than two weeks away, I thought it a good idea to make a video letting you guys know how we are thinking of collecting all of the images to process for the prizes.

There are going to be 2 different ways to upload your image - through the Photo Walk website, or through an export plugin using Adobe Lightroom. In both cases, you’re going to need to be able to sign in to the Photo Walk website, and you’re going to need your city name written down somewhere. Because of that, it’s probably a good idea that you check both of these early, before you get to the walk. Click on the video above to go over what you’re going to need to do!

Free Bogen Seminar July 17th
Bogen’s at it again, putting together a webinar for those of you who are into sports photography. Check it out:

Register and Join Our FREE Webinar on Friday, July 17th from 2 pm to 3 pm EDT! Listen to special guest, professional photographer Michael Clark, speak with David Fisher, our webinar host.

During this session David & Michael discuss:

• Adventure photography fundamentals (light, autofocus, histograms, exposure)
• Artificial lighting
• Photo equipment
• Outdoor gear
• How to approach and shoot rock climbing, mountain biking and whitewater kayaking -What it takes to be a pro!

For more information, click on this link to be taken to the Bogen Webinar website

Contest Time
Go to the Contact page, select the Layers Blog drop-down, then fill in your name, email address and answer to this week’s following question. Remember, the contest will end Thursday 5PM,. and the winner will be announced Friday morning.

The Contest Question:This one is going to be a 2 Parter because of the enormity of the prize Part 1: In the Photo Walk video above, I show my city as an example. What was my Photo Walk City name? Part 2: Who wrote the review for the NIKKOR AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G lens on the Layers Magazine website?

The Prize:

Moose Peterson was kind enough to donate to us a beautiful version of the picture above, printed by our friends over at Artistic Photo Canvas! Back in May of last year, Moose had talked about the details of this shot - with it taking him about 30 years to get! I tell you, looking into it, you almost feel like you want to walk right -into- the redwoods, and we could not be happier to be giving it to a wonderful home! We’ll also give you a subscription to Layers Magazine as well!!

I’m a big fan of artwork, and I believe all of you should have some in your homes.. this is very exciting for me, so I hope you all enjoy it as well. We’ll see you back here tomorrow morning!

…for once in my life I wanted to just walk around and totally enjoy the experience…

Guilty as charged. It’s true, I took most of the photographs in this article with my Canon PowerShot G10 compact camera, including the opening photograph of a rusting truck. The locations for my shoots were Socorro, New Mexico, and nearby Bosque del Apache, where I was co-leading a photography workshop with famed wildlife photographer Greg Downing for NatureScapes (www.naturescapes.net).

I use the word “confessions” in jest because I’m known for shooting with top-of-the-line digital SLR cameras that produce knockout images in all lighting conditions, indoors and out. In addition, these digital SLRs accept more than 50 lenses and dozens of accessories that expand the camera’s capabilities. So like some pros I know, I’d have to plead the Fifth (tongue in cheek) when asked about shooting with a less-than-the-best camera.

Why did I use a compact camera for taking important images in these totally cool locations—places I’d never been before? I wanted to see if I could get good shots with a basic camera. What’s more, for once in my life I wanted to just walk around and totally enjoy the experience without lugging around my 40-lb SLR backpack, although I did have it nearby in the trunk of my car at all times.

So friends, here are some compact-camera images, along with some important info about compact cameras. I promise to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Opening arguments
I love this shot. It’s clean, meaning that it has very little digital noise. I took it with my compact camera on the first day of the trip in Bosque del Apache. I put the camera on a tripod, set the ISO to 100, the exposure mode to Av (Aperture Priority), activated the self-timer, and took the shot.

At low ISO settings, compact cameras deliver relatively low-noise images as long as the light level isn’t too low. It’s in low light and at high ISO settings where noise increases, and it’s in low light and at high ISO settings where digital SLRs really shine when it comes to minimizing noise.

I also took this shot with my compact camera. Check out the detail and color before you read on. Take your time. Nice shot, don’t you think

Okay, I’m kidding. I actually took this shot earlier that morning with a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II and 24–105mm lens, using the same settings that I used on my compact camera. It’s also one of my favorite images from the shoot. It’s a beautifully clean image, and I challenge anyone to see, at least on the pages of this magazine, any difference in image quality between this and the previous image. That goes for making an 8×10″ print of each image, too.

Here’s a test shot taken earlier that morning with the compact camera. For this shot, I set the ISO to 800 and hand-held the camera to test the noise, which is evident in the image, but that was expected. So one of the key differences between the two types of cameras is noise.

Cross-examination
Another key difference, and the reason I will not get divorced from my digital SLRs, is that I can use dozens of lenses on my digital SLRs, whereas my compact camera has only a built-in zoom. For this photograph, I used a Canon 400mm DO IS lens on my Canon EOS-1D Mark III to get the shot.

Unlike my compact camera, my digital SLR focuses much faster; has no shutter lag (although it’s not bad in the G10); has more focusing points (allowing it to focus more accurately in more situations); has a higher frame rate, not to mention a much larger image sensor for higher-quality images and enlargements; and an on-sensor noise-reduction feature.

Perhaps what I miss most in compact cameras are very wide lens settings, such as 14mm, 15mm, and 17mm. I especially like those focal lengths for landscapes and when shooting in close quarters indoors. And, of course, I miss the telephoto zooms. But you know what, whenever possible I do what we did before we had zoom lenses: I zoom with my feet!

In the compact camera’s defense, it has many of the exposure modes (Av, Tv, P, M) that my digital SLR offers. It even has exposure compensation, offers a histogram, and features an overexposure warning. What’s more, it shoots movies—not high-def like my Canon 5D Mark II, but movies good enough for fun and for posting on YouTube. Speaking of YouTube, one of my Bosque del Apache movies is posted on YouTube (www.youtube.com). Type Rick Sammon in the Search field to check it out.

Witness tampering
This shot from a compact camera was taken in bright light with the ISO set to 100. Check out the color, detail, sharpness, and lack of noise. I took this picture so that I could compare it to the following picture.

Here’s another shot of the bus taken shortly before sunset. This time the bus was in the shade, and to get the depth-of-field and shutter speed I needed, I had to set my ISO to 400. You may not be able to see the grain in the image in this magazine, but it’s there in the shadow areas. Also, the picture looks a bit flat.

No problem. Photoshop to the rescue! With a few basic adjustments, some in Adobe Camera Raw, I was able to transform a lackluster shot into an image with vibrant colors.

A confession on the stand
Okay, now it’s time for another confession: All the compact-camera images you see here were created from JPEG files. That’s right! Rick “RAW Rules” Sammon shot JPEGs for the first time in nine years to test the camera’s capabilities. And guess what? Processing those images in Camera Raw (which you can do in Photoshop CS3 and CS4), combined with a few additional tweaks in Photoshop, yielded some very nice images, including this photo of a caboose.

The mug shot
I’ll end this article with a photograph of me that was taken with my G10 during the presentation at the NatureScapes event. Surely it’s a grab shot with a harsh shadow caused by the on-camera flash. But it’s a fun shot, and that’s what compact-camera photography is about—having fun without the bag-drag that’s associated with professional photography.

It’s also about knowing what the compact camera can and can’t do, and how to use the camera’s capabilities to get great shots—some, like the second photograph in this article, can’t be differentiated from a photo taken with a high-end digital SLR.

From now on, I’ll never leave home without my compact camera, and I’ll never stop shooting with SLRs for my serious work.