If you’re not selling your templates in the Photojunction store, you’re leaving money on the table. And easy money at that.

Since we launched the store last year, we’ve been paying out monthly to plenty of users who are skimming an extra level of income off work they’ve already done.

Photojunction makes it ‘one-click’ easy to start selling your wares in the store, so what’s stopping you?

Here’s a post about how it works and a series of store tips.

Go wipe that table clean.

Cheers, Nigel

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But I like what it lets me do, so I struggle along.

I did peek in my iTunes music folder once (looking for my old Tom Jones and Seekers’ records) but I thought, “Good grief, that looks complicated,” and I’ve never looked again.

I suspect that’s exactly what Apple want. They don’t even mention their “back end” (nasty expression) because you can really get in a mess if you play around with it.

Now dears, I mention this because Photojunction has a back-end too, and I suppose what I really want to suggest is, if you can, keep your hands off it.

Let me tell you what happened to one of our users recently. All jokes aside, if it had happened to me it would really have got my knitting in a knot, but there are lessons to learn, so let me explain what they did:

1. Went in and made copies of the Project folders (where Photojunction stores everything to do with a specific job).

2. Manually deleted content from the Project folders (which PJ put there for reasons I don’t really understand).

3. Saved extra stuff in the Project folders (which PJ won’t know about – especially if it’s in one of the duplicate Project folders they made, which PJ also won’t know about).

4. Renamed files (which means PJ won’t be able to find them).

5. Used illegal characters when renaming (which PJ, your operating system or lab might not be able to handle).

6. They also configured their Preferences to put the default saving folder inside the default project folder (this is “I’m my own Grandpa” territory and confusing for the software, and it certainly makes my own head spin).

Now I do know everyone has their reasons, and I’m the last person to criticise, but I hope you don’t mind me offering some suggestions:

Click on my Preferences and you’ll see I don’t even know where Photojunction is storing my bits and pieces. As with my iTunes, I’m happy to leave well alone. Some users need to change their Project Folder because they need to place the files on a different drive or central server, and it’s easy to do: I just don’t need to.

I haven’t even changed the default “saving folder” (where PJ stores my exports and upload bundles), so the files still go to my desktop.

But my main advice is not to mess around inside the folders.

If Photojunction puts things in these folders I assume it has its reasons, and who am I to disagree?

If I want to duplicate Projects, Events or Albums I do it in Photojunction, because if I do it that way PJ can keep track of everything, and everything keeps working.

Same if I want to edit, duplicate or delete my image files or the exported page layouts: I can do it in PJ, and if I do it that way everything works.

The developers, who are very nice young men, have spent a lot of time building all this into Photojunction so that they can help you avoid all this frustration.

Bless you all, and please cover up outdoors (it’s cold and wet here in New Zealand right now – not that I’m complaining).

PJ Nanny

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If you haven’t seen it yet, Apple recently release the Magic Trackpad. The Apple geek that I am, we bought one almost immediately. It is the perfect compromise for our desktop. I no longer need to pull my tablet out for simple things, and I can avoid using a mouse. Thanks to the tips on the box, we learned even more tricks for our laptops, that we did not know were possible.

This extends to Photojunction. The more I use the trackpad, the more I accidentally learn.

And so, my tips and tricks for today:

Did you know…. using two fingers on your trackpad (same as you would to scroll in a window), you can swipe over an aperture on an album layout and adjust the crop/zoom? I am finding it to be far more accurate than using the slider. On a current Wacom Intuos table you can use the wheel to do this as well.

Next… (and this one I didn’t find, Danny told me) building on editing the crop/zoom on the layout, you can hold the command key and move the image within the aperture.

Go ahead. Try both. It’s awesome.

Angelique

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You’ve heard the talk. Are you struggling in the face of competition, recession and demanding clients? Or do you just want to hear someone else’s take on things?

As well as our usual Photojunction webinars, we’re hosting two with Queensberry on the most critical issue facing professional photographers: how to survive and thrive in today’s demanding market.

Webinar 1: How to sell albums (and why)
Thurs 19 August NZT.

What can my competitors teach me? How should I choose my sample albums? How could I double my sales per wedding? How could I offer cheap coverages without selling them? How could my “best” offer be too successful? Are the most successful photographers the best photographers? What do you mean, there are only two ways to compete?

Webinar 2: How much do you need to charge?
Thurs 26 August NZT.

I know how much I want to earn, but how much do I need to charge my clients to make it? How much is enough? What happens if my bookings go down, or I move to cheaper albums … or shoot-and-burn?

Ian has created a spreadsheet to help you answer those questions – and more important, show the impact on your income if you change what you’re doing – or your bookings go up or down. This powerful tool will be available online so you can use it yourself.

Don’t miss out. Book now.

It’s our first time with this content so numbers will be limited. Ian will present, with comment and questions from QBY CEO Stephen Baugh and Jo Newman (UK Account Manager). You’re welcome to submit questions in advance, or ask them during the event. Notes and resources will be available to take away.

Click here for webinar times and to reserve your place.

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Personally, I like to use it to present final album designs to clients. Photojunction makes creating and editing layouts so simple, that sitting there with a client flicking through their spreads takes the mystery out of knowing exactly what they’ll end up with.

There are so many presentation options within Photojunction, but here’s a few that work with the iPad…

1. Slideshows

Want an album slideshow to fit perfectly on your iPad so you can present it to your clients? Choose the Computer (Projector) size from the Slideshow movie size presets. They’re the same exact dimensions as the iPad. Easy enough right? Imagine pre-designing the album and having the slideshow playing on the iPad when your client comes in to view their proofs.

2. Proofs

Would you rather your clients could flip through the pages of their album design at their own speed, while you take notes of any changes they may want to make? When you export Proof Layouts in Photojunction (Album menu > Export > Proof layouts) choose 1024 as your export size (the second option on the drop down list).

Add the proofs to your iPhoto library (or whatever you have set up to sync with your iPad) and you are on your way!

3. albumexposure

This is my personal favorite. We made an excellent decision when we joined forces with albumexposure, and they made sure it wasn’t long before albumexposure was iPad compatible.

All the great albumexposure features you’re used to on your computer are available when you access an album design via your iPad browser. Clients can view, comment and submit their album comments or approvals using the iPad. albumexposure and Photojuntion will do their thing and your clients’ comments will be available for you to view back in Photojunction.
Of course, this particular method does require an internet connection

So what’s your favorite way to present albums to clients? Leave a comment below, we’d love to know.

Cheers, Angelique

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The August schedule will be online shortly, but in the meantime, here’s the details about tomorrow’s webinar:

Intro to Photojunction @ 9am (NZT)

In this webinar Danny will show you how to fire up the software and start using it. He’ll also walk you through everything from registering, to designing an album, to exporting and sending.

It’s free to all so come along, listen, learn and ask questions. We’d love you to join us.

Remember that’s 9am NZT. Here are tomorrow’s times for the rest of the world…

AUSTRALIA (East coast) – Thurs 7:00 AM
NEW ZEALAND – Thurs 9:00 AM
UK – Wed 10:00 PM
USA (West Coast) – Wed 2:00 PM
USA (East Coast) – Wed 5:00 PM

Or click here to check out what time it’ll be in your part of the world.

Please click here to register and for further instructions.

Hope to see you there!

Cheers, Nigel & Danny

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There’s a wee gap between shifts due to the switch over between our NZ and US staff, but you’ll be well looked after for most of the day – and there’s even a bit of coverage for you moonlighters

New Zealand: 8am – 4.30pm (Mon-Fri) and 1am – 7am (Tues-Sat)

Australia: 6am – 2.30pm (Mon-Fri) and 11pm – 5am (Tues-Sat)

UK: 2pm – 8pm and 9pm (Mon-Fri) - 5.30am (Sun-Thurs)

US (East Coast): 9am – 3pm (Mon-Fri) and 4pm – 12.30am (Sun-Thurs)

US (West Coast): 6am – 12noon (Mon-Fri) and 1pm – 9.30pm (Sun-Thurs)

As always, please contact Photojunction support via our support email info@photojunction.com, or call us toll-free on the numbers listed here.

Remember also to check out our online help resources including our live webinar schedule, tutorial videos, and forums – all listed here.

Cheers, Nigel

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Photo by: Kamila Harris Photography

Hi!

My name is Angelique Buckley, and I am the newest member of the Photojunction Support Team.

If you are an avid reader of The Junction like I am, you may have already heard of me. I’ve been featured on the blog four times already, and can’t wait to play a bigger role in the growth of Photojunction.

So a little background about me… I am a huge nerd and I love photography. Maybe that’s why I fit in so well into the Queensberry team?

I studied Graphic Design in school, minoring in business, and started designing wedding albums with my own in 2005. Back then I used Adobe InDesign because I didn’t know any better. But when I was introduced to an early beta (think pre-V1.0) version of Photojunction Remix, I was in love.

I love a challenge, so working with new software was right up my alley, and PJ was already so much better for album making than InDesign. I’d spent the previous 5 years working for Apple Inc, and helping to build PJ Remix was the perfect adventure to follow on from that role. I spent a lot of time exploring any new features I could find, whether I needed them or not.

Fast forward, from 2007 and the initial testing of PJ Remix, to now. The number of users for Photojunction has skyrocketed. But while I like to think it’s still an incredibly easy piece of software, everyone’s bound to run into something they need help with along the way.

The most frustrating thing about being a PJ user in the States? For me it was the jealousy of their “Summer Vacation” over Christmas. The second most frustrating thing though, was that when I had an issue, I knew that my support system was likely fast asleep on the other side of the world.

But I think we’ve found a great solution for everyone who encounters this issue.

I’m based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (with my husband, dog, and cat), which means I’ll be working a more useful set of support hours for PJ users in the US, Canada and UK.

I’ll normally be working Monday to Friday – 9am to 3.00pm (EDT), which translates to 6am – 12noon on the West Coast and 2.00pm – 8.00pm in the UK.

So that’s me. I have an odd obsession with weddings and photography, but I don’t want to be a photographer, I just want to help them. Some people find that odd. I find that the best tool for me is a computer, not a camera. So I will stick with what I know best.

Look forward to helping you all along the way!

Angelique

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What’s going on? Well, the old PJ site had to go, for several reasons.

• Danny was embarrassed by it (me too).

• PJ has changed so fast that a lot of the support info was out of date.

• There’s a bit of misinformation out there (I’ll get to that).

• And it’s high time we came out of the closet…

So here’s the story:

In case you don’t know, Photojunction is a Queensberry project. It dates back ten years to when we first realised that any album supplier without a software solution was history (we were right: some of them already are).

But as we developed the software we realised it would turn into an expensive overhead unless we did something creative … so what we tried to do was persuade other album manufacturers to work with us in developing a great solution that would work for everyone. In our mind, an industry partnership.

We set up a separate company (Photojunction Ltd). We built a Chinese wall between it and Queensberry and insisted that Photojunction staff didn’t promote Queensberry in any way. We offered all vendors the same power and functionality as us. We built more than two dozen sets of “Album Resources” … to support Queensberry’s competitors!

And it worked. Sort of.

Today our users number well into five figures (highest in our category) and at least half of them use the software to design albums other than Queensberry.

But with few exceptions most album companies never bought in … and it takes two to tango. By and large the vendors were simply too suspicious to work closely with us. Fair enough, I guess…

These days the deal with Photojunction is strictly between you and us. “For photographers. By Queensberry” as the new website says. And anyone can use it, no charge.

Now for the misinformation:

Does that mean Photojunction locks you into Queensberry? Absolutely not.

Does it mean we’d like you to sell Queensberry albums? Of course!

But if you never spend a dollar with us it’s still free. A taste of what Queensberry can do.

What else? To streamline things around here we’re taking down that Chinese Wall so we can build a better, unified Queensberry/Photojunction support team. The PJ blog and forum have already been moved to the Queensberry site (you can still subscribe separately) and the separate Photojunction phone numbers will disappear soon. The payoff will be improved service for you.

So there you go. We’re out of the closet.

We’re Photojunction. Welcome to Queensberry!

Cheers, Stephen

PS For our reconfigured support resources, forums, blog etc, head off to the new website.

If you’d like to read more about our story, it’s here.

For more about why we’re f.r.e.e. click here.

To comment on any of the issues I’ve raised, please have your say below, or click here (you’ll need to login to post).

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After you export your high-res page layouts (almost always using Photoshop) they become visible in the Export Layouts window.

The layout files will have been saved to your hard disk, and so under your care and control, and many people want to work on them before printing.

But you need to take care. If you rename or move the files, for example, Photojunction won’t be able to find them for uploading.

You can avoid problems if you open and work on the files from within Photojunction.

Just click the Open In Editor button in the Export Layouts window or double click on a layout and it’ll open up in Photoshop for you.

Provided you export the layout as a PSD, Photojunction makes it easy to do your creative and corrective edits, because it makes each element in your layout (images, text, backgrounds etc) a separate layer.

But there are things you shouldn’t do. I’ve already explained why you shouldn’t rename or move the files. But please don’t change image dimensions, the position of images on layouts, resolution or file type either, or you could introduce more problems, which PJ’s internal error-checking won’t be able to detect – for example a mismatch between your album design and your print files, or print files that don’t match the lab’s specifications!

If you do want to change the layout, no problem: just go back to Photojunction, redesign the layout, return to the Export Layouts screen and re-export that layout so the print file you send off to your lab reflects the changes you’ve made.

Cheers, Nigel

PS No problem? Not unless you decide to redesign the layout AFTER you do the creative Photoshop stuff…

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