Notes from the Studio
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11|092011
Aperture Smart Albums
People often ask about our Aperture workflow so I've decided to once in a while share little ways in which we work. You can see all my past Aperture posts by clicking on the Aperture category on the right side of the website.For this post, I wanted talk about smart albums. We use smart albums to pull together images that are spread across different projects. For example, if I wanted to find all the Macworld covers I photographed during 2010 and 2011, I can create a smart album that searches only the years 2010 and 2011 for photos with the keywords "macworld" and "tearsheet-cover" since these assets where originally keyworded during import. We always tag each photo that is imported into the library. This makes it easy to search and separate certain assets. -
4|142010
Top 10 iPhone Camera Apps
I'm obsessed with camera apps on the iPhone. I love running a photo through different apps and seeing how different they can become. No one camera app works for me. I need several in order to find the one that will work best for that situation. Here's a list of the top ten camera apps that I keep coming back to.
Here's the original unaltered photo from the iPhone.
Hipstamatic
I use Hipstamatic all the time, it's my number one camera app. I love the very original images it produces. Great borders, color and contrast....what else can I say, I love it.
On the other hand, I do wish I was able to import a photo previously taken.
ShakeitPhoto
What makes this camera app great is it's lack of options, point and shoot at it's best. When I need a great looking photo fast I use this app. Another nice thing is that you can shoot an image with the app and it also saves an original version of that image in your library.
TiltShift Generator
When I don't want to drag my 4X5 around, I'll use this app to produce a similar selective focus effect. The interface on this app is really well done and a pleasure to use.
lo-mob
I love the selection of retro film border in this app. The newest version now lets you turn on borders and effects. This is great when you want to use an photo processed in another program and use a border from lo-mob.
TrueHDR
HDR is always fun to play with. TrueHDR does a great job alining the photos and keeping the detail.
PictureShow
What makes this app unique is you can add type to your photos. It's like sending someone a postcard. The interface is nice and simple to use. It has standard pretest like Lomo and some unique ones like multi exposures.
SwankoLab
This app is made by the creators of Hipstamatic. There are endless possibilities for effects, which is why I'm glad you can import a photo. I take a photo with the iPhone camera app then bring my pick into SwankoLabs for processing. Unlike Hipstamatic I can try out different effects on the same photo until I find one I like.
CameraBag
This is another simple and fast camera app. The options are simple, straight forward and render nice results. They also make a desktop app for the Mac which is fun to use.
Pano
Panoramic images are awesome and this app is great at stitching everything together. It works best with things at a distance. You can see in the photo below that the car in the foreground didn't stitch together well.
QuadCamera
When just one photo won't tell the store I use this app. The downside is even when the capture rate is set to slow, it's still a little too fast for me. I need more time to think about the next photo.
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3|222010
Portfolio update and workflow
We just posted a new portfolio update on our website. Since we like to keep the images fresh and update them often, it is important for our sanity to have a well-organized system.
Aperture is a key part of our workflow. The portfolio, for both print and web, goes through many changes and iterations. Aperture helps visualize how the photos will be arranged for both the online and printed versions.
The first step is to use the "Light Table" feature in Aperture to organize the photos. Light Table allows you to freely drag, drop, crop and re-arrange photos on a gridded table.
Once the order is finalized, we utilize another feature of Aperture and create a "Book" with these images. Book allows us to customize the print size and number of pages. This book is then named with today's date and becomes our current portfolio live on our website or printed book. As we make edits and additions to the portfolio in the future, we always have the previous versions saved in Aperture which we can reference.
When a printed portfolio is sent to a client the book's name is added to the client's name in our contact database. This allows us to track which portfolios a client has seen. We can also go back in Aperture to view all previous versions of the portfolio as needed. It is an easy way to keep a potentially chaotic situation quite manageable.
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1|212010
Billing Work Flow
I've always been curious about what work flow people have for billing. I know there are many great programs and online solutions. My work flow is always changing, so I need flexible tools. I prefer software-based solutions rather then web-only based solutions because the software solutions can be integrated with the OS better. I'm often on location and need to be able to access information when I don't have an internet connection.
I use Blinkbid for my contacts, estimates and invoices.
I use iCal for my calendar along with OX server to host my own iCal server. This allows me to add and edit the calendar from all my computers and from my iPhone. The other thing I've found really useful about iCal is keeping track of billing. In the notes area of every job on the calendar I add the date when I invoiced the client and when payment was received. I also add a link to the original email that was sent and attach a copy of the invoice.
During the project I need to keep track of expenses that will help me when invoicing the client. For this I use Evernote. I have a job log in Evernote that my assistant or I can fill out. The great thing about Evernote is that I can edit the job log from my iPhone, web or a desktop client.
When I'm on location I use Scanner Pro on my iPhone to add receipts. Scanner Pro then sends the receipts to Evernote. It makes adding receipts fun and easy.
After everything is billed and payment is received I use Quickbooks to keep track of everything for the accountant. -
12|072009
iTimeLapse iPhone app
I love finding cool and fun apps for my iPhone. I just found the iTimeLapse iPhone app. You know I love making time lapse movies. It's a great app with lots of advanced features. Here's a test movie I made of my walk to work.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbh46vgHh3g&w=480&h=385]
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5|202009
PDF Creation
I use Apple's photo program, Aperture, for my photo workflow. Now that I've added theabilityto download a PDF of my portfolio from my website, I needed a fast and easy way to make them. Using Aperture's book layout as acustomlayout program I was able to make the PDF layout just how I wanted. I can add, delete andrearrangepages on the fly. Photos can be changed with a simple drag and drop. After I made the layout, I selected "Print" and then"Save as PDF." Yet this gave me a file that was about 100 MBway too big for adding to my website. Using "PDF Shrink" I was able to save a PDF compression action as a service. The service is thenavailablevia any program. Now when I save a PDF from Aperture I can select my newcustom websiteaction, producing a file that's only 8 MB verses 100 MB. Sounds complicated, but it makes a very simple workflow.
