The IRIS awards are fast approaching. And some people may be planning to have evoke prepare their images this year. We of course appreciate you trusting us with your award winning images.

Our problem is one of timing. Sean will be attending the annual Tip to Toe road trip, #LeadingTheCharge for the Better NZ trust again this year and the trip is very close to the conference and awards judging.

Practically Sean will be unable to make prints between the 10th of April and the 10th of May. So there is very little time to make prints after the end of the trip in time for the deadline for print submission.

We therefore ask if anyone is wanting to have prints made, could they consider getting them in before April.

The last pack of prints goes on the courier this morning. It has been a huge year this for me so I would like thank all those photographers who trusted Evoke with their IRIS prints. Mixing in a couple of Q sets we started printing IRIS work in May. Since then 370 prints have been delivered and 180 matted. The framer was working double shifts in the last week to get them all through.

As always, things don’t often go exactly to plan. The logistics managing and delivering so many prints is a challenge. We are a fine art print shop and care and quality are what we work on. So volumes like this test the systems to the max. But I think all the prints went to the correct homes? There are a couple still in transit as I write this.

Thank you to those patient people who suffered from the matt board disaster. The distributor finally admitted that a batch of foam core used as the backing board was faulty, and some had been shipped out to our framer. Of course they have no idea which ones. This caused a week of excitement as matts were falling of the back!!! If anyone still has one of these it is not difficult to stick them down but we can only apologize for the hassles it has caused. Russian Roulette! I am bringing a tape gun with me to Rotorua “just in case”.

The good news is that there are hundreds of amazing prints to see at the IRIS awards next week. I am lucky enough to see a lot of them up close ahead of time and it is such a thrill to be the one taking them off the printed. Thank you to those people. And good luck!

Say hi if you see me there, especially if we have not met. My memory for names is atrocious but it’s nice to log away faces.

And a big thanks to the team at Papakura Picture Framers.

A lot of the time people ask what is the best way to send files for printing. And there are few items that relate to this so we will try to address them one by one.

Working with Photoshop we recommend using 16 bit at all times. It is easy to demonstrate that details are lost when you make adjustments to an 8 bit file in Photoshop. It is harder to prove that everyone can see the difference in the final print but we recommend that starting with the best information results in a better print.

Even if you start with a JPG file, converting this to 16 bit in Photoshop will increase the quality of adjustments made to the file. In fact if the PSD is still layered you can convert to 16 bit after you have made all the changes because Photoshop re calculates all the layers.

To change an existing file to 16 bit simple use the Photoshop menu “Image” then “Mode” and then click 16 bits/channel. (Note that 32 bits is entirely different and you should not use this unless you are doing HDR).

But of course everyone is shooting RAW now right. RAW files offer the highest quality conversions for editing and provide a huge latitude for adjustment after the image is captured. Unless you are shooting high numbers of images say for weddings or sports and need to save disk space or conversion time shooting RAW is the way to go.

So, to set up Camera Raw so that it opens your RAW files in 16 bit you need to configure it for each camera. To do this simple open your RAW in Bridge or Photoshop so that the Camera Raw dialog appears. In these examples both AdobeRGB and ProPhoto RGB profiles are used. Either is fine, you are limited if you leave the profile as sRGB which has a smaller colour range.

At the bottom of this dialog you will see some blue underlined text like

Adobe RGB (1998); 16bit; 3280 by 4928 (16.2MP); 360 ppi

Clicking on this text will bring up the settings which you can configure for all RAW files for this camera. Adjust the settings to look like the ones below.
Note that you will need to set this for each camera that you use as Camera Raw remembers them separately.

If you use Lightroom you can export any file, including PSD files from within Lightroom and the settings below will work. If you don’t use Lightroom you will need to export a flattened TIFF file to upload to us. It is important so that you do not lose your precious layers and edits when you do this.

So if you have your Photoshop file currently open, save it to make sure your latest changes are saved. Or open up the file you wish make a copy of.

Then use the menus to save a new copy of the file. The easiest way is to select ‘File” “Save As”

The garish red markers show the items you need to change, or check are set correctly.

Change the file type to TIFF

Click the “Save As a Copy” check box

UNCHECK the layers check box. This will flatten your image in this new copy to make the file smaller for upload.

And leave the profile tick box selected

Change the name to something you understand and can relate back to the original file. You might say change “File1.psd”  into “File1-Print.tif” for instance.

For Lightroom we need to edit the preferences for sending files to Photoshop and for when we export images. For the Photoshop settings open Lightroom and using the menu select “Edit” and “Preferences”. Then click on the “External Editing” tab and set the values for ‘Edit in Photoshop’ like the image below. (Click to enlarge).

Lastly we need an Export profile that creates a 16 bit TIFF file ready to upload.

From the Library module select any image and press the export button. This will load the Lightroom export settings dialog. Carefully set all the values on right to match the image below.

Once that is done you can click “Add” at the bottom left to create a preset so that the values are available quickly next time.

Once that is done you can export the image and upload it to Evoke for printing.

You can send multiple files through our Hightail upload service. The link to this can be found on our upload page.

https://evokestudio.co.nz/upload/

At the 2013 INFOCUS conference we saw the Phototex fabric based, self adhesive print media and Evoke has been trialing it since then.
This material has a smooth canvas like finish and adheres to almost any surface without leaving a mark.
Basically it acts like a huge printable post-it note. And just like post-it you can remove it and put it some place else.

Perfect for rental homes, or business functions where the venue will not permit any fixtures.

You could completely theme out a wedding or party venue without leaving a single mark. And retain the prints to place in a new location.

Priced the same as a standard photo print. A great product for a hundred uses.

We are very proud to have printed work for NZIPP members for this years IRIS awards. Over 200 prints made and 97 matted before deliver.
Congratulations to all of those people who got awards and special mention for the category winners and finalists for whom we had the privilege of printing work..

 
 
 
Bianca Duimel – Classic Portrait Photographer of the year 2013

See Biancas images

Mike Hollman – Travel Photographer of the year 2013

http://mikehollman.com/

“I’ve been entering my work into the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography “Iris Awards” for the past three years and I’ve used Sean to print all of my images. Over that time I have received gold, silver and bronze awards for my work. A big part of my success is due to Sean’s skill. Many of the judges have commented on the superior quality of my prints.
Sean has a wonderful knowledge of the printing process and goes the extra mile to ensure the highest standard of work using the latest in printing technology.
He takes the time to sit down and discuss the images and goes through the various options, such as paper choice, image size etc. This takes a lot of the hassle out of the printing process and results in my work looking the best it can.
There’s nothing better than having your work printed and displayed – much better than just viewing it on a computer screen. I would highly recommend anyone who is thinking of printing their work to get in touch with Sean.”

Harry Janssen – Finalist for New Zealand Photograher of the Year

http://www.redzebrastudio.co.nz/

“Mr. Mike Hollman sums it up perfectly!! For me personally it was a case of knowing that I did, in my own mind, the very best in getting my work onto paper. I have been printing images for a very long time now, indeed, my first job when I came to New Zealand in 1982 was a photographic printing job, so I really appreciate Sean’s expertise, skill and enthusiasm. This was my second year as a judge, we DO look very carefully at the print quality. Sometimes a beautiful piece of work was let down by inferior printing. Make sure, the next time the Iris Awards come around, you give the printing process the same loving and caring attention as when creating your images! A sincere and heartfelt Thank You to Sean at Evoke Studio for printing my images beautifully! Harry.”

Ollie Dale – Winner Fusion Category 2013

http://photonz.com/

Watch out for Ollies winning entry when it goes public.

There are many considerations when framing a photography and not really any specific formulae that can be applied that works in every case.
The best thing to have is a good framer who can work with you to select the options for each specific image. We use Mark Moore from Papakura Picture framers who is excellent (and patient) when helping sort through all the options.

But in a a response to a readers question, Mike Johnston posted these two articles with some more information.

Q&A: How Should You Frame a Photograph? Part I

Q&A: How Should You Frame a Photograph? Part II

If you are matting up images for the IRIS awards they should pretty much be done now. But I know a few people are still finishing up.
But this reminder applies to any of the PSNZ or Easter show exhibition events where images are displayed just in a matt.

When you or your framer sticks down the matt to the backing board you need to use a strong, permanent adhesive or tape. Some of the cheaper ones do not withstand the heating and cooling that the prints will be subject to during these exhibitions.

We have had this problem ourselves a few years ago where the front matt starts to lift. No harm is done but it is not very professional.

Papakura Picture framers does all our framing and matts and we have been perfecting the results. The IRIS prints produced this year look better than ever.

Some ideas from the photography news website on why canvas might be a good presentation media for your images.

http://www.photography-news.com/2012/08/5-reasons-why-to-print-your-photos-to.html