Early this year we released OUR new miniseries, PHOTOGRAPHICS, covering everything from composition, to line, light and history. You can also watch here on YouTube.
There’s a great lack of photographic history out there and knowing where we came from can truly change how we work. Today we’re releasing the entire history segment from PHOTOGRAPHICS for no cost. We hope you’ll check out the entire series, but you certainly don’t want to miss this historical overview of photography. Perhaps someday we’ll be able produce a full history miniseries on the topic.
In the next 20 minutes you’ll get the basics and we encourage you to take it further by joining organizations like the International Photography Hall of Fame and taking deeper studies of painting and history to discover makes our craft so beautiful. You can also check out the full trailer for PHOTOGRAPHICS and get the rest of the 3 hour series here. — Seim
by Gavin Seim: Today we’ll dig deep into using signatures and branding on images. Both on the web and in print. We’re going to address nearly every aspect representing years of trial and error for me. Everything from using your digital logo and signature to what pens to use on your prints for hand signing. lets start with a question?
How often do you go into a gallery and see a masterpiece not signed?
How often does that same piece have a HUGE watermark across the front?
If your name is not on your images, you lose. The truth is, selling images is not simply having passion, it’s about business. Is your work a piece of paper, or is it a piece if art? Many people who don’t brand their images do so because they lack branding experience, or don’t consider their images of enough value to hang equally next to other art. Some on the other hand some take things too far, ruining their presentation by going overkill. Petapixel did a fun satirical article on this awhile back.
Remember, classy branding on an image generally adds value. How often do you buy a book without the authors name on the front? Even our cars have branding on them. If you bought a Ferrari would you want it without the emblem? I think not. Why then should the art we sell be unmarked! Are there exceptions? Sure, but not many. For example a commercial client may require unbranded images, but they should also expect to pay a premium for that. Artists have been branding their work for centuries and so should you. Lets examine different approaches that I have discovered over years by trial and error.
My image of the Seattle skyline shows an example of how I mark images for gallery and print exhibitions. I hand sign my best pieces, as we’ll talk about below. Take the time to work on a great signature. While this one is subdued, people do look at signatures and names. For print preservation a clean signature works well.
What To Do?
This whole topic is fraught with debate. No doubt some will disagree with me. That’s fine. Though I’ve probably slaved more than most in the industry on this. I’ve come to a place where I have an understanding of my brand and my presentation. This is not my random inexperienced opinion. I have gone to galleries, looked at the works of master painters and studied the techniques of others. I sell all my portraits and my fine art using the approaches I’m about to share. I’m always refining however and will update this study accordingly in the future.
Gavin is on the go running for office, so this time the Minnesota crew takes over. Who knows what will happen. This episode brought to you by Seim Effects and the new PHOTOGRAPHICS miniseries.
Amazing, better, more super, more features – Pay now or all your Adobe software will cease to function… Oh wait, Adobe Cloud already does that!
It’s April 1st – And not a very epic one at that. But since Adobe cranks out new releases as fast as my three year old fills diapers, getting us to buy all over again. It’s believable enough to be true.
That’s what I got today, but if you’re looking for something that’s actually cool, there’s a whole lot on this site. Poke around.
When you’re done, go do something productive besides stupid April fools jokes. — Gav
We were making presets here before selling presets was even hip. No one makes them like we do because we don’t just make presets, we’re passionate about quality and that’s why all our effects are GUARANTEED. Knowing Lightroom inside out is a start, but understanding light and photographics is what really makes great tools.
From each of our Pro Collections like Power Workflow 4, we have Light Packs so you can try for yourself. I thought, “With all the free presets we give away, it would be nice to make a one stop list of our light packs”. So here they are. Our most recent preset sampler packs, designed for with LR4 and LR5 and sure to please. This list is not long, but you won’t find any junk here. Every one of these packs is quality from the ground up and will save you time. Please share and enjoy, Gav
PW4 is the most powerful presets you’ll find. It’s our signature set and we’ve made it since Lightroom 1. Every version has been more refined and now it’s so well honed that it just begs to save you time. In this great sampler pack we’ve included great selections from Power Workflow 4 that will get you started. You can also get the complete collection of more than 75 perfectly prepared presets here.
Color Fantasies is a great color study and V2 took it to the next level. In this collection you’ll see powerful color twists you didn’t even know were in there, but we’ve done it with a subtle hand that is about gentle powerful color. Enjoy this sampler pack and check out the Pro Collection for more than 100 of the best color effects on the market.
We’re passionate about Black and White. control at your fingertips. Many think you have to use plugins or black and white tools to convert, but Silver Shadows 2 dispels that myth and puts endlessly variable silver conversion ate your fingertips. Not just the looks that we use either. You can mix, match and tweak to quickly get deeply refined silver conversions. Start with this sampler and then check out the Pro Collection for over 100 conversion tools.
Elegance is a presets collection for takes on the local adjustments like brushes, gradients and radials. Save time by selecting the look your need and applying it locally right from within Lightroom. This sampler pack gives you a selection of starter brushes and you can the loads more in the Pro Pack.
by 
We were making presets here before selling presets was even hip. No one makes them like we do because we don’t just make presets, we’re passionate about quality and that’s why all our effects are 
