Digital Photography: Printing Promotional Pieces

Way back in 1974, when I was in my second year as a (self-taught) freelance photojournalist, I realized that an important part of being successful was self-promotion. It was not enough to just hustle for jobs and then hope people would come to me. I had to make sure that my name was always remembered and that entailed phone calls, writing proposals and even joining a writer’s organization so I was included in the annual guide.
None of this was really enough, however.

As I was not a highly paid commercial photographer I could not afford to send out mailers regularly and cold calling was not the answer. Building relationships was the solution as I was far more likely to be doing regular work for my clients, who were mainly magazine editors.

At the end of that year I was all set to send out Christmas cards to my clients—after all, that was what almost everyone else did. However I realized that cards got thrown away not long after being received. Instead I decided to produce my own desktop calendar. I hoped it would be appreciated and would sit on an editor’s desk all year long.

It was, and for the next 30 years I mailed out a calendar every year. I won’t bore you with the details but if you want to know how I set about doing it and how technology changed the way I produced it from year to year you can read the back-story on my website at www.johnrettie.com/calendar.
After a three-year hiatus I decided to produce a calendar again for 2009. It was a last minute decision and I have been in a quandary deciding on a new format. As I write this column I am still dithering!

Promotion in today’s world is so different from when I started in the 1970s. Then, mailing a printed piece or advertising in a publication was about the only way to self-promote for a photographer or writer.
Now it seems these two methods are somewhat passé. Or are they? I don’t have the answer, I’m not sure anyone does.

One thing is for sure, though—we still need to build relations with our current and future customers or clients. In many ways, thanks to the Internet, it is much easier nowadays.

Perhaps too easy? Blogs can be effective. Email can be, but you have to be really careful, otherwise it might be seen as spam. So we come back to printed pieces. I believe they still are really effective at promoting services and building relationships. Promotional mailers can be good for attracting new business and calendars are very effective for maintaining relationships with current customers.

Fortunately, the cost of producing printed products has come down dramatically in the past few years, as printing companies have started online services where one can upload artwork and have it gang-printed. These jobs go straight from a digital file to the plate on a printing press, cutting out labor-intensive prepress work. Like all businesses, those printers that have adapted are surviving and those that didn’t have gone, just like the local print shop I last used.

If you’re a member of NAPP and receive Photoshop User magazine every month you’ll find lots of ads from these “online” offset printing companies offering postcards for as low as $35 for 1000 copies. Currently, there are a number of labs—WHCC, MPix and Bay Photo—to name a few, that are advertising in Rangefinder that also offer offset printing services.
If you check out their websites you’ll find the number of products varies tremendously among them as do the prices. Some have really low up-front charges but seem to charge a lot for shipping. Others offer free shipping. Some show prices immediately when you go on their site, while others offer wholesale prices that are only visible after you register.

I spent several hours looking at more than half a dozen printers and I signed up with two “wholesalers” without any problems, even though I don’t currently have a business license or the need for a resale tax number. Some do require a copy of your business license.

Modern Postcard is a company that sent out a mailer last summer with a 40 percent off coupon for photographers. In fact it was this mailer that got me started on my quest. The company also sent me a package with a card to use as a simple color management test to show how the matching downloaded file looked on my computer screen.

Many online printers also offer mailing services and these can be extremely cost effective. If you mail your own postcard at the 27 cent postcard rate it cannot be bigger than 4.5 x 6 inches. However, if it is bulk mailed it can be as big as 6 x 9 inches. Several companies offer to mail out these larger postcards for around $300 per thousand. That saves a lot of money and avoids the cost of shipping! All you have to do is provide a mailing list and they will sort it correctly for the bulk mail rate.

If you’re intrigued at the idea of mailing a calendar you’re probably wondering why I am talking about this so early in the year. Hopefully, you’re not a procrastinator like me who leaves everything until the last minute. Believe it or not, calendar publishers are already working on their 2010 calendars. Now is the time to think about it and if you’re reading this while attending the WPPI convention in Las Vegas you can check out offerings from exhibitors.

As far as my 2009 calendar goes I suspect I am going to e-mail my contacts a link to a calendar they can print themselves from my website. I will also give them the opportunity, if they wish, to purchase a custom wall calendar from Lulu or Cafe Press. Unlike most wedding and portrait photographers my clients are not local, they are spread all over the world and the cost of mailing a calendar to all of them has become prohibitive. If you want to check out my 2009 calendar go to a special webpage for Rangefinder readers at www.johnrettie.com/2009calendar.

HDTV as a monitor?
Bigger is better? Or is it? There’s no denying that having a large monitor improves workflow. It allows you to view a bigger image, more images at a time, keep open more windows, or all of the above. Ideally two monitors are best, but all things being equal I’d rather have one 30-inch monitor than two small 17-inch ones.

In the old days of CRT monitors, the largest affordable computer monitor topped out at 19 inches. Television sizes were available in much larger sizes and were far less costly but useless as
computer monitors.

When flat-screen LCD monitors first appeared they were not considered to be as good for critical photo work but nowadays they are fine, especially the better ones.

Fortunately, as with most electronics, prices of LCD monitors have continually dropped in price, even as their size has increased and quality improved. You can now get a high-end 24-inch LCD monitor for $600 to $900. It will give you a screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200. A good 30-inch monitor, with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, will set you back $1400 to $1800.

By now I suspect many of you have invested in a LCD TV. I purchased one a couple of years ago for family use and was not terribly impressed by its quality. What’s more it quit working after 13 months, but fortunately Costco’s extended warranty enabled us to get it replaced with a Vizio model that was slightly bigger and $100 less expensive! My son uses it for video games and loves it.

Recently I have been reviewing a 40-inch Westinghouse LCD (model VK-40F580D), which includes a built-in DVD player. When it was first announced last summer the retail price was listed as $1200 but is now available from Amazon.com for $900. Use it as a monitor and it can be hooked up to various input devices via traditional video inputs as well as HDMI, VGA (D-Sub- 15 pin) or USB.  

This means it is perfectly usable as a computer monitor using the VGA input. I suspect before long that HDMI ports will become common on laptop and maybe desktop computers, if they still exist! The USB port can be hooked up to a card reader so images can be displayed directly off a storage card. Most newer DSLRs also have HDMI output ports so they can be connected directly for viewing images. Built-in software allows the running of slideshows without a computer.

The 40-inch Westinghouse has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The four-year old Dell 20-inch LCD monitor I have on my desk displays 1600 x 1200 pixels. When you do the math, you’ll find that there are approximately 55 pixels per linear inch on the Westinghouse and 100 pixels per linear inch on the Dell, which is the same as on most computer monitors. Logically then, the image on the HDTV will be “grainier” than on the computer monitor as the pixels are bigger. Just like a silver-halide print of old, the closer you get the grainier the image becomes.

I connected it to my Apple PowerBook and to a Nikon D90. I was quite impressed with the quality. Granted it’s not as good as a dedicated computer monitor but when viewed at the correct distance from the screen, the image is perfectly acceptable. Text quality is not so good, as the larger pixels are more visible leading to jaggy edges.

Based on my experience with this Westinghouse HDTV I think it’s safe to say that you can use a modern HDTV as a second monitor for displaying still images for viewing in a studio or reception area. I’m not sure you’d want one on a desktop though, as you’d inevitably be too close for comfort. If you do buy a HDTV, as an alternative monitor, make sure you get one that is rated at 1080p (1920 x 1080) or the resolution will be too low for decent display of photographs.

Incidentally, the colors rendered on the Westinghouse were pretty close to those on my laptop, but were more saturated than I’d like. There was also a slight green ghosting. I have recently received a ColorData Spyder3TV color calibration kit for review. It only works with a Windows computer so I could not try it at this time. Hopefully it will make the image even better if the HDTV has sufficient adjustments. I’ll let you know.

John Rettie is a photojournalist who resides in Santa Barbara, CA. He has been using a camera as a professional for 39 years, a computer for 29 years, and has combined his knowledge of both for the past 16 years. Readers can contact him directly by e-mail at [email protected].