Today was pretty quiet at the gallery early on. Little to do…..except read and create color profiles for the printer. And that’s exactly what I did.
Yet another book in the old arsenal. Fun stuff. I’ve been toying with layers a lot today thanks to Matt Kloskowski’s book which is appropriately titled, “Layers.“ Fantastic read. I’m 50% of the way through in one day. And heck, I’ve retained more than half of what I read so far. Not bad on a first go round if you ask me. Well, not bad for a day’s work. I will of course go back through again, and pick out the weak points to make sure I get them!
In between chapters I fed roll after roll and sheet after sheet through the HP Z3100. Just getting the calibration done for all the paper types we now have in. We’ve got a good bit of inventory in now……
The heavy inventory build up is my call. I ran out of a favorite canvas last week. I ran out at the exact moment a customer requested a custom 36″ x 54″ canvas gallery wrap……mere moments before Christmas. Needless to say, I’ll never run out again! And just to be sure, I stocked up on several other items!
So, we now have the following in stock:
- 3 rolls of 44″ wide Chromata White Canvas
- 3 rolls of 36″ wide Chromata White Canvas
- 2 rolls of 24″ wide Chromata White Canvas
- 3 rolls of 36″ wide Optica One (a cool water color paper)
- 2 rolls of 24″ wide Optica One.
- 1 test roll of Allure Rag (to see if I like it for my photos).
- 2 rolls of 42″ Premium Gloss paper
- 1 roll of 36″ wide Premium Gloss paper
- 2 rolls of 24″ wide Premium Gloss paper
- 1 roll of 36″ wide Matte Photo paper
- 1 roll of 36″ HP Premium Canvas (not our favorite, we’re phasing it out in favor of the Chromata).
- Several gallons of Glamour II Veneer
I’ve got a few other test rolls as well, and I’ve been loading profiles all day. But you get the idea….we’ve stocked up on what’s been moving out of the gallery / print shop!
Sorry for the aside, had to step away from Photoshop for a moment and go off about our stockpile of paper / canvas! Literally the day was split between reading and waiting on the next calibration to finish. Gotta calibrate the printer prior to a client wanting to print on the media in question, right? Yes, right! 
“Layers” made for a great read in the morning. Sure, I’m getting good with Photoshop to the point I remember 80% of the shortcut keys. And when presented with a problemed photo or image I can usually deal with the issues quickly. But honestly there’s so much more to learn. The crazy program is loaded with stuff you’ll probably never use, but if you ever find out about it you’ll used it all the time. Hence the book mania I’ve been experiencing.
Gotta say, each of the books I’ve recommended here has proven invaluable. And I find myself referring back to each time after time. Layers will be another such book in my arsenal!
Plus it’s helping me hash out some ideas. I’ve got to re-work my printing brochure and make it flashier. Sure, it gets the message across and the cover image is pretty, but the cover image should really pop…… I was thinking about an image of the printer with paper spooling out and prints can be seen on the paper. You know, the paper rolling out in a wave. Hence the silly image I’ve included of this morning’s photo on “wavy” paper. Just spent two minutes playing with that concept!
Beyond reading and calibrating, the gallery saw a busy afternoon. Well, I personally had a busy afternoon. 4 custom prints for a client of mine who is an up and coming photographer. He’s being shown at another gallery across town and it’s only a matter of time before he starts selling like crazy. Right behind my friend was a new client who I did some black and whites for the other week. He came in with multiple 4×5 negatives for me to scan. Also a whole bunch of 35mm negatives to boot!
All that forced me to put my book down for the afternoon and quit the calibration efforts. Paying customers get priority!
So, this evening I picked up my book again. I’ve finally put it down and I’m ready for a little R&R. Maybe something from my ITunes library.
As I toy out the Photoshop ideas and the new brochure I’ll post here. Just to share the evolution of the software play. Of course, I’m open to all suggestions! I’m busy enough without getting heavy into design layout, although I’m pretty handy with Illustrator. Think I’ll leave some of that stuff to Sadira and Dina because they seem to be excited to help out with the brochure. Still, all the new toys I’m finding in Photoshop are way too fun!
Things have been busy since the holiday. More printing, new clients at the gallery, and some personal outside work. That’s what I’ve been up to.
For weeks I’ve been writing about the big life changes, new business, time at the gallery, prints, etc. But it struck me this morning that I haven’t even shared the actual business name, or more importantly, what exactly it is that I’m doing. Wow, talk about skipping over a few of the details.
Unfortunately I ran into a much larger issue, and that’s what has left me aggrevated this afternoon. In my workflow I bounce between Lightroom2 & Photoshop CS3 constantly. For tweaks on client files, like this morning, I hit “Edit in CS3″ and jump right into retouching. In the case of my client’s files this morning the task was simple. Edit the bald chauffer’s head out of her fun shot from a recent event. Who wants a bald chauffer’s head popping up behind you and two of your friends.
