Web/Tech Archives - Views, Reviews & Interviews For Photographers On Tiffinbox

Enrollment For “No Stress WordPress” Course Opens

February 27, 2018 by Seshu | Editor, Curator & Publisher Leave a Comment

Why The Stress?

Let me assure you that you aren't the only photographer to have issues launching your website. Go to any photography conference or even a local gathering, and you'll hear a common refrain: “I'm working on my website.”

That's code for: “I am still trying to figure it all out.” And there is absolutely no judgment, ok? I am in the same boat as you.

Let me break it to you gently – a lot of photographers like you and I are finding it challenging to establish a presence online. Yes, WordPress is a ubiquitous platform and you may have heard that one can easily optimize WordPress websites for search engines. All true, but designing one from scratch isn't always easy or fun. And you can only watch so many YouTube videos to chase down the exact solution you are looking for.

I have to admit that WordPress templates are wonderful and they are a great way to start one's web design. But they can be limiting, if you don't know the in's and out's of WordPress. So, if you are a photographer who needs to gain back control of your domain, pay close attention to what I am about to say.

No Stress WordPress

Dave Foy of Design Web Build just reopened enrollment for his course, No Stress WordPress. It's open for a very limited time, until Friday of this week.

If you are even remotely interested in understanding how WordPress works but think you will need to be neck-deep in code, think again. Dave Foy has worked as a web developer for 14 years. Before that, he was a primary school teacher in the United Kingdom.

In his course, No Stress WordPress, he will teach you to design your website using WordPress and a plugin called Elementor. The instruction is comprehensive without it being overly challenging. He walks you through a “starter site” that you can then reuse again and again. He walks you through the jargon, truly making the experience stress-free. And I personally like the way he teaches. The course is very well structured and moves at a pace that is just right. While I may have used WordPress for a number of years, I discovered a lot of new and useful information. In fact, Tiffinbox (this website) will be redesigned using the steps he has outlined in his course!

Interview With Dave Foy

I spoke with Dave Foy at length about “No Stress WordPress” today:

If you have considered designing a website for your photography business, but you found yourself stuck in the process, this post provides you with a solution that you simply cannot ignore. Sign up now for No Stress WordPress. If you wish to split your payments, there is that option. However, if you are ready to make changes now, you can receive some fast-action bonuses if you commit to this course before March 1 at 5 pm EST.

On The Fence?

Still on the fence about “No Stress WordPress“? I understand the trepidation. However, do know that it is a one-time purchase and Dave Foy routinely updates the course when changes are required. Plus he is incredibly responsive to your questions in his private Facebook group. Lastly, to just get a taste of his teaching style, I implore you to check out his free mini-course. Just watch one of the four videos and then decide if his teaching style and the content is what you need to finally finish your WordPress-based website.

Full Disclosure

Yes, the links for the course, No Stress WordPress, are affiliate links. As you know I only promote the very best resources to you after diving into it myself. And in this case, I paid the full price of this course when Dave launched it back in November. I believe wholeheartedly that when you sign up and do the work, you will easily experience a five to 10 fold return on your investment. Plus, with the course being updated all the time, you don't need to worry that you have bought yet another course that has gone stale. Dave is committed to teaching and staying current with the latest advances in WordPress and the Elementor plugin.

5 Big Reasons Using JPEGmini Pro Is A No-Brainer For You

July 26, 2016 by Seshu | Editor, Curator & Publisher 2 Comments

JPEGmini Pro To The Rescue

There are five splendid reasons to use JPEGmini Pro. Before we get into those, though, I wanted to introduce you to Mitch Schneider, Director of Marketing for the slick and useful application.

Mitch and I ran into each other at the Photo Plus Expo in New York City. It's an annual event, and the trade show floor is packed with vendors and photographers from all over the world.

Having heard of JPEGmini Pro from a couple of photographer friends, I was intrigued to find out more. So, I stood a the JPEGmini booth and watched Mitch and his colleague patiently describe their software and demonstrate how quickly it minimized file sizes, and also how efficiently it did it without any perceptible loss of the quality of the final images.

My ears perked up as Mitch spoke because for years Photoshop had a “save as web” option and when Adobe released Photoshop CC, that option just disappeared. I missed that because creating web versions of my 20mb files was a quick two-step process. Now with it gone, it was just too laborious – I had to set the resolution and then manually open, crop and then save the images. One by one. Blech! Perhaps I was doing it all wrong. In any case, it was eating away at my productivity.

As a hopeful alternative, I even looked at Dr. Russell Brown's scripts, panels and actions, but for whatever reason, I simply couldn't get those to work on my system. I desperately needed a way to scale down the photographs quickly and optimize them for the web.

When I first heard about JPEGmini and the JPEGmini Pro option, I was genuinely hopeful that it would speed up my workflow. And it has. Remarkably so, with a few additional benefits that I didn't expect!

The Interview

A few weeks back, Mitch agreed to be interviewed online to chat about JPEGmini and JPEGmini Pro. He was just as excited as I was with the new Photoshop extension that allows photographers to export out their photographs directly from Photoshop CC.

My “save for web” option was essentially back!

A Personal Example

A few months back, I upgraded to a Nikon D750. The RAW file sizes are humongous. Try 27.5 megabytes on for size! The high resolution JPEG's are approximately 14 megabytes.

Imagine if you had to upload 500 or 800 of those to ShootProof? [Affiliate Link] It would take you forever. And frankly, juggling family and professional life, who has time to baby those files like that?

So, that's why I lean on JPEGmini Pro now. If I have a batch of five or more photographs to process, they are enhanced in Photoshop and saved to a special folder. I simply drag and drop the files into JPEGmini Pro and it does its magic.

It can either save over the original files (I recommend making a copy of your files just for safety's sake) or you can have those images sent to a new folder, directing the application to constrict the photograph's width or height in the process.

Quality & Quantity

When a couple I photographed in Connecticut ordered a 20″x30″ canvas print for their home in North Carolina, I attempted to send a 14 megabyte file to Pixel2Canvas. Their online system, however, only accepts files that are 10 megabytes in size or smaller. JPEGmini Pro to the rescue!

I dropped my file into the application and it generated a 7.5 megabyte file – essentially a 47% reduction in file size – for production. And yes, I couldn't see any loss of quality and the client was thrilled with the final results.

Still not convinced? I ran into this video that shows a graphic artist who is printing large photographs for a photographer client of his. Clearly the graphic artist is stumped by how indistinguishable the regular JPEG file and the JPEGmini files are!

5 Reasons To Use JPEGmini Pro

Ok, let's get into the five reasons JPEGmini Pro is a no-brainer for any photographer.

1) Save Space

Thousands of photographs that take up space in your hard drives right now could take up even less space if you ran them through JPEGmini or JPEGmini Pro. The larger your JPG files, the greater the need you have to shrink them down. Imagine you could reduce your hard drive needs by 47%. Space saved is money saved.

2) Save Time

Do I have to tell you that uploading a 20 megabyte file takes longer than a 5 megabyte file? The time you save is money made.

3) SEO Benefits

Search engines are assigning a higher rank to those websites that load faster. If you have photographs on your site and they are 200 kilobytes or more, they are slowing your site down. Run your photographs through this app, shrink them down in file size and then upload them to your website. You'll see the difference and so will Google!

4) Extensions For Photoshop & Lightroom

Each of us has our own workflow and style. Some of us like to save full resolution JPEGs to a folder, copy the folder and then drag the files into JPEGmini Pro. Others, would prefer to send those files directly from Photoshop or Lightroom. And now you can! The company announced easy-to-install extensions into Photoshop or Lightroom that will give you direct access to JPEGmini. This again saves time (and money) in my opinion. This option is only available if you buy JPEGmini Pro, though.

5) The $99 Price

On the heels of their announcement about the Photoshop and Lightroom extensions, Beamr, JPEGmini's parent company also announced a price reduction to $99 for JPEGmini Pro. So, the price is right, right now. But this is for a limited time only.

JPEGmini or JPEGmini Pro?

I wondered that too. If I had continued using my Nikon D700, I am sure JPEGmini would have sufficed. But with the Nikon D750, the file sizes are so much bigger that I had no choice but to lean on JPEGmini Pro. That's one factor in choosing between the two options.

JPEGmini Pro as I mentioned above is now only $99 (regularly $149), whereas JPEGmini is $19.99. So, if your budget is tight, you may have to make some hard choices between the two options.

One of the five reasons should have included – speed – because JPEGmini Pro is some eight times faster than JPEGmini. It's just the way the application uses the core engines in your computer to make that magic happen.

Ok, I know making a decision sometimes can be challenging. That's why when I started to poke around this app, I downloaded the free trial to see how it worked. I suggest you do the same. Give it a try to see how much space and time you can save. I believe there is a limit of 10 photographs you can process per day. But the free trial is limited by how large your files are to begin with, so take that into consideration.

So, are you ready to give JPEGmini or JPEGmini Pro a spin?

How Suzette Allen & Jon Yoshinaga Enhance Their Client’s Portrait Experience

May 13, 2016 by Seshu Leave a Comment

Suzette Allen and her husband Jon Yoshinaga are busy photographers based in Sacramento, California. While the west coast is home, the duo are on the road several months out of the year photographing clients across the country and teaching photographers new techniques that enhance client's portrait experiences well beyond the session.

Thanks to Panasonic Lumix cameras and Bay Photo Lab, Suzette and Jon, are now offering something super special to their clients.

Hybrid Imaging – the use of video, still pictures and audio – isn't new. It's been attempted before. But not like how Suzette and Jon approach it. It would seem that technology had to grow up a bit first. Aren't you glad you are a photographer in 2016?

The Interview

Listen to our conversation below to find out more about Live Portraits:

Learn about Talking Business Cards.

Here are the tools Suzette and Jon use to create Live Portraits.

Suzette Allen & Jon Yoshinaga Present At CTPPA

Register here for Suzette Allen's CTPPA workshop on May 17th. Scheduled from 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM, the workshop will be held at the Radisson Hotel located at 100 Berlin Road, Cromwell, Connecticut.

This event is sponsored by Bay Photo and Panasonic LumixG

More On Hybrid Imaging & Live Portraits

Still curious to know more about hybrid imaging? Watch this quick little intro Suzette Allen has put together for you:

Examples Of Suzette Allen & Jon Yoshinaga's Work

Well, will you embrace hybrid imaging and create Live Portraits for your clients?

Comment below and again, don't forget to register for the CTPPA workshop if you are within driving distance of the venue.

Get To Know Imagely, A WordPress Service For Photographers

March 16, 2016 by Seshu 3 Comments

It's a busy time of the year for Scott Wyden Kivowitz who is always ready to talk about a new WordPress service for photographers.

What is Imagely?

As the Blogging Wrangler and Community Liaison for Imagely, Scott will tell you they have some very ambitious plans to offer WordPress hosting, themes and plugins – all under one roof.

Why WordPress? Well, did you know that nearly 25% of the websites in the world run on the WordPress platform? That's a staggering number of websites and a great many photographers lean on a self-hosted WordPress themed website or blog for their business.

But not everyone has the time or the technical skills to work on the platform. Tiffinbox, for instance, was custom designed by someone who knows her way through the theme and its back end. Now, not everyone can have a custom designed site or needs to have it specifically designed for them. That can come later when the dollars start flowing in from sales, right?

Until then, though, you are going to need a WordPress service for photographers. And that's where Imagely comes in.

The Interview

WordPress Service For Photographers

If you act quickly, you can get in on a special offer Imagely provided photographers who signed up for WPPI.

Learn more about Imagely through their top-rated podcast too.

Can you see yourself having more time to make images, serve your clients better or chill out with your family rather than tinker with your WordPress website?

So, what will you do? Will you jump in and sign up for this WordPress service for photographers now?

The Backend Of Imagely

Online Proofing & Digital Delivery Thanks To Cloud Spot

January 24, 2016 by Seshu | Editor, Curator & Publisher 1 Comment

Gavin Wade had an idea and he ran with it.

As a photographer, he wanted to quickly and painlessly deliver his client's photographs. He wanted to upload his images once and then be able to deliver different versions to different clients. His solution: Cloud Spot.

I trust you have affiliates or business partners who simply have different needs for your photographs and they don't all fit neatly into one standard dimension. Imgaine you are a wedding photographer who has just photographed a Jewish wedding and you have some photographs of the huppa. Some of your wedding vendor friends will only need a postage sized version of the images, while the wedding planner you are wooing might want the photographs with your watermark to display on her Facebook page.

Do you sit there scaling up and scaling down the same photographs as and when someone requests it? It wouldn't be very efficient use of your time, right? That's where Cloud Spot excels.

I spoke with Gavin Wade about Cloud Spot and how it has saved his wedding photography business tons of time. Give this interview a listen and see if Cloud Spot is something you want to consider using for your photography business as well:

Setting up your Cloud Spot account is super easy:

Ever wanted to send some of your special clients discount codes? Well, you can now with Cloud Spot:

Your online store's back end should look this easy to manage:

There are six pricing options, including one that is totally FREE (jpeg imaages only). The Entry option is only $4/month and allows you to store and share JPG, GIF, TIFF, PNG, PSD, AI and PDF files. Granted you only get 5gb of space, but if your photography business is just starting up, this should do really well for you for now. You can always scale up!

Gavin has generously offered all Tiffinbox readers a special discount code. Use: tiffin10 – good for any monthly or annual plan when you sign up here.

Discovering Brett Jarnagin’s Lightroom Retouching Toolkit

August 31, 2015 by Seshu | Editor, Curator & Publisher Leave a Comment

When Brett Jarnagin and I connected, it was at Photo Plus Expo some years back. The funny thing is, he didn't remember me from way back then. But the guy can be excused because he was manning a busy booth and he must have talked to thousands of other photographers on that day in New York.

Fast forward to just a few weeks back and I came to know that Brett is the brains behind Lightroom Retouching Toolkit. As someone who enjoys working quickly and efficiently on his iMac, I was naturally intrigued about what Brett was promoting.

I wanted to know whether I could work on photographs like I did with Photoshop and his quick answer was, “heck yeah!” That had me 90% there but I wasn't going to be convinced until I started using his Lightroom Retouching Toolkit for my own busy business portrait business in Connecticut.

Let me tell ya, the experience is amazing. Yes, it does take a little effort in learning where some of the buttons are, but once you repeatedly use the interface, you should be all set. As always the more you practice with the presets and settings and dial them to your liking and make the program really do what you want it to do, the better your results are going to be.

I sat down with Brett to talk to him about Lightroom Retouching Toolkit; to better understand why he decided this was a good time to bring this to market and how it has helped him and other photographers in the industry to sail through the dreaded tasking of retouching skin in particular and portraits, in general.

Oh, one more thing. You want to know how generous Brett is? Even before I could say, “hey, can you hook my audience with a discount code,” he sent me a quick text to say that he would be happy to extend a 20% discount code to all of you if you wanted to buy Lightroom Retouching Toolkit today.

Here is the code – TIFFINBOX20 – remember it's 20% off the regular price of Lightroom Retouching Toolkit for fans of Tiffinbox.

And you are a fan, right?

Gerik Parmele’s Hack To Stop Photos App From Loading On Your Macintosh

June 4, 2015 by Seshu | Editor, Curator & Publisher 9 Comments

Raise your virtual hand if you are a photographer who uses an Apple Macintosh computer – laptop's like MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or the desktop iMac or MacPro.

So, you feel my pain then don't you? You know, when you insert a memory card from your camera into the card reader and instead of just having access to your files through the Finder, you are abruptly confronted by Apple's new Photos application.

It launches, like an unsolicited pop-up advertisement on your favorite website. The reaction is to go and shut the program down. Quickly. How many times in a day do you want to keep doing that? Imagine coming back from a wedding or a long photo session and having multiple cards and having to deal with that pesky program opening again and again.

I was quite frustrated, but clearly I wasn't the only one feeling this pain. Gerik Parmele is a photographer and videographer based in Columbia, Missouri Tweeted out that he had found a hack to stop the Photos app from loading on his Macintosh computer.

So, if you are running your photography business on a Macintosh and you want to stay super efficient and cognizant of your use of time, follow Gerik's suggestion in this short video below:

Gerik suggests buying and using Keyboard Maestro for this hack to work ($36). If you can suggest an alternative method for stopping the Photos application from launching, please share your ideas below.

Credit and kudos go to Gerik Parmele for coming up with this work around. So, please follow him on Twitter and support his projects whenever possible.

If you enjoyed this little tip and found it helpful, please share the link to the post with your friends via social media or on your own blogs. If you would like to see more such time-saving tips, please comment below and let me know.