|
WORKROOM OPERATIONS
Enhancing
Your Portfolio
Use technology to give your marketing photos that professional touch.
by Kitty Stein, WCAA, CWP
Photographs speak louder than
words! How many times have you heard that? Did you ever stop to
think that the quality of a photo speaks volumes about you and your
business? If you cannot afford a professional photographer, there
is help. The best part is that you don’t have to be an outstanding
photographer, although that certainly helps.
Are you a workroom owner who never gets to see your finished work
installed? I’m guessing you still take photos of your best
work in the workroom. But now you have workroom all around that
magnificent treatment. Not exactly the best presentation for that
next new designer, is it? Or maybe you have taken loads of photos
of the final installation, but many never came out good enough to
show clients. Now there is help to add a professional touch (or
touch-up) and enhance even some of the poorest photos.
IMAGE ENHANCING SOFTWARE
More than likely, most of you already have such software—it
came with your digital cameras or your computers. If you are like
me, you didn’t know you had it, much less tried to use it.
Being a photography hobbyist, I was interested in good software
that I could grow with. However, I admit it; I have to have remedial
functions and instructions!
I purchased Microsoft Digital Imaging Pro 10 because I’ve been
working with Microsoft software for almost 10 years and thought
that would make it more comfortable to learn. And I was right! My
purchase also was weighted with the fact that it came with free
telephone support for its life. (I pay long distance charges only.)
This is the software I have used for my examples with this article.
LEARNING SOFTWARE
I suggest you start out using any tutorials or overviews of software
that come with it just to get a feel for where things are, what
icons mean and the capability of your software. And if you really
want to make time to do it, agree to write an article or give a
seminar!
When using image-editing software, remember this one rule that
is never to be broken: Immediately do a “save as” of your
original photo with a new name and a new location; i.e., your hard
drive or CD and not the media card.
Every time you change the photo and save it, the quality is reduced.
You may also decide you don’t like the way the photo ended
up. In that case, you can start over with the original and do another
“save as.” Do not try to make changes on the media card
unless you are doing it within the camera’s capability and
according to its instructions.
WHAT SOFTWARE CAN DO
PHOTO 1. |
This can be great fun. You are already creative people to be in
this industry, so you just might find that imaging software is a
delightful challenge. It even allows you to become an artist without
getting paint and chalk all over you.
Photo 1 is very dark. It might be one you would immediately toss
aside. Here’s what you can do.
1. Lighting, exposure, contrast, color:
By playing with these automatic features in my software, I was able
to lighten the very dark photo. I always try the auto features first
and click the “undo” button if I don’t like what
it does.
Photo 2 is much lighter. However, the first time I lightened the
photo, I found there were many extra things I did not like and could
not see before.
PHOTO 2. |
2. Removing items: These are
the many distracting things that I removed in Photo 2:
• Clock and wall ornament on the far left wall
• Hutch/table on the far right wall
• Light in the ceiling
• Cell phone and notebooks on right chair
• Bowl on the floor just above cell phone
• Light switch on the wall behind that same chair
I used what is called a “cloning” tool to paint over the
items with the surrounding color. Some things can be removed in
seconds. Others take longer. If you dress your scene properly before
taking the photo, and with an eye for what you may need to remove
later, you minimize your editing time.
3. Frames/mats: My software has
a selection of frames and mats and you can change the color. See
Photo 3.
PHOTO 3. |
4. A work of art: There are
many filters in software to make your photo look different. Here
again, I try each one that might work and then undo it if it is
not what I’m looking for. Photo 3 is the colored pencil filter.
I did need to remove a few spots after doing this.
Why turn a window treatment into art? Make it a thank-you gift to
your customer. Isn’t what you create a work of art? Let them
see the beauty of the art. It will help them to realize that they
are getting more than just draperies. If you really get into working
with software, you could even create somenote cards for them.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
If you are a wholesale workroom and you want to grow your business,
you must have a nice portfolio and/or Web site for future clients
to see your work. Photo 4 is typical of photos shot in the workroom.
You need to rid this photo of the busy workroom background and,
what isn’t so obvious, level it up.
PHOTO 4. |
1. Prepare the canvas: A blank
page in my software is called a canvas. It’s easier to prepare
it before getting your treatment. Using a rectangle drawing tool,
I first created a wall and colored it. Then I created a window frame
and colored the glass area.
2. Copy and paste: There are
various tools for tracing around an object. After tracing around
this treatment, I copied it and pasted it on the canvas.
3. Straighten horizontal: The
treatment was a little lopsided, so I straightened it using the
straightening tool.
4. Sizing: After selecting the
treatment, I adjusted the width and depth to fit the window. So
what do you think of Photo 5?
PHOTO 5. |
RESOLUTION
I learned a valuable lesson with these photos. Resolution is important!
Photo 1 had much higher resolution than Photo 4. I could print Photo
1 as a quality eight-by-10. However, I could not enlarge Photo 4
any more than five-by-seven or it became too grainy.
PRINTING
Most software and some Web sites will allow you to have your photos
submitted and printed online at a very reasonable price. This eliminates
the trip to and from the store to have them
printed.
If you chose to take your photos to a store for printing, you would
have to have a CD burner because your changes would not be on the
media card. Printing photos yourself, especially eight-by-10s, is
certainly an option but more expensive.
MARKETING
The point of learning to use this type of software is to better
promote your company. Think about color photos vs. black-and-white.
Color has more impact. Real treatments have more impact than drawn
ones. Treatments you created yourself have an even greater impact.
Think how professional photos would add to all your marketing materials:
portfolio, brochures and business cards (in the software), Web site,
CDs and newspaper ads (software can do black-and-white).
Imaging software allows you to do marvelous things quickly with
the automatic settings. If you need to enhance your marketing materials,
give this approach some thought. Consider the value of what you
can create vs. the time involved to learn and use the software.
Also include the fun factor, and that you might want to use it for
family photos.
Before you think about purchasing software, go check your computer’s
programs, your scanner and your digital camera’s instruction
book. You just might find a nice image-editing surprise!
Kitty Stein, CWP, WCAA past board member, is a 26-year veteran
of the drapery workroom industry. Having owned drapery workrooms
as one person and as a company of nine, she is now president of
Workroom Concepts a consulting firm offering educational resources
to the industry on its Web site (www.workroom concepts.com). Her
experience in both the retail and wholesale window covering arenas
has contributed to her success as a business consultant. A professional
speaker and writer, she has authored several industry products including
Order in the Workroom, The Price List, Workroom Specifications
and Price Your Work with Confidence, available through D&WC.
|
