There certainly is.

If you’re a scrap-booker, you probably don’t need a lot of help with
this, but if you’re like most people you might not realize that there is
a whole world of great ideas you can do with your photos to fit any
budget.

Here are just a few ideas to get you started and an explanation of
some topics to make the best of your decision.

To start with, your photos are delivered with a standard retouching
which includes color correction, exposure, and contrast adjustment to
deliver a photo that closely matches the actual scene. It takes
approximately one hour or more of additional correction time for each
hour of photography that your photographer has spent during your wedding
and this is just for basic exposure and color correction.  So if
your photographer has spent 10 hours photographing, they will be
spending 10 hours or more in the next few days touching up your photos.
And, this is just for the basic corrections of color, exposure, and
contrast.

You may or may not receive some artistic photos from your wedding and
this will be a decision of the photographer whether or not to do so.�
If artistic manipulation of some photos is included, they will be
included in addition to the original copy of the same photo, sort of
like a before and after shot but two separate files.

Ordering Prints – We give full usage rights to do whatever you want
with your photos as long as you don’t resell them for profit.  One
thing to keep in mind however is that all your prints have been color
corrected to exact specifications, so if you do decide to have someone
other than the photographer print for you, then it is essential to ask
them NOT to do any color correction on the images.�
Otherwise, you may end up with some unusual color casts.  Your
prints have been corrected for you, having another lab do it again can
lead to poorly reproduced prints.

There are a number of methods to get prints made; here is a few
starting from the most economical to most expensive. But remember, you
get what you pay for.

You can print the photos yourself on your home computer and printer,
have the local pharmacy do the prints for you (we don’t recommend this
as small companies just can’t afford the equipment to do great
printing), your local print lab (there are not many great ones, but
we’ll be happy to help you locate one), online photo labs (talk to us,
we’ll help you out here as well), or directly from your photographer (we
actually adjust and sharpen the file to your exact print size and do
additional retouching such as skin softening, stray hair, or blemish
removal at no additional fee). 

Some tips on printing.

When you receive your photos, they are delivered in the native format
or size that the camera has captured them in which is usually but not
always a 2 to 3 ratio as a typical camera has 24mm height by 36mm length
ratio that matches the film or digital sensor.  24 divided 36 is a
2 to 3 ratio. 

Native print sizes are 3×4.5, 4×6, 5×7.5, 6×9, 7×10.5, 8×12, etc.
However, there are many other common print sizes available and popular
sizes are 5×7, 8×10, 24×36 and this is where cropping comes into play
which means somewhere some part of the photo needs to be removed or get
cut off. Any photo that does not meet the native print ratio will need
some cropping. For example and 8×10 print which is a very popular size
in order to be in the native format would be 8×12 inches.  In order
to get our 8×10 print we need to chop off 1 inch from each side of the
photo.  This spells trouble if people are already on both sides of
the photo so often we try to leave a bit of room during the original
capture for cropping, however sometimes this is not always possible.�
You can do the cropping yourself if you have the software and knowledge
or trust your printer to do it for you and hope for the best.

Sharpening…Without going into technical detail, sharpening is the act
of bringing detail to your photos and larger prints will need more
sharpening than small ones.

Your photos will be sharpened by default for web viewing from Jeff Lawrence
Photography will also be sufficient for printing photos between 4×6 to
8×10 inches in size.

Other options besides printing include wedding albums, framed prints,
gallery wraps, posters, etc. If you are interested in additional print
offerings, we have many available products for you to choose from to
customize with your own photos. 

 If you decide to print your photos, you basically have three
options.

1. Do it all yourself.

2. Let us retouch the photos and you can have them printed however
you want (additional fees apply).

3. Let us handle the whole thing.

If doing the printing yourself, you’re on your own.

However, if you decide to save a couple bucks and have your photos
printed yourself or by another service, that’s fine with us. But you may
not be aware of one of our free services.  Any photo we have
provided to you comes with standard “RE-RETOUCHING” this mean just tell
us what size you plan to print your photo and if you need anything fixed
such as a mole removed or softening added and its included in your
original photography fee.  Advanced techniques requiring removal of
people, changing backgrounds, or artistic effects are extra but the
basics are always free. We call this standard retouching and is included
with all prints ordered from us. 

Why do we offer the free service?  Because it’s our reputation,
it’s a representation of our work and we would rather that photo looked
great!  Good for you and good for us and everyone is happy.�
There’s no contract, guarantee, or promise here, it’s just something we
do.

What types of retouching are available and what’s free?

Free:

Redeye removal

Color correction or enhancement

Removal of odd or distracting elements

Exposure adjustment

Cropping

Sharpening

Black & White or Sepia conversion

Skin softening

Creative image enhancement for albums or print products ordered from
us

Not Free:

Artistic Creation

Major image manipulation

Background changes

HDR conversion

RAW FILES

Opposed to most consumer camera, professional cameras offer the
ability to shoot in a format called RAW.  If you are not familiar
with the RAW format, without going into great detail it’s the raw data
captured by the camera, thus RAW.

Most people use a jpg file to view images and your images will be
delivered in jpg format. Jpg files are great for viewing on the computer
and for printing, however are not the best choice for image
manipulation.  The jpg file offers 8 bits of data while the current
RAW format offers 14 bits of data. Printers and monitors, at least at
this time, can only print or display approximately 8 bits of data if
that, so for general screen or print use of a jpg is fine.  When
manipulating images, data can be destroyed of shifted in an undesirable
way producing strange color shifts or degradation of the file.  The
same amount of data is manipulated whether using jpg or RAW formats, but
when the RAW format is used during manipulation the changes affect far
less of the overall percentage of the image data, thus allowing a better
image for the end result. 

Most computers cannot read a RAW files, it is only the data from the
camera. A jpg file has all the settings for the image included for
viewing and printing, that why you are given a jpg file.  RAW files
can generally only be read by specific programs made by the camera
manufacturer or with programs Adobe Photoshop.

If you are interested in more information about the RAW file type and
the advantages it has for image manipulation, here is a link to read
more about it by clicking

HERE.

Why have us do your printing, wedding albums, special print
orders?

We care, it’s our reputation, and we put the finest attention to
detail which produces the best overall product or photo for the end
result. Additionally, our print labs use the highest quality papers and
inks available and the fastest delivery time in the industry as well as
each product is personally crafted from start to finish by experts
rather than just run through a production machine by a minimum wage
employee.

Lastly, if ordering prints from us, you can do so online by clicking

HERE . Once your order is placed, your photos are
cropped, double checked for color correction and exposure, and
sharpened.  It’s the quickest, most simple way to go and you will
receive your photos in about a week.  For custom corrections or
artistic manipulation, please contact us directly.

Even though we highly suggest you order from us to provide you with
the best quality, please do not feel obligated to do so.  We
understand that you may have other reasons to print yourself, do your
own scrap-booking, or are just trying to cut costs to fit your budget.�
We also use one, if not the best print lab in the country for our
printing, we seriously doubt in a head to head comparison between our
end photos from our lab compared to nearly anyone else that you will see
a difference in print quality, paper quality, and long term durability
from aging and fading.

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