In our last article we discussed the new home user interface by express digital for the Noritsu 421 digital printer. We asked you folks to download the software and try it for yourself and many of you did. Those that downloaded this software have found it easy to install and use to order everything from wallet print to holiday greeting cards of their favorite images, right from their home computer. If you missed this download and would like to start ordering your digital pictures from the comfort of your own home, you can click on this link and download this free program. This month we offer the same great opportunity for professional and pro-am photographers.
As we covered in the previous parts of this article, the Noritsu 421 printer can offer exceptional quality color prints. When you couple this with Express Digital's Darkroom software, you create one of the most powerful tools available for the pro photographer. I have been photographing people, things and events for more years than I care to count. The old method of producing images for clients was fine in it's time but today's fast paced society demands more. More speed, more accuracy, more customization.
Right up through the early 1990s most all if not all photographers were shooting strictly film for their assignments. This meant taking that film to a lab, having it processed and printed to show to their clients at a later time. If you have ever had a portrait done you know how this works. You might get a set of proof prints a week or so after your session, then show them to everyone that want's to order pictures. A week or so after that you would have to return to the photographer so that they could order enlargements for everyone that wanted one. A week or so later your prints would be ready for pickup. We are talking about a process that I have seen literally take months. When I think about it now it makes me tired. Not only was there a huge investment in materials, labor, & office space, but both the photographer and the clients had to spend so much time just running back and forth for a few 8x10 prints for mom and your aunties.
Fast forward to the present day, digital photographers now out number traditional photographers and their numbers are growing rapidly. The workflow for a digital studio is drastically different than that of a traditional photographic studio. Rather than the haunts of the past, negatives, proof sheets and hand written orders. Today's digital photographer can shoot your session, load it directly to a computer, and in a matter of minutes allow you to order the images that were just created. Everything is proofed on the computer after minor alterations and you can see them in color, black and white, sepia or any other myriad of colors you can imagine. If they are being projected, you can watch them in a slide show or have them projected with a 16x20 inch frame around them so you know what they will look like on your wall. This is all done so fast that you barely have time to get off of your seat and out of the studio before the images are ready to be viewed.
Express Digital recognized this paradigm shift early on and began offering software to photographers that organizes, proofs, publishes, markets and allow your customers to order images all from the instant their pictures are loaded into the computer all in one easy software solution. Not only can the customers view the images in the studio but they can send their friends and family to a password secured location online to order any pictures they might want. Say your family lives out of state. Simply pass on your online information and they can order images right from the site. The software that makes all this possible is aptly called Darkroom, and is scaleable depending on the needs of your studio.
We will concentrate on the introductory version of this software called Darkroom Web Edition. The software is FREE and can be downloaded directly to your computer from our website by clicking here . We have used this very software for nearly 5 years now and it is an awesome tool that we use on every assignment. It has increased our re-order profits and has allowed customers from all over the world to order images of events that we have photographed. Recently Hawaiianpix became a authorized dealer for Darkroom Software allowing photographers download the software free from our website, or to purchase more scaled up versions of the software for their studio workflow environment by contacting us directly.
We field a lot of questions about this software and we will attempt to answer some of the most common ones here in a Q&A format. While every photographer's business is different, the basic operation of a photo business remains the same. Shoot an assignment and sell it to as many people as possible. Keep your production costs down, your quality high and your prices in a range that people will be willing to pay.
Common Q & A from here on in
Q: Do I need to have my own website to use this software to sell my pictures?
A: No, you will be able to set up a website in just minutes through the software and the site you set up is free. You can refer clients directly to it with an URL printed on your business cards. If you do have a website you can simply link to the site created for image display.
Q: Can anybody see my customers pictures
A: No, every customer can be assigned a password that only they know. Anyone with the password can access the photos and the passwords can be changed at any time. If you choose to allow everyone to see the images you simply do not assign a password or phrase to the event being published online.
Q: Is there a charge to put my customers pictures online?
A: No, the only fee you are ever charged with this software is when a customer actually orders pictures. Express Digital charges 15% of the total of your order and a 3% credit card processing fee and the lab is paid the cost of producing the prints. You can choose Hawaiianpix as your preferred lab, allowing your clients to receive the highest quality prints available through the Noritsu 421 printer.
Q: Can I set my own prices?
A: You can set prices for individual print sizes, packages, and any specialty items offered by your lab, shipping both domestically and internationally even offer volume discounts and limited time specials all through the software.
Q: How do I get paid?
A: When orders are completed through the online service and marked as "shipped" by you, they are marked as ready to be paid by Express Digital. Every 2 weeks a check is cut to you less the 15% + 3% plus lab and shipping fees. For every order processed and shipped in that 2 week period.
Q: How do I know when a customer has ordered pictures?
A: You are sent an email with full details of the order by Express Digital.
Q: Do I ship the orders to my clients?
A: This is an option however, most pros prefer to have the orders drop shipped directly to their customers from the lab, saving delivery time and shipping expenses.
Q; How do I know the quality of the images my customers are getting?
A: The first thing I did before going live with this program in our business, was to send a test order through the lab. We suggest you do the same.
Q: What if I want to make minor adjustments to the pictures before my customer gets them?
A: All of the orders you get from the online service are sent to your Darkroom Web Edition program for review. You can lighten, darken, add a vignette, crop, rotate or even rework the original file in Photoshop before transmitting it to the lab for printing.
Q: Can my customers copy the images from the online service?
A: No, the images are protected and can not be downloaded or saved through the browser.
Q: How do I know who has ordered images?
A: Darkroom has an extensive backroom that tracks every customer order, email address, number of hits per client and more.
Q: How do I market with this software?
A: There are a couple of really great features in the software, the first is the ability to enter your clients information into their catalog of images. This information includes their address, phone numbers and email address. When their pictures are published to your free website, they are alerted by email. The second great feature is the backroom where all the information from every client who has ordered from you is stored. You can import the database of information and do mailers, send email offer specials, what ever you want.
This software will allow you to increase sales, decrease overhead and reach more customers than you ever thought possible. Because customers can access the images from anywhere in the world, you could quite literally begin selling to anyone. The days of passing around paper proofs to customers, filling out paperwork for re-orders and searching through stacks of negatives is over.
If you have begun shooting digitally and have been looking for a workflow solution or if you have been shooting digitally for a while and are tired of being charged for every file you upload to your hosts server, simply click here to start making your digital photography work for you.
As always we encourage our readers to ask questions or send us email on any topic we have discussed in our articles. If you have been looking for a new workflow for your photography, whether you are a pro or a photo enthusiast that occasionally sells their work. This is a great program for you. We of course recommend that you use Hawaiianpix as your preferred lab, insuring that your images will be printed with the latest in color print technology, at great prices using the Noritsu 421 printer. We hope to see you in cyberspace and look forward to providing your clients with great prints, and you with additional profits.
- Aloha
