A few interesting links about Professional Photography, Technology, Social Media, and Gadgets that I’ve come across recently. Some are smart, some are funny, and some are just plain dumb, but they are all interesting for one reason or another. Have a look and let me know what you think:

• Pinterest / Copyright Infringement Notification Form
  If you have an image that has been pinned on Pinterest without your permission then you can use this form to request an immediate takedown. Save the link, it's hard to find!
• MAKING A MARK: Takedown: How Pinterest moved fast to remove my pinned images (#2)
  It is very difficult to get Pinterest to take action to remove images that you don't wish to have on the site. It is much easier if it is a clear copyright violation, and this article provides a details procedure to follow to have those images removed.
• Should photographers offer gift certificates? » Elizabeth Halford Photography {the blog}
  Photography gift certificates seem like a great way to make some extra income. But they aren't always all that great…
• Custom Placement of Jetpack’s/Sharedaddy’s Social Sharing Buttons
  The sharing buttons implented as part of Jetpack in WordPress are great, but bby default they appear only at the bottom of the post after everything in else the content loop. If you want control over where your social sharing buttons appear then you can edit your post and page templates to insert the code found in this article. It works well on all of my blogs…
• WordPress › Admin renamer extended « WordPress Plugins
  If your WordPress admin account is still called "admin", you might consider using this renamer plugin to change it to something a little less obvious. This is a really easy way to thwart most of the attacks that get thrown at wordpress sites…
• Use CuteRank to check how your site ranks on various search engines for your target keywords
  This is a very cool tool for checking what position your photography website lands on various search engines for your target keywords. No more manually searching for dozens of keywords in incognito mode to see if your site shows up on page 1 of Google or not!

A few interesting links about Professional Photography, Technology, Social Media, and Gadgets that I’ve come across recently. Some are smart, some are funny, and some are just plain dumb, but they are all interesting for one reason or another. Have a look and let me know what you think:

• How to Add Multiple Administrators to Google+ Pages
  Photography business pages on Google+ Local are great, but if you have employees then you are definitely going to want some help to manage the page. It's not exactly intuitive to figure out how to do that. This article takes you through it step by step…
• Gordon Ramsay’s ultimate recipe for business | LinkedIn
  So much of what we do in running a photography business is just like broccoli soup. The fewer ingredients and the simpler it is to make, the better it is. We can all learn a thing or two from old episodes of Kitchen Nightmares…
• Another reason not to give a discount
  Discounts almost never help your photography business in the long term. They might provide a short term boost, but they will eventually come back to bite you. Here are a couple more ideas about why photographers should not discount their products or services.
• How not to use a referral | LifeHealthPro
  A business referral is a precious thing for any photographer. There are good ways to use referrals and some things that you should never do. This article makes a couple of great points about how to best followup with the potential clients that you've been referred.
• Selling vs Offering {actually selling your work}
  It may seem like a subtle difference, but for a photographer to change from simply offering products to thier portrait clients to actually trying to sell their work is actually a major change. It can be the difference between a small sale and a really large sale. This is a very important article for any photographer to read.

A few interesting links about Professional Photography, Technology, Social Media, and Gadgets that I’ve come across recently. Some are smart, some are funny, and some are just plain dumb, but they are all interesting for one reason or another. Have a look and let me know what you think:

• Secrets and rules to Successful Family Portraits
  Creating great family portraits isn't exactly hard, but it takes some know-how to do it well consistently. Here are a few simple rules that can be followed to ensure success in every family photography session.
• Top 10 Reasons To Have A Photography Contract
  Contracts are very important for any business relationship. Here are 10 great reasons why you need one for your photography business clients.
• Photoshop 101: The Annoying Phantom Brush
  Every time the outline of my brush disappears in Photoshop I forget why it happened therefore don't know how to fix it. The short answer is that the Caps Lock key is on. Click for the long answer…
• If you lie down like a doormat… (your clients will walk on you)
  Dealing with *potential* clients that keep asking for more information but never actually order or book an appointment can be very frustrating. At some point you need to draw the line so that you can focus your energy on your existing clients and real prospects.
• Sample rules for a LinkedIn Group | Sheila’s Guide To The Good Stuff
  If all business groups on LinkedIn followed these simple rules they might actually be useful. As it stands now most groups are simply a breeding ground for shameless self promotion.

I published an article a long time ago entitled “Print Directly to Epson CD or DVD Tray with Photoshop“. This is one of the most popular posts on this site and, although it was written way back in 2011, it still gets plenty of comments and I get private questions about it by email all the time.

One of the most common questions is from Apple users asking how to select the CD/DVD tray in the print settings dialog on a Macintosh computer running OSX. I don’t have a Mac myself, but the following advice from Chris Pahlow seems to do the trick:

I used this template on a mac, it can be done. In photoshop, go to the print window (cmd + p). Then click “Print Settlings …” This will open up a new dialog window. Underneath the dropdown box for “Paper Size” should be another drop down box. By default on my photoshop it says “Layout”. Go into that dropdown box and select “Print Settings”. Then under “Media Type” select “CD/DVD”. Bingo! Then the printer will print the template directly onto the disk, no other software needed

Please give it a try and let me know how it works for you. I’d love to verify that it actually works this way.

Need to buy Printable DVD’s or a new Epson Artisan printer? Please use the following affiliate links and help support the site!

Taiyo Yuden/JVC WaterShield DVD’s

Epson Artisan 835 Color Inkjet All-In-One

A few interesting links about Professional Photography, Technology, Social Media, and Gadgets that I’ve come across recently. Some are smart, some are funny, and some are just plain dumb, but they are all interesting for one reason or another. Have a look and let me know what you think:

• NOT cool, Google! Google Stealing Online Photos | Feathers and Folly
  Google recently changed it's image search page and now allows viewers to view AND download images directly without ever visiting the site that hosts them. This is not cool.
• Photoshop Week | creativeLIVE
  6 days of Photoshop training with 12 instructors and over 40 free classes teaching you all about using Photoshop. Creative Live is amazing!
• Free » Business Education, Tips and Advice Blog and Podcast
  A free ebook from Rosh Sillars with tons of ideas on how to Market your photography business.
• LR Backup – Backup Lightroom configuration and compress catalog backups
  Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has a catalog backup tool but it creates massively bloated files AND you have to remember to use it. Fortunately there is a better way. LR-Config-Backup saves all of your LR configuration files, creates compressed copies of your backup Catalog, AND allows you to schedule it so you won't forget to create your backups. The compression saves about 90% of the HDD space that LR's normal backups take. Be sure to set your backup folder to be somewhere that gets copied to your external backup system and you will never lose your LR catalog or configuration files…
• 7 Pricing Mistakes That Can Seriously Stifle Sales
  Coming up with an appropriate pricing strategy is one of the hardest thing a professional photographer ever has to do. This article has some mind-blowing information about how to make your price list much more effective.