The
new 2007 styles of the 4x8 greeting cards
will be in the QP2 markets this
Friday and
the CORE markets by next
Tuesday (all markets
except for Schools).
Clickhereto
view the flyer illustrating the styles. Seven
new styles were introduced this year along
with the five most popular from last year. As
you remember, these are available in sets
of 12 ($5.40) and 20 ($9.00) and come with
envelopes. Greeting cards are a great remarketing
product to offer to attendees from previous
events and give you another reason to send
an email communication to your past customers.
Sample
images are on candidnet under Marketing/Business
Development/sample
images/4x8
greeting card. These images
are suitable to use on order forms and on
your website. You
can also order your own samples on www.picmyphotos.com/password= samplessamples starting
Monday.
Premium Folded Holiday Cards
CCS is introducing a new line of premium
greeting cards that are printed on non-photographic
paper. Initially for this holiday season,
they will be available in the PPS market
(as was mentioned in
the last newsletter) but also in the
Sports, Race and
Grad markets, We
think these are the perfect premium cards
for family and children sessions. These
will be available October 4th.
The new Premium Folded Greeting Cards are
5x7 (folded) and sold in sets of
12 for a lab cost from CCS of $16.20. The
cards are printed on high gloss coated 10
pt paper. Each set is packaged with
box-flap envelopes, in a beautiful black
box secured with a silver tie. If
more than 7 sets are ordered of the same
image at the same time, then the price per
set is $12.15 (25% discount). We
recommend shopping your local studio competition
on this type of product when setting your
retail price, but our research indicates
a retail price point of $48 - $65 per set
would be in line with the industry (this
represents a 3-4x mark-up and an average
of about $4 - $5.50 per card).
There are 5 border styles – full bleed,
white border, black border, red border and
shadow border. There are 6 greetings
from which to choose – Merry
Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season’s
Greeting, Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad and
No Greeting. Customers can also key
in up to 3 lines of personalized text. The
No Greeting option makes these cards perfect
to include in your year round product offering.
Other non-Christmas greetings
available include Happy Valentine's Day,
Happy Easter and
Thank You. Click
the links
to see the flyers illustrating the Standard and Premium styles.
Sample images
are on candidnet
under Marketing/Business
Development/sample
images/premium folded greeting card. These
images are suitable to use on order forms
and on your website. You
can also order your own samples on www.picmyphotos.com,
password = samplessamples
starting Monday. Coming
Soon – Giant
Wall Stickers!
(click)
Many of you have seen the FatHead type products
on television and similar products sold online. CCS
is expecting delivery this week of some very
unique equipment and supporting software technology that will produce these giant
wall graphics. But
even better than the FatHead products, we use your image! CCS customers
will be able to include these custom wall cutouts in their offering very soon!
We
are working on the CCS name for this new product and plan to offer this in the
Sports, Grad, Party Pics®,
Groups, Prom and Race markets. There will
be four sizes available ranging from approximately 2 feet to up to 5 feet in
height. The
product is shipped in a tube and the material is an all-weather “re-stickable” vinyl. We
are targeting availability in mid-October.
Look for more details, as well
as pricing, in the next newsletter. Be thinking of all the great uses for
this with the images you photograph now. Sports Presentations Now Available
on Candidnet. by Evie
Sibert
0click)
Candid Color Systems
is now providing our Sports customers with
two PowerPoint presentations that can be
used for sales presentations for both youth
and school sports.
These presentations are
available under the Marketing/Marketing
Materials tab under "Presentations" on
Candidnet.
They can be altered to reflect your contact
info, your logo, your company history and
credentials.
These presentations can be viewed on
a computer screen or a projector screen or
be printed as handouts.
CCS can also print
them and make them into 8X10 flipbooks with
spiral-bound binding. If you would like
to have these presentations printed in full
color, double or single sided, spiral bound,
we will print and ship them for $7.50 each.
If you need help ordering your flipbooks please
contact your sales representative or a customer
service rep. A
Better Way to
Evaluate Exposures Outdoors - Hoodman Loupes by Steve
Foisy
Here is the scenario.
You
are shooting outside in the bright sunlight
with your digital camera.
You look
at your images on the camera’s LCD
monitor and they all appear dark.
You adjust your aperture
so the images appear brighter on the camera monitor and you get a warm fuzzy
that your pictures are being properly exposed.
You get back to the office
and look at the images on your computer monitor and discover that all of the
pictures after the aperture change are so overexposed that they cannot be printed.
Now, where did I put that passport……?
We have all been through this
scenario and it is certainly not fun!
Judging exposures outside in the daylight or even shade is a very difficult task
because of the glare that is created by the bright light on the camera’s
monitor. One option is to learn how to read histograms, but even this can
be tricky depending on the clothing and background colors and tones.
A second option is to use the highlight feature on your camera. If you
have a few areas of white blinking on someone’s white clothing, you are
close to a good exposure. The downside is that not everyone wears white
and if you are shooting groups, the blinking areas may be too small to see.
(Top) With HoodLoupe (Bottom) Without
A third option is to use a light meter. This is great for manual settings
but harder to use effectively when shooting with auto settings.
A fourth option is to just get used to what “looks right” on the
LCD. This takes practice and testing.
A fifth and better option is to use a HoodLoupe
Professional in combination with all of the above. Manufactured by Hoodman, the
loupe hangs around your neck and when needed is placed over the LCD monitor.
The cup blocks
the glare from the monitor making the images easy to see. The loupe has
a built in diopter for those with less than perfect vision, has minimal magnification
so you see the entire image and works with screens up to 2.75”.
At $69.99, the HoodLoupe Professional is a great investment when you
consider what is at stake - your business! They can be purchased directly from
the manufacturer at http://www.hoodmanusa.com/prodinfo.asp?number=H%2DLPP.
Don’t go to a daytime shoot without one.
Need more information on how to use histograms, highlights, etc? Check
out the Photography section on Candidnet.
Call Customer Support at 800-750-0494
if you need a login information. Candidnet
Tips:
Under the Customer Guides link on Candidnet there are
a number of helpful tools.
by Joni Brown
You can find the CD/Film Negative Envelopes, Welcome
to FedEx Shipping Letter and the CCS Customer Guide. Whether
you are a new customer or a long time customer of CCS
it is always a good idea to print out the Customer Guide
to keep on hand in your office.
(click)
The CCS Customer Guide provides you with a wealth of information that will
help you answer a variety of questions. It gives you important contact
numbers and accounting policies ranging from invoices to refunds. Information
on our Online Software that will help you chose the right CCS software to post
images online and place your orders to the lab. It also provides information
on equipment selection & preparation including how to rent equipment from
CCS. The
Guide provides information on post event management and how to prepare your images
to FTP to the lab.
The Customer Guide details lab policies such as rushes; using custom artwork,
logos & crests; shipping; and packaging materials & handling. It
also provides you with examples of the Title Styles, Fonts, and Colors used at
CCS. The Guide has examples of the CCS Film/CD Envelope and Cropping Guidelines.
As you can see the CCS Customer Guide provides you with a wealth of information
and can be used to assist your business. Lab Service
Times for09/09/2007
- 09/15/2007 by Bo Lewis
Problems
with, or suggestions about The Developments Newsletter? Email us
to see if we can help.
