Make Plans Now To Attend the CCS 2008 Winter Seminar
Hotel Reservation Final Deadline is February 3rd!
by Brian Speers

The countdown is on for the upcoming Candid Color Systems 2008 Winter Seminar. This three day event is being held in Los Angeles on February 25th, 26th and 27th in Universal City, CA at the beautiful Sheraton Universal Hotel.  Mark these dates on your calendar now and make plans for you and your staff to attend.

These seminars are one of the best things that CCS offers to you as a customer.  They are well worth the time and expense involved because they allow you to discover the best practices of our best customers with regard to products, offerings, work flow, digital photography and current trends in the marketplace.  There is no similar opportunity to brainstorm with the leaders of the Special Events industry face-to-face and to ask any questions that come to mind.  A single idea harvested at the seminar can more than pay for the cost of attendance.
 
Long time customers benefit from ideas because they can leverage an idea across a large number of their customers, and often over several markets.  New customers can benefit by learning what ideas work best and avoiding, or minimizing, the learning curve and the pain of trial and error.
 
The agenda has been finalized and we wanted to give you a preview of what you can expect.  Monday the 25th will have several optional training classes you may choose to take part in, including Digital Photography Training and Customer Orientation.  These classes will not start until 1:00 PM allowing you time to fly in on Monday morning. There will be a CCS Welcome Reception that evening at the hotel.  This is a great opportunity to meet and visit with CCS staff for new and “veteran” customers alike.
 

We will begin our Tuesday and Wednesday general sessions and break-out topics at 8:00 AM each day and run until approximately 4:00 PM. Presentations include the market specific topics of:
• Sports
• Graduations
• Composites
• Campus, and
• Schools.

Other topics such as :
• Enhancing the Look of your Website,
• Email Campaigns,
• CCS Software Update and,
• Attracting, Evaluating and Hiring Your Next  Great Employee will also be presented.

Kelli Vrla

Our keynote speaker will be Kelli Vrla, a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) who will speak on Tuesday. Her topic will be, How to Successfully Introduce & Deal with Change in the Workplace. Since “change” has been rampant in recent years, this topic is relevant to everyone in attendance.  Some of Kelli’s clients include ABC, NBC, Wal-Mart and IBM to name a few.  
 


Our ever popular “Table Topics” lunch will be on Tuesday and our annual CCS Annual Awards ceremony will take place as a luncheon on Wednesday.  We will be having a fun and very interactive introduction of our new “Jump Studio”, a new concept that can add the entertainment factor to your special events, and provide you with a booking incentive over your competition.  You won’t want to miss it!
 
Universal Studio’s City Walk is only a quarter of a mile away from the Sheraton, easily within walking distance, or use the free hotel shuttle for a fun evening out. It’s billed as Los Angeles’ premier one-stop, non-stop entertainment destination.  With more than 30 restaurants and many shopping options, fun entertainment venues and clubs, the LA Daily News called it the “best place to impress an out-of-towner”. You can visit http://www.citywalkhollywood.com/ for more information.
 
If you are new to the CCS family, understand that there is NO CHARGE to attend the seminar.  This is a tremendous bargain for the high value you will receive by attending. Plus, the few days that you invest attending the CCS seminar offers opportunities to discover best practices, and to hear success stories from photographers—like yourself—in markets that you currently photograph to help you improve and build your business.   And of course, the networking between CCS customers is invaluable.

Travel Tips    
If you are planning to attend the CCS Winter Seminar and are flying in, the closest airport to the hotel is the Bob Hope Burbank Airport which is located nine miles form the hotel.  If you are debating between flying into LAX or Burbank and actually have that choice from your home city, Burbank is the clear choice.  Burbank is a small, “Mom and Pop” airport that caters to most airlines, while LAX is a madhouse with long lines at the ticket counters and security.  
 
Make your hotel reservations by calling the Sheraton Universal Hotel at 1-888-627-7186. The CCS room rate is $179/night and the HOTEL RESERVATION DEADLINE is Sunday, February 3rd.  The CCS registration and complete agenda are attached to this email.  Make your flight arrangements and hotel reservations today.  If you have any questions, please call our Sales Department at 800.336.4550 x251 or x136.

Attention CCS Customers USDOT, L-Ion batteries and You Starting January 1, 2008, the US Dept of Transportation began to enforce new rules and restrictions when carrying lithium batteries on airline flights.  The first release that the DOT posted was very confusing which led to many different interpretations.  An updated release has been posted and can be viewed by clicking this link: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-9206-9211 Here are the key points which will affect camera, cell phone, laptop, etc. power supplies. You can have rechargeable lithium batteries in your checked bags IF you have them in the device they power. You cannot have loose rechargeable or non-rechargeable lithium batteries in your checked bags even if in a baggie or protective case. You can have rechargeable lithium batteries in your carry-on bags if you have them in the device they power. You can have loose rechargeable lithium batteries in your carry-on bags provided that they are in individual baggies or cases.  Even if you have a battery cover, put them in separate bags. We are unsure how airport security/screeners will react to Metz 60CT batteries or Metz/SunPak race car batteries which do not contain any lithium.  Just to be safe, put those batteries in the battery holders or baggies too. Read the notice carefully and be prepared! Important Notice If You Use Hosted CORE We have added additional security barriers to our hosted CORE system.  To avoid any potential slowdowns with various CORE functions, please use https:// at the beginning of your Hosted CORE address.  CORE users running in-office CORE servers do not have to alter their addresses. Sample Orders, May 15-July 15 Because of the high volume of sports and grads being printed from May 15th through July 15th, we will be limiting sample orders to 50 physical pieces per order during this time period. This will ensure that all orders can be expedited through the lab. Please contact Customer Support if you have any questions.

Is Your "Service Soon" Light On?
by Michael Spikes,
Operations Manager, Mangiante Photography

I can't tell you how panic stricken I get when I see the "Service Engine Soon" light appear on the dashboard of my car. I envision a downward spiral of repairs, lost time, and questionable mechanics all eventually spelling doom for my wallet and my car. In reality this light serves as a warning that, if heeded, lets you fix a minor issue BEFORE it becomes a major problem. If only you could make a "Service Engine Soon" light for your business, hmmm ...

I like to think of customer service as that little maintenance, that when done right and on time will keep your company or business running for the long haul. Often, when a company receives a complaint about a problem with service they evaluate the issue and try to fix a problem. To me, this is fine except if you wait until you hear about an issue you may find that the issue is bigger or even systemic and now has become a major problem.

I think that a better approach should be to continually evaluate your business. Try to find the weak spots in your organization. They may not be apparent; it may be people, processes, products, services, prices, or even you! Trying to anticipate the needs of a customer will go a long way in how you are perceived and the overall experience that they have with your company. In a world where price and products can be comparable across companies, service is your real chance to be different from your competition. Plus, there is never a downside to providing great customer service.

(Reprinted with permission of Mangiante Photography}

Need an easy way to get pictures online fast? CCS feels your pain, and we have worked very hard to develop a simple system to manage your sports business. QuicPost is a new system for sports that makes posting images fast and easy.  CCS needed a system that had less features than CORE and easier navigation than the QP2 admin.  QuicPost fills that need.
 
Features and Benefits include Vouchers/Discount Codes, Quick event setup, drag and drop images into categories, and more!
 
If you are interested in Beta testing this software, please contact denise.mangiante@candid.com
 
Sample Image Organization Page in QuicPost:

Why should you be using the new and easier to use CCS Transfer Software?
 
• Drag and Drop image importing from your memory cards.
• Software will utilize orientation data from your cameras to automatically rotate images to heads up position
Software can automatically perform auto rotations as part of the transmit process. Saves you time.  You don’t have to monitor the rotation process!
• CORE Thumbnails used for spotting are automatically generated, transmitted prior to full sized images and automatically imported into your CORE event.
• Customizable Roll/Image Folder naming.  You can use the traditional format of Roll 00001, 00002, etc. or use custom names such as Game_1, Game_2, Braves, Day_1………
• Folders can be 31 characters in length. (no spaces, symbols or punctuation)
• File Names can be up to 31 characters in length.  (We do recommend shorter numbers if using CORE to make image alignment easier.)
• Additional events can be added to the transmit queue even if a transmit session is already in progress.
 
Contact Customer Support at 800-750-0494, option 2, for a quick review of this software with one of our Tech Reps.
 
Download the Installer:     
http://candidnet.candid.com/file_list.aspx?TID=9&SID=15&SSID=98

Download the Installation Guide:
http://candidnet.candid.com/content/Files/CCS%20Transfer%20Software%20Installation%20Guide-2008F.pdf

Download the User Guide
http://candidnet.candid.com/content/Files/CCS%20Transfer%20Software%20User%20Guide-2008C.pdf

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It's All In the Cropping
Cropping is one of the most confusing issues in photography.  It is also the number one issue that delays orders at the CCS lab because of our effort to find out what our customer really wanted. We have set up rules and have written articles about specific market types and how they are cropped but I don’t remember seeing a general explanation that covers the entire subject.
 
Cropping starts when the photographer shoots the picture.  At that time, he or she positions the subject matter in the viewfinder in a specific way and fires the shutter, freezing that sometimes momentary image in the viewfinder.  However, how the photographer positions the image and his or her accuracy in doing so determines in many cases the acceptability or lack of acceptability of the image.  Here is why:  The viewfinder image does not usually match the proportions of standard prints.  Even if the photographer positions the image so that it looks great in the viewfinder, that does not necessarily mean it will look great in the final print.  
 
For example, if the photographer shoots the image full frame with all of the subject matter within the viewfinder and we printed an 8x12 print, you would see all of that subject matter on the print.  If we print an 8x10 from that same image, we will be losing approximately 17% off the height of the image.  This is because the shape or proportions of the 8x10 do not exactly match the shape of the image captured by the camera or the 8x12 print.  This is why some print sizes cause parts of images to “disappear” from the print even though they were present in the original image.  This problem is due to the laws of mathematics, not to any equipment or software that the lab is using.  
 
Since several print sizes with different aspect ratios are typically offered from a given image, the part of the print cropped out will vary depending on the aspect ratio of the print sizes offered.  Hence, from the photography point of view, it is imperative to crop in the viewfinder for the most restrictive cropping (the print size that will remove the largest amount of the image) so that no important part of the image is removed (cropped out) when the print is produced.  Typically, this is the 8x10 print unless offering square print products.
 
Candid Color Systems provides preset cropping for different size prints and retains as much image as possible while still making the image fit in the print size you have ordered.  This is all done transparently, behind the scenes, with our software.  Hence, if you shoot pictures according to our cropping guidelines, you will not have to manually crop your pictures in Photoshop or other photo editing program before ordering prints as required by some other labs.  You can still do so in special circumstances where you wish to zoom and crop to emphasize or deemphasize a particular part of the image before posting online.  In the Quicpics, Sports, Prom, PPS, Race and Groups markets/product lines, we automatically center crop the images.  For an 8x10 print which has the most restrictive cropping, we will take off approximately 8.5% (or 1”) off the top of the image and 8.5% off the bottom if shot vertically with a 3:2 aspect ratio camera such as a Nikon or Canon SLR.  On a horizontal print, we would crop equally from the left and right.  A 5x7 print would lose approximately 3.3% off of the top and then 3.3% off of the bottom on a center cropped vertical 3:2 aspect ratio image.  

Cropping examples for Center Cropped Markets/Product Lines – Quicpics, Sports, Prom, PPS, Race, Groups
Center Cropped Images
The one exception to this rule is the graduation market.  In the graduation market we take all of the cropping from the bottom of the print in order to avert accidentally chopping off the top of the head (which is prone to happen in this market because the subject is often moving at the time the picture is taken).  On an 8x10 print, we would take the 17% entirely off the bottom and on a 5x7 print we would take the 6.6% off of the bottom. All horizontal images for the graduation market are still center cropped.
 
Cropping examples for Top Crop (all is removed from bottom) for Graduations.  (Note that some products in this illustration may not be available in this market)
Top Crop Images
We do, however, provide you with the flexibility to crop online on the Administrative Page.  The first step is to identify the size of print you are going to have printed.  Then you indicate that you wish to crop it.  After that you position a red box which outlines the proportions of the print size over the image in the fashion you wish to have the print cropped.  Additionally, your customer can zoom and crop his or her image online with our cropping tools when you utilize our e-commerce system.  We do not charge you extra for this feature but we do provide you the opportunity to charge your customer for this enhancement, if you so desire.
 
The most important thing about this entire subject for you to understand is to not put important parts of your subject at the very top or bottom of the picture if you want that part of the image to appear in a vertical 8x10.  
 
Cropping references in your camera’s viewfinder such as grid lines, focus points, etc can be used to aid you in cropping properly.  Each camera may differ in reference points, so experimentation is required.  You can also install crop lines on the LCD image review monitor as “after the shot” references using artist tape or even have crop lines installed directly on the camera’s focusing screen at www.brightscreen.com.  Contact Steve Foisy in Customer Support at steve@candid.com to request a set of crop line installation instructions via e-mail or at ext 166 to discuss your specific needs with your camera and subject matter.

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Lab Service Times for 1/13 - 1/19
by Bo Lewis