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Compact Disc The Universal Presentation Media - part 1 of 1 2 3

by Tom Lee Published 01/08/2002

The CD used to be an expensive item but prices have now dropped so low that it costs more for the stamp on the envelope than it does for the CD inside. The CD is an excellent marketing tool for the digital photographer, but do not limit your horizons to the 120mm disc we are all familiar with. CD's can now be obtained in a number of formats ranging from plain discs and minidisks to business card sized rectangles and even to heart shaped CD's (think about that wedding photographers!).

The low cost, universal ability to be read and speed of preparation lends the medium to rapid, bespoke turnaround for wedding receptions and the like. High speed preparation of images into simple to follow presentations make it possible to use the media as a way of generating orders at the reception direct from a digital workflow. It is one of the best ways of exploiting your digital investment to the full.

There are a number of issues that you need to concern yourself with when providing images on a CD. Copyright, watermarking, ease of use, file size and format all have to be taken care of. You also need to think about the labelling of the actual disc and its case - they are very important to your overall presentation. You may also wish to ensure that your workflow is compatible with placing the wedding day's shoot onto your web site for the guests to browse and hopefully place orders from.

Business Card CD

This is an ideal way for a photographer to introduce themselves to a prospective client. The 50MB size is enough to build a credible selection of your work and the novel shape will still arouse a certain curiosity. The capacity is enough for a selfrunning presentation, a list of your charges, contact details, past clients etc.

CD The Format Setting up your CD in an HTML format is a sure way to guarantee that the vast majority of users can open the file and see all the images. Internet Explorer is the ubiquitous format but you should ideally test your CD on a number of formats and platforms. A non-working CD will not get your relationship with a prospective client off to a good start. Be aware of the differences between Macintosh and Widows platforms. An approach to a design agency may be best in Mac format but Windows would be the platform of choice for the majority of wedding CD's.

Using Photoshop to Build a Simple Web Page The subtitle does not imply that you are to use the web as a delivery medium for your clients. Using the Photoshop Web Page Builder you can prepare a presentation which any client with Internet Explorer can run. In Photoshop, the process is highly automated and all the hard work is done behind the scenes. First of all you copy all the images that you require in your web page into a single folder. Later this is set as the "Source" folder. It is useful to make sure that your files have sensible names, as these may be used as references in the web page layout.

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1st Published 01/08/2002
last update 09/12/2022 14:52:43

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