About Lush Albums

Keeping it all Together – Lush Albums Binding Process

December 3, 2015 Leave a Comment

We truly believe that Lush Albums created by Finao are one-of-a-kind albums that are worthy of your one-of-a-kind photographs. Every album is thoughtfully crafted with care by a team of artisans. From cover to cover, literally, each album is made with uncompromised quality.

One of the most important features of the album is its binding. Today we wanted to share some valuable information about the Finao binding process and the difference it makes to your images and your album.

Bridging the Gap

Finao uses a “folio” style of construction. Folio construction means that the pages lay flat, eliminating the gap from one page to the next. Old-fashioned coffee table books without a folio style have thinner pages that are stitched or stapled together. Because of the way they are bound together so tightly, the books can’t lay flat. Each image is forced to bend at the inside margin. It’s impossible to have an image cross pages because of the deep gutter where the pages meet.

With Finao’s folio construction, you’re not losing any of your image in the center. This construction technique eliminates the gap between one page and the next. When the book is open, the pages lay beautifully flat. This allows your stunning images to flawlessly cross from one page to the next. There’s no ugly gap in the middle you have to design around. This construction provides a seamless panorama, providing an album worthy of your work.

What’s Inside Matters

Each album is both animal-friendly and environmentally-friendly, crafted with pure-quality, all-natural photo glue. The matte pages are strong and sturdy, made from 100% plant-based cellulose. The album is supported by a thick spine. When the album is open, the spine lays flat, supporting the pages and displaying the images beautifully. It keeps everything together with no sagging or skewing of the pages. This strength and support will preserve the quality of your album for years to come.

There is a difference when it comes to binding, and the quality that Finao provides is without compromise. Each Lush album is designed with quality and care, we know that the binding is so important.

All About: Beautiful Together

November 12, 2015 Leave a Comment

Every time you create an album with Lush, 10 percent of the proceeds go to Beautiful Together, the charity that Tamara Lackey started to raise money and awareness for orphaned children waiting for families. Ten percent might not seem like much, but part of the Beautiful Together philosophy is that even the smallest things can be the spark that effects change in people’s lives.

The mission for Beautiful Together is to identify and complete specific projects that improve the day-to-day lives for orphaned children living in the United States and Africa.

Over the summer, Tamara and her family visited the Kidane Mehret Orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on behalf of Beautiful Together. While they were there, they managed to finish the planned bathroom renovations, as well as completing an unplanned printed portrait gallery (Tamara’s BEST Gallery Opening Ever!) of all the children in the orphanage, many of whom had never seen a printed photo of themselves. Tamara came home inspired and with many other projects in mind to be completed.

Beautiful Together didn’t wait long to implement new campaigns, and started fundraising immediately for the Safeguarding the Orphanage project, even before Tamara returned to the States. It was fully funded relatively quickly, ensuring a safe playground for these deserving children. Learn more in the video below.

Most recently, they just reached a major goal when the project to light classrooms and provide computers at the orphanage also received full funding. A solid education in a safe environment is the best chance these children, especially the older ones, have for a bright future.

The current three classrooms at the orphanage school are poorly lit; electricity is unreliable and prohibitively expensive for the school. The Education Center computers are inoperable. The money raised will install solar panels to provide energy to light the classrooms and provide updated computers and tablets for the Education Center. You can see how dark the classrooms are in this video:

They also have another project in the works in which Beautiful Together is partnering with Life to Live for Korah. This Feeding Fund will raise money for the supplies necessary to sustain the feeding program for orphaned children in the Korah community. One hundred percent of the donations to this fund go to food and supplies. Tamara was in Korah during her last trip to Ethiopia, and got to see firsthand the incredible work of the feeding program founded by Korah native Cherenet Gullene.

Korah was built around a leper colony, but the community has grown to more than 120,000 people. Most of them live in poverty. The word korah actually means ”cursed,” but the people who live there have an incredible spirit. Feeding the orphaned children of that community is an essential way to put those children on track to grow up with the chance to strengthen their community. Tamara put together another video to share more:

Interested in learning more? Visit the Beautiful Together website to learn more about ongoing projects. You can donate directly to projects on the site, and we appreciate any and all assistance!

Also, know that every time you design a beautiful album from Lush that you are giving just by doing what you love. Contact us to learn more!

How Sample Albums can help Kick-Start your Busy Season

October 2, 2015 Leave a Comment

The crazy season for photographers is fast approaching, which means you’ll have plenty to keep you busy during the family holiday portrait rush. November and December photo sessions are usually focused on clients who are looking to create holiday cards, but those sessions are also a good time for you to sell albums.

Having sample albums on hand to show when you meet with your clients is a great way to inspire them to turn these photo sessions into yearly keepsakes where they can commemorate their growing families in a tangible and beautiful way.

Having sample albums to show means that your families can see and feel what an expertly arranged and beautifully designed finished product looks like. But we know that, with the upcoming holiday rush, having extra time to put together a totally original sample book can be a formidable task. With this in mind, we have options that will speed up the process so that you’ll have sample albums ready for your clients to see when they arrive at their shoots.

If you don’t have enough images to create a sample album yet, don’t worry. Lush has a ready-made sample option for you:

· Already designed

· Features photos by Tamara Lackey

· Ships within 24 hours

· 33% discount

The second option is a sample album you design yourself, which is perfect if you already have lots of images you’re ready to display for clients.

· Use the Fundy Design software.

· Arrange your own images.

· 25% discount

· Get the sample in about two weeks.

· Each book has the word sample imprinted on the back cover.

It’s not too late!

Having a Lush Album sample album in hand to showcase during the session or when the client is ordering will go a long way to further your sales. Check out the Lush Album sample page for more information about ordering, or contact us with any questions. We are happy to help!

Providing a High-Quality Album for Your Clients

September 3, 2015 Leave a Comment

Professional photo albums are known to commemorate big moments – the wedding, a new baby – but the smaller moments – like a birthday or yearly family portrait session – are just as valuable presented in an album. We strive to give you the tools to showcase your images and celebrate whatever life experiences you are capturing for your clients. Most of all, we believe the album should be with them for a lifetime, no matter where they go.

Knowing that your clients will hold their albums, flip through pages, and pass them around for many, many years to come, it’s important that their books are able to withstand it all. This is where Lush Albums, through our partnership with Finao, can help you provide your clients with the highest quality albums that are meant to last.

What Makes Lush Albums Endure the Test of Time

There are four main aspects that we focus on when it comes to making our books:

The type of paper we use.
The print quality and inks.
The actual construction.
The custom-made to fit bags

First, we use Epson Enhanced matte paper, and each page is glued to additional substrate to give the pages super structure and strength.

Then, we use Giclée printing with its pigment-based inks. We chose this process as it is known as the most color-fast printing available. The inks are rated at 100-plus years – which is exactly what we mean when we say our albums are meant to last! As a final precaution, each print is dried for at least three days before we apply the protective surface coating. Learn more in the video below.

Moving to the cover of the album, we know that a solid outer shell is essential to keep portraits protected. We make our albums with super durable and dense fabrics. The covers are made by hand, and the corners are turned instead of folded. Lush albums are made with traditional folio-style book-binding, it takes longer to create, but we know that they’ll hold up over time.

The prints themselves are adhered to each other to form a “block.” After the block is formed, it is dried in a press overnight. Then the solid block is reinforced with special book-binding spine material.

Our final touch is to put them in custom-made-to-fit bags. The bags are sized perfectly for each album, so your clients can protect their albums from damage wherever they go or wherever they decide to store their books.

We have thought about our albums from every possible angle so that you can rest assured that you are delivering the highest quality product to your clients. We want to make you (and your beautiful images) look the best we can.

Contact us anytime if you want more information about the process or materials we use to construct Lush albums! We are always happy to help!

How Lush Albums are Eco-Friendly

August 31, 2015 Leave a Comment

When you, as a photographer, give your clients the option of fine art albums for their portraits, what you’re really doing is providing an opportunity for them to have a lasting keepsake that will be passed down from one generation to the next. This idea of something everlasting is such a driving force behind why we make Lush albums with eco-friendly and animal-friendly materials. Those materials help reduce the size of our footprint on the earth, which in turn helps keep the planet going strong and something we can count on for a very long time

What Makes our Albums Green

We decided early on that we wanted our albums to be as green as they are durable and beautiful, and we were so happy to find that we could do this with the base pages for our prints and through our partnership with print lab Finao.

First of all, the base pages and prints we use for Lush albums are made of cellulose, which is a major structural component for plant cells. Cellulose gives plant cells their toughness, and cellulose molecules are incredibly hard to break down. What’s even better than its strength is the fact that cellulose is found in every single plant, which means that all different sources of sustainable vegetation and waste – corn husks, bamboo, or left-over wood scraps – can be used. It’s not made from cutting down trees or even using recycled tree-made paper.

The reason we chose to work with Finao, besides their invariable need for amazing customer service, is the fact that they, as a company, also strive to be kind to the earth. They do this by offering cover materials that are PVC-free and vegan. They also use post-consumer recycled and biodegradable materials as often as possible, especially in their packaging.

Being Kind to Animals – Even the Tiniest

Being green is more than being good to the planet. It’s also about being good to the animals on the planet, no matter their size. To make our products as animal-friendly as possible, we don’t use animal-based materials for our books. For instance, our Zen silk line of books look and feel just like silk, but those itty bitty worms had no part in the process of making them.

Learn more about the Zen Silk Collection in the video below.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us to learn more about our eco-friendly albums and how you can get them for your clients!

Getting Sharper Images

August 26, 2015 1 Comment

Thank you to Jake Hicks of Jake Hicks Photography for writing this guest post for the Lush Albums Blog to answer this often-asked question. We hope it will help you create tack sharp images in any situation, which will, in turn, print beautifully in our albums!

Getting Sharper Images – an Understanding of Focus Modes

The longer you shoot, the larger the repertoire of subjects and assignments you photograph becomes. You start off photographing flowers in the garden, your neighbor’s dog, your sister’s kids, your friend’s wedding and then, before you know it, you’re doing product shots for your friend’s new company. All this happens over time and there is one pretty fundamental skill that must remain paramount throughout out your process–properly focused images. Sure we’ve all been there, we’ve all taken that shot once in while which is slightly soft (a polite photographer’s term to describe out-of-focus images). But, it’s a great shot so we keep it anyway, even tho we would still have preferred it to be tack sharp. So how can we maximize the number of images that we take that are perfectly sharp? For starters we can give ourselves a helping hand by ensuring we have selected the right focus mode for our subject and situation and this article will go through the four most important ones to know and understand.

This image above was shot utilizing the AF-S (Nikon) or One Shot (Canon) autofocus mode on the camera. Here I focused on the model's eyes and then recomposed my image so that she was over to the left of the frame, allowing for more space in the image in the direction she is looking. — This image above was shot utilizing the AF-S (Nikon) or One Shot (Canon) autofocus mode on the camera. Here I focused on the model’s eyes and then recomposed my image so that she was over to the left of the frame, allowing for more space in the image in the direction she is looking.

In focus images have been one of the most fundamental rules of photography right from the dawn of the craft. In the early 1900s getting sharp images was a craft in its own right, but in the 1960s Leica introduced a rudimentary autofocus system that changed everything. Since then, autofocus has developed dramatically and it’s no longer a feature on cameras, it’s a given.
So, bringing autofocus up-to-date, you have a few options to choose from on your modern DSLR. Those are some of the features I will cover in this article, along with when to use them. Both Canon and Nikon have very similar settings, albeit incorporating different technologies the results are very similar. There are also other brands like Sony and Olympus etc., that also follow suit, but here I will be discussing the four main focus modes in Canon and Nikon.

Single Shot Mode

First off, you have the mode that’s probably been around the longest – Canon’s One Shot and Nikon’s AF-S. Both of these will do pretty much the same thing. This mode is predominantly used for stationary objects like in studio portraits of couples and single models (most of the time – more on when not to use it for studio portraits shoots later) and anything that doesn’t require your subject to move around too much in the frame. You half press the shutter in this mode, and then you can recompose the image. For example, you focus on the model’s eyes, then recompose to put her on the left hand side of the image. This autofocus mode will get you through most situations.

Active or Continuous Focus Modes

Next we have the step up from the single focus to Canon’s AI Servo, and Nikon’s AF-C modes. Essentially what this setting does is to continuously track your initial focus point and readjust the focus accordingly. This setting is ideal for moving subjects like active children, and pets that are constantly on the move. Be warned though that this can often provide mixed results in a studio where you may not have as much ambient light as you think. The reason for this is that to focus on fast moving objects your camera likes a lot of light to determine exactly where the subject’s position is and in some cases predicting where your subject will be when the mirror eventually flips up. If you know you have a shoot with a lot of young and very active children coming into the studio it may be a good idea to increase the amount of ambient light in the room where you’ll be shooting. This will ensure more of your shots will actually be successfully focused by the camera while in Active/Continuous focus mode.

Auto Modes

Finally out of the autofocus settings we have Canon’s AI Focus, and Nikon’s AF-A. Both of these settings actually leave it up to the camera to decide which is best out of the other two focusing modes to use. In this mode it will either choose to continuously track your chosen subject should it decide to move, or focus lock if you would like to recompose. In theory, then I needn’t of bothered explaining the other two settings as surely this is the best of both worlds? Not quite. I personally have tested this mode a fair amount with stop-start subjects and although the camera does a good job of keeping up with them it’s always more accurate to use continuous focus mode. The same also goes for its ability to determine when a subject has stopped and when to focus lock for recomposing. Personally I never use this mode as, although it has the best of both, it also has the worst of both.

Image above taken with an 85mm f/1.8 prime lens using manual focus. Shooting in manual focus negates the need to recompose and lose focus in autofocus modes.

So, although I have just covered the three basic settings here very briefly, there is, of course, a whole host of other technological advancements in autofocus that I haven’t covered. I know Nikon has extensive, matrix and 3D autofocusing features. As well, most modern DSLR have incorporated the “back button autofocus” which also helps with focus locking. But going over all of that is not the purpose of this article.

Manual Focus Mode

The last focus mode I wanted to cover and one that is rarely used is the Manual focus mode. This mode strikes fear into the heart of nearly all modern photographers and that’s simply because they’ve probably never used it. Do you ever need to use it? That is something that only you can decide and is probably based on the type of photographs you take. If you only ever take portraits of energetic kids or fast paced sports, then autofocus is probably always your go-to mode. If, however, you shoot still life, architecture, landscapes and other detailed, relatively motionless subjects, then manual focus is probably a good way to go.

There are a few reasons for this. Landscape photographers will want to find the hyperfocal distance of their scene to maximize the amount of in-focus points (depth of field) in the image. This is based on an equation so autofocusing on a specific object is not always the way to go. Still life photographers will usually have their camera locked-down on a tripod so they will not want to focus and recompose once they’ve set up the shot, so it’s just far easier to focus manually. There is also another reason to want to use manual mode on some cameras and certain situations, and that was the catalyst for this article.

This version of the image was shot using the auto-focus mode 'AF-S/One Shot' and means that after I had focused and recomposed the shot, the model's eyes were left 'out' of focus. — This version of the image was shot using the auto-focus mode ‘AF-S/One Shot’ and means that after I had focused and recomposed the shot, the model’s eyes were left ‘out’ of focus.

I recently purchased an 85mm f/1.8 prime lens, and I wanted to test the lens out and see what the sharpness was like at f/1.8. I predominately only photograph models so I set up my test and went about taking some shots at f/1.8 using my usual AF-S/One Shot autofocusing mode. When I got my shots back to the computer to take a look, I was surprised to see that most of them were very soft. It took a few minutes to realize my error and since then I’ve adjusted how I shoot with these parameters.

Here you can see that the selected focal node is still situated in the middle of the viewfinder even though I have selected the outer most one when shooting in the portrait format.

I haven’t done a lot of very shallow depth of field shots up until this point so I hadn’t seen the now exaggerated results of my poor focusing technique previously. At f/1.8 you have a very, very shallow amount in focus (depth of field). For example, a head shot with the eyes in focus, the tip of the subject’s nose will be out of focus. For the test I was photographing the model at 3/4 length and shooting up at her so my camera height was probably about her waist height. I was about 6 feet (2 meters) away from her and I was focusing on her eyes with my focal point in camera then recomposing my shot to capture the 3/4 length crop. The problem with most cameras is that although they have a lot of focusing points, they’re all clustered in the center of the viewfinder, so even though I chose the outer most focal point I still have a dramatic amount of recomposing to do.

This diagram clearly illustrates what's actually going on when you recompose an image after focusing in 'AF-S/One Shot' auto-focusing mode. The actual part of the image that was in focus is now out of focus. — This diagram clearly illustrates what’s actually going on when you recompose an image after focusing in ‘AF-S/One Shot’ auto-focusing mode. The actual part of the image that was in focus is now out of focus.

This isn’t normally a noticeable problem when recomposing at f/16, but at f/1.8 that dramatic shift in the focal plane means the resulting image is very soft around the model’s eyes. As I recomposed the shot it actually re-positioned my focal point further back behind the model, meaning the back of her head and hair were in focus but not her eyes.

There aren’t too many ways around this pesky little issue, especially as you may not notice it on the back of the camera’s little screen. One thing that did resolve it though was by switching to manual focus. I could then compose my shot and manually focus on the model’s eyes, resulting in a fantastically sharp image where I wanted it to be sharp.

Granted there were a few things conspiring together here to really exaggerate the issue. Firstly, I was shooting at f/1.8, and that’s always going to rely on critical sharpness. Secondly, I was down low shooting up. This always exaggerates the focal plane shift when recomposing, and lastly I was stuck with limited focal nodes. There are many technical reasons why modern DSLRs don’t allow focal nodes towards the edges. A lot of smaller frame cameras like the mirrorless, APS-C and micro 4/3 cameras all have selectable focal nodes covering the viewfinder, but alas, DSLR technology isn’t there yet. Until it is, it’s a good idea to be aware of what’s going on in autofocus modes on your camera, and be prepared and ready to switch to manual focus when required.

Good Luck!

Jake Hicks is an editorial and fashion photographer specializing in keeping the skill in the camera not just on the screen. For more detailed explanations of some of his shots please visit his website and for daily updates on his most recent work, tips and techniques please visit his Facebook page.

Capturing the Whole Story

August 17, 2015 Leave a Comment

A great reason for offering your clients a Lush Album is that you get to create a story with a number of their favorite images. However, creating a great story isn’t always easy. If you want to create a compelling story in a photo album you are going to need a mix of sharp emotive portraits, fast moving action images, and wide shots as well as close ups. Capturing all of these types of images during each of your photo shoots will ensure that you have a great variety of images to create a visually interesting, page-turning album.

At times, it may seem that in order to get all these different shots, you have to have all the gear you can possibly imagine (even when it’s not in your budget). But there are plenty of ways for photographers to get all the shots for the entire story without having to use a warehouse full of gear. In the videos below, Tamara Lackey shows you how you can use a single lens to capture almost any image you may need to tell your client’s complete story.

In the first video, Tamara shows you how you can use a single versatile lens to capture extraordinary macro images, beautiful close ups, and classic portraits. The video shows you exactly how to capture great macro images using either auto-focus or manual focus, and Tamara explains in detail how she changes her settings when shooting in manual mode.

In the second video, Tamara shows you how she uses the same lens (AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED) to capture action. Like the first video, she goes into detail about her manual mode settings, and explains exactly what settings are required to freeze her active subject. Then Tamara talks about how she gets perfect focus, even on a moving subject.

Follow the tips in these videos and you will be on your way to capturing all the shots you need for a compelling album. Then all you have to do is use Fundy’s incredible software to lay out the images to tell a great story. Your clients will love their new Lush Album and they will love you for creating it for them!

How to Flatter Your Subject in Portraits

August 7, 2015 Leave a Comment

One of the best tips for creating a great photo album is to start with great photos. And one of the best ways to get great photos of people is to capture people’s natural expressions and emotions. Yet, that isn’t always easy. Here are some tips (originally posted on Adorama.com) for putting people at ease so that you can get great images for your Lush Album.

It’s ridiculously normal for people to feel self-conscious when a lens is pointed their way. Why?

Because when you point a lens their way, many people don’t just see a lens, they see a series of images flash before their eyes – shots taken from a truly awful angle, taken in wretched lighting, scenes of them smashed up against someone else in the most unattractive of ways, deer-in-the-headlight fake smiles – just, ghastly stuff. In other words, they don’t see your camera, they see the serious time they spent untagging images on social media.

Time to change all that. Here are some 5 simple tips for better flattering your subjects in portraits – and look for another 5 tips in my next installment!

1. Check The Light

Always check the light around you before taking a photograph. The closer your subject is to a soft, big light source (think large window in a house, evenly-shaded spot outside), the more attractive they’re going to look. Note the word “soft” – large, harsh lighting isn’t the same thing. Soft lighting is often achieved through bouncing light or using a modifier built to diffuse light, like a soft box.

2. Flash Wisely

Many of the tiny little flashes on pocket cameras and iPhones can be terribly unflattering. If you have to use a flash, avoid an extreme closeup of your subject with a super bright, harsh little light. If you’re still figuring out what the best lighting option is with a built-in flash, try taking a few shots of your subject right in front of the flash, slightly farther away from the lens, and just before the light from the flash falls off. Testing the look of how the flash flatters your subject gives you an immediate visual into how to make them look better. Typically, the sweet spot is just before the light starts dropping off.

3. Humans Have Curves

Don’t forget to flatter the curves of your subjects, however they are shaped. Women, especially, are not built like boxes, but it’s remarkable how often they can be posed like one in a photograph. Think of an S-curve and have your subject mimic that – hips a little more to the left, chest a bit more to the right … often what feels a bit uncomfortable looks pretty great.

4. Mix it Up

Sometimes the most attractive angle of your subject isn’t the one you were planning to shoot from – at least not at first. That’s okay. Just don’t stop at shooting from that one angle. Start with what you wanted to start with, then crouch down and tilt the camera up. Stand on your toes or take a step up and tilt the camera down. Play with a few different angles until you find the one she likes best.

5. Things Closest To The Lens May Be Smaller Than They Appear

What do you want to show off? What do you want to show less of? Consider how close various parts of your subject are to the lens and move them around accordingly. For instance, if you’re shooting from a lower angle, and your subject’s legs are closer to the lens, they will appear larger. If they are sitting down, perhaps you want to take a minute to have them tuck their legs back a bit. By the same logic, if you want to emphasize a gorgeous smile, have your subject lean in to the camera, showcasing that megawatt smile first.

These are just a few tips to get you started on better flattering your subject to capture great photos for your Lush Album.