RESOURCES
There are so many fantastic tools out there for photographers today which help us grow our businesses and provide an ever higher quality of service to our clients. We want to share some of our favorite sites and photography vendors with you, just in case some of these amazing vendors have passed you by – all of these links are unreciprocated, unsponsored and remain entirely based on Jinger Studios really really liking them!
Please feel free to use the comment box at the bottom of this page to give your own reviews and experiences of these services, and maybe let us know of any other fine vendors you think should be on this list.
WEBSITES FOR CREATIVES
Awesome web templates (they did our photography website) and lots of support – they normally answer your emails within a few minutes which is very impressive.
Showit are the guys we’d be with if we weren’t with Big Folio… similarly awesome!
JINGER 2.0 BLOG THEME
This theme is the very same theme that runs the blog you are viewing now. If you like the look of this blog, you are welcome to download this theme and try it out for yourself – its pretty, (well I think so!) and it’s FREE! For instructions on how to install and personalize this theme, go to BLOG THEME in the main menu bar of this blog. There are also instructions contained within the readme.txt file, contained in the download folder.
PREVIEW | DOWNLOAD
PHOTO GALLERY (WITH SHOP CARTS)
In our opinion Smugmug is the best gallery solution with intergrated commerce and print fulfilment options currently on offer. Smugmug are also teamed up with ANIMOTO, a company that has reinvented the stale ’slideshow’ Very clean looking client interface, easy to add your own branding, and very very fast. They also have a great community with local events for photographers.
PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS
These photoshop multi-layered actions are a sheer delight to use, and gives us photographers more time away from the computer screen (better for our precious eyes). There is also a cool ‘recipe bar’ where photographers can swop action recipes and show off their work.
PRO PHOTO LABS
Great lab, great products, great choice – say no more!
Ditto for whcc… and whcc stands for “White House Custom Color” just in case you were wondering.
ALBUMS
The mother of all album companies, Finao produce some of the most gorgeous album products on the market today.
ALBUM DESIGN SOFTWARE/PROOFING
Shave hours off your album design time with Fundy’s album building software. Install these photoshop plugins for a really smooth interface with photoshop and Bridge. We love this software because it works with templates from every album company you can think of, including the fabulous FINAO!
Fundy SOS also has an album proofing software which will make the of designing a wedding album with your clients a very hassle free and enjoyable process.
DESIGN FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
The Shoppe Design for photographers provides great templates, textures, actions and backgrounds that will take your business to the next level – pay a small monthly subscription fee and get full unlimited access to great materials for album design, save the date and invitation templates, wallpaper for blogs, actions and textures.
From information and products directed at professional wedding and portrait photographers, to Photoshop actions, templates, fresh marketing materials, album design and seminars for the boutique wedding and portrait studio, Design Aglow is the marriage of art with a collection of resources for the cutting edge contemporary photography studio… a Stellar vendor – many of their products are on our current wish list.
TEXTURES
CG Textures is by far the most extensive collection of free textures we have come across on the net. Review their licensing terms before use, but as photographers you will find that the vast majority of your intended usage is allowed. This is a creative goldmine – have fun!
FORUMS & CONVENTIONS
A one stop shop for all things ‘wedding photograph’, the Digital Wedding Forum is a very useful online community well worth the small monthly fee, populated by many knowledgeable and helpful photography professionals. When you have a burning question, need inspiration or just need to bounce ideas around, this is the place to be.
If you want to play with the cool kids, swop ideas with the equally cool uber-geeks, or gain wise advice from the old Pros (who are generally a balances mixture of the first two, then the WPPI convention in Las Vegas in March of each year is the place to be. This event really is THE ultimate photographers playground… see you there!