creativephotolounge.com

Kathy Kauth was the winner of our first “Child Personality” contest! The picture shown here is Kathy’s entry. We had 10 fantastic entries, but Kathy won the 16×20 canvas wrap by getting the most “likes” on our facebook page. Congratulations Kathy!

We sure enjoyed the contest and seeing all of the entries.  Would you like us to offer more contests in the future?

Winning photo

Have you been wondering about the quality and customer service that Harmann’s Creative Photo Lounge provides?  Just this past week, we received an email saying:

“Just wanted you to know that BOTH the truck image and the 8 x 10 of the Dubrovnik wall made it in to the Hardy !  I’m so excited, it’s the first exhibit of this caliber that I’ve been juried into  !  Thanks ever so much for your attention to detail in getting this done in time —- I really do realize that I asked a LOT, and I appreciate your help !”  ~Nancy P.

Congratulations Nancy, and thank you for your kind words!

Are you looking for a way to organize, yet easily display, all of your photos stuck on your camera?  Well, we have the solution for you–create a DVD slideshow!!  Each DVD slideshow can display up to 200 images and offers many options for customization–7 menu background pages, 30 frame choices, 14 music choices, 3 show speeds, and 4 show styles.  That’s over 35,000 possibilities!  DVD slideshows are great for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, family reunions, graduation…you name it!!  This great offer is good 7/1/11-7/31/11.  Stop in soon at any one of our kiosk locations to design your slideshow!

During the month of May, we are offering 20% off canvas wraps and great pricing on our graduation party invitations and announcements! Canvas wraps are available in sizes 16×20, 20×16, 20×24, and 24×20 online, and 11×14, 14×11, 16×20, 20×16, 16×16, 20×20, 20×24, and 24×20 on one of our kiosks. Prices start at $44 (regularly $55)! Our graduation party cards and announcements are available in a 4×6 flat card for $0.50 each, or a 5×7 flat card for $1.50 each.

And, if you are one of our Photo Club members, you will also receive 20% off of our 5×7 folded cards during the month of May! If you are not a member, click here or stop in at one of our kiosk locations to become one. Then you will be able to take advantage of a new special every month, and you will also receive 50% off of 8×10 collage posters, $0.99 CDs, 4×6 digital prints for only $.021 (or $.019 for orders over 50), “What a Deal Wednesdays”, index prints for $0.25, and free doubles from original film rolls. Right now the price for the first year of membership is only $14.95, then only a $10 per year renewal fee! What are “What a Deal Wednesdays”?  They are the best days of the week, when you can get 8x10s for just $1.99 each, or 5x7s for just $0.99 each

Don’t forget, some of the other services we offer include scanning old prints and negatives. And if one of those old prints isn’t looking as nice as it used to, let us take a look–we’ll restore it to it’s former glory!

Any orders placed online or at one of our kiosk locations will not only receive the Harmann Creative Photo Lounge (HCPL) quality but will also be conveniently delivered right to your doorstep. No marching back to one of our locations to pick up your order.

A $25 minimum print order is required to receive this special (approx 115 4×6 prints).

Offer is valid March 1-31, 2010.

Just thought you might a photo tip of the week if you are brave enough to go out into the cold tundra of Wisconsin.

If you have a point and shoot.   Please see if your camera has a scene mode with a “Snowman” on it.  This will help your images turn out totally awesome compared to leaving it in auto mode that will result in an image on the right.  Some point and shoots don’t have scene modes but do have exposure compensation modes.  For Point and Shoot cameras this would be in your menu with usually a “+/-” symbol by it.  You usually can’t adjust this unless you are in the “P” mode of the camera.  Put the exposure compensation to +1, then leave it in “P” mode and take all your images in the snow in this mode.

DSLR camera users would need to put the camera in the “P” mode as well but use the “+/-” button, usually located on top of the camera.  While pushing the “+/-” button use the dial by your thumb or index finger until it reads +1.

Having the right expsure really will bring out the dark subject matter with a lot more detail using these setting on your camera.  For example, a black dog on white snow.  This is an extreme case but will really bring out the  strands of hair on a dark dog like this if  you use these settings.

Be sure to charge all your batteries up before going out into the cold or bring some extras.  Alkaline and NimH batteries don’t do so well in the cold but lithium rocks as far as longevity.
I am still looking for subject to teach at my first camera class so please go to Creative Photo Lounges Facebook page and drop me some suggestions or just email me at facebook@harmann.com

John Harmann-Professional Photographer and Owner of Harmann Studios and Harmann’s Creative Photo Lounge located in Sturgeon Bay, Luxemburg, and De Pere, WI.

I everyone.  Went to ImagingUSA in Nashville and I found this great piece of equipment that can make using Nikon or Canon Speedlights more reliable in high speed sync mode.

If you don’t know what high speed sync is,  you have to try it!!  We used it  last year with some of our portraits because we wanted to do some photos in the bright sun.  This is when you need to fill shadows in with a flash.  We still wanted a deep blue sky and expose the subject correctly.  High speed sync can do this.  AWESOME!!  To have high speed sync work correctly you had to have one speed light on a light stand near the subject which was any where from 8 to 12 feet away from the camera.

Here comes the problem.  The on camera speed light needs to communicate with the off camera speedlight that is closer to the subject.  The bright sun and the distance interrupted the communication of the infrared beam for both speedlights to communicate resulted in more than not the speedlight closest to the subject not to fire.  I thought this was very poor for both Canon and Nikon not to think  of this before introducing high speed sync to the world.

Well here comes Radio Poppers to the rescue. Finallllly!!!  This system converts the infrared pulses created by the speedlights for high speed sync or just regular flash sync mode to fire without worrying if they will sync.  What a great high tech solution.

I have one coming to me and I will give you my findings on how well they work.  Listening to others at the convention it works well and I am very optimistic.

One thing I am not looking for is that this investment will be shot down quickly because I am sure Canon and Nikon will be coming out with a new speedlight that will have this type of radio sync rather than the inferior infrared beam that both Nikon SB-800 and SB-900, and the Canon 550EX are currently using.

Also, please fire us your best photos to win free prints in our Photo of The Week at www.creativephotolounge.com.  See past winners as well.

ONE MORE THING.  PHOTO CLASSES  Please jump onto our facebook page and become a fan.  We are looking to start photo classes but we need your input on what we should talk about.  Click here to jump so we can hear from you.

FREE 8-1/2×11 12-month photo calendar with NEW photo club membership! (Membership is only $14.95 per year.)
Already a member? 8-1/2×11 12-month photo calendars are only $9.95 (reg price $19.95)!
These offers are valid on our kiosks only through February 28th, so stop in to see us at one of our 4 locations!

Welcome to our new website. Here you will be able to upload, share, and print your photos, create photo gifts for your friends and family, and check out our specials. You can also email us your pictures for a chance to win 50 free 4×6 prints!

Come back often to see what’s new at Harmanns or for our photography tricks and tips posted right here!

Before you leave don’t forget to sign up for our email newsletter to receive exclusive specials every month!

We’re happy you stopped by!