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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Prints that Win: Bridge over Water

Award winning photography and printing

Award-winning photography is often a fortuitous combination of skill and luck as was the first-place winner of the Commercial division and LexJet Sunset Award winner at the 2012 Professional Photographers of North Carolina print completion, Gregory Georges.

Georges co-owns Jonathan Penney Inc., a New York-based fine art print making business, with the company’s founder, Jonathan Penney. The skill is obvious in the presentation of the image, Bridge Over Water. The luck was in finding the scene at the right time.

Georges captured the image at the Conde B. McCullough Memorial Bridge over Coos Bay on US 101 in North Bend, Oregon, with a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III using an EF70-200 at 148mm set to 1/320 @f/8.0 and ISO 100.

“I was fascinated by this beautiful old bridge. It was near sunset with lots of clouds and not much color, so it was very monochromatic to begin with. I got very compulsive about locking-down my tripod, and using mirror lock-up to minimize vibrations to get the clearest image I could,” explains Georges.

Equally important, says Georges, was the combination of Adobe Camera RAW 7 RAW file conversion and black-and-white conversion done in Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2.0. “Silver Efex has absolutely amazing features that really bring out the best in a black and white image,” says Georges. “My vision was to make the print look like a mechanical pencil sketch without pure black tone and yet still show extremely fine detail.”

He printed on a fine art watercolor paper at competition size – 16″ x 20″ – on an Epson Stylus Pro 3880. Georges says that those who saw the print at competition were amazed by the amount of detail in the image, especially the individual cars crossing the bridge and fine line detail of the wires on the bridge.

“Monitors, color calibration tools, media, ink technologies and printers are so awesome now that if you edit it well on your computer you will get an amazing print. I also use ColorByte Software’s ImagePrint RIP, because it’s giving me extraordinary paper profiles,” adds Georges.

For more information about Jonathan Penney Inc., go to www.jonathanpenney.com.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Prints that Win: Walking the Lonely Street

Award winning photography and inkjet printing

One of the great ironies of photography is that you can turn a certain weakness in the original capture into a strength that sets the tone and separates it from the usual. Such is the case with Bob Klein’s LexJet Sunset Award-winning image at the Photo NorthEast competition called Walking the Lonely Street, which was captured in a village near Vienna.

The image has just the right elements that evoke an Old World scene. Or, as Klein puts it, “You can project yourself walking down the street in this scene.” Perhaps that’s what caught the judges’ eyes, but much of the beauty of portrait – aside from the framing of the street, the lone figure with an umbrella slightly off center walking away from the camera and the way the buildings come to a satisfying point on the horizon – is in its weakness.

Klein explains, “It was overcast with poor light and light rain, but I loved the way it looked. At the time I considered it unfortunate, but in retrospect it was fortunate. That camera I used is more for speed than high ISO, so it was kind of noisy. I had to figure out what to do with the noise, and decided to put more noise in it.”

Klein spent 25-30 hours on the image to get just the right effect, or as he calls it, “trial and error.” He essentially took all the color out of it and treated it like a painter’s canvas using Photoshop and Lightroom.

“The sad thing, or really the good part of photography for me, is that it’s a borderline obsession where I get lost in time. It offers an opportunity to be creative in capture and creative afterward,” he says.

Print master Jonathan Penney output the image for him and added the appropriate matting and deckled edges of the print to complement the image.

“The printing and the presentation are wonderful, and it’s something I’ve never seen anywhere else; it really enhances the image,” says Klein. “I sent it to Jonathan and he said that he’d hang it in his house. I was really encouraged by that, because he has some great images he’s printed for others.”

Klein is a partner in a media buying and strategy business. Photography is his creative outlet, especially on his extensive travels. Though not a full-time photographer, Klein says he spends almost as much time on his photography as he would if it were his full time job.

“I joined the Westchester PPA and started competing, and the critiques helped me see things differently and I worked to try and improve what I do. Fortunately, I have come up with some images that others say are good, and not just me thinking they’re good,” says Klein.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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Coveted Sunset Award to be Presented at Eight Upcoming Photo Competitions

LexJet is proud to honor and promote excellence in professional photography with its Sunset Award for outstanding photography and inkjet print reproduction at eight annual print competitions held by affiliates of the Professional Photographers of America and other regional professional organizations.

Photography competition awardThis year all five PPA Districts will include the Sunset award in their competitions. The Sunset Award winning image category is selected by the presenting organization (see specific categories below), and the winner is selected by the respective print-competition judging panel.

In addition to the beautiful Sunset Award trophy, the winner will receive a $100 gift certificate that can be used to purchase any of the products included in LexJet’s Sunset portfolio of inkjet materials for professional photographic printing and fine art reproduction.

An additional $300 gift certificate will be presented if the winning photographer purchased materials from LexJet in 2010-11 or used LexJet Sunset media to create the award-winning print. The following print competitions held in conjunction with the hosting organization’s annual conference will be awarding the 2011 LexJet Sunset Award…

PPA District Photographic Competitions:

Other regional competitions:

  • Plymouth Center for the Arts, Fine Art of Photography Regional Juried Photography Exhibition: Exhibition is April 1-30 at the Plymouth Center for the Arts, Plymouth, Mass. The Sunset Award will be presented to the winner of the Best Quality Print & Presentation category.
  • PhotoNorthEast: March 26-29, Woodcliff Lake Hilton, Woodcliff Lake, N.J. The Sunset Award will be presented to the winner of the Best Electronic Imaging category.
  • PPA of PA: April 3-5, Days Inn Penn State, State College, Pa. The Sunset Award will be presented to the winner of the Best Quality Print and Presentation category.
Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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Win Cash and Prizes at the Plymouth Guild’s Fine Art of Photography Expo

LexJet Sunset Award for Best Quality in Print and PresentationAt the Plymouth Guild’s first annual Fine Art of Photography Regional Juried Photography Exposition more than $1,500 in cash and prizes will be awarded to photo artists whose work is chosen for Best in Show ($500), Best Color ($250), Best B&W ($250), Achievement in Color ($100) and Achievement in B&W ($100).

In addition, LexJet will award its Sunset Award for the Best Quality in Print and Presentation image entered in the exhibition.

The winner of the award will also receive a $100 gift certificate that can be used to purchase any of the exceptional photo papers, art papers and canvases included in LexJet’s Sunset portfolio of inkjet materials for professional photographic printing and fine-art reproduction.

If the winning photographer purchased materials from LexJet in 2010 or 2011, or used LexJet Sunset media to print the award-winning image, the winner will receive an additional $300 gift certificate.

The winner will be chosen by the print-competition judging panel. To qualify, the entries must be digitally printed and meet Plymouths Guild’s submission requirements.

Submission of digital images with completed entry forms and fees must be received by Feb. 28. Artists will be notified on March 6 and selected work must be delivered, framed and ready for hanging March 27-28. The opening reception is April 1 and the show closes on May 1.

Further details can be found at: http://thefineartofphotography.org/. For more information about the LexJet Sunset Award, contact Tom Gruss at LexJet, 800-453-9538. 

Posted on by LexJet Posted in News & Trends
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Best Color Portrait in Print Competition Can Win Sunset Award

By Tom Gruss

PPANE logo119LexJet will be presenting its first Sunset Award at the Professional Photographers Association of New England Convention Sept. 12-15 at The Radisson Hotel in Nashua, NH. The award will be given for the Best Color Portrait entered in PPANE’s Annual Print Competition. Deadline for entering the print competition is Sept. 8.

In addition to a Sunset Award trophy, the winner will receive a $100 gift certificate that can be used to purchase any of the exceptional photo papers, art papers, and canvases included in LexJet’s Sunset portfolio of inkjet materials for professional photographic printing and fine-art reproduction.

Sunset_logo_119An additional $500 gift certificate will be presented if the winning photographer purchased materials from LexJet in 2009 or used LexJet Sunset media to print the award-winning image. The winner will be chosen by the print-competition judging panel.

To qualify, the entries must meet the submission requirements and deadlines established by the PPANE and score at least 80 out of a possible 100 points in the PPANE print competition.

LexJet is establishing the Sunset Award because so many photographers at all stages of their careers have told us how much they have benefitted from entering print competitions. Entering print competitions not only gives you a chance to earn recognition and publicity, but also forces you to think more critically and creatively as you shoot and edit images throughout the year. Having your work judged by experts can be a great way to learn how to improve your photography.

In an previous post on this blog, we published the 12 criteria judges use to evaluate print quality. That post includes a link to an article about the benefits of entering print competitions that photographers Tina and Michael Timmons wrote for Great Output magazine earlier this year.

Stop by Our Booth: If you plan to attend the PPANE show, stop by Booth 7 and see us!  Dustin Flowers will be happy to show you the full line of Sunset Photo and Art Papers and Canvases or demonstrate the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5100 printer that we will have in the booth.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the Sunset Award, please give me a call at 800-453-9538. If I’m not around, any of the helpful account specialists in LexJet’s digital photography group would be happy to help you.