A Thank You and Plea for Help..photo related

[MarylandAG]

Thank you all very much for help on this thread

http://www.aggiefans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21505&highlight=domain

My wife has started her venture, now the help part--she makes plush toys, see below (pics don't do them justice) so need to get a website ASAP--tired of looking unprofessional & saying the site is coming.....

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l170/elaggie/22_22.jpg?t=1185215966
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l170/elaggie/16_16.jpg?t=1185215689
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l170/elaggie/06_6.jpg?t=1185148297
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l170/elaggie/02_2_edited.jpg?t=1185216046

The pics are from a cheap 35 mm camera developed at Wal-Mart: 1. What type of camera is best for this "subject"? Is an SLR necessary? 2. What type of software do we need to get the pics on the website? 3. What type of setup, i.e. lights, photo booth etc?

Anyway, I know next to nothing about photography and I'm trying to help her with the liscenses, trademarks, etc. I would appreciate any help and next time the Mrs. & I are in town, we'll owe you a beer & Aggie plush dog.

[hmiles619]

if you want to ship them down to college station, I'll photograph them for you in my light box and ship them back

[hmiles619]

and now i'll answer your questions... developing at walmart isn't a problem. They do a great job. It's your camera and your lighting that is holding you back. You don't really need any software to get them on the net. You can use the same software that you use to upload your website to the net. (they're actually already on the net)

You can make a lightbox pretty cheap if you're wanting to do your own photography...cost about $20 and a little effort. You'll probably want to use a digital camera to shoot them though

[MarylandAG]

:wow: You're Awesome, but there are way toooooo many! We would make you a "Limited Edition" Aggie one! :gig: You would not believe how many teams, NFL and college she's made. So I'm guessing we need a light booth and an SLR?

By the way :rep: for the offer!:gig:

[hmiles619]

another thing to look into is whether or not you even need to pay royalties on this stuff. It looks like she bought the material that was already licensed (unless she made the material herself). I don't know if they'd double dip on the fees as someone has already paid to license that material

[MarylandAG]

Okay, I'm pretty handy I can fix or rig most anything and of course money is always tight, so how do I go about building this light box? What special lights do I need? And from your response I gather I can just use a regular point and click digital camera, how many megapixels do you think?

[hmiles619]

:wow: You're Awesome, but there are way toooooo many! We would make you a "Limited Edition" Aggie one! :gig: You would not believe how many teams, NFL and college she's made. So I'm guessing we need a light booth and an SLR?

By the way :rep: for the offer!:gig:


yeah, a light box is just a pvc box, lots of tissue paper, and some white posterboard. you'll be able to take pics similar to this...

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/09/09/coke_wideweb__470x388,0.jpg

you don't necessarily need an SLR camera...you could use a point and shoot and some good photo editing software to get the look you need (i can help you with that too)

[MarylandAG]

Great catch Miles! We caught the same exact thing too! In fact you are technically correct, we have even gone to the trouble of finding the the court cases that relate to it. It is actually called the First Sale Doctorine, long explanation. We've done a ton of research on this.

[TwelfthAG]

Woah, what kind of weird coke cans are those?

[MarylandAG]

Miles, thats exactly what she is after! Sigh of relief on the SLR as that less the financial burden substantially!!!! Any good websites on the lightbox construction?

[hmiles619]

here's a link on how to build a light box...
http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent

the one i made cost me about $20. Don't think that this is the only way to make one. The one I made was much different. You pretty much need to make a cube out of pvc...2.5ftx2.5ftx2.5ft should be plenty. You cover the top, left side, and right side with white tissue paper. (diffuses the light) Then you angle the poster board on the bottom and back of the box so that there's no definite edge....very easy

[MarylandAG]

So what kind of lights do you use?

[hmiles619]

anything will work. Just normal desk lamps placed about 1.5 feet from the tissue paper on either side work great. The tissue paper does all of the work diffusing the light over the object. You can play around with angles, distances, and number of lights to achieve the desired effect

[hmiles619]

This pic pretty much explains it...

http://k53.pbase.com/u16/wlhuber/upload/13989420.P3050198.JPG

[hmiles619]

except he uses a sheet instead of tissue paper meaning the lights have to be closer to the object

[MarylandAG]

Now I get what you mean with the poster board, pretty slick not edges! What about a tripod for the camera? Or is is cool to just hold it yourself. Also, I'm starting to see 7 mega pixel camera in the $150-200 range, think I saw Canon A550 (may have numbers mixed up) for $150 7.1 mp, I think 4X optical zoom, would that camera at least be in the ball park?

[hmiles619]

yeah, that camera should suit your needs....you probably won't need a tripod, but you could always pick a cheap one up for ~$20

[Vlyrock]

Cool dogs, MD. So, what's the website name for your venture (sorry if it's on the other thread). If you ever want to run some banner ads on the site, let me know and I'll help you out since you were one of the original members and mods. :)

[Superaggie79]

do you need help with developing a site or just the pictures? My g/f works for encorevisions.com... they do several stores and could set you up for the online retail pretty easily. They also will help design logos, business cards, internet ads, magazine ads, etc. Let me know if that's what you're looking for.
Ta couple of retail sites they've done www.dudleysranchhousefurniture.com (http://www.dudleysranchhousefurniture.com) ,and www.designsbyjulieblair.com (http://www.designsbyjulieblair.com) also this is the link to their portfolio. http://encorevisions.com/websitelist.html

[Vlyrock]

SA, the first link isn't working... maybe it's ranchhouse?

[Superaggie79]

you're right... I don't know why those people went with that long of a url but you gotta do what the customer wants.

[MarylandAG]

Thanks you all. Vly the plan is to have banner ads pretty soon but let me work out getting professional looking photos first (btw, should of taken a pic of the Buffalo Bill ones for you). As soon as we get the pics to look professional, I will get back to you on how to adverstise on the site, that is something we will definetly want to do.

SA, I want to try to make the website myself, to be real honest, its just something I've always wanted to learn how to do. HOWEVER, I may take you up on the offer since this is really important. The response she has had to these, without any advertisment has been fantastic. So I think the website and the logos are something that may take her to the next level. Can you give me rough idea on what it would cost to design and get the site up and running? If it was just a regular site I'd feel more comfortable, but the fact that she will be selling stuff over it makes me think that maybe I'm in over my head, credit card, encryption, that sort of stuff.

[MarylandAG]

Damn SA79 I was checking those sites out, very nice. That is pretty much what she wants. Sharp, professional looking. Can you give me a rough idea of cost?

[Superaggie79]

Go to the homepage and click contact info. There you can do a request a quote. Do that and I'll make sure my g/f gets back to you as quickly as possible. They're doing a bunch of updates to end the month but I'll make sure she gets back to you today on that if possible. Do you have the domain already purchased?

[MarylandAG]

Yep, domain name is already purchased.

Emailing this to Mrs. MdAg so she can request the qoute. On the "how you find us section" I'm going to have her just type Aggiefans, that way your gf will know which one it is.

[Superaggie79]

Alright just do that request a quote thing. I just told her that you'd be doing that. After that they'll get with you about specifics and crank out a quote.

[MarylandAG]

Cool, just did the quote request. They do good work from what I can see. She won't have trouble knowing which one it is since I'm sure they don't get many requests from Martinsburg, WV:) . Still going to see what I can learn about web desing on my own.

[Superaggie79]

Yeah I've learned a little bit and helped with some updates but now that I'm in Austin I haven't messed with it much.

[Superaggie79]

They recieved the request and are working something up for you. She said they might call to get a more accurate idea of what you're looking for.

[MarylandAG]

Sounds Muy Bueno! I'll wait for the call.

[JohnL]

Best of luck to you and the missus MarylandAG!! It looks like you ae doing all the right things to create a money maker.

[MarylandAG]

Thanks John, I'm excited for her. People really seem to like them. Just as a test we walked around the mall with two of them and it was amazing the number of people that stopped us to ask where we had gotten them from. When we told the she makes them, they immediately asked for business cards and website. Thus the urgency to get the site up. Thanks for the complements.

:rep: for the complement and :rep: to SA79 for the referral.:gig: