– Welcome
to KTIA!
(pronounced ke-tee-ah)
My
name is Kate . . . a webmaster I'm not, but a photo magician
I am. And a businesswoman. Entrepreneur.
Mom. Graphicologist. Grandmother. Kind person. Just like you,
I wear many hats, sometimes even "Top Dog",
in extremely limited circumstances!
I
would like to do something for the woman-owned, small business
online community. I would like to enhance your existing bio
photo that you now have on your website. If you don't have
one yet, I would like to make you one from a digital photo
you've got stored somewhere in your hard drive. No strings
attached; nothing to buy. Your bio pic makeover absolutely
free. So that you can put your best face forward on the
web and be to introduced to my services.
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What
does it mean to 'enhance' a photo? Let's take a walk through
some before & afters:
I'll begin by showing you my own before & after
bio pic, then proceed with other examples.
Ah,
but aren't I a much prettier top dog without the
'blues'? Simply removing color casts from your photos can
improve them immensely. |
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Believe it or not, this photo was found in a topnotch brochure
that cost the company megabucks. Such inferior work sometimes
happens because of a last minute rush to the presses. Or simply
because someone on the team dropped the ball and was not held
accountable.
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When looked at arbitrarily, my tendency was to just remove some
of the red. But how much, exactly? This is why I take the time
to color correct by the numbers, a technique that many
professional graphic designers don't do — either because they
truly don't know how, or because they are too lazy or time constrained.
When I color corrected this graphic the proper way, we find
that our man does indeed have somewhat of a ruddy complexion.
Looks nice! |
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Here's
an example of a bio pic that was beautiful to start with,
but needed to be properly resampled down from the three meg
original, and also needed to match the look of the website.
Personally, I prefer the contrast of the blue background to
the blond hair, don't you?
This
brings up a point. People ask me why I would take on the toughest
assignment — your face, with its skintones to make true, fly-away
hair that's difficult to remove from it's background, and
strong feelings about a photo that's so personal to each individual
— and work with it. I tell them that it's precisely because
of these things that I want to do it. And I won't be happy
until you're happy with the final results. That's
where I get my satisfaction. What can I say? |
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Original,
775k: That's a whopping 3/4 of a Megabyte — appropriate for
a magazine layout, but as we know, atrocious for the web.
The
greytones were flat, and downsizing it to the necessary degree
would cause it to lose some detail that must somehow be preserved.
But the biggest challenge for me was that I found myself really
bothered with the lack of the top picture frame. See how it's
just cut off in this photo (which Lisa paid a professional
photographer to take, btw). I knew that in order to do it
justice, some cloning and other fancy fingerwork was called
for.
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Now
20k: Ooooh I just love how Lisa turned out! The software that
makes this possible these days is phenomenal; so is the learning
curve. I spent (and still spend) so much time learning which
buttons to press and why, that I decided to specialize
in improving graphics, and leave things like
web development, shopping carts and all things IT to the techies
who love it and don't get headaches from it.
By
the way, I delight in IMming with others who might need some
instant info or help with photos or graphics they're working
on for their sites. If you're having a 'bad graphics day'
and if you have AIM, look for
TwoNicePeeps and give me a shout. Think of
me as Wahm's Little Helper, and while you may think of an
IM as an interruption to me, I view it as a joy. Promise.
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I believe
you'll be so delighted with your own digital makeover that you'll
remember me when it comes time to improve other graphics &
photos for your clients, colleagues, families, or your own sites.
I
know that many of you have webmasters whose job it is to get
that content up and working on your site, but who don't see
improving what you give them to post as part of their
job description. That's where I hope to come in. And even
if you are your own webmistress, I can't imagine that you
have the time or the desire to mess around with pics that
need the magic that I absolutely love to perform on them.
So that's that!
You
can learn more about how I can help you by simply reading
the rest of this page. If you would just like to order your
Free Bio pic now, and learn more about my services later,
then click
here and jump on over to the $29 Special bio pic form.
I'll be most happy to email the new and improved you within
two business days.
Still
here? Great! Let me tell you about some other things I can
do to help your graphics. I absolutely love pushing pixels
around on a computer screen. And I want to take my budget-conscious
cyber bizmates to a new level with your web graphics and photos. |
Are
your other
web graphics
and
product photos
having a
bad hair day? |
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See,
I don't necessarily want to create the things you use; I want
to make them better in some way. Smaller, larger, clearer,
truer color. Optimized, non-pixellized, stylized and colorized
for your particular website. I'll take your white square backgrounds
away by making your graphics transparent, or by matching the
background to the color on your web page.
I'll
resize things so they fit nicely into their spot on your web
page without having to be truncated or stretched,
which can horribly distort them. Especially if you use a templated
site building tool.
I
have another idea, and I think it's a fantastic motivator,
especially for WAHM just starting out. For a flat rate of
$20 for whatever you need, I'll fix up three of your graphics/photos
(not including your logo) for the web. Yep, that's it. I want
to rid us all of the confusing and action-prohibiting question
of 'how much will it cost?' It will cost $20 to improve several
on your website.
I'll
do whatever is necessary. I'll color correct them by the numbers,
not by the artist's view, which is subjective. I'll clone
stray objects out, brighten skies, write captions, remove
redeye, properly resize them — even redraw them — to make
you feel good about your graphics and thus your website.
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Do
your pictures with people in them need a professional touch?
Okay, let's make them BE-YOU-tiful, voila!
Future
businesspeople! Original pic: 39k
And just
below, sharper with truer color. However ...
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... it is true that sometimes you may want a color
cast to set a particular mood or style. In that case, you
may want to use a high-powered firm — you know, one that can
produce those glitzy websites with all the bells and whistles.
As we noted earlier, a webmaster I'm not! So if you don't
need an artsy-fartsy sort of look, but just clean, lean photos,
then I'm your gal! |
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| original:
236k;
250 resolution (only 72 resolution is needed for web graphics);
was about 1000x1000 pixels in area (if you line up 72 pixels
in a row, you've got about one inch, so you can imagine how
big this photo was); also seemed to have scan lines called 'moire',
an undesirable pattern that can happen due to size and resolution
of image, resolution of the output device, halftone screen angle,
and some other boring (but usually fixable) stuff; lastly,
it caused the page to load too slowly |
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The
new graphic to the right is a svelte 10k, and loads lickity
split.
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I removed
3/4 of this little sandal graphic's file size before posting
it here. I took it from 40k to 8k without losing one bit of
quality.
Imagine removing 3/4 of the dead weight from your
own site!
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| Okay,
on to Logos: I'll fix up your logo for 20 bucks, matching
the colors to your site, or take out the white box, like so: |
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it frustrating when you end up using a website background color
or pattern you don't want, simply because your graphics or logos
don't match up with what you really want? |
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My instructions
for this one were:
Make it nice...oh, and can you add some text that I'll send
you in an email to it too? Noooo problem — except when I received
his email I thought, 'However will I fit all that into
this little button in keeping with my golden rule of clarity
and simplicity?!' |
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| After
- you can see the designing that went into this, while still
keeping the overall look and feel |
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Goal:
remove the fuzzies, which necessitated redrawing the logo.
$20 for this is an absolute godsend for wahm |
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| Click
this pic to
the right (even though there is no little hand thingie that
denotes a link when you hover over it) for the detailed
version;
it's really quite stunning. Testimonials follow, below: |
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Hello
Ladies,
Working with the bfw web-site
designers was one of my best experiences ever. Jennifer is
so talented , patent, polite, prompt and professional. Katie
designed an awesome Logo for my web-site and she had it down
to a tee. Everyone that has seen it thinks it is fabulous.
You go girls!!!! I will refer everyone I know to them. They
are the very best.
PS
I didn't have a clue about a website and they made it all
so simple!!! Thank you very much!! Eleanor Malden |
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And
from Jennifer, Eleanor's webmaster who outsourced this job
to me:
Thank
you again Kate for helping me out with the logo. You did
a fabulous job! As a matter of fact, I had other samples
from the group and yours outdid every one!
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| Next
up , product photos for your online stores or auctions:
Do you have three or four or five graphics on your
site you're not pleased with? Okay. You talked me into it.
Because they are so intrinsic to your success, $20 for improvements
on up to 5 product photos. Perhaps you would like
a flat monthly fee for me to fix product pictures you continually
swap out as you get new inventory. We can surely work out
a great price that will make all those products you're advertising
more appealing, like so: |
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really, which bracelet would you be more inclined to purchase?
Try to see your graphics through the eyes of your customers. |
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There's
usually a trade-off. In this case, I thought a subtle drop
shadow would be called for, but this would have done one of
two things: made the file size unacceptably large for the
client website, (even though it's only 11k) – or sacrifice
quality. So I left it as is. |
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| 223k
to begin with, again, slowing down the loading of the web page. |
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| Removed
205k of file size in the process of lightening, sharpening,
and properly resizing. |
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Let's
say you want to show off the included brooch or the lace detail.
We can do that, as shown below, right, if the original has enough
resolution (ie, not a graphic from the web at 72dpi) Ah, but
now how many people do you think you might lose simply because
of a distorted thumbnail pic that likely won't get clicked?
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| We see
this all the time. Now if you go through the trouble and expense
to set up an online store or auction, doesn't it make sense
to
show off your products in their most favorable light? Especially
now that you know that with ktimagead, (KTIA),
it will not be cost-prohibitive, and can very well increase
increase your sales. |
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Before
KTIA:
Tacky white squares?
You be the judge. |
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Better
now? Is it worth the $20?
Again, you're the judge!
Click
here to see the actual 2k photos in the website so you
can truly appreciate the value of KTIA's services. It will
open in a new window so you don't lose your place here. |
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Okay
now below is a classic example of what I just love to do for
you guys. And I love to do it because it's such a small change
that can cause such a dramatic difference, and it doesn't
cost you an arm and a leg. Say you've got a standard, royalty
free clip art graphic you can grab from programs like Word.
You like the graphic, but the colors don't go well with your
site, and well, it just seems like it's missing something.
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Original:
8k New: 2k |
Let's
change colors |
Let's
add your name |
... and make it fit |
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And here's
one I made to match my own site, from the same kind of clip
art
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through PayPal
