This collection contains a whole pile of themes released over the past year. You can see a growing trend that has emerged in photography themes. Theme designers are really looking to showcase a photographer’s work so there’s a huge number of full screen portfolio themes that focus on the work 100%. It’s great to see that theme designers are sensitive to the needs of photographers and are adapting their themes accordingly.

Responsive design has really taken off over the last year as well. Designers can use responsive design techniques to create fluid images, meaning that your photographs can look beautiful on any device. A number of the themes listed below use responsive design for beautiful image resizing.

So on to  30 of my favourite free and commercial WordPress themes for photographers.

Commercial

Photoshot

Sideways

Buy

Anan

Buy

Invictus

Buy

Immense

Buy

Adventure

Buy

Panorama

Buy

Core

Buy

Kingsize

Buy

Slash WP

Buy

DK

Buy

Flashlight

Buy

Chocolate WP

Buy

Village

Buy

Gridline

Buy

Gallerific

Buy

Deep Focus

Buy

Photocrati

Buy

Sidewinder

Buy

Focal Point

Buy

Free WordPress Themes

Photography

Demo | Download

F8 Lite

Demo | Download

Big Square

Demo | Download

Mansion

Demo | Download

Minimatica

Demo | Download

Mixfolio

Demo | Download

Foto Folio

Demo | Download

Paragrams

Demo | Download

Portfolium

Demo | Download

Exposito

Demo | Download

Be sure to check out my original post on WordPress themes for photographers as well.  And bookmark my site for heaven’s sake!  :)

There are some plugins that turbo-charge any WordPress installation, taking it from blogging platform to powerful CMS. They enhance WordPress, making it faster and more powerful. Chances are that your competitors are using these plugins so maybe its time that you thought about using them too.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is an essential part of getting your site ranked on Google. The great thing about WordPress is that it’s already pretty good for SEO out-of-the-box (according to Matt Cutts, Google’s Head of Web Spam) But you can improve it further by installing a plugin that fine tunes your SEO. All-in-One SEO is a great choice that has enough options to juice up the SEO of the average WordPress user.

Analytics

Every webmaster knows that to develop your site you need to know who’s visiting, when they’re visiting, where they’re visiting and how they’re finding your site. Google Analytics is the best free tool for tracking your sites analytics. Google provides a tracking code that you can insert in the tags of your theme. However, if you change your WordPress theme the tracking code will disappear. By using a plugin like Google Analytics for WordPress the tracking code is no longer held in the theme and you won’t be in danger of your stats disappearing.

Cache

When you cache your website information is stored as a static file and served up to each website visitor. This means that your website isn’t having to reload all of the information from your database each time someone lands. Caching is the best way to speed up your website, and is particularly useful for photographers, who often have image-heavy websites which cause slow load times. A good choice is WP Super Cache.

Backups

Backing up your site is an important part of being a webmaster. You never know when your server could expire, your database corrupted or your site hacked. It’s worth making regular backups of both your site and your WordPress database. A great option for this is ManageWP. ManageWP is a service which manages your WordPress sites. It has built in backup to Amazon S3 as well as Dropbox. Currently it is in beta so is still free, but after launching at the end of November it will remain free for users with 3 sites or less.

Mobile

The world has gone mobile. More people are now accessing the internet through mobile devices than ever before. In fact, we’ve reached a point where more people are surfing the web on mobiles than on computers. You need to make sure that you’re in on the game and a great way to do this is to install a mobile switcher like WP Touch Pro (or the free version). This detects what device your site’s visitor is using and serves them up a version of the site that is suitable.

Contact Form

Contact forms are useful for letting people get in touch with you. Gravity Forms does that but it takes forms to the nth degree. You can use Gravity Forms for any sort of form building and all of the data is stored on your website’s database. It makes it easy to collect data, and to look at it later.

Social Connection

Sharing is the cornerstone of Web 2.0 – these days it’s what drives the internet. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Reddit, the list goes on and on. People are connected in ways they never have been before. Sharing is the perfect way for you to spread your photography amongst people who haven’t seen it before. Installing a plugin like ShareThis makes it easy for people to share your photography without you having to do any work at all.

Notifications

Hello bar is a notifications bar that pops up at the top of your page. It lets you add simple notification messages at the top of your page. Unlike pop-ups these bars are helpful and unobtrusive, letting you grab visitors’ attention with a call to action, without annoying them in the process. Hello bar is a commercial plugin but it comes packed full of useful features like analytics and A/B Testing.

Ecommerce

Selling photographs through your website can be a great way to supplement your income. This is possible by extending WordPress with one of the many eCommerce plugins. By installing a plugin like WP E-commerce you can sell your photographs from your site. WP eCommerce is a free shopping cart plugin that you can use to sell photographs, including digital downloads so you can sell high-resolution versions of your images – no printing required!

Spam

Spam is the scourge of every WordPress website. As a webmaster you can get endless comments asking you to buy some prescription pills or visit a casino site. Akismet fights spam. It uses an API key which you can get from WordPress.com. It is free for non-commercial use and there is a fee for commercial users. It’s a life-saer though when it comes to the battle against spammers.

A really nice  Video Specimen directed by Santiago Idelson was created as well as a really nice looking  photo specimen which you can see a few images of below.  Photography by Sergio Recabarren.  What do you think?

This is a list of HTML photography website templates that you can use for your photography website.

Galleria Template

Galleria is a very clean and professional looking HTML template for photographers.  Show off your work with this easy to customize and fully featured HTML template. You get a detailed help file with additional options like choosing between 2 different javascript galleries and 12 color schemes.

Galleria Features:

• Two easy-to-use javascript gallery’s
• Working PHP contact form
• 12 color schemes with editable PSD files
• 960.gs grid based design
• PHP template files included

Photoworks Photography Template

Photoworks is a modern web 2.0 style html site template for photography or portfolio websites. This theme has a dark color scheme.

• Best for Photography, Photographer, Portfolio, Photo Gallery
• Valid XHTML Strict and CSS
• jQuery Flow (jFlow)
• Lytebox (lightbox)
• jQuery Lightbox
• Image Slideshow
• Dropdown Menu
• Main Page, About Page, Services Page, Portfolio Page
• Ajax Contact Form
• Documentation and PSDs Included

Photon Photo Showcase Template

The Photon site template simulates a flash gallery. Everything is loaded via ajax. Photon includes a working contact form and a page template that fits any resolution. The perfect template to show off your photographs and images.

• Everything is loaded via ajax
• AJAX contact form
• Multiple Albums & Pages
• Different description possible for each photo
• 2 different color schemes

360 Photos – Full Background Template

360Photos is a clean and minimalistic template including a Jquery powered fullscreen slideshow. The layout is based on the 960 grid framework.

The background can be a single photo or a slideshow controlled by the left sliding panel. It resizes automatically, no matter the size of the browser window. You can add as many images as you want.

Features

• Possibility to create up to 10 galleries
• 10 color variants
• CSS / HTML coding

Fotofolio Photography Template

Fotofolio is a unique custom designed photography portfolio template created for photographers that require a high impact web presence but can be used for any type of artist’s portfolio ( webdesigner, graphic artist, painter etc).

• Tested and working in all major browsers: IE 6 7 8 , Chrome, Firefox 1.5 2 3 3.5, Opera, Safari
• High impact of flash sites without the drawbacks thanks to the many Javascript enhancements:
  1. PNG support
  2. Smooth horizontal scrolling with the mouse wheel and 2 arrows
  3. jQuery ightbox for viewing the fullsize of the photos
  4. Cufon font replacement – chosen font is Aller
  5. jQuery tooltips for photo descriptions
• Degrades gracefully when Javascript is not available
• A working contact form is included that you only need to add your email address to set up!
• Extensive documentation

Focal Photo Gallery Template

Focal is a clean, professional style photo gallery, for photographers wanting to present their shots, or for designers/artists wanting to showcase their portfolio work.

Features

• Valid XHTML /CSS Code
• EXIF data (if available) is automatically pulled from your photos, formatted correctly and displayed (date taken, camera make/model, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, etc.); captions can also be displayed for each photo
• Compatible with all major browsers (IE6, IE7 , IE8, Firefox, Safari, etc.); also includes an optional, user-friendly IE6 warning message (if you choose not to support it)

Famous Photography Template

Famous Photography Template is an html/css template created especially for photographers, digital artists, designers, also perfect for any company or freelancer that want a nice portfolio gallery.

The template is built with a simple look, a thumb gallery slideshow on main page, that is the main focus of this theme, where you can featured your best photos, desings, illustrations etc. A lot of new features you can find in this template like: jquery portofolio gallery slideshow using a quick ajax filter, Cufon titles replacement, fancybox to popup bigger pictures and descriptions, blog page, contact validation form and others.

Premium Photography Template

This premium photography template has lots of features and a clean layout.

Features

1. Valid XHTML & CSS using tableless layout
2. jQuery Contact Form
3. Javascript/PHP validation on form elements with instant success message
4. Drop down menus which also allow for a sub menu for photo sets
5. Custom photo gallery using jQuery
6. Highly commented code making modifications easy
7. Well documented Instructions to walk you through making changes

Modern Photography Portfolio Template

This modern photography template is quite impressive and you have to see the demo to get the full effect of this nice template.  This screenshot is from one of the inner pages but it has a really nice looking homepage.  The jquery it uses makes the transitions really smooth and adds a nice effect.

• Very clean HTML and CSS code.
• Valid XHTML 1 .0 Transitional code.
• Smooth effects for main menu & gallery pages.

Pro Gallery Template

Pro Gallery Website Template is a fixed layout with two columns. This template is best suitable for a all type of showcases, projects portfolio for personal and company websites .

Features a jQuery slider for featured photos sliding.

Boutique HTML Template

Boutique V2 is an easy to setup and customize photography template. Its XHTML and CSS valid and is jquery powered in every aspect and compatible with every major browser.

The galleries are paginated automatically, you just add images in a list.

Pacifica HTML Portfolio Template

This template is a complete website designed from the ground up to function first and foremost as a portfolio, then as a comprehensive website that can be used for just about any site that needs a beautiful layout.

This theme is ideal for artists, designers, photographers, and other creatives that are in need of a portfolio template that is professional and “to the point”. Even if you don’t need the huge image gallery page, this template will also work great for sites that need to showcase a few images above each content-page in a slick, sophisticated way. Here’s what you get with your purchase:

• 6 uniquely styled themes (Classic, Vintage, SkyBlue, Grunge, Desktop, Crimson).
• All Core Page Templates (Home, Content Page, Image Gallery, Blog Post, Services Page, and a Contact Form)
• Highly Organized Code
• jQuery Lightbox
• jQuery Thumbnail Gallery Slider
• jQuery Homepage Slider
• jQuery Subpage Mini-Slider
• Gracefully degrading code (for older browsers)
• All Layout PSD Files
• All Sliced PSD files (for easy re-skinning)
• Favicon Ready (just overwrite the browser icon with your own)

Amazing Portfolio Template

This template is not just a template, it’s fully coded and linked portfolio website, which contains 25 pages. Just edit paths or overwrite images, change some texts and upload.

Features:

• Valid XHTML and CSS
• Code documented and help_me.pdf
• PSD -file included
• Lightbox used to view full size works or photos
• Three (3) different browsing grids for portfolio, pick your own or use all of them
• A working contact form, just change your email address
• Easy customization

FocalPhoto Template

FocalPhoto is a theme that can be used as a photography portfolio. The site is completly coded an it’s very easy to add extra images and categories to the site. Included with the theme is my Image resizer script that will take care of generating thumbnails and crop the images on the fly.

• Sliced version of the website
• PSD included
• Dark and light version
• Completly coded version of the template included
• Image resizer script included for resizing images on the fly
• Ajax navigation
• Custom coded jQuery slideshow
• Graceful degrades when javascript is disabled
• Very easy to configure
• Documentation file + videos

SanFolio Template

Sanfolio is a simple and clean template for photographers to showcase there work.

Template includes:

• Valid html/css
• Layered PSD
• Jquery used for fade in fade out and light box effect

One Page Photography HTML Template

This theme is best suited for a photography and personal portfolio website as well. Template works in all the major browsers, and has massive features to use for your next projects. For most of the part you can just follow the HTML with commented codes. It’s having all the generic layout options and for photography website.

Features:

• Valid XHTML 1 .0 Strict.
• Easy to change unlimited color schemes.
• Well commented and clean CSS / XHTML Files.
• Portfolio Gallery
• Custom Font Replacement (cufon) for 3 heading tags.
• PSD file with perfectly layered and named, if you want to edit an existing Theme or create your own image, PSD File included with names for ease of slicing.
• Compatibility ( IE 7 , IE 8, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome).

Unibox Template

Unibox is a unique and professionally-designed template dedicated for people who love simplicity and want a clean website.  This site template is truly unique and really does give a professional impression.

It comes loaded with unique features and special site-wide visual and navigation effects. It use the jQuery framework along with popular and custom-made plug-ins. Unibox is a one page site template!

• XHTML 1 .0 Transitional
• jQuery Framework
• Scrollable Areas
• Full-featured Image Gallery
• AJAX Contact Form
• Unlimited Color Variations

Unifolio Template

UniFolio Website Template is a clean looking website with light weight code best suited for all type of portfolios, show cases, photographer websites, etc.

It comes with 6 skins along with complete dark color, other colors you can create within seconds by just adding colors in css file.

• Valid XHTML and CSS
• working Ajax PHP Contact Page( you just need to add your email id in contact-us.php )
• Cufon Font for Titles
• superfish multilevel drop down menu
• 2 Column Fixed layout

So there you have it, 17 premium photography website templates.  They aren’t free but they are pretty cheap.  They make a great start to any photography website.

(The things I list in this post aren’t solely for photographers btw, they’re for anyone who has a business.)

This is the time when strong businesses thrive and the weak fail. This is the time when it’s essential to hone your marketing skills to bring in new business.

If you’re a photographer and you want to boost your business in these trying times then there are things you can do when you’re not shooting to increase your revenues. I’m going to focus on the web because it’s the cheapest method of marketing and the easiest way to bring in new clients.

To a lot of people search engines are their main means of bringing in new sales (it is for me). That is because they rank on Google, Yahoo or even MSN for keywords people are using to find what they offer. If you’re the first business people find when they go online to look for information or services this means increased sales. That is why SEO has gotten so popular over the years.

If you build your site in accordance to SEO guidelines then you’ll be on your way to the top of the search engines. There are many rules to SEO but if you follow just a few you’ll be doing better than 90% of other photographers in your market. So the first of the 3 ways is making sure your site is as SEO optimized as possible.

Pay Attention to SEO

1. Make sure your site is SEO friendly. If you’re using a service where your site is easy to update and contains flash then most likely your site is not SEO friendly. If you’re paying a monthly fee to host and maintain your photography site then there is a good chance your site is really being hurt by this. When you skimp on your site you pay in the long run.
2. Make sure you blog every day. If you don’t currently blog then you’re missing out period. The more you blog the more Google and other search engines will spider your site and this will increase your traffic and rankings. And when you blog from a blog that is SEO optimized you can really see the difference.
3. Make sure you do at least some basic keyword research to figure out what people are actually searching for. There are free tools online that you can use to find this info out. Search Google for the word Keywords and you’ll find the most popular one. Type in your location and photographer and see how many numbers come up.
4. Make sure you use H tags in your web pages. H tags are basic heading tags in HTML that specify a title and specify to search engines what a page is about. So if the topic of your page is Photography Services be sure to include that title in between H tags, specifically H1 tags. There are many basic HTML guides out there you can learn how to do this from.
5. Make sure you use very specific title tags for your pages. Title tags specify what shows up in the browsers title. You know the very top of the browser. Search engines take the title tag very seriously and you should too. The more focused the better.
6. Make sure you network with other photographers. If you have friends who are photographers then exchange links with them. The more links you have to your site from related sites then the better your site will rank. Be sure your link partners use the main keyword you’re optimizing for in the link text they use to link to you.
7. Make sure you do not use a splash page on your site. A splash page is usually a flash animation that is an intro to the main part of your site. It usually contains flash and sometimes music. Splash pages are outdated and should never be used on a site. And I mean never if you ever want to rank well on any search engine.
8. Make sure your site isn’t solely in flash. If it is you’re sacrificing rankings. You need real textual content on your site search engines can read. If you can’t get away from flash make sure you include pages on your site that are linked to from the footer or non flash section that include keywords you want to rank for.
9. Make sure you’re getting new incoming links each month. Incoming links are links from other related websites. You can get new links to your site by writing and distributing articles like this one, distributing press releases, writing killer blog posts that people willingly want to link to or exchanging links. There are many ways to get links and that is just a few ideas.

Being Found via Local Search

Are you on Google Local?

The second method has to do with local search. You can rank on Google very quickly by listing your site as a business in your local area. All you have to do is search Google for “Google Local Business” and the first listing that shows up is Google’s where you can add your business.

What this does is allow you to list your business details including your URL to Google Local and also Google Maps. People searching for your service or business can then find you more easily in their location. Local business listings show up before organic listings in most cases. This depends on what keywords people are using to search of course, but being listed in Google Local is an easy way to get a front page listing in a matter of days.

Another way to get attention is giving away coupons. Google printable coupons are a free and easy way to bring in more business. You decide what your coupons should say, then customers print them out and bring them to your store.

Social Networking is a Must

The third method is social networking. Networking is crucial to any business and has become a lot easier due to the many social networks online now. If you’re a true marketer you can’t ignore the fact that Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin and even Youtube have millions of users who are all interested in certain things, have certain connections and all have needs.

If you’re not taking advantage of social networking right now then you are missing out on a huge audience. Youtube alone has already surpassed Yahoo as the second largest searched site on the web. That means more people search Youtube then they do Yahoo.

People might be on Youtube for different reasons but you can take advantage of this by educating, entertaining or even showing off your work. You already have digital media in the form of photographs. Put those photos into a slideshow video and upload it to Youtube, Googe Video, Yahoo Video, Vimeo, Revver, Viddler, Metacafe or even AOL.   To simplify things you can upload to multiple sites in one fell swoop using a service called Tubemogul.

Don’t forget to brand your videos with a URL back to your site. You can use free video editing software from Microsoft called Movie Maker, Videospin from Pinnacle or even Jumpcut. Brand your videos with your logo, URL and even by giving a quick presentation at the end which includes yourself talking. People love to see other people talking. They should be seeing you next! If you haven’t capitalized on social networking yet then shame on you. The world is out there waiting for you.

If you want to take all your marketing efforts to a new level then give something of value away for free. Give away a PDF ebook on how to take the best photographs, how to save money on their next photo shoot or how to make their photos last a lifetime. If you can put together an informing ebook on a topic people will enjoy and value you’ve just gone a step further than the majority of photographers out there. And this will set you apart big time.

The economy is bad. Everyone knows it. But it’s not the end. If you have some free time right now be sure you are making every effort to market yourself. Marketing online is the cheapest and easiest method available. And don’t forget the offline world where the majority of people reside. That’s very important too.  I’ll talk more about marketing offline in a future post.  Good luck!

This is probably the easiest method for displaying an image gallery on your site or blog.  It takes about a minute or two to set up.  Now you can display your flickr photos in style.  To build your own go here to the PictoBrowser builder page.

If you’re a photographer or artist and you want to use wordpress to run your site there are some themes available that focus on photography you can use. WordPress is free to use and it makes running a website a lot easier then it used to be. Below is a list of wordpress themes specifically geared towards photographers.

WordPress Photography Themes

In a hurry? Jump to any theme now: Photocrati, Deep Focus, Chocolate WP, Photorific, Core Theme, Brick+Mason, Family Tree, Photo PurePress, Showcase Theme, Pixelhappy, Gallerific Theme, Kin, Modern Business, Photo + Blog, Dandelion Theme, Nexus, Atlantica,

Photocrati offers a wordpress theme geared towards photographers which includes 15+ different styles. It is a simple straight-forward theme for the amateur or professional photographer.

NEW: Photocrati 4.0 has just been released with new gallery management and ecommerce capabilities.  That’s right, the new 4.0 theme has built-in eCommerce galleries.  Be sure to check it out.

It is now also iphone/ipad/ipod compatible!  View the demo

Deep Focus is a premium photography theme geared towards photographers from ElegantThemes and it is quite impressive and you can grab it for only $39.95.  You also get access to all their themes with great support.

Chocolate WP is a brand new WordPress theme that has a lot of great new features.  It showcases your photos in full width so that they encompass the entire browser window which looks great on wide screen monitors.  It also works with the woothemes Tumblr app allowing you to create posts like you do on tumblr, which is very convenient.  A full review is coming soon.  View the Demo here.

The Photorific Theme is a new photography WordPress theme that features full-width images.  You can set as many background images as you want for every page, post, & portfolio item. The image will be automatically stretched to fit the users browser. This theme also comes with a color picker, 30+ shortcodes, 3 widgets, an AJAX contact form, unlimited sidebars and much more. You can also choose your own fonts for regular text, and choose from 7 preinstalled cufon fonts that look great.  View the Demo Here.

The Core theme is a more minimalistic theme that offers 3 Homepage styles with a full screen slideshow to showcase your photography in style.  It includes a built-in font manager so you can upload your own font.  View the Demo here.

The Brick + Mason is named after the fact that it is based on a grid and includes cool new jquery features you have to see for yourself to understand.  It utilizes infinite scrolling so users don’t have to leave the page to experience all your photos. This theme also uses the jQuery masonry plugin so the content will fit any browser size. If you’re looking for a cool minimal style theme with unique features this one is pretty good.  View the demo.

Family Tree is a child theme for the Genesis framework from StudioPress. It is pretty unique in this list of themes as it has a more cutesy design to it making it perfect for mom bloggers, photographers or crafts blogs.

PurePhotoPress is a professional WordPress theme for photographers. Creating your photo gallery website has never been so easy!

The Rich ShowCase theme is a well-designed solution for your portfolio and photo gallery demands. The theme lets you publish photos in hierarchical galleries, and albums. Besides that, the Rich ShowCase theme takes care of all your blogging needs as well.

Pixelhappy theme from Studiopress is a clean and versatile theme which you can use for your photography business. It has many options including 1, 2 or 3 columns, multy-threaded comments and drop down navigation.

Gallerific is a premium theme with a grid based layout and powered by features such as a homepage slider and animated jquery menus.

KIN is a minimalist magazine style photography template (WordPress version). With 2 style variations and support both image gallery and videos.

Modern Business 3 DARK WordPress is a custom written premium theme. Designed for photographers to easily create gallery pages of their work and display perfectly against a dark background – with a splash of color if required in the header areas all from within a custom written admin panel.

Photo + Blog Premium is a 2 column WordPress theme ideal for the Photographer who wants an online gallery along with a blog.

Dandelion is a Powerful Premium WordPress Theme. This theme provides all the main functionality you will need to present your products, work and yourself in an elegant and professional style.

Photo Nexus wordpress gallery is a 2 column , 2 color variation ( Bright and Dark) theme.

This theme is great for those who need a convenient way to publish and showcase a self managed Gallery of Photos, Arworks or Designs.

The theme features modern yet minimalistic style so that your work will be guaranteed to be on focus. The theme comes added with Admin theme options so you won’t need to manually edit the files to get it running.
Photo Nexus wordpress gallery – View Demo & Buy – Only $25

The Atlatica theme is a complete WordPress Theme, designed from the ground up to function first and foremost as a portfolio, then as a comprehensive WordPress theme that can be used for just about any site that needs a beautiful layout.

Photography HTML Templates

Are you good with HTML or editing web templates? You might want to consider using an HTML template for your photography site instead of using wordpress. WordPress has a lot of advantages but some people might not need all the features. In that case you can build your site using simple HTML.

I have a post on Photographer HTML Templates that I’ve recently written you can check out.

HTML Email Templates for Photographers:

As a photographer you might also may want to send out a newsletter to remind your clients of upcoming events or specials you may be offering. Which is a great way to stay in touch with your clients and fans. In that case here’s a post on HTML email template you can use. Simply copy and paste in your content.

So this is my list of photographer WordPress themes. I’ve spent a lot of time putting this list together and have just upated it further. All of these themes work with the current release of WordPress 3.0.1

I’m intending to add some more info on how to further help your photography blog or website. If you’re interested then please leave a comment and let me know what you want to know, or learn. I’m happy to help photographers in any way I can so let me know what you need help with and I will try and answer your question in a new post. Hope this post has been helpfull.

If you liked this post you might also like 3 ways photographers can boost business in a bad

If you know of any themes that should be on this list but are not let me know.

I’ve been a fan of Lomo cameras and Lomography for almost 10 years now because of their uniqueness.  Lomo cameras are simply the most fun and creative way to have fun with photography I’ve found.  Now logomography.com has released a new Redscale film that will tint your shots in vibrant reds.  Awesome!

This is the world’s very first pre-loaded and ready-to-shoot RedScale film – designed to re-cast your image in a sea of powerful and seriously intense red, orange, and yellow tones. With your “red-eyes” fully focused, allow us to show you this wunderbar effect – all thanks to a very special film that’s spooled on the wrong side.

The “Red Scale” effect has actually been with us for quite a while. You see, your average 35mm color negative film has a semi-transparent layer on the back – designed to keep stray light from getting onto the sensitive emulsion on the front. At some point, a few bright photographers got the idea to load the film “backwards” and actually shoot through this protective layer. The result is close to shooting through a reddish-orange filter. But unlike a filter, the effect is a bit unpredictable and varies in strength depending on the subject and light source.

We’ve always loved the effect, but the whole process wasn’t all that convenient. Lomographers do a lot for the sake of their images: processing in the wrong chemicals, taping up seams, tossing film in the washing machine, leaping head over arse, and so on. But if things can be easier – and therefore “BE FAST,” then why not go for it? So we worked with our friendly neighborhood film suppliers and cooked this up: a pre-loaded, ready-to-shoot, and ready-to-rock RedScale film.

Rated at 100ISO and packing 36 exposures per roll it is hungry for sunlight, thirsty for long exposures, and quite unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

Read more here or go buy some already!

Their software allows you to easily upload your photos, then drag them to any desired page so you control the layout. You can have text below or next to your photos if you like or none at all for a sleek look.

I made one of these for my wife in about 2 hours… take into account I was enhancing all the images with photoshop actions so that’s what took so long. If your photos are already ready then you could have your book made in as little as 10 minutes if you’re quick. That’s how easy their system is to use. I think it’s a cool way to share photos of your kids or whatever with your family/friends. It’s the perfect gift for grandparents too.

This is the first book I’ve done using lulu.com and it was a breeze. Now I just can’t wait to see how it turns out. If good, which I’m expecting then I can easily order more from the product page. Super simple!

View their holiday shipping schedule to see if you still meet the deadline for Christmas. If you missed it you should still give it a try. Better late then never right?

I’ll keep you posted how my book turns out.

Slideshowpro is now even more advanced fully supporting video! What a godsend. Any professional photographer who wants to display photographs on their website should be using this script in my opinion. It is by far the best flash photo gallery slideshow you can get right now.

Yes you can embed your favorite audio track in the slideshow, but don’t! No one likes having to listen to someone else’s favorite music. Not everyone has the same tastes. Also it’s annoying if you’re already listening to music on your computer. Let your photos speak for themselves!