How To RedBubble

I just thought I would sit down and write out a few of the things I do that make my experience in Red Bubble a lot more enjoyable. I’m putting these ideas down in a form of tips, please don’t take these as Gospel!! These are the things I do that I find helps my work get recognized. Things will be different for each of us and we all find our own place. With that said, a lot of these tips will be placing emphasis on recognition. If you wanna be noticed within the Bubble, you have to know what the best way to do that is. Hopefully you can take a little something with you from this that helps you out too :) Oh and just a sub note … I am a photographer, so a lot of my experience is with getting my works seen. Hopefully I don’t place too much emphasis on JUST that side and anyone else can apply some of these tips to whatever creative works you do :) If you can think of any more tips you use … or you are a better writer than I am (THAT MEANS MOST OF YOU!!! LOL) feel free to ADD to this and post it in your own Journal!! PLEASE!! :) Just link back to this original :) Part One – Uploading Choose what you upload carefully It’s soooooo easy to have a group of wonderful works you want to upload and share with everyone that you upload work after work after work. My advice … don’t do it. Why? Because your work will pass so quickly through other people’s Activity Monitor that by the time they look at it again, they probably would have missed a lot of them anyway. Another reason is that if you do this on a regular basis … you may actually stop a lot of people from seeing other works on their AM and so, they may even unadd you as a contact for that very reason. Assume most people are only going to have the time to comment on ONE of your uploaded works. We all have a lot of contacts in RB and like to keep up, so doing the rounds is a Quick way of visiting. It isn’t an indication of our work … it’s a matter of time restraints. Think about what you are going to upload. Have a small list of choices and pick the better 3 or 4 of them. If you have 12 really cool works you want to upload … split the uploads into Days of 4 each … or Half Days of 3 each. And always upload what you consider to be the BEST in these Groups ….... LAST. There are two main reasons for this. Usually the last thing you upload is going to be the FIRST thing others see of you. The other reason has to do with timing which I will touch on now. Choose when you upload Timing when you upload your work has such a significance on the reaction and response to it. Think about it … you are up late … it’s 3am and you just finished working on something and are so excited. So you uploaded it to the Bubble and wait. And wait and wait and wait. Hmmmmmmm. No one is there!!!! Maybe in the morning when people start getting up and load up bubble, the first few might see it … IF they get that in their AM’s. For the most part as people start getting up and posting stuff … suddenly yours starts disappearing off their AM’s and even off the Recent page on the Gallery Page. The best time to upload is when your work is going to be see by the Maximum amount of people. I find the best time for this is in the morning (Before work) or in the evening (After Dinner). It’s most likely at this time you will receive spontaneous responses. And as a last point with timing …. again … upload the 3 or 4 you have picked … timing it so that the LAST and BEST is uploaded at the time that it is going to receive maximum exposure. If you like to see your photos on the Popular pages … try to follow these tips but upload in the morning. The more views, comments and favs you get .. .the higher up the pop. lists your work is going to move .. especially in Today’s most popular list. View all my HOW TO’S

Almost every day I see people asking “how do I put pictures in my profile”. There are quite a number of tutorials on how to do this, and here is yet another. This one explains how to use the image from your “preview/buy” page in your profile, and also gives an explanation for creating a profile with smaller images, like the one below. The tutorial is written in a pdf format (for windows PC users – sorry mac people, I wish I could put the instructions in for you) and includes full link texts (difficult to put into a journal on Redbubble because the code you need to type in converts to images unless you leave spaces) and some screencaptures to help along the way. Download it from here: Profile Pics Tutorial This is only one of many other tutorials on this subject. Some can be found in the community forums - This helpful one How to Add a Portfolio in your Email Signature can be found in the Learning Centre Community Forum Others can be found by searching (try searching for profile help, or profle tutorials), or by visiting the How To Redbubble Group Some of the tutorials in this group that are geared towards profile modification are: How To Make Sets in Your Profile by Craig Shillington How To Add Pictures to Your Profile by StacyLee How To Tag Your Work by Jo O’Brien How To Create a Most Popular Link for your Profie by GerryMac Linking Photos in Redbubble by Craig Shillington Buttons and Links to Sets by Craig Shillington Making Your Redbubble Profile Badge by webgrrl Not included in the How To Redbubble Group are these two handy journals by Helen Bascom: Creating Landscape Thumbnails the Correct Size How to Link Thumbnails If you have links to other tutorials relating to profiles or image links, please feel free to add it by leaving the link in a comment.

I just answered a question in a certain group forum, and it occurs to me that it may be useful to others. Feel free to ask any questions. So here goes: General rule-of-thumb: expose to the right. What that means, is – use your histogram and get your exposure to the right half without hitting the far right edge. Anything clipped (blown, over-exposed) will be data lost for good. The same goes for black clipping (under-exposed). The reason exposing to the right is better then to the left, is that recovering data/detail from dark areas creates noise – whereas the reverse does not. A little rule that may help you with exposure: / Sunny 16 Basically what this catchy-named rule means, is this: / Given a bright and sunny day outdoors, correct exposure for any scene will be f/16, 1/125 SS, ISO100 (also known as ASA) Working up and down with this (and your histogram displays 8 stops of light) you can adjust to suit. For example – a slightly overcast day: / f/11, 1/125, ISO100 (1-stop wider aperture) / or / f/16, 1/60, ISO100 (1-stop slower SS) / or / f/16, 1/125, ISO200 (1-stop more sensitive film/sensor) If you have a specific requirement with SS (stop motion, blur, etc), adjust the other parameters to compensate. To stop your hand motion blur, use the reciprocal of your focal length. Example: 100mm needs at least 1/100th SS. Crop bodies need to be multiplied by the crop. (ask if confused) / If your subject is moving, double SS. If you are also moving, triple it. / Of course using a tripod (and you should whenever feasible) changes this. With photography, each numerical value doubles. / ISO: 100/200/400/800/1600/3200 / SS: 25/60/125/250/500/1000/2000/4000/8000 Aperture can be remembered by using this system: / Use two numbers (f/1 & f/1.4) and double them as you go. f/1, f/2,f/4,f/8,f/16,f/32 / f/1.4,f/2.8,f/5.6,f/11,f/22 Now put them together and you have your full range of full-stop apertures :) Some cameras will list 1/2 or even 1/3 stops. Aperture effects Depth of Field (DoF), which is the distance between the closest area in acceptable focus, and the furthest. Choose your aperture to suit your subject/scene. Adjust the other two parameters accordingly. If you ever come up to a situation that has a very high dynamic range (DR) and can’t wait for better light – bracket your shots. That is, expose +/- from the above settings. You can then either decide what you like best, or even combine exposures. (ask how). Of course – if you are a street/candid/journalistic/wildlife style photographer, then you may only get one chance. Which is more the reason to learn the above. Using additional lighting such as flash is a different matter, and other rules apply. The above is a basic guide to correct exposure for everyday and natural conditions. Hope this helps some people. Feel comfortable in asking anything, or contributing.

Looking for a ‘check list’ or ‘running sheet’ for your next exhibition? Thanks to the power of google.com, and a spare hour on a Saturday afternoon of sporadic rain, I found a few PDF’s that should help you: Events Management Check List ... I really like this one! It’s comprehensive, has tick-boxes, and could easily be modified to suit any type of event. Running, Promoting and Organsing your Event / ... Page 1 to 17 have great information on setting up and ensuring your t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted. Page 18 to 20 are the pages you want to print! Club/Association Management Program / ... This is a most extensive booklet (36 pages) outlining EVERYTHING about exhibition running. Whilst it is aimed at sport clubs, the information is easily transferable to anyone’s exhibition. Page 19 says … / ” It is essential that an event has an evaluation process that is more than simply monitoring the planning and implementation. Evaluation should be carried out through the life of the event as well as at the end. Information recorded from monitoring provides a record and can be kept as a historical record for events that are held regularly. Criteria for success, and methods for measuring those criteria, need to be set when the event is first planned. Measures depend on the important questions to be answered. Questions may have to do with attendances, quality of staff, revenue, public opinion and press coverage. Methods for obtaining the information needed to answer the questions might include statistics for attendance, questionnaires from participants and spectators, and financial records. “ Survival Guide to Event Management / ... Another long-winded yet comprehensive (56 page) PDF that has a lot of useful information. Visit these pages for the details you really want: 9, 16, 24, 27, 32, 36-37. But you MUST read every other page in conjunction to get an overall and complete view of how to run your exhibition properly and successfully! Submission form for Major Events / Activities in Adelaide / ... Maybe your exhibition is SOOOO BIG that you need to fill this in. Event Guidelines / ... This could easily have been ripped off from any one of the suggested PDF’s above, but it still has some interesting information. You’ll want pages 21 to 24.

Meeting complete and utter strangers off the internet is not easy, even for the most social butterflies, and even if you feel like you know them pretty well from online. The first time I did it, I was meeting 20 bubblers at some pub I’d never been to, and I was supposedly the organsier- I was a nervous wreck! So think about how best to comfort people and make them realise that not everyone on the internet is a scary monster… - meet in a public place where there are passers by / - consider a daytime meet / - ensure any activities include people / - invite attendees to bring a friend or partner along for moral support / - be clear about how to identify each other at the meet up point / - have a way for attendees to contact you/someone on the day / - touch base with attendees prior to the day so they know you really do exist and that it will be going ahead. Inviting People / Well I can tell you how not to invite people- with a vague open ended forum post like “anyone in suchandsuchatown want to meet up one weekend?” This results in three pages of umming and arring and trying to work out details. What you need to do is give it some thought and present a cohesive idea along with the message that you are flexible to other people’s ideas. / Here is an example of how I first suggested a group of us drive 3 hours out of melbourne for a night in Lorne. I suggest having the following details in your invitation post: - A date and time to meet / - A specific meet up location (somewhere well known is best) / - A suggested activity for the day/evening / - How you will identify each other / - How you will contact attendees should there be a change of plans / - How attendees should contact you/someone else should they be late etc. / - Advise people on what they should bring- lunch money, camera etc. Once you have written and posted your invitation in all the right places, (such as a relevant group) people will start to respond. Some will jump in with a big YES!, others will express disappointment at living at the other side of the world, others will ask you to change the date, some will ask you to change other details. When negotiating details, remember that more changes, the more confusing it gets. So don’t feel like you need to bend to every person who can’t make a certain date, or whatever. Some people will miss out – they can come to the next one! A few days before Let attendees know that it is in fact going ahead, confirm the details and get yourself orgainsed. If you have promised them red balloons to mark the meet up point- buy them. If you need to wash your picnic rug, do it. Just trust me on this. You will be nervous on the day itself and are more likely to forget things. Some of my suggestions for the day before are: - charge you camera batteries / - print off a list of people who are coming and any mobile numbers you have for them / - double check any reservations you have and confirm numbers / - Charge your mobile phone and ensure you have enough credit to make several calls / - If you are doing the popular red balloon thing, bring string to tie them to something / - Pack a map, even if you know the area well. It makes giving directions to others easier. / - If there is a reservation, make sure attendees know what name it is under Once you are all packed, leave everything you are taking at the front door or in a pile somewhere like that. On the Day This is the bit where people call you to cancel, rock up late, get lost, and never arrive for reasons you will never find out. - Have your mobile phone on Loud. Boy I have learned this the hard way several times over! / - Be the first person to the meetup point / - Decide how long you are prepared to hang around waiting for latecomers / - Watch out for people arriving / - Introduce yourself with a smile and if your real name is different to your username, introduce yourself with both names. / - Introduce people to each other as they arrive Then you all go off and have a bunch of fun!!! The rest takes care of itself, trust me :) Oh yeah, almost forget… the absolute most important bit of all / post all the photos in a journal post on redbubble so we can all see :)

One of the most common questions I’ve seen in the forum is, “What camera should I buy?” / There’s no definitive answer. In the end, most cameras on the market are decent. I’d like to think that rather than one camera being better than another, one camera is better at some things than others. A nice big dSLR is great, but can you slip it into your pocket? / A compact is handy, and great in social situations, but it’s not going to be much shop with sports or wildlife photography! / In the end, a camera is a tool and it’s important you choose the right one for the job. First up, lets look at compact cameras. / There’s plenty of these around, they’re constantly being updated, replaced and improved. Also the cheapest digital option. / Very handy for carrying with you. Can slip into a pocket and are always on hand when you need it. / One problem though is they’re slow. Slow start up, slow to take a shot, often quite a big delay between pressing the button and the image being taken, often you can lose the moment. Another is the sensor size. They have very tiny sensors, and when the manufacturers shove in as many megapixels as the larger sensor on a dSLR, the image quality can degrade. This page shows the difference in sizes between compacts, dSLRs and 35mm, also explains with tables and charts about the resolutions of these. Last, and definitely not least, image control. / There’s very little control to be had with a compact camera. / But Uncle Stevie, my compact has full manual controls! / Yes, many compact cameras do. But again, the size of the sensor comes into play here. Because the sensor is so small, the image is effectively cropped in comparison to a 35mm, or ‘full frame’ image. This is the crop factor people talk about. On a compact, this is even more profound. / Depth of field is controlled by a few factors. One is how close/far the subject is from the camera. The further away, the more depth of field. Get close, and it becomes very narrow, like in most macro shots you see. / Another is focal length. Wide angle lenses tend to have a deep depth of field, whereas telephoto, or long lenses, have quite a shallow depth. / It’s all about balancing one against the other. / 28mm on a 35mm camera is wide angle, and your subject has to be quite close to the camera for a shallow depth of field. / On a compact camera, to achieve the ‘28mm equivalent’, you have to go much, much wider. On the Canon Powershot S70, the lens is infact 5.8-20.7mm, with the 5.8 being equivalent to the wide angle 28mm. Even at the telephoto end, there’s going to be little control over depth of field. / In a way this is great for compact cameras, it means people will rarely get out of focus shots! Not so great if you’re using it as a creative control. / The other factor in controlling depth of field is the aperture, but quite often this ends up having no effect due to the extreme wide angle of the lenses in use. Somewhere in the middle ground is the dSLR-like group of cameras. / They look a lot like an SLR, have a lot of the features, but they don’t have interchangable lenses (blessing and a curse, the more a lens can do, the less it does well, but you’ll never have to worry about a dirty sensor!) of a true SLR. Their response times can be sluggish, but not as slow as a compact. The biggest downfall is the same as the compacts. The sensor. Most share the tiny sensor of a compact, running into the same issues. They often have a much greater reach with extremely long zooms, which is why they need to be a lot bigger. The dSLR market is not quite as flooded with models, but there’s still a wide choice. Some entry level models come in cheaper than some compacts, while the top of the line can be in excess of $10,000. Here budget plays a big part in deciding what to buy. If you buy a $10,000 body but can’t afford a good lens, your images will suffer. The lens is the most important part of the equation here. They’re the part you keep. Unfortunately digital camera bodies are an expensive, yet disposable item. / What do you need out of your camera? / Are you going to be shooting sports? Possibly spending time in bad weather? Shooting gigs in low light? / You need to look at what you’re doing and decide if you need weather sealing, good high ISO performance, fast FPS. / These are the major differences as you move up the camera food chain. And while it might be nice to be able to shoot at 11fps, do you NEED it? / Also, if you’re going to get big, expensive lenses, you may need a pro body designed to handle them. The entry level models are designed to work best with the more affordable light, plastic bodied lenses. / Decide what you want to do, work out what you need and then find out what will fit both your needs and budget. Film SLRs! / But Uncle Stevie, film is dead. The man in the camera shop said so. / Of course he said so. / What’s in his best interest? Selling a $2,000 digital camera that’s obsolete in 18 months, or selling a $500 film camera that’ll produce beautiful images for a lifetime, or longer, and the odd roll of film for a couple bucks? Film is far from dead. While consumer films are dropping off, companies such as Fuji have continued to improve and extend their professional film range. Recently due to great demand they brought back Velvia 50. An all new type of Provia was released. Companies that have ended film production have had their processing plants bought out by other companies who are filling the demand. / Just as print film, slide film and black and white films all have different characteristics, between each other and brands, digital is just another medium with its own characteristics. / Depending on the situation film is not more expensive than digital. So in summary. Think about what you want from your camera, both in terms of portability, function and artistic aesthetics and get the best tool for the job. Make sure you get what you need out of the camera (and yes, that may be the portability of a compact!), forget the other bells and whistles. When budget is a constraint, remember to take into consideration lens choice and other accessories such as memory cards, card readers, filters, extended warranties, etc. If you have old lenses and want to use them on your new camera, check for compatibility first. Most importantly, go into a store, handle the cameras, find one that feels comfortable to hold and use. Compare viewfinders, make sure you can see clearly, especially glasses wearers. For the most part, ignore megapixel counts. It’s become a race and a way to market new cameras, but people can and have been printing quite large images from 6mp cameras. (Keep in mind RB requires 10mp for large prints). If you want to try film, don’t be put off by the talk of it being dead. You can pick up a second hand film body for next to nothing, and trying out a couple rolls of film won’t cost much at all. Keep in mind, this advice is my opinion. Not everyone will agree with everything I’ve said. / I’ve not mentioned any particular models because they change so fast. Latest news, reviews and comparisons can be found on the DPReview website.

A lot of people are asking how to do the links to sets of photos or works in our profiles … so I thought I would outline it here for those of you that would like that option. First thing is to have sets in mind and tags to associate with those sets. Then … make sure you have those tags on the photos you want in each set. This way a photo can actually be in more than one set if you like :) Then …. to make the links in your profile: (I’ll use my tree tag as an example) / you type the set name followed by the link to all your photos tagged with tree like this ….. but without the spaces: ” Trees ” : http://www.redbubble.com/people/crackers1967/art/everything/tags/tree When you do this without the spaces you get this: Trees / Edit your Profile and place the set code somewhere within the About Me section. I place mine down a little lower because for some reason long lines get cut when you view your Profile on your Overview page, it looks neater down lower and only viewable when someone clicks on the more link. You should be able to copy and paste that line with the spaces and just change the word, tag name and username, then remove the spaces and go for your life. :) You can also bullet the list by placing a hash and then a space before the whole lot and it looks like this: Trees / / The easiest way to see what your username is, is to open up RedBubble and click on View your public Profile. Look in the address bar of your browser and it will show you your username at the end of the address: http://redbubble.com/people/ username View all my HOW TO’s

I’ve been really diggin the widgets ive been making, and placing them all over the place. It started just with my own personal stuff that i wanted to put on my other blogs/websites (yes, i have many).. then, i wanted to show others how they could utilize the RSS feed found within Redbubble (gallery, groups and forums). today i made a PAGE of Widgets from the RSS feeds of some of the groups i belong to in Redbubble.. / Widgets for You if you want me to make you a widget that i havent made yet..just bubblemail me. if you would like any of the widgets you see on the page, just click on the “Get Widget” button/link and it will give you codes you can copy and paste into your website, profile at myspace, facebook, bebo, and many other places..you will see all the familiar logos ;)

Keep your portfolio short and sweet. Show only your absolute best work and ensure your portfolio can be flicked through in under a minute. People have really short attention spans Use tags. But only use relevant tags which describe key features of the work. Use your journal to give buyers a glimpse into your motivations, inspirations and learning. Don’t put anything negative in it (people can see it!) Remove negative or critiquing comments from under artworks- potential buyers can read them and you don’t want them to be put off Personalise your work by adding meaningful descriptions that tell your audience about how the work was created, what it was inspired by or the story behind it Think about and make a deliberate decision on how much to charge for your art

I host moderate and/or participate in a fairly wide range of forum systems, and found one thing conspicuously absent in the group forums here on red-bubble – the ability to get notification of posts in a forum or topic you are interested in. The problem is compounded by the fact that each group has its own separate forum, each of which you have to navigate to. There is an RSS feed I grumbled to one of the group leaders about this, and was told that there was in fact an RSS feed for the forums. This seemed promising, as i use RSS feeds on one of my own sites to notify when someone posts a new image, or a new exhibition date. (I really don’t like having to go chasing round websites to see if anything has been added!) (For an overview of RSS on redbubble see Craig Shillington’s RSS is here journal entry. It includes a lot of useful information on setting up an RSS reader, which I won’t repeat!) Feeds and Group Forums There is a separate feed for each forum within a group, but as Craig has already commented there is no useful indication on the page that an RSS feed is present. (You can tell if you know what to look for – if you look at the page address in the browser toolbar, you’ll see an orange icon on the righthand side if there is an RSS feed.) If you subscribe to the feed on the forum you are interested in, following Craig’s instructions, you will get ‘notified’ of new messages or topics in that forum. Thsi isn’t much of a gain unless you already have a newsfeed reader in use, or you are going to monitor several different forums in different groups. Its a big gain for me, since I use Google reader on my iGoogle page, so I get a quick check whenever I open a new browser window. (and, as I said, I’m already using it to monitor other sites). problems Unfortunately, there are some bugs in the current feed implementation – the structure doesn’t follow the standard, and nor does it follow recommendations for maximum / interoperability with readers. (These bugs have been reported to redbubble support). At present, I can’t get the feed to work correctly inside an email rss client, which would possibly be more useful – I’ll recheck this when the current bugs are fixed. status I’ve checked the current feed using the Google reader and using bloglines and it works satisfactorily in both. I haven’t checked any of Craig’s recommendations Problem solved? well, not really, but its a useful halfway step (for me at least), and provides a possible starting point. I’ll be happy to try to sort out any queries on the above … and I’d be delighted if someone else tells me I’ve wasted my time and gives me a better solution :smile: hope this helps someone!

This is a question I see on a regular basis in the forums; sometimes in the journal entries as well. I know that RB has posted this information in the forums, though for most new people it’s difficult to find. When you run a search from “my bubble” it doesn’t pick up forum threads, and if you aren’t a forum watcher (or don’t know the forums are there) you don’t even know you can search there. For anybody looking for the base information for required image sizes, the forum thread to see is in The Learning Centre Forum – FAQ listing posted by Peter What the post doesn’t tell you is that the various print sizes differ from image to image, based on the uploaded size of your image. Below are the minimum redbubble required pixels for printing, as well as 3 images of my own showing the uploaded pixel size, and the resulting printout size at redbubble. I hope this will help give an idea of what you’ll get from the image size you have. NB: if you have images that aren’t large enough for what you want, please see the end of the post for help redBubble Minimum Sizes for Prints Cards: 1300 pixels X 900 pixels Small prints: 1600 pixels X 2400 pixels / Med. Prints: 2160 X 3240 pixels / Large prints: 2560 pixels X 3840 pixels Posters small: 2500 pixels X 3500 pixels / Posters medium: 3500 pixels X 5000 pixels / Posters large: 5000 pixels X 7100 pixels Clothing: 2400 pixels X 3200 pixels Here are 3 of my uploads with the uploaded pixel dimensions, and what I can print from them: Strokes of the Lily (uploaded size 4200 X 5067) Cards / Matted Prints 9.6 X 11.5 / All Other Prints: Small 8 X 9.65, Medium 12 X 14.48, Large 16 X 19.3 / Posters: Small 16.5 X 19.9, Medium 23.4 X 28.2 (large is not available) Softest Dreams (uploaded size 7200 X 5023) Cards / Matted Prints 12.6 X 8.8 / All Other Prints Small 11.4 X 8, Medium 17.2 X 12, Large 22.9 X 16 / Posters Small 23.3 X 16.2, Medium 33 X 23, Large 46.8 X 32.6 On The Wind (uploaded size 3900 X 2571) Cards / Matted Prints 12 X 8 / All Other Prints Small 12 X 7.9, Medium 18 X 11.8, Large 24 X 15.8 / Poster Small 23.3 X 15.3 (other sizes not available because the uploaded file is not large enough) What You can Do if Your Images are Too Small Please have a look at the links below – these are various methods and instructions for increasing your image size so you can print the larger image sizes on redbubble. WARNING: image quality must be excellent in order to increase from small to large, so be sure your original sized image is of good quality. Increasing your images too much will cause artifacting that will show up in your large print. Basic Resizing Tutorial / How I Enlarge Images and Preserve Their Quality by Steven Love I know there are other image size tutorials, but I wasn’t able to find them doing a search. Please, if you have (or know of) other tutorials that are relative to this journal, post a link to them in the comments.

Today I was asked by someone for a few tips on shooting street/candids. Many people like this genre, but it is not the easiest to perform successfully for many reasons, and often shots come out like – erm… snap shots. Since I took the time to write these brief pointers up for my friend, I thought I may as well share. Feel free to add, contest, debate, or send me lots of money. That last bit was a joke. Street/Candid / A few pointers: - A mid-zoom lens is ideal for candids. I use a 70-200mm on a crop body, and that would be fine for a full frame, also. If you do not have access to something in this range and/or can’t afford it, then concentrate on wider street scenes instead, and work within your equipment limitations. You do not need to have very expensive gear to do street. - 80% of people will be flattered you are taking their photo. Don’t try and hide it too much – and smile a lot. Walk up to people afterwards, and show them what you took (if digital). Without a long lens, you will more then likely be noticed most of the time. My rule is smile – and they smile back :) / (a hefty monopod can come in handy if things get out of hand) - 15% of people will not like their photo taken and either try and hide or cover their face or something. If you notice this – let them go – easy :) Respect people and their wishes. Many other opportunities around. - 5% of people are born assholes – or intensely dislike being photographed for their own private reasons. When you encounter this, just call out that you are deleting the image, and walk away. A few days ago, I was shooting a laughing session out in a city square. I laughed along with them. Someone asked me to join in, and I said that I was laughing on the inside ;) Then this guy rode up, and walked up to me. He asked me why I was shooting and I told him because it was a nice, fun thing to shoot. I asked him if he were going to join in and he said “no, not with a photographer around”. He said this as if I were a murderer. I said “easy fixed, mate. I promise not to take a photo of you”. And he walked off. Some people are just surly. NEVER hand your camera over to anyone. Even in the US, it is your right to take photos of anyone providing you are in a publicly owned area. This includes law-enforcement officers. Of course if they demand it, you must hand over your gear. But they are in the wrong, and it can usually be contested successfully. - A good way to take candids, is to visit fairs, fetes, etc – and face the crowd. Go to the side of the stage area and walk around, getting people used to you. Then start scanning the crowd through your lens. Make some jokes, take interest in the proceedings, become one with the crowd. Eventually people ignore you and you become a hunter/predator hahaha!!! / Look for emotions – listen to what is happening around you and time your shots to get the best emotive reactions. Position yourself so that light is to the left or right behind you, so that you can get reflections (catch lights) in the eyes. Always consider your backgrounds while shooting. Nothing worse then spending hours cloning out a light pole from behind someone’s head ;) / And frame your shots to allow for movement, as well as giving space to the direction someone is looking. - Wider street shots live and die by the ‘story’. This takes a little bit of keen observation and patience. A good system, is to position yourself in a people-traffic’ed (yes, I made that one up) location where you have visually composed an interesting scene. It may be a poignant billboard, or a large puddle in the street – maybe a pool of soft light spilling from an overhead lamp. And then wait like a spider :) A car will rush by as someone is walking, splashing them with muddy water – you time your shot to capture their indignation and water spray like an upturned umbrella. A mother and child walk through the lamplight, and as the mother moves back into darkness, the child, holding her hand, is illuminated. Your billboard espousing ‘have a happy day’ becomes a backdrop to a crying girl – or an arguing couple. Observe/setup/plan/wait/timing….a tripod is useful… Learn your camera so that settings are intrinsic. The less you need to think about technicalities, the more you can free your mind to focus on art. Hope that helps a little. Above all – try and relax and enjoy yourself. If you are uptight, it is contagious. If you smile, and interact with people, you will be automatically accepted.

So lets make some grungy text. You may never need this, but it’s simple to do … so why not! The image below is the only image we are going to be using today, but you will need the larger file, so clicky on THIS link. Copyright is mine – yada, yada. Open Photoshop and create a new file 800px X 600px, background set to white. Open the larger image (which you will have saved to your computer) and with your move tool selected and the shift key held down, drag the tree image over to your new file. Holding down the shift key will centre the image for you. Working on the trees layer Go to Image>Adjustments>Threshold and I want you to take the slider to the left until it reaches 80 (see image below). We’re aiming to get a lot of white in the image. Next we’re going to add the type. Select a foreground colour, I used Red. Grab your type tool and select Horizontal type – then go ahead and type something, I used RedBubble. (Arial Black > Regular>100pt>Sharp – for those who may be interested) Move your text to where you would like it to be, you can place it similar to where I placed, but it will need to be over some of the black. Once you’ve played around with this a couple times you’ll get a general idea of where the text should go. Before we go any further, we have to rasterize the text. You can either right click on the text layer and choose rasterize type or go to Layer>Rasterize>Type. Now the fun begins :-) click on the trees layer, the one you did the threshold adjustment on and select your magic wand tool, check that the contiguous box on the top menu bar is unchecked and select some of the black. Because you have the contiguous box unchecked, the magic wand tool will select all of the black areas. Now, hide the trees layer by clicking the little eye icon and click on the type layer, then press the delete key. Go to Select>deselect or press ctrl D on the keyboard. And there you have it, some grungey type text. Use your move tool to position the text wherever you want and you can drag the trees layer to the little garbage bin icon … cos you don’t need it anymore. I’ve cropped my final image. Larger file is HERE Enjoy playing, and if I haven’t made anything clear just ask me.

I was recently asked for some advice regarding shooting portraits. Since it winded up being rather lengthy I thought I’d share, for those that are interested – or would like to discuss it. / / Let me make it plain – I am not a professional portrait photographer and these points are more for casual portraits without the use of studios / backdrops / professional lighting equipment. / / Composition is extremely important when shooting portraits. It is essential to get the right framing and perspective happening, to display the person to the best that you can. That doesn’t mean they have to look beautiful – I am speaking technically. / / Perspective – / In general, there are three levels of plane that you can shoot from. Above, below, and straight on. They each produce a different effect to the viewer, and also depict the subject in a different aspect. From above – lends vulnerability. Can also impart a ‘questioning or questing’ mood. Emphasizes the cheek bones and eyes, which when looking at the camera, are wide open with pupils at the top. / / From below – imparts dominance. Gives greater power and impact to the face, while reducing the cheek bone lines. Emphasizes the bones around the eyes and chin and gives strength. Generally a more square look. / / Straight-on – An ‘honest’ portrait. ‘As-is’ feel. Great for illustrative/documentary shots, or when you want someone to look as natural as possible for a particular reason – for example, as part of a written piece about the character of a person. Also gives a simplified feeling, that can be great for humorous shots or anything that has an associated story other then the portrait itself. / / Of course, throw in angles, and you have a virtually unlimited range of choices to work within. / / Lighting - / _ / / As with perspective, different lighting gives a different feel and meaning to a portrait. Play around with side lighting, curtained windows, lampshades, off-shoe flashes, bounced and reflected light. Two semi-diffused hard lights from either side of a face with a soft central fill adds drama. Harsh light on one side with none on the other adds mystery. Soft all around diffused light looks glamorous (something people try and achieve by blurring their image – silly, really). / / Depending on the background, try and find a bit of back lighting. It brings out clarity in the hair and edges of the subject, delineating them. This is sometimes called ‘separation, and is used in videography also. / / Eyes are the shiniest thing on the human body. They are little mirrors. If you shoot a subject with their back to a window, you will have little to no light in the eyes. If they are facing a light source, you will get nice little _catch-lights that give life to the eyes. You can alter how these look by changing the angle of the subject’s head, moving your light source, or changing what the light source is. Or – you can play around with Photoshop, and not learn anything photographically ;) / / Composition - / The old rule is a strong and valid one. Give more room to the direction of the gaze. Not doing this asks more of a question, and needs to be substantiated in the subject’s attitude and/or expression to work well. Why are they looking off-frame? What’s out there? etc… / / Try not to amputate too many features – like ears. If you must, choose the frame line carefully. There are natural frames within frames – try a few crops/compositions and feel what works best. Personally, I try and spend a little time thinking about the subject, the environment – watching, trying to find the best angles to bring out the nature and character of the person. / / Group portraits - / Generally speaking, a good group portrait composition is one where the subjects’ faces are at different levels. Try it and see. Line ‘em all up – looks like a snap shot. Position the ‘family/group’ at different levels – voila! 100% improvement. / / If photographing a child, expect your best shots to be candids. Children have a short attention span and while you can amuse them for a while with sparky things and little jokes – I find the best shots wind up being those while the child is unaware. Burst mode helps a lot here, just as it does with pets ;) / / Choose a depth of field that either isolates a feature entirely, or brings the entire subject into focus. Don’t wing it. Winging it relies on luck. The more prepared and skilled you get – the luckier you get ;) There are DoF calculators around online if you search. Figure out what works well for a certain distance. / / Editing - / Ok, so you have discovered Photoshop, Gimp, PaintShop Pro – or whatever. I find there is an initial learning curve where everyone tries their hand at manipulation – from plastic skins, to glaring alien eyes, selective colouring, and so on. This may sound a little arrogant, but – leave your portraits as natural as you can. You do not do any favours to the subject by making them look inhuman. Seriously. My personal philosophy is, I edit anything that is transient. By this, I mean, a pimple /zit / love-bite/ wayward hair in the eye/etc. But I leave anything that is intrinsic to the subject – scars, eye colour, and yes, even double chins (and ladies – we all have them). If you position your subject (and choose your light and angles right) you will not need to do extensive editing. Saves a lot of time, faithfully portrays the subject and gives you a finer work. / / Any magazine portrait you see (unless it is one of those horrible before shots) has been manipulated for what the market now expects. Perfection. Perfection is not beauty. Perfection is unreal. There is no perfection. Repeat that. There is NO perfection. I do a lot of portraits. I see peoples’ skins magnified a hundred times very often. Our skins are not plastic. They are dynamic, breathing, living organs. I could carry on with this subject forever, but I hope this helps some.

What the hell is this creature? Someone asked this question (well not in this manner but close enough) and I couldn’t help but giggle. Meet the new default avatar for Red Bubble. If you’re like me and not keen to be looking a cross between a rhino and bull (I prefer to look like a cranky Samhain especially when there is so much limelight around the name at the mo), why not upload a fantastic image that is all you! If you’ve never uploaded an avatar before, it’s easy enough to do. On your “My Overview” page, click the grey [edit your profile] button towards the right side of the page. Under the right side menu titled “Things you can do:”, click the [change your portrait] button. You’ll be taken to a page that will show your current (avatar) portrait and give you an option to “Upload a New Portrait”. To upload a new portrait, click on the [Browse] button and locate an image from your pc you’d be happy to sport as your mug :0) A “File Upload” pop-up box will load. It’s just a matter of pointing to the image you want to open. Clicking on it once and clicking the [Open] button. The location path of the image will appear in the field section next to the [Browse] button Click the [Upload] button and wait for the magic to happen. When the pic has been uploaded you’ll receive a prompt saying it was successful. It’s just a matter of visiting your port and checking out your new do. Here is a visual, for those visual learners. I’m so busted for this. xxx Ronnie

As I start to write this entry, for some reason, the sound of “We are the Champions” by Queen is running around in my head…why? I have no idea. Unless it means that all RedBubblers are champions? So “my friends” I write on regardless of the “earworms” To paint in the Chinese way, you will need the “Four Treasures” paper [zhi], brushes [bi], inksticks [mo] and ink stones [yan]....I am not Chinese, so I hope I got the spelling right. You can also use bottled permanent ink, but I have a real fondness for the traditional ink stick, [more about ink later] plus it is much blacker, and has the authentic look of an Oriental painting. I must stress at this point, that the materials are extremely inexpensive, [read cheap] and thank goodness, as no other brushes will work….put away the watercolour brushes and buy only Chinese brushes…Japanese brushes will not work either. / The brushes, paper and ink will cost just a few dollars, especially if you go to a Chinese art supply shop….failing that, your regular art supply shop should stock them as well. A word or two about paper, which though it’s commonly called “rice paper”, is mostly made from bamboo pulp…you can get it with some sizing, which helps to control the ink, but why not throw caution to the winds and buy it unsized, which is what I used in all my paintings. / It may be a little frustrating to use at first, but you might discover as I did, that loss of control of paint can be a good thing, leading to hitherto unimagined heights of creativity. The brush is of paramount importance…everything depends on it….some of those available today were the same ones used in the Ming Dynasty [1368-1664] / Get three….purists will say you need only one….just don’t tell them what I said….. a soft goat or sheep hair, usually white, for broad washes, a harder brush, dark brown, for you got it, those all important calligraphy lines, and maybe a third with a blend of both kind of hairs. / I personally went mad and bought a whole bunch as I was intoxicated with the prices and thought somebody had made a dreadful mistake, and put the wrong numbers on. / I am so used to spending several hundred dollars on only one watercolour brush, that a brush for just a few dollars seemed unbelievable… Now I can hear you saying “goat”? Just the hair folks..just the hair….nobody died. / Remember this is traditional Chinese brush painting, and a synthetic brush cannot produce the same results….only natural fibers can provide the resilience and hold liquids long enough for the long and varied strokes that are so essential to the genre….. also the firm brushes will spring back easily and make the thinnest of lines, and at those prices you can afford to get the very best the shop has to offer. Look after your brushes…they will come with glue on the bristles, and after you’ve washed that off, do not recap…always wash them after use and do not let them stand in water…. Clicking on the painting below will lead you to my website and pictures of the tools you will require to try this fascinating art. The Tide Pool by Janis Zroback :

I’m sure you have noticed the change of pace in my art work in the last few days…I have added some Oriental work in ink on paper….some peaceful landscapes in the typical Chinese style of free brush painting in black ink, with touches of colour, where I felt it was needed. Chinese painting is part of a 3000 year old culture, and in experimenting with these works, I had to throw out what I know about western style painting, and start to think about painting in a more linear way. These are absolutely my first paintings in this style. I decided I wanted to paint as much as I could in the traditional way, and so I learned to grind my own ink, had stamps carved with my name in Chinese and set to work. It was hard at first to come to terms with the idea that once you put the brush to paper, that was it…no drawing first, no erasing or changing the mark in any way. However, I was thrilled to be able to stop thinking about western style perspective, and get on with mountains and rocks which have always been my favourite subject matter. Once I had mastered the techniques, the whole experience was very enjoyable, and from time to time I return to it, as a break from my usual style of work….it is a real feeling of freedom from western style restrictions in landscape painting, and I love that. It is as much about what you decide to include as what you decide to omit. If you are interested in learning more about this fascinating art I can continue to add to this journal….there are a few basic techniques, you will need to know before you start creating your own works of art…..how to grind ink [not really necessary], but fun. What materials to use, how to paint in the Chinese way etc…additionally, you may just want to learn how to use inks on rice paper in order to create work that’s not necessarily in the Chinese style.. However I will only continue if there is sufficient interest….by clicking on the painting below, you will be linked to my website, and illustrations of tools you will need. The Last Catch by Janis Zroback :

You’ve probably gone through a few of my articles, but did you know I’ve been writing since the first day of membership upon Redbubble? Feel free to read through my more-interesting and knowledge-filled articles, many that will help you travel the Redbubble path with ease and understanding. If you have any comments, questions, or further information, please comment on the respective article. MY JOURNAL Running Sheet for Exhibitions [26.April.2008] / Linking to Group Rules [ 12.Apr.2008 ] / My Own Private Bubble [ 10.Mar.2008 ] / Which Group Has My Art? [ 16.Feb.2008 ] / Making a Profit Because of Redbubble [ 31.Dec.2007 ] / Redbubble vs That Other Gallery [ 31.Dec.2007 ] / Linking Photographs [ 14.Dec.2007 ] / What Makes You Think Your Art is Good Enough? [ 15.Sep.2007 ] / RedBubble Breeds Winners [ 31.Aug.2007 ] / Idea for RB Administration [ 11.Aug.2007 ] / Advantage of Tagging your Uploads [ 01.Aug.2007 ] / Artist-Linkage and Size-Disclaimer [ 19.Jul.2007 ] / [!] Idea: Change Default to Least Expensive [ 17.Jul.2007 ] / Add This To Your Cart [ 16.Jun.2007 ] / Suggestion to RB Marketing and Code Teams [ 28.May.2007 ] MY WRITING Advantage of Choosing RedBubble / ASCII Characters in your RedBubble Journal / But Wait, There Is SO Much More / Consent for Photography Not Required in Australia / Coding your RedBubble Journal / DPI Determines Resolution, Not Quality / Tip for Answering Comments / DPI – Myth, Mania, or Massive? / DPI – Myth, Mania, or Massive? v.2 / Naming Your Art / Online Purchasing : Safe or Scary? ON FORUMS Tips and Tricks I’m always writing new articles about photography, entrepreneurialism, small-business, web-development, and about other stuff I find on the “WWW” . Expect something new, exciting and enlightening added here soon…

Looking for a ‘check list’ or ‘running sheet’ for your next exhibition? Thanks to the power of google.com, and a spare hour on a Saturday afternoon of sporadic rain, I found a few PDF’s that should help you: Events Management Check List ... I really like this one! It’s comprehensive, has tick-boxes, and could easily be modified to suit any type of event. Running, Promoting and Organsing your Event / ... Page 1 to 17 have great information on setting up and ensuring your t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted. Page 18 to 20 are the pages you want to print! Club/Association Management Program / ... This is a most extensive booklet (36 pages) outlining EVERYTHING about exhibition running. Whilst it is aimed at sport clubs, the information is easily transferable to anyone’s exhibition. Page 19 says … / ” It is essential that an event has an evaluation process that is more than simply monitoring the planning and implementation. Evaluation should be carried out through the life of the event as well as at the end. Information recorded from monitoring provides a record and can be kept as a historical record for events that are held regularly. Criteria for success, and methods for measuring those criteria, need to be set when the event is first planned. Measures depend on the important questions to be answered. Questions may have to do with attendances, quality of staff, revenue, public opinion and press coverage. Methods for obtaining the information needed to answer the questions might include statistics for attendance, questionnaires from participants and spectators, and financial records. “ Survival Guide to Event Management / ... Another long-winded yet comprehensive (56 page) PDF that has a lot of useful information. Visit these pages for the details you really want: 9, 16, 24, 27, 32, 36-37. But you MUST read every other page in conjunction to get an overall and complete view of how to run your exhibition properly and successfully! Submission form for Major Events / Activities in Adelaide / ... Maybe your exhibition is SOOOO BIG that you need to fill this in. Event Guidelines / ... This could easily have been ripped off from any one of the suggested PDF’s above, but it still has some interesting information. You’ll want pages 21 to 24.

One way to show off your artwork in a very novel and professional way is to buy a LightScribe capable DVD burner and some LightScribe CDs or DVD blanks Here is an example of what I did with this image For more info and templates about LightScribe check out this link Click Here You can now buy different colour CDs but the image wil still be monochromatic no matter what colour CD you use A traditional CD holds 700 Megs of space A great new novel way to show off your artwork is to get some business card CDs. They can hold over 50 Megs of info be it , 12,000 pages of text, 375 – 640×480 images, 40 minutes of Audio or 6 minutes of 320×240 video. They come with vinyl see thru sleeves. Sizewise they are about 61mm x 85mm rectangular in size. So these make great business cards!! There are also DVD versions of these that can hold 330 Megs of info. Here’s another type that is circular and has the top and bottom cut off! These fit right in your traditional CD or DVD player Google Business Card CDs and DVDs to get more info on where you can get them made or buy the blanks to make yourself. Hope this inspires you to make a Niovel Business card that people will remember and bring you sales! Randy Monteith

Today I was asked by someone for a few tips on shooting street/candids. Many people like this genre, but it is not the easiest to perform successfully for many reasons, and often shots come out like – erm… snap shots. Since I took the time to write these brief pointers up for my friend, I thought I may as well share. Feel free to add, contest, debate, or send me lots of money. That last bit was a joke. Street/Candid / A few pointers: - A mid-zoom lens is ideal for candids. I use a 70-200mm on a crop body, and that would be fine for a full frame, also. If you do not have access to something in this range and/or can’t afford it, then concentrate on wider street scenes instead, and work within your equipment limitations. You do not need to have very expensive gear to do street. - 80% of people will be flattered you are taking their photo. Don’t try and hide it too much – and smile a lot. Walk up to people afterwards, and show them what you took (if digital). Without a long lens, you will more then likely be noticed most of the time. My rule is smile – and they smile back :) / (a hefty monopod can come in handy if things get out of hand) - 15% of people will not like their photo taken and either try and hide or cover their face or something. If you notice this – let them go – easy :) Respect people and their wishes. Many other opportunities around. - 5% of people are born assholes – or intensely dislike being photographed for their own private reasons. When you encounter this, just call out that you are deleting the image, and walk away. A few days ago, I was shooting a laughing session out in a city square. I laughed along with them. Someone asked me to join in, and I said that I was laughing on the inside ;) Then this guy rode up, and walked up to me. He asked me why I was shooting and I told him because it was a nice, fun thing to shoot. I asked him if he were going to join in and he said “no, not with a photographer around”. He said this as if I were a murderer. I said “easy fixed, mate. I promise not to take a photo of you”. And he walked off. Some people are just surly. NEVER hand your camera over to anyone. Even in the US, it is your right to take photos of anyone providing you are in a publicly owned area. This includes law-enforcement officers. Of course if they demand it, you must hand over your gear. But they are in the wrong, and it can usually be contested successfully. - A good way to take candids, is to visit fairs, fetes, etc – and face the crowd. Go to the side of the stage area and walk around, getting people used to you. Then start scanning the crowd through your lens. Make some jokes, take interest in the proceedings, become one with the crowd. Eventually people ignore you and you become a hunter/predator hahaha!!! / Look for emotions – listen to what is happening around you and time your shots to get the best emotive reactions. Position yourself so that light is to the left or right behind you, so that you can get reflections (catch lights) in the eyes. Always consider your backgrounds while shooting. Nothing worse then spending hours cloning out a light pole from behind someone’s head ;) / And frame your shots to allow for movement, as well as giving space to the direction someone is looking. - Wider street shots live and die by the ‘story’. This takes a little bit of keen observation and patience. A good system, is to position yourself in a people-traffic’ed (yes, I made that one up) location where you have visually composed an interesting scene. It may be a poignant billboard, or a large puddle in the street – maybe a pool of soft light spilling from an overhead lamp. And then wait like a spider :) A car will rush by as someone is walking, splashing them with muddy water – you time your shot to capture their indignation and water spray like an upturned umbrella. A mother and child walk through the lamplight, and as the mother moves back into darkness, the child, holding her hand, is illuminated. Your billboard espousing ‘have a happy day’ becomes a backdrop to a crying girl – or an arguing couple. Observe/setup/plan/wait/timing….a tripod is useful… Learn your camera so that settings are intrinsic. The less you need to think about technicalities, the more you can free your mind to focus on art. Hope that helps a little. Above all – try and relax and enjoy yourself. If you are uptight, it is contagious. If you smile, and interact with people, you will be automatically accepted.

I just answered a question in a certain group forum, and it occurs to me that it may be useful to others. Feel free to ask any questions. So here goes: General rule-of-thumb: expose to the right. What that means, is – use your histogram and get your exposure to the right half without hitting the far right edge. Anything clipped (blown, over-exposed) will be data lost for good. The same goes for black clipping (under-exposed). The reason exposing to the right is better then to the left, is that recovering data/detail from dark areas creates noise – whereas the reverse does not. A little rule that may help you with exposure: / Sunny 16 Basically what this catchy-named rule means, is this: / Given a bright and sunny day outdoors, correct exposure for any scene will be f/16, 1/125 SS, ISO100 (also known as ASA) Working up and down with this (and your histogram displays 8 stops of light) you can adjust to suit. For example – a slightly overcast day: / f/11, 1/125, ISO100 (1-stop wider aperture) / or / f/16, 1/60, ISO100 (1-stop slower SS) / or / f/16, 1/125, ISO200 (1-stop more sensitive film/sensor) If you have a specific requirement with SS (stop motion, blur, etc), adjust the other parameters to compensate. To stop your hand motion blur, use the reciprocal of your focal length. Example: 100mm needs at least 1/100th SS. Crop bodies need to be multiplied by the crop. (ask if confused) / If your subject is moving, double SS. If you are also moving, triple it. / Of course using a tripod (and you should whenever feasible) changes this. With photography, each numerical value doubles. / ISO: 100/200/400/800/1600/3200 / SS: 25/60/125/250/500/1000/2000/4000/8000 Aperture can be remembered by using this system: / Use two numbers (f/1 & f/1.4) and double them as you go. f/1, f/2,f/4,f/8,f/16,f/32 / f/1.4,f/2.8,f/5.6,f/11,f/22 Now put them together and you have your full range of full-stop apertures :) Some cameras will list 1/2 or even 1/3 stops. Aperture effects Depth of Field (DoF), which is the distance between the closest area in acceptable focus, and the furthest. Choose your aperture to suit your subject/scene. Adjust the other two parameters accordingly. If you ever come up to a situation that has a very high dynamic range (DR) and can’t wait for better light – bracket your shots. That is, expose +/- from the above settings. You can then either decide what you like best, or even combine exposures. (ask how). Of course – if you are a street/candid/journalistic/wildlife style photographer, then you may only get one chance. Which is more the reason to learn the above. Using additional lighting such as flash is a different matter, and other rules apply. The above is a basic guide to correct exposure for everyday and natural conditions. Hope this helps some people. Feel comfortable in asking anything, or contributing.

This is a question I see on a regular basis in the forums; sometimes in the journal entries as well. I know that RB has posted this information in the forums, though for most new people it’s difficult to find. When you run a search from “my bubble” it doesn’t pick up forum threads, and if you aren’t a forum watcher (or don’t know the forums are there) you don’t even know you can search there. For anybody looking for the base information for required image sizes, the forum thread to see is in The Learning Centre Forum – FAQ listing posted by Peter What the post doesn’t tell you is that the various print sizes differ from image to image, based on the uploaded size of your image. Below are the minimum redbubble required pixels for printing, as well as 3 images of my own showing the uploaded pixel size, and the resulting printout size at redbubble. I hope this will help give an idea of what you’ll get from the image size you have. NB: if you have images that aren’t large enough for what you want, please see the end of the post for help redBubble Minimum Sizes for Prints Cards: 1300 pixels X 900 pixels Small prints: 1600 pixels X 2400 pixels / Med. Prints: 2160 X 3240 pixels / Large prints: 2560 pixels X 3840 pixels Posters small: 2500 pixels X 3500 pixels / Posters medium: 3500 pixels X 5000 pixels / Posters large: 5000 pixels X 7100 pixels Clothing: 2400 pixels X 3200 pixels Here are 3 of my uploads with the uploaded pixel dimensions, and what I can print from them: Strokes of the Lily (uploaded size 4200 X 5067) Cards / Matted Prints 9.6 X 11.5 / All Other Prints: Small 8 X 9.65, Medium 12 X 14.48, Large 16 X 19.3 / Posters: Small 16.5 X 19.9, Medium 23.4 X 28.2 (large is not available) Softest Dreams (uploaded size 7200 X 5023) Cards / Matted Prints 12.6 X 8.8 / All Other Prints Small 11.4 X 8, Medium 17.2 X 12, Large 22.9 X 16 / Posters Small 23.3 X 16.2, Medium 33 X 23, Large 46.8 X 32.6 On The Wind (uploaded size 3900 X 2571) Cards / Matted Prints 12 X 8 / All Other Prints Small 12 X 7.9, Medium 18 X 11.8, Large 24 X 15.8 / Poster Small 23.3 X 15.3 (other sizes not available because the uploaded file is not large enough) What You can Do if Your Images are Too Small Please have a look at the links below – these are various methods and instructions for increasing your image size so you can print the larger image sizes on redbubble. WARNING: image quality must be excellent in order to increase from small to large, so be sure your original sized image is of good quality. Increasing your images too much will cause artifacting that will show up in your large print. Basic Resizing Tutorial / How I Enlarge Images and Preserve Their Quality by Steven Love I know there are other image size tutorials, but I wasn’t able to find them doing a search. Please, if you have (or know of) other tutorials that are relative to this journal, post a link to them in the comments.

Almost every day I see people asking “how do I put pictures in my profile”. There are quite a number of tutorials on how to do this, and here is yet another. This one explains how to use the image from your “preview/buy” page in your profile, and also gives an explanation for creating a profile with smaller images, like the one below. The tutorial is written in a pdf format (for windows PC users – sorry mac people, I wish I could put the instructions in for you) and includes full link texts (difficult to put into a journal on Redbubble because the code you need to type in converts to images unless you leave spaces) and some screencaptures to help along the way. Download it from here: Profile Pics Tutorial This is only one of many other tutorials on this subject. Some can be found in the community forums - This helpful one How to Add a Portfolio in your Email Signature can be found in the Learning Centre Community Forum Others can be found by searching (try searching for profile help, or profle tutorials), or by visiting the How To Redbubble Group Some of the tutorials in this group that are geared towards profile modification are: How To Make Sets in Your Profile by Craig Shillington How To Add Pictures to Your Profile by StacyLee How To Tag Your Work by Jo O’Brien How To Create a Most Popular Link for your Profie by GerryMac Linking Photos in Redbubble by Craig Shillington Buttons and Links to Sets by Craig Shillington Making Your Redbubble Profile Badge by webgrrl Not included in the How To Redbubble Group are these two handy journals by Helen Bascom: Creating Landscape Thumbnails the Correct Size How to Link Thumbnails If you have links to other tutorials relating to profiles or image links, please feel free to add it by leaving the link in a comment.