The NEXT Evolution of Karl Drage Photography

My photography seems to be on a constantly-evolving journey, which, in my opinion, is the way it should be. Stand still, and you run the risk of going stale. As such, I’m always on the lookout for new techniques, ideas, and simply different (usually better) ways of doing things. So what does the future look like, and how did we get here?

The Start of the New Journey

After starting to make the switch to mirrorless cameras at the end of March 2022, I photographed a wedding a couple of months later and became quite disillusioned while editing the pictures. The converted RAW files that Lightroom had churned out from the bridal prep part of the day (admittedly in quite a dark room) were as noisy as anything. They were horrible. I did some reading around and discovered that this issue was not unique to me!

To cut a long story short, I ended up incorporating a new piece of software into my workflow. For a while, it was a massive learning curve, and it added days onto the already-lengthy process of editing a full wedding. BUT the main thing was that I was far happier with the output. Not only did the edited images now meet the standards I expected, they actually far and away exceeded them.

You’ll have to wait to see what this one is, if it makes the final cut for 2024

Digital or Print?

Ironically, this left me somewhat disillusioned in another way. We have become a generation who are quite happy to view things at little more than thumbnail size on our phones on social media etc. Pretty much anything looks good at that size (and if it doesn’t, it must be REALLY bad).

Google actually punishes us photographers if the quality of our images impacts the speed at which our websites load – we appear lower in search results as a consequence!

We spend so much time and money trying to produce the highest quality imagery that we can, only for it to then have 90% of that goodness compressed out of it in order for it to be sharable and likely to be seen by potential clients on the internet. It makes no sense.

The Answer is Print

As a direct result, I have found myself printing an awful lot more. Not only that, I have started printing bigger. I have never understood the point of printing photos at 6×4 (you’re wasting so many pixels and therefore details), and with the quality we are able to output today, it makes even less sense. Big prints look incredible!

There will be an acrylic fronted photo album in my 2024 product offerings

New Print Products

I have started to purchase sample products from a number of print houses that I’d never previously used. Over the last few weeks, the products have started to arrive, and some of them have literally blown me away. They convey the image quality I am looking to show perfectly and are presented in truly beautiful ways. These are heirloom products that will stand the test of time.

2024’s Offering

I’m still to finalise precisely what I want my final offering to look like, but it’s fair to say that stunning, high-quality print products are going to feature prominently in my packages in 2024, across all genres I photograph. It’s time to step things up.

This lovely folio box is one of the items that will almost certainly featuring in my 2024 product offering. Check back next year to find out what’s inside!

The images attached to this post are little more than teasers of some of the items I intend to offer. There will be plenty of new wall art products, too. There are still plenty more items on order that might prompt a slight rethink. Check back in early in 2024 to find out what made the final cut!

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