The newly created homepage for dbirnbaum.com’s therapist website.

Ortner Graphics completed a new website design for Deborah Birnbaum MSSW, LCSW this week. Deborah has started a new Psycho therapy service located in Nyack, New York and needed a website to help market it. Deborah also needed a logo and business cards. Fortunately, Ortner Graphics was able to be a one stop shop for all of her needs.

The first stage of the design process on this project was creating a logo. Ornter Graphics provided six logo designs to choose from. Deborah chose version utilizing a tree as the corporate mark. This was due to the symbolic strength and tranquil nature. Being in the medical field, the site needed to be presented in a clean and simple manner.

In our initial consultation Deborah had requested that the site maintain a clean and simple design. She especially wanted the site to have an overall soothing feeling with an emphasis on a sea green color. Ortner Graphics achieved this by using photographs of woodland settings. The woodland settings had an added advantage of further reflecting and reinforcing the tree logo design. They also helped to compliment the sea green color. On close inspection, the viewer will notice that every page uses a different woodland image.

The tranquil woodland photos were further tied to the therapy concept because they all contain a unifying path. The path suggests the journey of life. To further enhance the photographs’ concept a mysterious light source was added in Photoshop. The goal of this was to make it seem that the pat was leading towards the light. The idea being that therapy will guide you to a better place or help you see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The website’s development was implemented using the WordPress Twenty Twelve theme as its programming framework. This coupled with meticulous styling in HTML and CSS results in a site which is fully responsive.

The ultimate result of the careful planning and design of http://www.dbirnbaum.com is a clean tranquil website. Ortner Graphics sincerely wishes Deborah the best of luck in her new venture. Deborah is a truly kind and caring individual. Certainly don’t hesitate to reach out to her if you reside in Nyack or the Lower Hudson Valley and are struggling with the challenges of modern times.

I decided to take the time to stroll over to the Eastern shore of the Hudson on an unseasonably warm March evening in 2012 in an effort to capture the scene with my camera. Did I ever pick the right night to do it too.

The sun was setting directly over Pollepel Island’s hill framing the castle as a perfect black silhouette. The sun’s reflection also glistened in the Hudson River creating a seriously powerful image. Although the timing and location of the sun was perfect, the extremely clear sky left a little to be desired in terms of color and background. So I opted to use a red graduated filter in the above example to create a very powerful effect. I toyed around with other filters as well to create some very unique effects.

The photo could be used in advertising and marketing for the following concepts industries:

• Summer
• Evening
• Strength
• Romance
• History
• Guidance
• Faith
• Financial
• Tourism

If you have never viewed Bannerman’s Castle, you shouldn’t wait to long the structure is deteriorating at a rapid rate. Fortunately, I managed to preserve Bannerman’s majesty for future generations with photography. You can view the full series in the stock photography portion of this website by clicking the following link https://www.ortnergraphics.com/stock-photography

Clearwater was blessed with some of the most gorgeous late spring weather the Hudson Valley has seen in years. The crystal clear day with unobstructed 15 mile views up and down the Hudson River resulted in an amazing sunset. This created a stunning backdrop for the band as they performed an eclectic blend of world fusion on Clearwater’s Hudson Stage.

Since I was mostly attending the concert as a spectator I brought a bare bones camera rig with me. I only came prepared with a Nikon D90 and a Nikor 18-105 3.5 lens as well as a 28-300 mm Sigma Lens. Fortunately the evening sky was perfectly lit and didn’t need much assistance from me in creating a dynamic concert image. I particularly like the way the audience’s hair glistens in the rays of summer sunlight. It creates a great example of graphic closure for the silouhetted foreground.

The series of photos taken could be suitable for advertising campaigns in the following concepts and industries:

• Summer
• Concert Promotions (Tickets, Posters, Flyers)
• Entertainment Industry
• Album Covers
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Youthful Lifestyle

Click here to view, or purchase more examples from this series of photographs.

For example a photo intended to be printed at 4×6 inches with pixel dimensions of 1200 pixels x1800 pixels would be considered high resolution (hi-res). However, those same pixel dimensions would be construed as low resolution (low-res) if the final output or print would need to be 8.5 inches by 11 inches.

Low-Res Photo

Hi-Res Photo

As a general rule for most purposes whenever a high resolution (hi-res) photo is requested it should be at least 2700 pixels by 1800 pixels or in other words 9 inches by 6 inches at 300 DPI (Dots Per Inch). If your photo is larger than this, that is great! A file can never be too high resolution in terms of print production. Always keep the largest versions of your photo in a safe place in case you need them again in the future.

How Do I Determine a Photo’s Resolution?

Determining whether the photo you have is high resolution or not can be done in 5 easy steps.

Step 1. Open the photo of interest in Windows Photo Viewer.
Step 2. Go to the File Menu and Select Properties
Step 3. Click the Details Tab
Step 4. Under Image look at “Horizontal Resolution” (if it is smaller than 2700 pixels it is Low-Res)
Step 5. Under Image look at “Vertical Resolution” (if it is smaller than 1800 pixels it is Low-Res)

The circled information in the properties menu of Windows Photo Viewer is what you need to determine an images resolution

Why Do I Need a High Resolution Photo, Can’t I Just Use the Photo I Loaded into Facebook or Somewhere Else on the Internet?

High resolution photos are required for sharp reproduction in print publications. Otherwise the printing quality is very poor. It is our goal to present our client’s inventory in the best light possible. Reproducing a low resolution photo looks unprofessional and can actually make a product or service look ugly or unusable.

How Do I Get a High Resolution Photo in the First Place?

A good professional photographer will usually give you the hi-res photos from the shoot once it is completed and paid for. If for some reason you can’t afford a professional photographer, when taking photos of your product or services you should be using the highest resolution setting on your camera. It is also a good idea to keep the JPEG compression at the highest quality settings. Cameras vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so you will need to refer to your specific camera’s manual to learn how to adjust this.

So Why Would I Ever Want a Low Resolution File?

Low-Res photos typically have a smaller file size than a hi-res photo. Therefore they are favorable anytime you are posting a photo on the internet because a smaller file size results in a faster download. In addition, on-screen viewing does not require the same great amount of resolution that a print publication does even in high definition. This is due to the greater number of lines per inch required to produce something in print verse on screen.

Cover for catalog insert in the Wall Street Journal promoting the new "Distinctive Collection" luxury real estate brand created in Adobe InDesign

Realogy’s Better Homes and Gardens franchise has dropped their Premier Selections luxury brand and replaced it with the Distinctive Collection brand. It was perfect timing for Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty as they entered their spring market campaign. The Rands decided to promote their extensive inventory of luxury homes with a catalog insert in the Wall Street Journal.

Being such a high profile marketing campaign it was incredibly important that the cover use a highly compelling photograph. Conveniently Rand Realty had just struck up a new relationship with Edberg Marketing. Edberg specializes in real estate photography and has the capability of taking elevated photographs.

Simply put, elevated photography raises a camera on an extending mast and tethers the camera to the operating photographer on the ground. The photographer has some limited ability to pivot the camera in order to get the correct angle. However, due to the height the mast often sways in the wind causing some motion blur on many of the exposures.

The Distinctive Collection cover proved to be a very complicated shoot for a variety of reasons. The first reason being that, as always in the world of marketing, we were on tight time frame. The time factor was further compounded by the terribly wet spring that prevailed in 2011. Edberg was forced to try and make the shot in iffy weather at least three times before they finally got some decent light. A second complication was that Edberg was unable to take a vertical photo due to the way that the camera mounts on the elevated mast. Typically in real estate photography this wouldn’t be an issue because horizontal compositions tend to be the preferred format. Unfortunately, Edberg was only able to mount an EOS Rebel on the mast, so a horizontal photo did not hold the required resolution for a high quality cover photo. After a great deal of back and fourth Eric Ortner finally was able to figure out a solution to the problem. With a great deal of reluctance on their part Eric managed to get Edberg to release him the Raw CR2 files. He then opened them in Photoshop at the largest Raw settings effectively faking in resolution. This gave resulted in a large enough pixel dimension to create a hi-res cover photo.

The work didn’t stop there however. Due to the home’s foliage there was a great deal of retouching required. The tree in the front of the house cast unsightly shadows all over the front of the house. The solution, remove the tree and shadows in Photoshop. This required about three hours of retouching. As we all know though, a cover photo with blemishes might as well not be printed. This is especially true when pitching to a luxury market, where everything must be perfect. The following examples are the before and after of the retouched photos.

Original photo with branches and shadows obscuring the front of the home.

Photoshop Retouched cover photo which removes the tree's branch and shadows.

The Distinctive Collection cover proved to be a rather hi-stress project, but in the end it resulted in a great quality high impact presentation piece.