October 2003
Connecting Photographers and Labs
In January 2000, MorePhotos a division of WD Web Company, launched its Internet photos sales solution, MorePhotos.com (www.morephotos.com) to enable photographers and labs using LabImages to post low-resolution images, proof the images, and receive orders online. WD Web Company is a website design and Internet marketing company in Traverse City, Michigan. It is also the parent company of MorePhotos and LabImages.
LabImages uses the MorePhotos online posting technology, allowing labs to provide online image posting that the photographers' clients can order from directly. LabImages provides every benefit of the MorePhotos technology, says President and Co-Founder Michael Conners, but labs don't have to develop their own systems or manage the images. There are currently about 30 labs participating with LabImages.
MorePhotos and LabImages allow photographers or labs to co-brand the technology under their own names. In turn, photographers and labs create their own websites with the software or integrate the software into existing websites, Connors said. All this provided for a monthly fee to the photographer or the lab.
"It's very important for a lab to be as competitive as possible without spending a lot of money," he explains. "We're not a lab and we never will be, so it's no threat to them."
MorePhotos and LabImages offer password protection, watermark photo protection, storage for thousands of photos, free upgrades, site hosting, technical support, group classification by event, and photo and pricing control. The system also allows photographers and labs to offer their own photo products including puzzles, key chains, mouse pads, etc.
NC TriColor Imaging Inc., Raleigh, N.C., uses the MorePhotos technology through LabImages to offer its photographers the option of posting their film or digital images online. Operations Manager Khris Kramer said NC TriColor uploads the iimagesand creates a website for pphotographersusing MorePhotos. The photographer's clients can go online and order from the photographers using a credit card. The photographer then sends negatives or high-resolutions images CDs to the lab for pprinting A high-resolution piece for the software that would make it simple for photographers to transfer their orders back to the lab is currently in development.
Kramer said the online system is providing NC TriColor with a different set of photographers who are looking for these types of Internet services. "It's another product we offer that the photographers are asking for," he explains. "It allowed us to cater to a lot of photographers and their needs."
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