Placing An Order
Improving Your Viewing Experience
Registration
Using Images From This Web Site
Questions that aren't answered here
 Do I need to register in order to purchase prints or other products?
 Absolutely not! The shopping cart only requires a web browser that supports javascript and cookies. Unless you have explicitly turned off these features in your browser, they should already be enabled. You can read all about cookies and you can learn how to enable cookies for your browser. Use this link if you are an AOL user.
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How do I place an order from this web site?
Just click on the shopping cart icon next to each image to be taken to an order page specific for that image. From there you can select the product and any applicable options. Once you have added the product to your shopping cart, you can change quantities, delete items and checkout using a credit card, money order or even a personal check! Cookies are required to use the shopping cart system.
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How long are the contents of the shopping cart stored?
Contents of your shopping cart are only stored for 24 hours. Registered users can store the images as bookmarks and then add them to the shopping cart at any time.
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What forms of payment are accepted? Can I use a personal check?
I use PayPal to accept electronic funds transfers (eChecks) and the credit cards shown above. You can also pay for your order using a personal check. Just click on the appropriate payment method button from the shopping cart checkout page. If you are paying using a credit card you will be taken to PayPal's web site to complete the payment process. If you would like to use a personal check, instructions will be sent to the email address you provide. Those instructions include your order number and the address where you need to send the check.
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Spend two minutes calibrating your monitor and see what it does for images !
First, no monitor is perfect and even two of the same make and model can produce different images with the same settings. Second, monitors are like speakers in that what they produce is very subjective. What looks great to one person may look like crap to another. Third, most monitors are shipped from the manufacturer with settings that are chosen to augment the image rather than render it accurately. For true accuracy, special hardware and software is needed to adjust a monitor's output.
Having said all that, you don't need to spend any money to adjust a monitor to something sufficiently accurate. My calibration steps are simple and should take 2 - 5 minutes.
First adjust some basic settings.
You should find that these are enough to improve your monitor for daily use too!
- If your monitor has an adjustment for COLOR TEMPERATURE then set it to 6500k All graphics on the web are created with this color temperature. Most monitors when shipped have this set to 9300k which is too blue.
- Set your contrast to 100%
- Set your brightness to 50% (Most people have this set way to high!)
Now fine tune your monitor
To further refine your monitor's color accuracy, follow these simple steps
If you can adjust the color depth of your video card, set it to either 24-bit or 32-bit. The higher the bit-depth, the more colors you will see in my images. On Microsoft Windows, you can right-click on your desktop and choose "Properties". Then click the "Settings" tab. The bit depths available to you are in the "Color Quality" drop down list.
You must be able to see:
-- 20 sections of equal width and different tone
-- the darkest section must be pure black
-- the lightest section must be pure white
-- there must be no hint of colour anywhere along the grey spectrum
- If you don't see 20 different tones, you may need to increase the contrast.
- If black is not pure black, you need to either darken the monitor or adjust the black point.
- If white is not pure white, you need to either lighten the monitor or adjust the white point.
- If both black and white are not pure, try to boost the overall contrast or adjust both the black and white points.
- If there is a colour cast, try to adjust the colour balance. Some monitors and/or monitor software lets you to do this separately for both ends of the grey spectrum.
Once you have adjusted everything as precisely as you can, look at these test images (Red, Green, Blue):
There are 16 clearly defined patches in each strip.
- If you cannot distinguish between them towards the dark end in any of the strips, you may need to lighten the respective colour, or darken the other two colours.
- If you cannot distinguish patches towards the light end in any of the strips, you may need to darken the respective colour, or lighten the other two colours.
- You can also try to work with saturation controls for the individual colours, if they are available in your monitor and/or monitor software.
Also, have a look at the following test images (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow):
There are 11 clearly defined levels in each strip. You will find a relationship between how these are displayed and how Red, Green and Blue are displayed.
-- If the deepest yellow patches are indistinct from each other, your darkest blue is probably too close to black..
-- If the deepest magenta patches are indistinct from each other, your darkest green is probably too close to black..
-- If the deepest cyan patches are indistinct from each other, your darkest red is probably too close to black.
Some men may have difficulties with the deepest colour patches. If in doubt, zoom in for a close look.... or ask a woman.
If you have a fairly precise inkjet printer, you can print out these last three strips and the greyscale. If your monitor settings are correct, the print should look close to the representation of those strips on your screen. Changing any of the monitor settings should have no effect on the print. So, if you can trust your printer, this is can be a good indication of a correct monitor setup.
All this requires patience. Each setting has an effect on everything else. You may need to go back and forth between adjusting two or more parameters dozens of times.
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I can already see the pictures so why should I bother registering?
As a registered user, you will have access to additional features on this web site. Once logged in, you can:
- Bookmark images for easy recall.
The pages that display pictures are not otherwise directly accessible.
- View additional information for each image
This includes camera settings and film information.
- Be notified by email when significant updates are made to the site.
You can always choose to subscribe and unsubscribe from emails by editing your member profile.
- DOWNLOAD watermarked images for your personal use.
All I ask is that you abide by my terms of use for downloaded images.
After logging in, links to your bookmarks and profile will appear in place of the login form.
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What happens when I register?
Follow these simple steps:
- Click on the Register Now link and AGREE to the terms and conditions of use.
- My web site will send you an account activation link to the email address you use to register.
- Open the email and click on the link to activate your account.
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How and where you can use my images
Basically you can print, email and save images for your personal use.
You can also use them in other places like websites if you agree to my easy terms
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Chat with Chris Live right from your web browser
Quick and convenient, it's instant messenging using just a web browser. Under the "Random Image" in the lower left corner of every page is an icon that may say something like "Live Support" or "Live Help" and it indicates an offline or online status. Just click on that icon to chat with me. There's no signup for anything. If I'm not available, you will be given an opportunity to leave a message.
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Contacting Chris by email or telephone
You can reach me by email, telephone, fax or regular mail. Just visit my contact form for all the details.
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