Flash Technology Combined with Drag-and-Drop Ease-of-Use Makes Expanding/Updating Online Portfolios a Snap
NEW YORK, NY, August 11, 2004 – After three years of extensive R&D and collaboration with commercial photographers, their agents, and their clients, LiveBooks, Inc. (http://www.Live-Books.com) has released LiveBooks 4.0, a software tool that gives professional photographers the ability to showcase their work online in the form of highly-stylized and personalized portfolios. The combination of its Flash technology and easy-to-use Drag-and-Drop portfolio-building system, gives photographers the creative freedom and flexibility to add new portfolios of work to their Website as well as delete, add or edit existing portfolios quickly and easily. This gives photographers the added benefit of selling their services online in a safe, creative and comfortable environment that invites prospective clients to visit and look.
LiveBooks 4.0 is composed of two parts – the webSite and the editSuite. The webSite presents huge, high-quality images that download very quickly, in easy-to- navigate portfolios while the editSuite is a collection of editing tools that give photographers complete control over the content on their webSite. What’s more, LiveBooks 4.0 editSuite gives photographers the ability to update and edit all the content on their webSite in minutes.
In addition to the large images the software allows photographers to present on the webSite, the true differentiator between LiveBooks and perceived competitors is the lightBox tool built into the editSuite software. Now, for the first time, photographers can respond to client job requests with customized portfolios in real time.
“LiveBooks 4.0 makes it possible to assemble custom portfolios according to the job a photographer is trying to pitch,” says Michael Costuros, Founder/CEO of LiveBooks, Inc. “Our clients have been able to impress creative directors with their ability to quickly respond to specific requests, sometimes in a matter of minutes,” Mr. Costuros added.
The lightBox tool shows all the images in a photographer’s portfolio as it is currently presented on the webSite. To add, delete, or re-sequence the book, photographers simply drag-and-drop the images in whatever sequence they want them to appear in the portfolio. Multiple editing modes, such as Insert, Swap, Full Page, or Single Image make this process very easy, intuitive and even fun. To publish the changes live, simply click the save button and it’s done. All portfolios are now “live” and seen in the sequence desired by the photographer.
“We want LiveBooks 4.0 to be the best Web-based presentation and marketing tool ever created,” Costuros said. “To accomplish that, we knew we had to give photographers complete creative control over the way they present their work to their clients over the Internet and design an innovative webSite presentation that displayed large, high-quality images that download very quickly. It had to be easy and convenient for both the photographer and their clients to make it work with seamless simplicity. The New York market is a true testing ground for our product,” said Costuros. “Clients here have no patience for slow loading, confusing websites with a lot of ‘personality.’ They want to view big, beautiful images—quickly and easily. We knew that once we could satisfy top New York photographers and their clients, we would have achieved our goal.”
LiveBooks 4.0 already counts among its users many top photographers based in New York and other major photo markets, such as Christopher Griffith, Lyle Owerko, Gilles Peress, Magnum Photos and Kate Ryan Inc., a NYC based photographer agent representing top fashion and advertising talents.
“LiveBooks 4.0 works for me!” exclaims Lyle Owerko, LiveBooks 4.0 Pro user and reportage, travel, commercial, and fine art photographer (http://www.owerko.com). “The software is one of the most intelligent and extraordinary digital tools I have ever used. Not only does it enable me to present multiple bodies of work in a way that showcases my overall creative vision, but it has single-handedly enabled me take the diversity in my career in the direction that I want it to go.”
LiveBooks, Inc. has made LiveBooks 4.0 available in two different affordable packages in order to meet the needs of every level of photographer. LiveBooks 4.0 Lite offers tools specifically for emerging professionals and serious hobbyists at a cost of $1,900 while LiveBooks 4.0 Pro offers larger images and advanced marketing tools for professional photographers at a cost of $5,500. Installment and leasing plans are available for either package, ensuring that LiveBooks can fit into any photographer’s budget.
Ric Cohn (http://www.ricCohn.com), product photographer and LiveBooks 4.0 Lite user notes his experience: “I had been stuck with my previous Website and very dependent on a Web designer for updates and found the features were very expensive and time consuming to change. I love that I am in complete control of my LiveBooks webSite, and that I can add additional features to the site whenever I need them. The site will never be rendered obsolete.”
LiveBooks 4.0 is based on a modular database architecture which means that new features can be added as needed, insuring that a client’s website will expand in step with their business and vision, never being rendered obsolete. Some of the additional features available include:
- Create custom password protected webBooks for specific clients
- Shopping cart for selling prints
- Production Management: Tools for coordinating and managing a shoot with remote clients.
- Ability to add additional webBooks and image storage libraries
- Download a webBook as a PDF to e-mail clients
Other advanced services include eventShare, which enables event photographers to present an entire event’s worth of photos to their clients in a password protected section of the LiveBooks 4.0 webSite.
LiveBooks, Inc. will soon be expanding LiveBooks 4.0 for use in photo and printing labs in order to streamline the event photographer’s digital workflow and reduce proof-viewing and image printing times.
About LiveBooks, Inc.
LiveBooks, Inc. is the leader in on-demand Website creation, management and
marketing services for photographers requiring a rich, image-intensive online
presence. As creative professionals ourselves, the LiveBooks team understands the
passion behind our customers’ work and their need to easily upload, edit, market,
send and sell images within a Website they can create within minutes without the
need for programming or design skills. The LiveBooks Website supports
photographers’ creative vision with full-screen, high-quality images that download
quickly, an intuitive navigation system based on input from photo buyers, and a
professional design aesthetic to help develop their business. For more information,
log onto http://www.livebooks.com
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