By Carolyn R. Saraspi
You captured everyone from Aunt Jenny to long-lost Cousin Dirk at the
annual family gathering in Tahoe with your new digital camera.
The close-up of grandpa opening presents would be a perfect portrait,
except for a prickly Christmas tree branch poking through his head.
You could kick yourself for not having the patience to learn your
computer's photo editing software. Now that the holidays are drawing to a
close, you don't have any time to spare.
Enter Image-Edit & Art, an online photo-finishing service from
Tiburon attorney-businessman Jeffrey Makoff.
Launched in March, Image-Edit combines the functionality of a
traditional photo lab with the convenience of the Internet.
"Digital editing is very funny because, while digital pictures can be
edited very easily, it's beyond the capability of everyone," Makoff said.
"To learn Adobe Photoshop well enough to make significant edits, you have
to have significant training. And you have to be good."
Consumers can send their images directly to Image-Edit's Web site at
www.image-edit.com, or have a paper print scanned at a retailer that
carries the service.
Procedures range from fixing common photo errors like poor lighting, to
removing an unwanted person or adding a motion effect.
After the order is submitted, customers get an e-mail confirmation that
gives delivery options of three, eight or 15 days and corresponding
prices. Most procedures with the standard eight-day delivery typically
cost $25 to $35.
The digital photo file then travels over the Internet to the company's
service center in Cincinnati, where representatives check the order to
make sure directions are clear.
The center determines to which of 10 artist groups around the world it
should send the file, depending on what kind of work has to be done. Each
group specializes in a particular procedure.
Image-Edit has between 50 to 75 artists working on contract in
locations ranging from Russia to Southeast Asia, because "it's very, very
labor intensive and impossible to do cost-effectively in the United
States," Makoff said.
Once the work is finished, the file is returned to Cincinnati for a
final inspection.
Clients receive another e-mail that their photo is finished, and may
choose to have Image-Edit print it for an additional charge.
"The other thing you can do is put in the e-mail addresses of other
family and friends and have them routed to them," Makoff said.
DigitalCustom is among dozens of online firms breaking into the $33
billion photo finishing market.
Andrew Johnson, an analyst with Gartner Dataquest, said consumers'
switch to digital photography and complementary services is slower than
anticipated, "but it's just a matter of time."
"The increase in the number of digital cameras is actually requiring
people to have a way to print these out," Johnson said. "Home printing on
photo printers is one way to go. Photo kiosks is another way to go. And
the online photo processing for broadband households is a very good way to
go."
Makoff operates Image-Edit through DigitalCustom Group Inc., a spinoff
from his first company, Poetic Media Inc.
Makoff started out as an attorney specializing in entertainment law
and, with his wife, established the Makoff law firm in 1992 in San
Francisco and Tiburon.
Seven years later, Makoff decided he wanted to start his own business
outside of law and launched Poetic Media, which develops projects for
television, film, music and publications.
Last year, Makoff teamed up with Barnabas Takacs and Aaron Daru to
start DigitalCustom.
Takacs, a Hungarian-born computational scientist, had worked as
director of research for Virtual Celebrity Productions in Culver City,
where he designed a digital cloning tool for creating realistic human
actors for TV commercials, movies and the Internet.
Daru, who was an assistant at the Makoff law firm while attending
Redwood High School in Larkspur, had some success in start-up companies
while working on the East Coast and wanted to return home.
"We analyzed together the opportunities in new and traditional media,
and one of the opportunities we saw was the transition to digital
photography," Makoff said. "We looked at what people were doing, and we
didn't like the printing business because we thought it would be too
competitive."
Image-Edit distinguishes itself from other consumer photo-finishing
services by offering high-quality colorizing of black-and-white photos, as
well as photo illustrations and restorations.
After looking at 20 to 30 online services, Stacey DeFranco chose
DigitalCustom to colorize an old photo of her boyfriend's father for a
Christmas gift.
"His father died when he was six," said DeFranco, who lives in Pomfret,
Md.
"The picture I did through Image-Edit is when his father was younger,
about 16," she said. "He has no pictures of him at that age that are
color, that's why it was a really important thing."
DeFranco said she went with Image-Edit because it didn't require her to
send the original photo. In addition, she thought other services would
produce "cartoony" results.
"A lot of the work promoted online was really pastel looking and didn't
look very good," she said. She added that the finished work from the San
Francisco company was "10 times better."
Makoff said he expects Image-Edit's restoration services to grow, in
part because his business can get orders out more quickly for less money.
Photo labs charge between $50 and $70 per hour, and complicated
restorations where there are cracks or parts of the picture missing can
take three hours.
Restorations through Image-Edit, where artists can rebuild photos
digitally, cost between $25 and $50 for regular service. Work on extremely
damaged photos can cost up to $125.
In the last six weeks, Image-Edit has had around 50 requests for
restoration work, Makoff said.
He said he's not looking to put traditional photo labs out of business.
Aside from the consumer Web site, his firm is working on partnerships
with labs and camera stores to use Image-Edit to serve their own
customers.
"A lot of retailers are free to mark up the service," Makoff said.
"We're also there to help the market."
