Automation of planning

In the interview Real Estate & AI with Lukinski, we talked about the future with AI. We had a few follow-up questions about the exciting topics and what we can expect in 4, 5 years. Among others, it was about:

Automation of planning with AI

Design automation is a process of automating the creation of building plans through the use of AI-based software solutions. This can help reduce planning times and costs, and increase planning efficiency and accuracy.

Automatically create building plans

AI-based software can use a variety of data sources to automatically generate building plans. These include environmental data, building types, and building materials, for example. One example is the use of generative design technology, in which an algorithm automatically generates different designs based on a number of parameters, such as room layout, building codes, or cost.

Preparation of construction plans and material lists

Automation can also be used in other areas of planning and the construction process, such as the creation of construction plans and material lists or the automated adaptation of plans to changes in the construction process.

By automating planning, time and cost savings can be achieved by reducing manual work. Errors can also be minimized and planning accuracy increased, as AI-based software solutions are able to take into account a large number of variables to achieve the best possible results.

It should be noted, however, that the automation of planning does not mean that the architect or engineer is replaced. The role of the architect or engineer in the planning and design of a building remains indispensable, even if the use of AI-based software solutions supports the planning process.

Fancy more future?

Real Estate & AI (Artificial Intelligence) – The Interview

Today and the future – How is a villa created and how would it be created if artificial intelligence were in play. This interview with Stephan Czaja of Lukinski provides an overview of the steps involved in planning and visualizing villas and their timeline. Architects usually create 3D visualizations to give their clients a better idea of their design.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can improve the process of 3D visualization in the future through automation, personalization, simulations, increased efficiency and real-time updates. Other possible developments include automation of planning, control of construction machinery by AI, creation of 4D visualizations, and personalized advice through AI-based tools. A look into today and the future with AI!

• Real estate & AI (artificial intelligence) – the interview

Website?! WordPress, Shopify & Co. – Before the SEO

The principle of search engine optimization doesn’t just work with WordPress. You can use the same methodology for more complex systems like Magento, as well as simple DIY website builders like Shopify.

In the example you can see the work in WordPress. If you haven’t read Part 1: Installing WordPress yet, or if you’re not familiar with WordPress, then you should definitely read the first part again to understand how the content management system works.

Here once again is the big goal:

With these SEO tips and strategies you can have 100,000 visitors a month! Without additional advertising costs, only through organic search of people and good content.

Creating SEO texts: Structure is the key

Before you dive deep into the matter of search engine optimization, you need to deal with the basics of SEO texts. In this video you will learn how to create basic well-structured texts in WordPress. These texts have the goal to contain all relevant information about a certain keyword. In addition, you have to make sure that a red thread is spun, so to speak the storytelling.

Depending on the text, the structure differs. Your goal is to understand how to build fundamentally good text structures, even without software for keyword analysis. You will learn how to use software, using Google.de and Xovi as examples, in the following videos.

Explainer video: Create SEO texts

You’ll learn these steps in the video:

• Create post
• Headlines
• Heel length
• Text length
• Key points
• Introduction
• Category
• Tags
• Media Library

How long does an SEO text have to be?

Who creates his first SEO text, often faces the question, how many words must have a good text? The word count cannot be defined exactly and across the board. Depending on how big the competition is and what content they have produced so far in their search engine optimization, your texts must adapt flexibly.

Basically, whoever has the most wins!

But the important thing is that quality always comes before quantity.

In this video you learn to analyze the competition without the use of paid software. The big advantage is that you can also give a spontaneous assessment at meetings. All you need is your smartphone and Google.com.

Explainer video: Length of your texts

Learn in this video:

• Competition analysis with Google.de
• Comparison and assessment

SEO Text Optimization with Google.com

After you have already learned how to build good SEO texts in principle, you will now additionally get to know the use of tools. With these tools you can significantly improve your text structure. In the video series you will first learn to work with Google.

Google gives you opportunities that no marketing manager has had before!

You get free market analysis from millions of people. What are you looking for? Again, you can do totally free analysis without buying extra software. You can learn how effectively you can improve your text with it in this video.

Explainer video: SEO Text Optimization with Google.com

The individual steps of the video at a glance:

• Structure and Keyword Optimization
• Search box from Google.com
• Use frequent search queries
• Integration in SEO text structure

SEO text optimization with Xovi (Sistrix, etc.)

So far you have learned a lot, the basic structure of SEO texts, the right word count for your texts but also the use of Google.de as a free market analysis tool.

Once you have reached a certain size or are already aiming for a certain size in advance, it is also worth taking a look at keyword analysis software. This includes, for example, providers such as Xovi and Sistrix. In the video example you will get to know the software Xovi and the keyword analysis of the software.

The keyword analysis takes a look at the search queries of google.de in the past 30 days. So you can see in which quantities, which search queries were made. This allows you to estimate which keyboard or which keyboard combination is retrieved most often. Accordingly, you can strategically align your SEO planning.

PS: I don’t use any single paid software! My tip: Google Search, Google Search Results (search bar, suggested keywords) + Keyword Shitter.

As you can imagine, it’s usually worth tackling the big keywords. After all, this is where the big money lies in the end. However, if you have a small company or a young start-up, so-called longtails are worthwhile. Longtails are the strings of words.

An exact, precise keyword would be “real estate agent” and a possible longtail “condominium sell real estate agent Hamburg”. It is usually easier to achieve high rankings in the long tail because there is less competition here.

Explainer video: SEO Text Optimization with Xovi

Here you learn the text structure optimization with keyword analysis:

• Structure and Keyword Optimization
• Keyword analysis by search volume
• Integration in SEO text structure
• Keyword relevance (frequent up)

Spider Web Structure: Great SEO Pages

Spider web structure is a synonym for working in multiple layers. In this explainer video, you’ll learn how to strategically plan a major SEO project. Simply put, it’s about building a strong home page. In the next step you need level 2, the most important keywords. If you were a fashion online store, then your home page would be optimized for “fashion online store”, the second level would be fashion brands such as Givenchy, Prada or as in the example Louis Vuitton.

In level 3 you were then more satellite pages on, for your second level. This would be e.g. “Louis Vuitton fashion show”, “Louis Vuitton bag” or “Louis Vuitton store”.

Of course, you could continue after this level, e.g. you could optimize Louis Vuitton bags and serve individual models with additional articles. So you could also strengthen your third level, the “Louis Vuitton bag” through its subordinate satellite pages.

So you build up your SEO construct piece by piece and like a spider web it expands in different directions.

• Spiderweb
• Create main page
• Internal linking

Levels:

1. Level: Home page
2. Level: Keywords
3. Level: Longtail
4. Level: Ultra Longtail; useful for online shops and individual products

Explainer video: Spider web structure

Satellite pages: Supporter for your keywords

In the last video you learned how to build your own SEO structure, the so-called spider web. In this video you will learn how to build subordinate satellite pages. In this video you will learn the basics. In the SEO Masterclass you will find many trainings, e.g. on job traffic, car tax, travel reports, much more.

Satellite pages support the respective higher level through content and links. If you have a large article on the topic of “Louis Vuitton”, for example, you can increase its ranking through a larger number of subordinate articles. To do this, you create individual pages that serve the long tail. Should a longtail could be e.g. the “Louis Vuitton handbag” but in another level lower, a specific handbag model of Louis Vuitton.

All pages are linked to each other. The superordinate pages refer to the respective subordinate pages, as long as there are not more than 20,30. All subordinate pages link to their parent page.

This increases the content flow, which means the number of pages that a visitor looks at on average, but also the dwell time, which means the time that a user spends on your online project. The higher these key figures are, the better your page will be in PageRank. So it rises in the ranking.

Explainer video: Satellite Pages

Here you’ll learn:

• Level 1 – Fashion brands (main page)
• Level 2 – Individual brands – Louis Vuitton (contribution)
• Level 3 – Individual Brands Detail – Louis Vuitton Videos (Support Post)

WordPress to SEO Setup: Learn in 6 Parts

You want to start your own business and still need the right website or your own online shop? Then WordPress is the solution for your sales and marketing! WordPress is free, please thousands of extensions and themes and is relatively quickly installed and set up. Here we have a collection of videos that you can use to install your WordPress quickly and easily yourself. These videos from the series WordPress and SEO Tips, from the Lukinski SEO and Marketing Masterclass, show you everything important: From WordPress download to themes and of course the most important settings for SEO, the search engine optimization (for Google, Bing & Co).

• WordPress to SEO set up

More WordPress and SEO Tips!

This was the first series on the topic of “SEO text creation basics”. If you want to delve deeper into the topic of search engine optimization, you can find many more interesting articles about WordPress and SEO tips here. You want more video tips? Don’t miss a new tutorial and follow Lukinski Youtube!

We also have some other interesting articles for founders here:

• Develop business idea
• Establish a company: Legal Forms
• Tax accountant near you: Tips
• Doing your taxes: Videos

• Direct to Combin

Combin for your Start Up: Software instead of Social Media Manager

In our XXL interview on Instagram Tips, we’ve talked a lot about community management and maintenance so far. Interaction is an extremely big buzzword for social media managers and, of course, social media agencies. You yourself probably won’t have much time (just as a founder) each day to go on other Instagram Channels, look at new photos, liken them or comment on them. Combin provides the alternative, automatically or semi-automatically, the tool actively posts likes and comments to previously selected accounts and postings. It can even follow other people if you wish. Everything almost 100% automatic. Anyone who saves three or four hours a day as a result will quickly have a few working days a month that can be used for something else – an unbeatable advantage.

That’s why today we take a close look at what Combin 2.0 can do, in the big test report.

Test report: Combin 2.0 – New functions and updates

Basic technical features:

• Advanced Instagram Search
• User search analysis
• Follower Management
• Simple communication
• Sort + Preview
• Activity Statistics

Free account

• 1 Instagram Account is 100% free
• Daily limits ofikes: 250
• Daily limit of comments: 150
• Daily maximum Follows: 150

Why is the Pro Version worth it?

The upgrade at a glance:

• Manage up to 15 Instagram accounts (5 inclusive, 10 extensible)
• No in-app action limits
• 1,000 search results per page
• Update search results

Installation and setup of the App

If you are new, you have to download the Combin App once and log in with your own Instagram account.

Download the app

That’s how it works:

1. Download Combin App; currently available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux
2. E-mail address must be entered; then the download starts
3. Installation after downloading the file (.msi); the installation takes about 15 seconds (4 steps)
4. Login to one or more instagram accounts

Combin (Windows, Mac OS, Linux): Download

start the app – test it for free

1. 1. After login all photos and videos of the Instagram channel

will be displayed.

Here you will first find an overview of the most important information and can also compare many postings with each other, which is difficult on the instagram.

• Number of contributions and possibility to compare
• number of subscribers / subscribed and the ratio (the smaller the value, the better)
• Single postings can be opened in Pop Up to take a closer look at comments

Analyze Postings

Which of the current photos and videos on your Instagram channel work well and which don’t? Just find out by sorting the likes and comments by number. This gives you a quick overview of your most successful postings. With the new data you can draw conclusions for your social media strategy and optimize your new postings. The filter function can be found on the start page (top right).

Search function at a glance: Find successful postings

After the analysis of the own channel, it goes now to the competition analysis.

Finding successful postings to optimize your strategy

What the social media concept costs a lot of time for Instagram is the conception of the content. What do you see in photos? What’s in the description? Do we use galeries? Use the knowledge of many: Crowd sourcing. What do people like on Instagram? Find out by using Combin’s search function.

The search feature allows you to search content on Instagram, using hashtags, locations, and subscribers of your competitors. In this way, popular postings can be found on competitors’ channels. Especially for social media managers a strong tool to find successful content to optimize their own strategy. Summarized allows the search function:

• Get range through Likes / Comments from smaller Instagram Accounts (Pay attention)
• Combined search with hashtags, locations and subscribers of competitors possible
• Selective search for content from competitors / other channels
• Help for inspiration and optimization of your own strategy

Start search: Set filter and go

Let’s start by entering our desired parameters in the search mask. In principle, two functions are available. Filtering by posts, which means which posts are popular for a particular topic? More precisely, which contributions are popular in a particular place? More precisely you can also say, which contributions have managed to get more than 10,000 Likes or comments in the XY section? This is a quick and easy way to find the strongest postings on Instagram.

Search filter for posts

Search filter for posts includes various parameters. The Hashtags are particularly important of course.

• hashtags
• location
• period
• Number of Likes (from / to)
• Number of comments (from / to)

In addition, there are now even more advanced analysis functions such as:

• Gender
• language
• User must have been active last week
• Number of subscribers (from / to)
• number of subscriptions (from / to)

Search filter by user

The search filter for users is very interesting, because here you can search the user accounts directly! This includes the following parameters:

• Search for: subscribers, subscriptions, commentators (!), likes, bio, user list

In addition there are extended analysis functions like in the article Search filter:

• Gender
• language
• User must have been active last week
• Number of subscribers (from / to)
• number of subscriptions (from / to)

Fun Fact! For every VIP and Boulevard magazine a dream (by commentators), because now you can for example easily and quickly see where certain people have left comments, even for a long time. Who’s talking about who? Quickly solved thanks to Combin.

Infographics: Instagram Bot vs. Combin – Quality Interaction

Search filter for posts:

Search filter by user:

evaluation, analysis and results

As a fashion magazine we naturally take a look at the topic: Beauty. Let’s take a closer look at what’s currently in vogue in the eyeliner segment.

Option 1: Trend analysis – filter by hashtag #Eyeliner and setting of 1.000 – maximum Likes

There is also the possibility for start ups and self-employed to get more reach by commenting on smaller accounts or postings of the accounts or by giving a like.

Option 2: Get attention / range – filter according to Hashtag #Eyeliner as well as setting from 10 – 50 Likes

Which Hashtag is really interesting for you and your Start Up? You can find out how to do it here: Instagram Tips.

After Analysis: Likes, Comments and Follow (Interaction)

After the analysis of the contributions, the interaction can begin! Combin operates fully automatically or semi-automatically as required. Automatic means that you interact with each posting step by step. Here comes another advantage of Combin, which many other social media tools do not offer in comparison, the selection can also be made manually, Combin then only goes through the selected images. After this decision we can start

Tip to get more range: If you go specifically to postings, with few likes, smaller users will be quicker to notice you and your company. If postings get a lot of likes, your like on the photo or video won’t stand out that much.

Now all you have to do is decide whether Combin should work automatically or semi-automatically. If you prefer to make a manual preselection now, just mark your favorite photos and videos. Then you can start with a click on the icons (below)!

Finding influencers with Combin

Lifehack! Combin already used as Influencer search engine? In the search for the right influencer, many people always have the problem of finding the right people. The search is demanding and is usually done manually by hand. Profile by profile is viewed and the results are also transferred manually into an Excel table. Combine as an influencer search engine, how ingenious is that?

If you are looking for a specific type of influencer, you can easily find different (similar) user profiles through Combin. By simply using a certain hash tag in your search function and setting the number of subscribers parameter. Through Hashtag + number of subscribers Combin limits the results exactly. Tip: Use hashtags in the local languages to find bloggers from a specific country. Of course, you can also do this with the location, but then the people must also have marked themselves on the spot. Since influencers are on the road a lot, I find the search with hashtags in a certain language, e.g. French, Italian or German much more practical.

Tasks Assistant and Monitoring

Of course, you can not only perform analyses and actions, Combin also allows classic monitoring (performance measurement). You can find the monitoring of your own instagram channel in the menu under “Statistics”. Under “Tasks” you will find all jobs you created before, e.g. Likes on Hashtag #XY, comments on Hashtag #ABC and Follows on Hashtag #DEF, but only if your account has a maximum of 500 followers. Smart!

Combin saves a lot of time before monitoring. The advantage: No well paid social media manager has to waste his or her time with elaborate likening and commenting of content, instead you rely on Combin for automatic commenting, likening and following – with quality.

advantages: Analysis and interaction through Combin

• Extreme time savings, thus also cost savings
• Automatic interaction instead of manual mail for mail
• Social Media Manager works much more effectively
• More time for more important things than Likes and comments
• Instagram Marketing also in Start Up / self-employed possible

Price

If you want to upgrade your package, you can do so in the app (top left) by clicking on your user account. After that you will be forwarded directly to the subscription page with a choice between monthly and annual billing.

Free account

• 1 Instagram Account is 100% free
• Daily limits ofikes: 250
• Daily limit of comments: 150
• Daily maximum Follows: 150

Why is the Pro Version worth it?

The upgrade at a glance:

• Manage up to 15 Instagram accounts
• No in-app action limits
• 1,000 search results per page
• Update search results
• direct to Combin

Information about the price per month / per year (04/2019):

• Private: 11.90 Euro / month includes 1 channel
• Business: 35.70 Euro / month includes 5 channels, option on 15

Questions and Answers: Instagram Marketing DIY

Here we have all the important questions and answers about Instagram Marketing for you:

How to write on instagram?

Instagram has a very young target group, so in 98% of cases the address is “you”.

When is the best time to post to Instagram?

The best time is before and after the regular working hours (companies but also pupils, students). That’s usually 7:00 in the morning and 5:00 in the evening.

How can I connect two Instagram accounts?

You can’t connect two accounts to one.

Can I add a second account?

Yes, it is possible to manage up to 5 accounts simultaneously on the smartphone. Adding an Instagram account goes like this:

1. Open the app
2. Change to your profile (bottom right)
3. Tap on the gear symbol (iOS) or the Menu Button (Android); (top right)
4. Scroll to the bottom, to “Add account”
5. Enter name and password for second account
6. Done – To change your account, open your profile and tap your username, a tag will open to change

What is the feed for Instagram?

The feed consists of postings, individual photos and videos, which are compiled in the feed. Each row in the feed consists of 3 media, sorted chronologically, from new to old.

How would it be to have a tool that will manage all of the Influencer Management (search, find, analyze, categorize, etc.), bid management (Predicted Impressions, Unique Impressions, Likes, Comments, etc.) but also Campaign Management Analyzing groups, monitoring, etc.). Especially when different bloggers are involved, social media managers spend days with campaign preparation, execution and evaluation. Since we have many readers who work in advertising agencies, creative forge, or the colorful media world, we wanted to introduce you to Social Analytics for Instagram. The new and super exciting Top Social Media Software Tools for Influencer Management and Campaigns.

You will find the full article below the Youtube video tutorial!

Online tool for Influencer: Test and evaluation

We have looked at the practical online tool and once photographed and described everything important for you. Have fun while reading!

Video Tutorial: Social Analytics Influencer Marketing Tool

1. Influencer search

The search is for many agencies and social media managers the first step to find their own influencer. Influencer Agencies, which already have bloggers under contract, can read directly on “Influencer profile details”.

The search in the database goes by country, city, category, follower number (minimum, maximum) and price (minimum, maximum). So the tool helps smaller startups, for example for fashion, accessories, shoes and much more, the bloggers in Berlin but also big companies like international brands, the world’s influencer book. Depending on customer requirements the follower can be adjusted but also the prices.

Influencer search results with key facts

The search results are clearly arranged and show the most important data on the influencers (followers, media data and follows [persons followed by the influencer]). The selection always shows the milled influencers in the selected area.

Add Influencer as favorite

By clicking on the star you can add individual influencers to your network. In the Influencer Manager, they are then collected in a list. From here you can add Influencer to different groups, for example: “Fashion, Berlin, Women 50-500k”, “Fashion, Düsseldorf, Women 50-500k”, etc.

2. Influencer profile details with statistics

The Influencer Profile shows you all important and relevant data for each Influencer. In addition to the link to the Instagram profile, it contains the origin, the number of followers, media data and the following interest info at the beginning:

• Rate estimation per posting
• Commitment rate
  the number of followers is simplified by the number of interactions (Likes, Comments)
• Average Likes per posting
• Average comments per posting
  they help in assessing how many likes/comments will reach a posting

Pricing: Calculate campaign costs

In addition to the extremely important commitment rate factor, you can also directly get a price estimate for the influencer. Currently, the price calculator still refers to a posting, but in the future it should also be possible to calculate individual stories. More about the price-calculation is still in the Campaign Planner.

Statistics on recent postings

The statistics help with the provision of services for customers as well as the analysis of the influencer.

• Likes/comments by post
• Here you can see very beautiful, which photo/video contents are successful. When you move the mouse over the points, you can see the individual media.
  Follower Analysis
• This diagram gives insights about the growth of the followers. Unusual activities, for example by buying fans, can be seen here simply by unusual excursions.
• Media Analysis
• In this graphic, you can see whether photos or videos, deleted or whether postings remain for a long time.

New photos and videos for visual assessment

In the visual assessment of the influencer, the latest photos and videos help.

Hashtags, location scout and marked Instagram channels

In this section, you will find all important information about the last hashtags, in order to be able to assess the direction in which the favored Instagrammer goes. The database provides a detailed view of the last sites of the blogger. Especially for travel and tourism companies, an important information regarding the target group or the fans.

Youtube Crossmedia Search

The integrated Social Media Wall shows finally all relevant Youtube videos of the blogger.

3. Campaign planners and groups

Agencies spend a lot of time managing and managing their influencers. So far, most agency processes are done in Excel tables. Individual employees spend an hour every day exploring all the channels to discover new photos and markers. Social Analytics brings together all tasks in the clear “Inlfuencer Manager”. This is where you can manage not only influencers, but you can also create campaigns. They give predictions to the impressions (total range), unique impressions but also predicted likes, comments and the total range, for campaigns with more than one influencer.

Groups analysis and statistics

In group analysis, all influencers are compared. The data is being traced backward, so new influencers in the network can be directly compared with the old ones. In this way, social media managers can make recommendations for customers, even for long-term projects. On the basis of the curves in the statistics, the reasons for the customer are also quickly traceable. Thus, offers are created in minutes.

Campaign report with prediction

The campaign report clearly shows all the relevant data of a campaign. If you create 3, 4 lists or campaigns, you can send the customer directly a selection of 3, 4 different scenarios. How do 3 Top Influencers behave in relation to 10 micro influencers? The report calculates all data independently. This saves you a lot of time not only in the search but also in the evaluation and presentation of influencers.

4. Hashtag Analyzer: Know everything

Do you want to know what happened to a particular hashtag? Whether (as in this example) fashion, food or even jewelry and cars. With the hashtag analyzer, you can quickly and easily find influencers that have already interacted with your own brand. Another big advantage is the analysis of hashtags of the competition. How often will it be how many people talk about it? The same function can of course also be used perfectly for own hashtags. In the analyzer, even entire campaigns can be monitored.

Top 100 Influencer on Instagram

Here you have the chance to discover Influencer! Brands that have already worked with influencers before, can see, whether other bloggers of the brand were convinced. If you do not have your own influencer marketing yet, you can see here for the first time all important people who have interacted with their own brand or hashtag. Where is the advantage? Bloggers who already like their own brand are easier to activate for the brand and they will bring the brand or the product much more authentic and comprehensive.

Top 100 photos, videos and media

The top 100 shows the most successful postings of bloggers. This tool allows you to find successful media on the one hand, but it can also be used just as well to make successful campaigns. Which influencer has got the most likes with which photo? How many comments have individual influencers achieved? All these questions are answered in a clear manner.

Hashtag campaign data and charts

If you are already planning more extensive social media campaigns, the statistic analysis will love. Depending on the package, the tool crawls the entire database to find any ever-posted postings. This allows the entire chronicle to be recorded, not just for days, but for weeks, months and years. This allows entire companies to be analyzed and their successes of postings. This data is also valuable to customers because they contain valuable information on campaign flow and progress.

Conclusion: Social Analytics Influencer + Campaign Manager

As the world’s first tool, Social Analytics provides deep insights and enables the comparison of influencers for targeted and fast supply creation. The subsequent campaigning tools for evaluating and evaluating social media actions allow agencies to collect and collect relevant data for campaigns as quickly as possible. The report is quickly created and can be sent to the customer via PDF. The tool is currently running in the beta phase until the end of 2017.

Find out more about Social Analytics here Influencer + Campaign Manager.

The roots of photography: analogue photography requires time and passion

FIV: Hello Mr. Bockemühl-Simon, please introduce your company briefly for our readers!

Johannes Bockemühl-Simon: JOBO: We love pictures. To the moon and back.

Quality, commitment and professionalism have brought us to the top of the photography world. The motivation to keep challenging ourselves for the best picture, all the way to the moon. The year was 1969, the year mankind was to take the most significant step into space: The first manned flight to the moon. Apollo 11. All this was captured photographically – with a Hasselblad. But the camera only captured everything on precious analog film – with a silver halide coating. On the moon only the “latent image” was created. Nothing was proven yet. The negative was still undeveloped.

But everything in photography (and in the materialistic perspective) depends on the “visible image”. The “real image” was needed. Who better to entrust the transformation of this historical evidence to than JOBO’s developing equipment? Yes, you heard right:

Proof of authenticity of the first NASA moon image by JOBO

By using the photo equipment of JOBO from Gummersbach, near Cologne, from West Germany – the latent image became the visible image. The visible PROOF. A double proof. Man in his striving for infinity actually reaches the moon for the first time. But at the same time this is also quite a PROOF with political message: The free man with unleashed zeal and almost boundless economic possibilities (the “West”) comes up to the moon.

But not only the West, but only FIRST the West. Because the moon should lose neither for mankind, nor for the small photo manufacturer from Gummersbach (JOBO) in importance. The EAST later set its own standards with the MIR. The MIR contained a complete photo laboratory with – yes, you will guess it, exactly (!) – with JOBO development equipment for the photos from space!

Well, actually we would have to say: We love pictures. To the moon and back!

FIV: What exactly fascinates you about analog photography as opposed to digital photography?

Johannes Bockemühl-Simon: The most authentic way to learn and appreciate the art of photography is ANALOGUE photography. Nothing can replace the experience of working with silver halide film.

The fascination of creating unique prints on silver halide paper cannot be reproduced digitally – back to the roots of photography! Rarely is the human urge for the beautiful and the true so closely connected as in analogue photography. Analogue can be consciously designed – but the image itself can hardly be manipulated – quite different from Photoshop. Working analogue requires time and passion. If you don’t have time, you have to take pictures.

No “virtual reality” – no “augmented reality” – but real photography.

FIV: What topics and products are offered on your website?

Johannes Bockemühl-Simon: First and foremost, we at JOBO offer analog photo accessories for your own film processing. We also recently added the beautiful view cameras from CHAMONIX to our range: cameras made of teak and carbon: new technology for old school.

For the demanding digital photographer we also offer a unique perspective correction system : LensTRUE.

FIV: How exactly does the LensTRUE system work?

Johannes Bockemühl-Simon: On the one hand, the LensTRUE system consists of hardware that measures the tilt of the camera with a sophisticated GYRO sensor. Furthermore, the LensTRUE system consists of software that synchronizes this tilt data with the photos and then calculates an automatic perspective correction.

Until now, this was almost only possible with shift lenses for DSLR cameras. Basically, LensTRUE turns any lens into a shift lens. Currently, almost all full-frame DSLRS are stored in the software. Currently only Mac compatible. Apple in front of window ;-).

Before – After pictures with LensTRUE

The original image without editing

After processing with the LensTRUE software it looks like this… a great change!

Creative work – analogue photography decelerates according to the expert

FIV: What tips for analogue photography can you give our readers?

Johannes Bockemühl-Simon:Allow yourself time. It is not the multitude of images that is decisive, but the deliberate assrbeit. The reduction to the form and the shading of black and white has its special charm with coarse-grained film. Great for portraits.

Own enlargements are uncomplicated from black and white and quickly lead to good results. Creative work that decelerates.

FIV: What do you draw inspiration from, who is a “role model” for you?

Johannes Bockemühl-Simon: My favorite artist is Michel Angelo – even if that’s before photography. Realism and expression were never so united before him. He literally got to the bottom of nature. The photographic works of John Sexton – a landscape photographer from America who studied with Ansel Adams – are of the highest level of craftsmanship and artistry.

FIV: How do you stand out from the competition?

Johannes Bockemühl-Simon:JOBO is the specialist for lab development and the darkroom. JOBO processors are based on decades of experience of engineers and photographers. The world-famous black and red JOBO can is found in almost every photo lab from China to the USA.

If you want to develop 8×10″ images from your view camera yourself, you will hardly get around the Expert Drums from JOBO. Unfortunately, the analogue photography market is a small niche – but it is growing. Paradoxically, the demand for analog photography is growing again not only in galeries but also among young people.

In the digital arbitrariness, an analog original simply stands out.

Learn more about Jobo and the LensTRUE system here:

• Jobo
• LensTRUE

We thank Johannes Bockemühl-Simon for the interesting interview and wish JOBO continued success!