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Photo Books
Photo books are an excellent and fun way to preserve those special
personal and family memories.
The focus of this tutorial is "making a paper based photo book",
but the first few sections deal with some alternatives and initial
stages in gathering your thoughts and materials together, which apply
to any production method.
The order in which I've suggested
you tackle this might seem a little strange - but it works!
At the end of this
tutorial you should be able to build paper based photo books
from your
digital media, however the principles apply to any of the other output
media suggested in step three.
Step
One - What Are You Trying To Say?
You need to decide what it is that you're trying to
say in your photo books...
Some examples might be
- my holiday
- my family
- the last night of freedom before the wedding
- a special anniversary
- how we built our garden
This sample photo books page illustrates the
following ideas
which will be
explained as we go through the tutorial.
The page gives an example of one subject, flowers in New Zealand and
includes ...
- Similar tone range
- A background which does not detract from the images
- A mixture of sizes and shapes of image, sympathetic
to each other
Step Two - Some
Decisions
Now for some decisions ...
- Who is your audience - who is going to see the
finished work?
- Is it purely for you?
- Only on demand?
- A record for all to see?
Step
Three - The Output
There are so many different ways of presenting the pictures and
artifacts, and even more software packages to enable you to get there,
for instance ...
- Calendar.
- Postcard.
- Photo book.
- Web page.
- Social network page.
- AV presentation.
It's worth just checking what you actually have on your computer,
because often tucked away are some little gems hidden as plug-ins,
cut down version, and plain freebies.
Most commercial printers
have free downloads of book composing software, and surprisingly
similar they are too.
But it's essential to check the range of outputs available as not all
suppliers and software are comparable.
My bare minimum list (other products do exist) consists of ...
- Corel Paint Shop Pro to edit the images.
- Microsoft Power Point to make AV presentations.
- CEWE/BOBBOOKS/JESSOPS software for paper products.
- Google PICASA to share photos on-line.
Step Four
- Miscellaneous Items
Miscellaneous items you might want to share in your photo books ...
It's worth considering what might be included in the collection.
- Photos.
- Scanned postcards.
- Scanned tickets.
This picture (little Maisie) illustrates the following ideas
which will be
explained as we go through the tutorial
- The image was created in POWER POINT. Click
here for instructions ...
- The speech bubble and text were applied directly to
the POWER POINT page.
- The file was “Saved as” a JPEG and can then be
imported into various
other applications. TIFFs are equally transferable.
Step
Five - The Extent Of The Project
Before you actually put the ideas and items together you should think
about the overall size of the final production.
- The number of photos or scanned artifacts.
- The physical size of a paper production in terms of
pages and area and
thickness.
- The quality of paper or output.
Making paper-based photo books ...
So now you have your thoughts sorted - you can start to put your book
together
Step Six - The
Short List
As a very rough guide you'll use 2 to 2.5 pictures to the page, but
this figure will depend on the specification you wrote for yourself in
steps 1 through 4.
- Not all the pictures will sit comfortably together
(more on this later
in step 8).
- You'll need some pictures in reserve .
- You'll need to be ruthless in the production of the
shortlist.
- AND even more so, when you come to your final version.
So for photo books of 50 pages, you'll need ...
Between (2 x 50) + 10% to (2.5 x 50) + 10% - which is 110 to 140
pictures
Step Seven -
The Editing Step
You need to read the small print on the help pages about the file types
and sizes which the software can read.
As a rough guide the files are best if they are ...
- JPEG.
- Less than 10 Mega pixels.
- 300 dots per inch.
Step
Eight - Borders
This picture illustrates the following ideas which will be
explained as we go through the tutorial.
- The images are of different orientations.
- A mixture of sizes and shapes of image, sympathetic
to each other.
- The images are of similar subjects.
- The images have been given similar treatments, which
is simple to
experiment with, and is described below.
In Paint Shop Pro, the effect is chosen from the menu strip Effects>Art Media
Effects>Brush Strokes.
The layout - the bit that you can only do by trial and error - but
there are some rules you might need to consider on each page ...
- The subject of the photos.
- The style of the photos.
- The colour range of the photos.
NOT putting highkey and lowkey pictures onto the same page or across a
double page spread.
- Placing portrait layouts on a landscape orientation
page.
- Placing landscape layouts on a portrait orientation
page.
- Grouping portrait layouts with landscape layouts.
- The background colour of the page should complement
the photos NOT
contrast with them.
This picture illustrates the following ideas which will be
explained as we go through the tutorial ...
- The images are of similar shape and size.
- The images are of similar tone.
- The images have been colour toned (see the Toning
Page for help with this).
- The background is sympathetic to the images.
- Using borders around the photos so they look as
though they're in a
photo album.
- Rotating the photos at a slight angle to accentuate
them OR make the
album less formal.
- Using decorative effects such as Paint Shop Pro
picturetubes OR
speech bubbles with text
This picture illustrates the following ideas which will be
explained as we go through the tutorial
- The original image was edited in Paint Shop Pro X3.
- The ring of butterflies was added in Paint Shop Pro
X3.
You choose the picture tube tool from the toolbar. There are
4 main parameters which you can set. It is worth
experimenting with the settings (Edit>Undo
and Edit>Redo
are wonderful tools!)
Text is important. Add that at the end, since it is often difficult to
move text boxes in the software
- The font should complement the photos NOT contrast
with them.
- The font size should not overpower the photos.
- UPPER CASE LETTERING IS LESS LEGIBLE THAN lower case.
- The "white space" in between the words is just as
important as the
words, since this makes the words more readable.
Save the file.
Make yourself a drink.
Go for a walk.
Don't send the file for printing for 24 hours;
until you've had the chance to review what you've done and
given yourself a chance to reflect on your hard work.
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Photo Books
Page Links
Step One
Step Two
Step Three
Step Four
Step Five
Step Six
Step Seven
Step Eight
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