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The
Slideshow above demonstrates how we design our albums.
The first slide shows the list of album selections next to a contact sheet
of thumbnail prints. The thumbnail prints are CUT apart and then spread
out on my work counter which is about 20 linear feet of counter top in a
"U" shape.
The images are then grouped and sequenced and THEN they are PASTED
(actually taped) ...as in "CUT AND PASTE" into an old wedding
album.
At this point the rough design is finished and I can flip through the
wedding album and see the pairs of 2-page spreads and the "Big
Picture" of the album can be seen. For some odd reason I can't do
that on the computer...even though I have 2 20" monitors side by side
that give me a panoramic view of my workspace. I find it necessary to
"Go Analog" even though everything is nice and digital to do
this part of the process...
There is something about being able to see everything at once and move
images around quickly from the beginning of the book to the end and vice
versa, instead of scrolling through pages on the computer.
Next, I make the 2 page panoramas in Photoshop. I create a new page,
select the background, and then bring in the pictures required for each 2
page spread. I add a border, a drop shadow, crop the image and then resize
the images in relation to each other. At that point the pano is saved as
.psd Photoshop document. It has maybe 10 layers, each image is on it's own
layer. Sometimes an alternate background has it's own layer. With a mouse
click I can turn off a layer and hide an image or substitute a new
background. Pretty cool.
Next I generate a pdf of a single page, a group of pages or the entire
album. File size is around 2 mb. You can view this on your computer or
print it out to look at it. If you want to make any changes like
"take the first picture on page 5 and make it bigger and delete the
second picture completely" I can open up page 5 make changes and send
you a new pdf. When approved I modem them to the lab and it's off to the
Bindery. This year I'm having couples come in to quickly look at the
prints as a final inspection. |
