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Collage for dummies



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 28th 05, 05:11 AM posted to rec.photo.technique.misc
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Default Collage for dummies

I developed this concept way back when albums just started offering
different size image mattes to fit into the books. Where before books were
only 8x10 on each page (or 5x7 for parents) clients could now put 2 5x7's or
4 4x5's on a page.

Of course clients would always come back with a mish mash of selections and
sizes, and I'd have to figure out what to do with the second 5x7 space or
with 3 cake cut 4x5's and what do I put in the 4th slot.

So I laid out the entire album in advance. I was also ala carte in those
days, I shot with a minimum deposit and the clients ordered the images they
liked. I encouraged larger orders by justifying each image placement in the
book.

One more thing, I guess you could say that I was a traditionalist, I called
myself a portraitist, being ala carte and selling each image I quickly found
that clients would order anything that was posed and most candids were
dumped by the handful, by the page full, the more posed portraits I shot the
more images I sold. but I digress.

First sort the images in some sort of order, chronological tends to be the
most logical but its no problem to move the formals upfront, or place the
portraits after the ceremony where the formals and groups were shot and
placed.

Except for the obviously bad images, keep your seconds for now.

I would break the stack down to smaller themes. IE: prewedding, ceremony,
post wedding, reception. Now sort those into smaller themes.

Lets say at the house you have portraits of the bride, her mom and dad, the
sibs, grandparents, bridesmaids, the FG and RB. Those are all themes,
depending on how many you have of each. You have a full length of the
bride, a half length featuring the flowers and a close up, I'd put an 8x10
of the fl, and 2 5x7's of the half and cu. Mom and bride, looking at the
camera, looking at each other, hugging, kissing, well 3 look ok, put 1 5x7
and 2 4x5's on one side, dad and bride on the other, if you only have one of
that, you can give dad one 8x10 or put another shot with the grandparents
with him. next spread, sibs, and maybe a whole family portrait.
bridesmaids get a spread or even two, kids, well they were usually walking
cash registers for me so they got lots of coverage and lots of images.

NOTE for those coming from a pj style, blood is thicker than friendships,
make sure you get shots with those little ol ladies sitting in the
background with their O2 tanks, if they are at the wedding then they are
someone precious and after the wedding those shots will mean more than most
all of the bridesmaids stacked together.

I'd have a misc page and/or a transition (limo to the church) and then a
shot of the church, these days that shot of the church would be used as a
background shot for some of the transition images. And close ups of the
flowers, the dress material etc would be background for the prewedding
photos.

ceremony, you have grand entrance, soloist and readers, vows, rings, the
'big view' and the kiss, and the retreat.

formals, yadda yadda.

reception, these shots were typically reduced to highlights only, I would
shoot hundreds of shots of the people dancing and gabbing at tables, and the
more the clients requested them, demanded them, the less they ordered them,
stacks of images left behind. I usually opened the reception sequences with
a portrait of the cake, (literally I would light it like a portrait, often
putting my background behind it.)

grand entrance, head table, toasts. misc page of bride gabbing with folks
(usually pulled, I'd collect a dozen and suggest that they choose 4 for a
single page or 8 for a two pages spread and would find the whole section
pulled out.) first dance (which usually gets expanded to 2 spreads
sometimes the second was mixed with parents dancing.) misc page of parents
doing things, or groups of parents poses (there's a whole post about this
section later.) cake cut spread, another misc page, flower and garter toss,
2 to 4 pages, more misc activity shots to pull.

the last page would be either, odd images that didn't fit anyplace else, a
funny shot like the groomsmen with sunglasses on, or their pants down, or
the get away car decorated, or a close up of the big bow on the bride's
butt, you know, The End.

I would spend an afternoon doing all that work in advance, quite often the
couple said sure, do it, and I had all the order forms filled out, all they
decided from there was this or that book for this or that amount, usually a
slight discount cause the entire layout was much higher then the budget.

But, if they decided to do massive edits, usually to get the budget down,
they had a very clear idea of how and why images go where they did, and I
rarely had any problems with discontinuity in sizes and themes per page.

This reply is echoed to the z-prophoto mailing list at yahoogroups.com


  #2  
Old November 28th 05, 02:34 PM posted to rec.photo.technique.misc
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Default Collage for dummies

In article , zeitgeist
wrote:

One more thing, I guess you could say that I was a traditionalist, I called
myself a portraitist, being ala carte and selling each image I quickly found
that clients would order anything that was posed and most candids were
dumped by the handful, by the page full, the more posed portraits I shot the
more images I sold. but I digress.


That's pretty much how I used to do it. I stopped giving out previews
early on, and organized the album myself. Whatever prints were left
over, I just gave them along with the album.
 




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