Making Multi-photo Layouts Work

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Last week I threw out a “tutorial-writer-needs-topics” plea at the end of the Challenge Spotlight. In the comments, lisar threw a couple of topics back. (For one of them I need some clarification.) “I don’t remember if you’ve done one on a gazillion photos on a page…” As someone who tends to want to scrap single-photo layouts, I’ve discovered I actually have quite a lot of multi-photo (but not quite a gazillion) layouts that turned out quite well. So that got me thinking. What makes a good multi-photo layout? So today, I’m going to pick apart a dozen of my own layouts. Brace yourselves!

I started off thinking about what I consider to be “multi”. Four photos are easily scrapped within the constraints of a 12×12 or 8.5×11 canvas, five only a little less so. That led me to only looking at layouts I’ve created with six or more photos. What became immediately apparent was that the photos I used for each had something in common. A theme, if you will. Some of them were taken on the same day, some of them were taken on different days but were linked in some way, some showed a progression.

Let’s start with this six-photo layout from my 2013 trip to Boston. The theme of my photos is the Boston Marathon bombing. Because we were there only 5 weeks after it happened, it was very much front-of-mind; the blast area was still filled with memorials. Rather than focusing on tragedy I looked at resilience. I chose a template designed by Dagmar Krupalova (who no longer has a shop at GS) because I could fit in all the memorial images I had. The photos are roughly the same size so no one image is the focal point. With the photos arranged in a loose circle gave me room to journal about the event and its aftermath.

You may have seen this layout here on the Blog. The photos are a mélange of images from my two trips to Ireland. They were selected to coordinate with the blessing I chose as my theme. The largest photo reflects both the iconic Celtic cross found everywhere on the island and my Irish Catholic ancestry, the others the beauty of the country. I used a Miss Fish template from her Travelers Notebook V.9 pack.

This layout is built on a Neia Scraps template from Enjoy the Moment V.10 (retired) to commemorate Maeve’s first week with us.  I liked it for this layout because I could have a large photo of my husband holding her the moment she became ours. The smaller photos offer glimpses into her personality. The way they overlap the large photo lets me conceal some background that isn’t interesting. Neia has quite a selection of multi-photo templates that I encourage you to check out.

My last six-photo layout for today is another travelogue with a mariner theme; the photos were taken by my sister who took a 3 week-long driving tour through Canada’s Maritime provinces. I used LDrag Designs‘ May 2019 challenge template because it has large photo spots in both landscape and portrait orientations. That let me crop the photos to keep the important elements of each. I like the asymmetry of the photo spots too. Lina likes journal cards but I tend not to use them, so I swapped them out for journal spots; there was lots to say about this fishing village. At the end I’ll talk about photo and template selection a bit more.

I have a couple of seven photo layouts to dissect next. My “celebration” of Orangemen’s Day in Northern Ireland was memorable for several reasons. The things I saw that stayed with me are a metaphor for struggle. The churches in the village of Derrylin are one kilometer apart at opposite ends of the main road and are starkly different in design. St Ninnidh’s (Catholic) is smaller and plainer than Holy Trinity (Church of Ireland/Protestant). The village is much closer to the Republic of Ireland than it is to most of Northern Ireland, which may be why there’s a visible Catholic presence in the village. Enniskillen Castle was the garrison for English soldiers and looks more Scottish than Irish; it represents the Plantation of Ulster in my mind. Okay, enough history. That’s not what we’re here for. I chose this template for the pocket-scrap organization. Each photo is quite separate and the eye moves around the page easily and it has a big spot for storytelling – which could easily be replaced with another photo.

I like the different photo spot shapes so much better than I like some of my hairstyles in these photos. I used a template from  JBStudio‘s Put It All Together V.1 that I rotated a quarter turn to the left which gave me lots of room for the quote I wanted to use as a subtitle.

Now let’s do some eight-photo layouts. The first two are a sort of diary looking at the same topic from slightly different perspectives. The first was built on a Dear Friends template now retired. The basic grid style works well to provide continuity and the varied sizes of photo spots let me show the details of each.

Its counterpart is more venting than art. I was so glad to see the last of the porta-john! The template I used is one from Tinci Designs Autumn Stories V.1. I replaced the journal card with a photo. The symmetry of the template echoes the symmetry of the new houses being built and shows the haphazard placement of the porta-john so clearly.

Another eight-photo layout captures the horror of Ronan Gillespie’s Famine Memorial in Dublin. I couldn’t leave out any of these images. It would have felt incomplete and dismissive. It’s based on another of Tinci Designs Autumn Stories V.1 templates, and again, I rotated it a quarter-turn to the left. I felt it was suited well to the photos I’d chosen; the four small photo spots let me zoom in on the faces of the statues. I moved and rotated one of the rectangular photo spots, moved the circle of paper up and rotated the paper flag to better accommodate my photos so they told a story.

Let’s move away from sad and depressing. I wanted to document the transformation of our new yard from dirt to landscaped. I like the diagonal arrangement of this Pixelily template; it took some fiddling to get the photos positioned so the overlap concealed things that should be concealed, but didn’t hide what should be visible. But it was worth it in the end. Each of the eight photos here lent itself to my story.

And last, I have a layout with NINE photos. It was created for a Journaling Challenge using another Dagmar Krupalova template. The ring-around-the-page orientation suited the photos and having the journaling in the centre added to the effect. I was able to show the significant parts of each photo clearly, despite the number and size of the photo spots.

So what’s the process for creating a multi-photo layout you can be happy with?

1. Choose your photos first!
2. Examine each for the parts of them you want to be featured. Don’t get hung up on orientation. Cropping can deal with that.
3. Think about the story you’re trying to tell.
4. Look for a template that will tell your story with the photos you want to include. If you’ve organized your templates the way I do, renaming the preview with the number of photos for easy searching, this step can be a lot simpler than it sounds.
5. Don’t fixate on using your template exactly as designed. If you find one you like but it’s short a photo spot, look at how you can add one in. Similarly, if you like one but it has too many photo spots, how can you remove the extras? Can you make each spot slightly bigger? Can you combine two spots into one? Substitute journaling for a photo? This applies to photo spot orientation too. If you have 4 photos that are in landscape and 3 that are portrait, but the template has 3 portrait and 4 landscape, rotate the template! If other aspects need to be tweaked, tweak them! You’re cooking, not baking; you don’t have to follow the recipe exactly to have something you love in the end.
6. Once you’ve settled on the basics, you can choose the kit(s) you want to use. You may have already picked a kit, so now you’ll need to figure out how to make all three components work together. This is the fun part.

So there you have it. Multi-photo layouts that tell your story and look great doing it!

If any of you are wondering about the shelves… I finally had them up securely on Friday by suppertime, and I only had to make one trip to Home Depot for better anchors. Sheesh.

Okay, so next Tuesday is the last of January (insert collective groan here) so it’s Quick Trick Tuesday. I’ll be filling a request…

Texture Overlays – Whut?

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Just before Christmas I had a request from Hilary: “I didn’t know where to stick this so here goes. Can you do a tutorial on the .jpg textured-overlays please? Or an explanation of how to use them? When I try using them all I’m seeing is dark splodges, you can’t see the underneath photo/picture. TIA” Of course I can! But let me start by saying that texture overlays are better suited to applications on paper, and not photos, unless you’re doing a very arty layout. The following tutorial will work with photos, with the same caveats as for papers. The textured overlay I’m using in my samples is from Karen Schulz‘s  CU Textured Overlays V.01. (CU stands for Commercial Use, meaning the item can be used by designers and others without crediting the original designer. This is in contrast to Personal Use (PU), where crediting the original designer is part of the terms of use of both the designer and GingerScraps.)

These Overlays are intended to by adjusted using Blend Mode and Opacity tweaks to achieve the look you like best. As you’ll see, there are infinite combinations which provide very different looks. I can’t show you every possible permutation; you’ll have to experiment a little. Nothing is final until you say it is! In the example below I’ve simply dropped the Overlay onto a solid colour Fill Layer, which in its unadjusted state just looked like “dark splodges”. I changed the Blend Mode on the Overlay to Multiply. Opacity here is 100%. I like it, and might use it as is.

By decreasing the Opacity to 50% the texture is still visible, but much more subtle. For most of the subsequent versions, I’ll leave the Opacity at 50% for comparison.

Color Burn gives a bit brighter look with a slight increase in the Overlay’s visibility.

Linear Burn darkens everything somewhat, even without an Opacity change.

See how Lighten changes everything? The teal is softer, the Overlay is grayer.

Screen lightens and softens everything. I like this version a lot too.

Overlay brings a ton of detail into the Overlay that was less obvious in the previous versions. Note too how the centre of the paper looks lighter and brighter.

Soft Light is very subtle and reads as almost a solid. I would keep this one in my repertoire.

Hard Light brings the detail back, lightens and brightens everything, as you would expect.

Vivid Light is really dramatic! The teal is so much brighter and the detail sharper.

Linear Light maintains the tonal change of Vivid Light, but lightens and softens it all.

Luminosity has preserved the sharper details, while changing the colour only slightly.

Now, let’s look at what happens with a patterned paper. This one is from Ooh La La Scraps‘ Freezing collection. It’s got a similar shade of teal in the plaid for consistency. Right here, it just looks like it’s been dragged through the mud. It could work for an arty layout just the way it is.

With a 50% drop in Opacity, now it looks more distressed and less depressed.

Switching to Multiply dampens the texture but doesn’t hide it completely.

With Color Burn, the texture all but disappears. The patterned paper does look brighter, though.

To my eye, Linear Burn gives a sort of grungy grease-stained look. Could work!

Lighten gives the appearance of worn paper in the more transparent areas of the Overlay.

Screen completely obliterates the texture and blows out the pattern too much. But… maybe it could be salvageable with an Opacity increase. Remember, I’m just showing you samples. You’re in control of your work.

Overlay isn’t dramatically different from Screen at 50%. Maybe at 25% it might look good. Here’s a tip: use the SLIDER. Watch what changes as you move it. Stop when it looks right.

Soft Light just basically makes the whole image soft and light. Boring…..

Hard Light gives some slight variation in depth, but not really a visible texture.

Vivid Light. Just no.

Pin Light shows more variation in depth than Hard Light. Think of a tiny flashlight shining on it.

Luminosity brings back the grunge.

If we go a step farther and add that solid colour teal Fill Layer between the Overlay – Opacity at 50% – and the patterned paper, a whole other world of possibilities opens up. Color Burn on the FILL LAYER at 100% changes the entire look!

Drop the Fill Layer Opacity to 50% and the texture pops back into view. With the three layers, you can tweak both the Overlay and the Fill Layer Blend Modes for an incredible variety of looks.

As I said many times before, don’t be afraid to play around with your options. It hurts nothing and isn’t permanent unless you want it to be. CTRL/CMD>Z (Undo) is your friend! If you don’t like it, make it go away. When you find something you really like and think you might use it again sometime, don’t forget to Save it. For papers the format is JPG, for elements the format is PNG. Put it somewhere that you’ll be able to find it again. 😉

The new dishwasher was installed on Friday and it’s FABULOUS! Whisper-quiet, gets everything spotless and even gets the plastic stuff dry. Now I just have to pay the credit card bill… Next week is Challenge Spotlight Tuesday. Which Challenge will I choose this time?

Realistic Snowy Titles

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Well, to be completely fair, I used this technique for my December siggy, but that’s not really any different from a title. Right? This technique will work best with either a simple font or a plain, flat alpha. I went with the alpha from the GingerBread Ladies’ Holiday Joy. It’s a painted kraft alpha and it was perfectly suited for the technique. I aligned and spaced all my letters, then Merged the layers – Click>SHIFT>Click on the first and last layers, which Activates all the layers in between, Right-click then choose Merge Layers. Or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>E.

Why do all this extra work when you can just use a white glitter Style, you ask. This is why!

Instead, a Pattern Style will give me a much more realistic look. To find this collection of awesomeness – which comes with your software! – click on that Styles button at the bottom of the Layers Panel then using the drop-down menu found at the top, scroll down to Patterns. And there they are!

The Pattern I used is Fiberglass. It looks a bit (a lot) rough, but that’s not permanent.

To adjust Layer Styles, double-click on the fx icon on the layer to open up this menu. Then use the slider to make your tweaks. I decreased the Bevel to 8 pixels, which nicely softened the edges of the lumps, and changed the Direction to Up.

Yeah, it looks a bit like lumpy concrete, but that too is fixable. First, though, the layer needs to be Simplified. (Broken record, amirite?) Right-click on the layer and choose Simplify Layer. (No keyboard shortcut. 🙁 )

Now we can go into Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Hue/Saturation. Keyboard shortcut (yes!) is CTRL/CMD>U.

These sliders are the key to white! Pull the Saturation slider to the left to (about) -62 and push the Lightness slider to the right to (about) 45. You have control here; these are the settings I used, but you may like something different. Just watch what’s happening on your screen as you make your adjustments and stop when you’re happy!

Now to give it a bit of sparkle! I’m going to go back to the glitter and apply it to a Copy layer – right-click>Duplicate Layer…>OK. Or CTRL/CMD>J.

Just So Scrappy‘s Winter Whimsy has been archived, but there are a LOT of choices for glitter in the Shop. Click HERE. After trying all the white options in the collection, I decided to use the fine glitter-gloss Style. It’s a bit extra, so I’ll tone it down.

All I had to do was decrease the Opacity of the layer to ~40% and now I have frosty snowy letters!

The last step is to Merge all the layers together to make the word move as one element. Too easy!

Maybe I should play with some of the other Pattern Styles and see what they look like. Maybe I’ll come up with another way to elevate our titles.

Quick Trick: Type Tool Measurements

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When we talked about Editing Preferences awhile back, I sort of glossed over the units of measure for the Type Tool. Today, I think we should talk about it a little, not so much to make you change anything but to add some understanding. Let’s have a look at the options.

To access the Type Tool Units, click Edit>Preferences>Units & Rulers…

My Preset Measurements for New Documents are as shown. The best Print Resolution for digital scrapbook layouts is 300 Pixels/Inch. The rationale is that when your layout is printed up, you want it to be a sharp and crisp as possible. But what does all that mean? What’s a Pixel anyway? Pixel is the abbreviation for Picture Elements. At lower resolution an image becomes “pixelated” or much less defined. So you can see why going higher here will give a better image, even though it creates a humongous file. Screen Resolution can be set much lower, partly because the eye isn’t going to really distinguish the individual Pixels on a screen at normal viewing distance and at normal image size. The other options for both of these is Pixels/Centimeter. You metric thinkers, have at it! But why is the Type Tool default setting in Points? What the what??

First, let’s see what other choices we have here. Hmm. Pixels, Points and Millimeters. Still clear as mud. I can tell you that there are 254 Millimeters in an inch… and that a Point is just a smidge smaller than 1/72 of an inch. Which makes no sense either. I’m not even going to mention Picas. So maybe a practical demonstration is in order.

All of my basic Preferences are unchanged for this test. My canvas is 4 inches wide and 2 inches high. I plucked 30 out of a hat for my base number and using Points, typed out the top line. Here’s a tip: Changing Units doesn’t require a trip back through the Edit>Preferences menu, you can simply type in either “px” for Pixel or “mm” for Millimeter in that Size box as shown. Just remember, if you change the Unit for Size, you must also change the Unit for Leading (the space between lines of text), otherwise you’ll end up with a mess.

Here are the results of the rest of the test. At 30 Pixels, the text is virtually invisible. It’s right there under the “30 points” sample, but it might as well not be. When I boosted it to 300, the end result was almost the same size as the 30 Points sample. I don’t know what that means and my brain isn’t cooperating with the mental math bit. Last is the 30 Millimeter and again, I have no clue how that’s measured. 30 mm is 1.18 inch so that text shouldn’t eat up 3 1/2 inches of space, right? The numerals are a little less than 3/4 an inch tall. How does that work? No idea! At any rate, I’m going to stick with the default Points setting because it’s familiar, it’s safe and it’s comfy!

I’ll see you again soon when I bring you the December Designer Spotlight this weekend. Yes… it’ll be December on Friday. Argggh!

Two Minute Warning! Holidays Ahead!!

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Hey y’all! Life’s about to get VERY hectic for a lot of you, am I right?? In the United States, Thanksgiving marks the run-up to Chanukah (it starts at sundown on December 7 this year), Christmas, Kwanzaa and then the New Year. Diwali was this past Sunday; I’m sorry I missed you! (But I did get to see the fireworks!) Thanksgiving’s only 9 days away, and if the TV news is to be believed, a LOT of Americans will be traveling – they’re saying record numbers! – so that means TONS of photos will be taken. I know most of you won’t be even thinking about scrapping layouts for the next few weeks, and that you’ll be making a bunch of new memories at the same time. But hear me out. Your memory-keeping can be made easier if you do some planning ahead of time. I’ve covered a lot of these handy tips before but an updated refresher is never a bad idea.

1. Find your camera’s battery charger NOW and make sure you use it! If your camera uses disposable batteries, stock up NOW. I keep a basket filled with several sizes of battery so I have them handy when I need them. (Like Sunday at 5 am when the battery in the smoke detector in my bedroom announced it was quitting and moving to Arizona. Fun times!)
2. Check that you have a fresh SD card in your camera and that it has a decent amount of memory available. If you’re into phonetography, you might want to trim your in-phone collection by saving them to your computer or the Cloud, then deleting them from your internal storage. I have a handy little PhotoStick where I’ve backed up my phone’s gallery. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you also have unlimited Cloud storage as part of your membership perks.
3. Think about how your typical holiday events usually evolve. There will be some traditions that are carried out no matter whose house you’re having the celebrations at, so plan ahead to capture those moments. Make a list, if you need to. I’d need to!
4. If you haven’t done it lately, review the manual that came with your camera. Review the settings and modes you’re most likely to use for your shots and remind yourself what each is doing while you’re shooting. I use the metadata from my most successful bokeh and full moon shots to set my camera up ahead of time so I don’t miss the shot.
5. Refamiliarize yourself with your tripod, if you use one. I have two – an aluminum ball-head one that allows infinite adjustments but takes a lot of room and needs to be set up ahead of time and a Platypod Max, which looks like a little travel iron but is actually a very clever and sturdy tripod that can be set up in minutes on any surface. Why use a tripod? It lets you take longer exposures while keeping the images tack-sharp and it lets you be in the photo! Use the built-in timer and get in FRONT of the lens for a change. You’ll like the results much better than those you get with a selfie-stick.
6. Practice a few creative techniques that you can memorize so that when you’re ready to take photos of the candles on your dinner table or that gloriously brown turkey, you won’t have to fumble. Practice, practice, practice! The best thing about digital photography is that we don’t have to keep the duds!
7. Do you go all out with a gorgeous table-scape for your guests? I’ve never done it, but I love seeing what others do. (Okay, so I HAVE done a couple of table-scapes in the home decorating game app on my phone. But not a REAL one.) If you’re hosting and have your table all set well in advance (like the experts recommend for sanity’s sake 😉 ) take a few minutes to look at it with your photographer’s eye. Take a shot of a single place setting. Try and get the whole table in a shot, easiest if you shoot from one end. Take a closeup of your crystal.
8. Don’t forget to get some shots of the dinner prep. Be stealthy and get some candids of the main cook, or if that’s you, get some of your helpers. Look for interesting camera angles of your turkey, ham or standing rib roast. Ask someone to be the carver and get some action shots. And look for smiling faces as the meal commences. When taking photos of food, get in close and vary the angles. Show the flaky texture of that piecrust, the glisten of the done-to-perfection skin on your turkey, the creaminess of your mashed potatoes, the detail of the frosting on your cupcakes.
9. Composition is key for any photo. Remember the rule of thirds, but don’t be a slave to it. Decide what your focal point will be and compose your photo to make it so – use leading lines where possible and don’t forget white space. Crop your photos in the viewfinder – so much less work later! And don’t forget the background. Is there anything growing out of someone’s head? Take a step to one side or the other and recompose.
10. Get in close to your subject! Even more so when that subject is a child. Get down on their level whenever possible so you capture their best smiles. Shooting from above should be reserved for those special-effect shots, not photos of kids having fun. For the most natural photos of people though, you can use a telephoto lens and shoot them from some distance. (As long as the light is right!)
11. Don’t insist on smiles. You know what I mean… those cheesy grins aren’t going to be your favourite images. Rather than having everybody say “cheese” for your group shots, have them say “family” or “money” or “gotcha”. You could go with a made-up phrase, such as “moldy mozzarella”. Another trick is to tell everyone you’re going to shoot on “3”, then count, “1… 2… (shoot) WHOOPS 3!” then shoot a second shot right after that. You’ll get some natural smiles that way.
12. We’ve all got a folder full of group photos where everybody is stiffly lined up and fake-smiling at the camera. So how can we take better group shots? Having the subjects doing something together is a good start. If you have snow in your area, have the group build a snowman, or have a snowball fight. Or play football in the snow. Beach ball volleyball (in sand or snow) would make some entertaining shots. But if you just have to have a posed group shot, give some thought to who goes where. If you can arrange the people so that their faces form little triangles, you’ll have a nicer image. Have them turn their shoulders toward each other or the centre of the photo so they can get a bit closer together. Make sure you’ve chosen a landscape setting so everybody will be in focus. Think about trying not to cut people’s legs off. If you can, shoot everybody down front from the waist up. Your subjects will thank you.
13. If you’re celebrating Chanukah, there are lots of great ways to take photos of your menorrah. A series, with each night’s new candle lighting, would make a lovely layout. Look at the angles. On the last night, when all the candles are burning, an angled shot from one end with each flame visible would be incredible. Some of my favourite photos of my grandsons are of them lighting a candle, with the soft glow of the flame on their cheeks and wonder in their eyes. (Their mom takes amazing photos.)
14. When shooting your tree, look for a different approach than the typical 8-feet-away-so-the-whole-tree-and-gifts-are-in-the-shot. Maybe take some close-ups of your favourite ornaments. Use a portrait mode to soften the background and make the ornament totally the focal point. Get down on the floor and shoot up toward the topper, or shoot down through the branches and make the presents the subject. Turn off all the room lights and shoot the tree with just the tree lights. Experiment with shutter speed and aperture to create some lovely bokeh effects. Add a human or a pet to the frame. Or take a photo of the lights reflected in a window. (If you don’t want your reflection in your photo, stand at an angle to the window and look carefully at what’s in the viewfinder.) Or take a photo of the tree THROUGH the window! Turn off your flash though, so you don’t spoil the shot.
15. What about gifts? Well, there’re lots of opportunities around gift opening. Get down on the floor with the kids. Try to capture the moment when they identify what’s in the package. If it’s your thing, you can take some of them channeling Vanna White, holding up a favourite gift. If there’s a very special gift being given, arrange for it to be delivered when you have a moment to frame your image. I really wish I had a photo of myself when I opened a gift from my sister quite a few years ago. It was a resin frame with dragonflies on it, but what made it truly special was that it held a photo of me with my grandfather, who died when I wasn’t yet 4 years old. If you know in advance, you can be ready to catch the emotion.
16. After the dust settles, you can relax, but don’t forget there might still be some great photos yet to happen. Like when a child falls asleep in the middle of a game, or the dog takes off with a long piece of ribbon… they could be the best shots you get all day. But don’t concentrate so hard on getting good photos that you don’t have fun! At a family reunion, my niece made a point of taking a selfie with every single one of us, and they were all fantastic. If you have mad selfie skills, give it a whirl. You might surprise yourself!

I would be remiss if I ignored those for whom the holidays are NOT the thing of loving memories and happiness. If that’s you, think about what DOES give you joy and take photos of that. Many of the above tips apply equally to photos of more ordinary events; sometimes getting out of our own heads and letting distraction help with that can be really therapeutic. Remember, if it’s something you feel, it’s perfectly okay to document it, even if it’s painful. Reality bites a lot of us, and the holidays can be really awful. Just know that I see you.

On that note. I’m going to land. Next week is Challenge Spotlight Tuesday, which is perfect timing… something that won’t require any effort from my readers. 😉