|
So it’s been a while since you sorted through all of those photos in your closet, and the satisfaction of that achievement is beginning to wear off. You have a collection of technically sound, evocative images for Display purposes; you have a pile of Discards that you’ll never have to see again, and you have a file of Reserve photos that might work as filler, but you’re not going to stress about them too much.
It’s time for Phase 2 of Operation Preserve Your Memories: Organizing Your Images.
I know, I know, I know: You thought you already did that when you divided up these photos into Display, Discard and Reserve categories. Wasn’t that getting organized? No, young grasshopper, that was just thinning the herd of available resources. Here’s where the real work - and the real fun - begins: Organization.
Determine a theme or chronology: Some albums work best on themes - special occasions, vacations, groups of friends, weddings, hobbies. Some work best chronologically - the school year, baby’s first year, a retrospective album for a special anniversary or big birthday, college days. Sometimes your theme is self-evident as you’re going through the Display / Discard / Reserve process... but sometimes it’s not. Suggestions:
- Take a look at the field: Lay out as many pictures as you can on your table or your computer screen and scan them to see if a theme emerges.
- Think small: If you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember, you don’t have to get all of these photos into one giant book or slideshow. It’s less daunting - and a lot more satisfying - to finish one smaller book on a specific theme, like Graduation, than to tackle a bigger collection like High School Memories.
- When in doubt, go chronological: I have a lot of books that are labeled by year. They’re not really fancy, but they capture a lot of different times in my life that are too diffuse for their own photo books. I may separate out a big trip that occurred within that year into its own collection, but the small moments are still preserved in my “year” books.
First Pass - Start sorting based on your theme or chronology: Once you have your theme - or themes - run through your Display box as fast as you can based on that theme. Just put the pictures into little piles on your table, or arrange them quickly in your browser window. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just group your photos together based on your theme and sub-themes within that. For Valerie’s wedding galleries on this site, we did a combination of themes (Flowers, Dress, Hair and Makeup) and chronology (Wedding Ceremony - Cocktail Party, Ceremony, Dinner, Reception) - and I had separate folders in my iPhoto for each of those themes. If you get stuck, spread out the photos in front of you and see if they speak to different sub-categories.
Second Pass - Refinement: Now’s the time to get creative. Once you have your basic categories / groupings / themes, you can start to think creatively as you decide what order to put the photos in within your album or slideshow. Some hints:
- Look for your BEST shot - I always try to find the “money shot” that is going to lead off my album, work as the cover art for my photo book or serve as a centerpiece for the whole display. For Valerie’s wedding, we had two - the gorgeous sunset photo of her and Tom silhouetted and the giant group photo with everyone in the wedding.
- Think about artful collections - make sure to mix closeups and detail shots with bigger, more panoramic photos.
- Look for natural pairings - a succession of action shots compared to a series of portraits.
- Visualize image shapes - can you fit 3 horizontal photos on a page? Do these verticals work with that horizontal?
- Keep chronology in mind - I always try to keep the timeline of events in the back of my mind, just because it can be jarring to jump around.
Third Pass - Remember the size of your book or slideshow: The photo gallery software that we use for
www.valeriebertinelli.com allows us about 25 images per slideshow, so this ensured we worked small and were disciplined with our groupings. The photobook publisher I used to build Valerie’s wedding album limits you to 100 big pages, front and back - and a single page can accommodate up to about 8 small photos comfortably. When I put together my personal scrapbooks, I use the same size book every time and I know I can usually put about 3 photos on a page with an embellishment or two before it starts looking like a craft store vomited on the page. With this in mind, as you are sorting your photos, think about whether you need to separate certain themes into their own separate books or galleries - or whether you need to buy extra pages to complete your book! It’s no fun to make a run to the craft store in the middle of your project when you’ve run out of pages.
Step Away from the Project: Once you have edited your photos and organized your photos, step away from the project table. I’d highly recommend not leaving everything out on the table - just to protect the investment of your time. Put your pictures in a covered box or envelope.
But, I am a big believer in taking time to let everything settle in your head before you start on the creative frenzy... which we will discuss in the third part of this showdown. Plus, stepping away from the photos gives you a chance to do some shopping at your local craft store and pick up some supplies! We will see you in two weeks for the next thrilling installment: Putting it all together!
|
