Layout Photography & Photo Resizing for Web Galleries: Preparation (Part 1 of 3)

You have struggled and wracked your brains in order to create a kick-ass scrap layout. Once finished, you plan to upload a digital version of the layout in your online photo-gallery to show to the world your creative genius. Unfortunately, it was not able to do justice of the layout you made. It is fuzzy, colors are off, details are missing and it takes forever to upload due to its humongous image file size.

I guess most of you can relate to the above situation most especially with the increasing proliferation of online web communities and photo-galleries plus scrap challenges where you submit online a digital version of your layout. In this regard, it is my hope that with the tips and best practices I will be discussing in this 3-part article, I will be able to help you digitally capture your layouts and show it to the online world it all its beauty and splendor.

The first phase is preparing the critical elements in order to take pictures of your layouts. Now, you maybe wondering why I said, take pictures rather than scan the layout. In this time of point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras with at least 6 megapixels, I think the quality of the images from these cameras are already at par or even better than those from scanned layouts. Likewise, have you tried stitching together the two images you scanned since your 12x12 layout did not fully fit the scanner (unless of course you own a very expensive scanner which can scan the layout in one pass)? 

Now on to the critical elements. The most critical element is the location and time. The ideal location is a bright shaded place, not directly lit by sunlight. With regards to time, the most ideal time is between 10am to 3pm. (See Picture A)

If you are already pressed for time (e.g. you finished your layout at night and you need to submit it on that night as well), you need to look for a room with bright and even lights, preferably fluorescent lights. (See Picture B)

Once you have identified your ideal location, you need the following materials:

Required:

1. Camera (either point and shoot or digital SLR)
2. Illustration board (15’ x 20’)
3. Tack it (Faber-Castell)

Optional

1. Table-top tripod or
2. Adjustable Tripod

In the second part of this series, I will be discussing the workflow on how to take the pictures of your layouts in the two locations I mentioned and the most optimal camera settings.