Posts Tagged ‘dancing’

Lightroom Print Template – Tech Thursday

@TimeLine Media - Arthur Murray photo collage

Managing thousands of photos can be daunting task when returning from a shoot. The Library and Develop modules are where I live when using Adobe Lightroom. These have almost all the functions I need to manage and edit large sets of photos from events that I photograph.

Lightroom Module Selection Bar
Lightroom Module Selection Bar

Photography Software

I have talked about the Library and Develop modules in previous posts, but today, I want to focus on the Print Module. This is the next most used section for me. From here, you can prepare images for printing at the lab or at your home printer if you have one available. None of the photos from TimeLine Media are printed at home – all are sent to professional labs prior to sending  in the mail. Why? The labs are experts at making prints. They print these optically onto photographic paper, not inkjet printing. There is still lots of development being done with professional inkjet printers, but I still prefer the optical prints on Kodak or Fuji paper.

Printing Options

The Print Module, much like the Develop module, also has presets available to use in your work. Lightroom comes with some built in presets that define what size print you like to make, and on what size paper on which you are printing. This is very helpful if you have a specific frame size in mind for your photo. You simply select the size photo, and you can instantly see if the photo fits well, if you could go larger, or if you need to change the perspective of your photo. All of these changes are easily made within either the Print or Develop modules:

Photo size selector
Photo size selector

The next panel down allows you to change your page setup. Here you can change the background color of your page, or add a watermark. This helps to see if you final print will look better on a traditional white or black matte background, or if you would look better on a funky background that is uniquely fitted to your image:

Page setup
Page setup

Ballroom Brag Book

Once you have all of your settings completed, you can save your favorite setup as a preset. This will allow you to apply this template for printing to any photo. You only need to select the photo from the Library Module, and drop it into the preset template in the Print Module. This is where you can add your creativity to your photography by creating new templates. I recently used this to make a ballroom dance book for the Arthur Murray studios in the area.

The book was 10″ x 10″, so I created a new template with these dimensions. My thought was to have a large collage with as many photos as I could fit on the cover to show how many great photos we have made over the passed year. Since the cover was square, I had the idea to make each image square. With this in mind I made a 1″x1″ square, then copied and stacked another 1″x1″ square on top of it. To complete a 10″x10″ cover, that made 100 photos! It took a long time to create the template, but I was really pleased with the results! It was a great way to get attention at the photo booth. If you want to use my template, I have attached it here-

TimeLine Media – 10×10 cover with 100 – 1×1 images

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

@TimeLine Media - Arthur Murray photo collage
@TimeLine Media – Arthur Murray photo collage

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Arthur Murray – Gaithersburg professional show

©TimeLine Media - professional Bolero show

Tysons, Virginia

Today’s post is from the Arthur Murray 2013 Summer Showcase. These photos were from the professional show by the Gaithersburg studio. As long as we have been attending DC area dance events, we have seen Jonathan on the dance floor. Whenever he is out there, I am inspired by his dancing. As can be seen, he has incredible balance, and control of his movement. On this occasion, the dance was a Bolero. Overall, it was an athletic performance with lots of lifts and dips to excite the crowd.

©TimeLine Media - professional Bolero show
©TimeLine Media – professional Bolero show
©TimeLine Media - professional Bolero show
©TimeLine Media – professional Bolero show

Gaithersburg Pro Show

I love this photo showing the enthusiastic supporters from Gaithersburg screaming for their instructors, and ready with their cameras! This was the second performance from their studio at this event, and they should be proud of the reception they received from the audience. Even though the crowd is so close to the dance floor, I do not consider them as much when concentrating on the performers. So in any photo if you catch a nice crowd reaction, it was likely a happy accident. We can’t wait to see what they come up with for the next event!

©TimeLine Media - professional Bolero show
©TimeLine Media – professional Bolero show
©TimeLine Media - professional Bolero show
©TimeLine Media – professional Bolero show by the Gaithersburg studio

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Ballroom Brag Books

©TimeLine Media - image spanning 2 album pages

When sharing photographs today, it is increasingly evident that people want to share their photos digitally, online, in their social networks. But I still receive many requests to have photos printed on paper. These prints can be passed around when shared, or mailed across continents to give as gifts, and some make it into frames to hang in offices or living rooms. My favorite, though, is when people ask about making albums. This is a service I have been doing for a few years now, and I have received lots of good feedback from clients that liked how it turned out!

Photo Albums

The albums are printed onto photographic paper, mounted onto a solid backing, and bound into a black leather cover. This protects photos, and makes them easier to pass around, and share at home or take with you to share anywhere you like. There is a design element too that is easier to produce in book form. When you open the pages to the book, it is possible to make a horizontal image more panoramic in its display by having the image span two pages. Using this, it seems like the images are even more enlarged, and pop off the page. Here are two examples of how it can be done with a landscape image, and a ballroom dance image:

©TimeLine Media - image spanning 2 album pages
©TimeLine Media – image spanning 2 album pages
©TimeLine Media - ballroom dance image spanning 2 album pages
©TimeLine Media – example of brag books – ballroom dance image spanning 2 album pages

My wife came up with the idea for the names for the brag books. There are three sizes – the standard size being 5×7 – the “Ballroom Brag Book”. With this book you can span landscape images to one 7×10 image across 2 facing pages. The smallest book is the 4×6 or “Baby Ballroom Brag Book”. The largest of the books is a beautiful 10×10 book where you can make 20×10 spanning images on facing pages. This is what I use to demonstrate the books when we travel to events. It is called the “Brilliant Ballroom Brag Book”.

Album Design

These albums can be made from photos at any event we have photographed. Between 12 and 20 images will display best in these books. If you have that number of images, it can actually be cheaper to have them put in books than individual prints! I will put together a draft of the layout for you. Afterwards, I will send you a pdf copy for you to look at an approve before the book is printed. It is delivered in a nice case for storing the album. If this is something that you wondered about when you went through the site I hope this helps. Please email me or call with any questions about them. These are great for sharing, and I actually have fun putting the layouts together!

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

1 88 89 90 91 92 132