Multi-photo layouts (part 2)

So enough of the philosophising last week.

Next I want to show you what options you have with multi-photo layouts.

How do I actually get all those photos down once I have decided that I NEED to use 3 or 6 or even 12?!?

I need to make two decisions at the same time.

• What type of layout do I wish to create? 
• What size of photos do I want to use? 

What type of layout do I wish to create? 

This relates to decisions such as do I want a double spread or just a single page?

Do I have lots of journalling to fit in as well as the photos?

Do I envision it as a more arty layout?

 Or more graphic?

Are the photos the main focus...

 or is the story the focus?

What size of photos do I want to use?

Often, I just want to use the photos that I have already printed which will probably be in a 6x4 format. So I can leave them as they are which of course is a little limiting on a single page, or I can trim them down a bit, maybe just half an inch so that I get a bit of a margin around the photos.

 

Or I can chop them up completeley which is actually something I love doing. Very often, the photo itself can be greatly improved by cutting it down to focus on just the main feature of the photo.

I love the 1" or 1 1/2" strips that have featured in seveal of my layouts and think about how many of those you can fit onto one layout!

Of course, the other option I have is to print them out in a smaller format which I do quite often and I'm lucky to have a great photo printer and also some good photo editing software that helps me with standard small format printing (2x2, 2x3 or 5x3) or real photo cropping and then printing in any size I want.

(Disclaimer: I never cut up an original photo unless I have a digital back up on the computer. In fact, I hardly ever even scrap an printed photo unless I have a digital back up regardless of if I need to crop it down or not. If it's a "vintage" photo, then I always scan it first and then print off the scan leaving the original to be put into a standard photo album - ie. any pre-digital camera photo will always be scanned and used in this way.  Original photos are too precious to me to cut up and scrap in this way. They really are irreplaceable.)

All of these things are going round my mind while I am looking at my products and photos on the table. I move things around, think about it, look at the photos, consider the story, pick up and put down product until I have a plan!

Next week will be the final piece of the puzzle - what design tips can help the layouts to work with so many photos. And what mistakes I sometimes make! 

Do you use any of these ideas when thinking about your design? What is your "favourite" way to approach the whole multi-photo problem?