One of the April 2017 Challenges is to photograph a collection. The collection I really want to photograph is my pressed pennies from Disney World. Problem is, how do I do this in a way that makes some kind of decent, scrappable photo? Photography tips? Second, I am proudest of myself when I can make my layout look like a real paper layout. I find sometimes, the glitch is my photo. It's clearly digital. There is no surface textures. Has anyone ever tried to add a texture to their photos before to make them appear printed?
I'd google how to make a lightbox - this will be a great way for you to shoot the objects. You may also try placing them on white paper or posterboard and trying photographing outside. As far as photo edits, there are lots of PS actions and Lightroom presets that can help you achieve a variety of looks, including texture. I've just grabbed a couple of sets that aren't actions or presets that might be what you are looking to achieve as well. You can change the opacity of these overlays to give you more looks as well.
A realistic frame like Cheryl mentioned is a great way to go for this! Lynn's do have that tattered realistic feel! Also for the texture on the photo area itself - have you tried adding the artistic paper surfaces as a pattern overlay that come with PS or PSE (I believe they are in PSE too, but I use PS CC)? You can add a Pattern Overlay in the same way you add a Shadow or Color Overlay - there are some nice artistic surfaces: like canvas and linen papers and you can play with Blend modes, opacity and the scale of the pattern- just like any other layer. This is what I mean:
Can you post a snapshot of your collection? Without knowing what you want to photograph, it's hard to give tips.
I think that collections like that often create interesting patterns for photos. Here's an article that might provide some inspiration: https://photography.tutsplus.com/ar...derstanding-and-utilising-pattern--photo-4239
I had a lot of success using @jenn mccabe 's wonderful suggestion. I combined a light amount of film grain, and the sandstone texturizer. I really feel it makes the photos look a little more real. It looks great in my .psd, and when saved as a .pdf. But, it's hard to see that detail in the jpg for gallery posting . So I've zoomed in here: Full Layout:
fabulous! you will have to let us know how these pages look printed! i have used those artistic surface paper patterns to get a canvas type look on my digital photos before - but never really thought about the fact that digi photos in general look too glossy and perfect - i am one that likes to play around every now and again and get that real paper layout feel on some of my pages too. you are a clever cookie @Juliestcyr i love what you achieved with the patterns as much as your rationale for wanting to do it in the first place!
@jenn mccabe I am a non-printer. I figure one of the benefits of digital scrapping is to keep my product digital. I save my pages as pdfs and then merge them together in a single book. Since I just started last year, I don't have the whole process ironed out yet, but I did it for January 2016, and it worked nicely, plus it was easy to share with those aunties and Grandmas who don't live nearby but want to see what our family is up to.
For your layout... are you wanting to focus more on the collection or the individual pennies within the collection? Where do you have them now? Here's the photo I did for my daughter's pin collection... Not perfect, but it got the job done. I shot in natural light, on a white piece of poster board. I overexposed just a little and did the rest with photoshop. I'm not sure whether or not this will work for your purpose as you would probably lose the detail on the penny. That's why I asked about this being more about the collection or the specific pennies. If it is totally about the collection, you could just photograph how you have them stored (in a penny book or, like ours are... in a jar, for example).
I think I am going to try your method @tkradtke . I have an idea for a grid based layout with the pennies... And, your advice seems a little simpler than building a light box.
Can't wait to see your layout Julie! I still need to document our Disneyland pressed pennies and I'm out of inspiration.
