Create a Photo Book: Part II
In the second part of this series, Ashok Kandimalla shows you how to create a photo book that can be easily shared with your near and dear ones
PART 2
RECAP: Last month, you read about the basic features of the ook module of Lightroom. ou also saw how you can create a layout for your photo book, populate it with your pictures, arrange them on a page, etc. In this part, you can read about how we can further customise and then create the final printable file of the book.
We have a few more tools available to us to customise the layout of a page.
Zoom slider
ou might have noticed that whenever you click on an image, a ‘ oom’ slider appears on the top. This shows or the natural si e at its default position. ou can move the slider to the right to get a more magnified view. In essence, this is a cropping tool to help you to fine-tune what you want to show on the page, without affecting the actual image in your catalogue. It has no other effect. If you oom too much, it is obvious that the resolution of the photo reduces and if it becomes too low for proper printing, Lightroom shows an exclamation mark indicating that you should back off.
Guides
This panel (Picture ) enables and disables guides that are nothing but lines that appear to help you to move, position and align photo(s) within the page. Several guides are available and you can switch them on or off as needed. While they appear on the screen, they will not appear in the final output.
Cell
ou might have observed that when you select a photo, a yellow border appears around it. This is called the cell and it is the bounding box of the photo. The default si e is set as per the layout preset you have chosen earlier. However, you can change the si e of the photo within the cell using the Cell panel (Picture 2). Expand this panel and also tick the box Link All (Picture 3). This will ensure that the padding or space between the cell bounding box and photo, remains uniform throughout. Move any slider and the photo will shrink or enlarge within the cell box. However, the photo will not be cropped.
This panel also allows you to add a border (Picture 4) to the photo and you can choose the thickness and the colour of the border.
Adding Text
One of the most powerful features of the ook module is that you can add text to each photo, using the ‘Photo Text’ and also to the page as a whole. The latter is known as the ‘Page Text’. This is something that you cannot do when you use PE files. The result is a book that will give a more satisfying user experience, as most readers would like to read about the photo you show.
Let’s start with Page Text first. To enter text for a photo, the layout of that page must support text to start with. In this context, refer to the Auto Layout panel Picture 2, where we have chosen the preset Picture 2 , One Photo Per Page
with Text. This will enable us to enter text. This preset also has a default font and si e for text. If you want to change it, click on Preset, you can scroll down and choose Edit Auto Layout Preset to customise it or make your own preset.
The Photo Text menu is shown in Picture 3. irst, select the photo for which you want to add text. Tick Photo
Text (Picture 3 ) to enable it and then click on the double arrow mark (Picture 3 2). Now you have many choices available. These include Caption, Custom Text, Date, Equipment,
Exposure, Filename, etc., select what you want. In this case, I have chosen
Custom Text as I can enter the text I want. The distance between the text box (where you will enter the text) and the photo is controlled by the Offset slider (Picture 3 3). Tick Align With Photo
(Picture 3 4), so that the box will be aligned with the photo. inally, we can position the text box where we want, relative to the photo (Picture 3 ) –
Above, Over, or Below. I have selected the last, as this looks the best.
While photo text is connected with each photo, page text is for the entire page and will remain the same for a section that may run for several pages. To activate this, tick the Page Text box (Picture 4 ). The options are more or less the same as for Photo Text options. These are Offset (Picture 4 2) and Type (Picture 4 3). The latter deals with the type of font, si e, colour, opacity and ustification. These options are very similar to what a word processor like MS-Word offers.
Background
The ook module by default provides a plain white background. While this is fine, you can make it better and more attractive by adding a background, using the Background panel (Picture ). There are two types of backgrounds that you can give – a graphic and solid colour. ou can also apply both together. Tick
Apply Background Globally (Picture 5 ) to give the same background to all pages. Also, tick Graphic (Picture 5 2). This will enable you to apply a graphic. Clicking on the little black arrow Add
Background Graphic (Picture 5 3) will show many pre-made graphics for different purposes like travel, wedding, etc. ou can choose any one of these. However, I suggest you use something more relevant to the book. In this case, I downloaded a map of a asthan to use as a background. This image must be added to the collection of the book. ou can now drag and drop it in the area Drop
Photo Here (Picture 5 4). This image will now appear as a background on all the pages. se the Opacity (Picture 5 5) slider so that the background is of the right intensity. It should be visible, but not obtrusive.
Also, you can change the colour of the background if you want. Tick
Background Color (Picture 5 ) and choose a colour from the colour box on the right. I suggest you use a pastel colour or a light shade of grey. I have chosen the former.
Picture gives a page without any additions and Picture shows the same page after adding photo text, page text, a graphic and a coloured background. earranging pages and photos Once you populate the layout, i.e. it has all the pages and the photos in them, you can rearrange the pages by simply dragging a page to a new place. Likewise, you can move a photo from one place by dragging and dropping it on to another. When this is done, the positions of the photos are swapped.
However, you will not be able to rearrange the photos in the film strip, unless the book is saved. Once this is done you can freely arrange or in other words re-sequence them. emember, that doing so will not change the current position of the photos in the layout.
To save the book, go to the main menu -
Book > Create Saved Book
A pop-up menu will appear and in the
name field, type the name of the book you want to create. I have given the name ‘My Rajasthan Memories’. This name will now appear as a collection in the Collections panel. Note, that this collection has an icon (that looks like a book) before the name. emember, that it does not create the book itself but ust a collection. Once this is done, you can even rearrange the photos in the ilmstrip by dragging and dropping. However, the book will not be updated. To update, go to the Auto Layout panel (Picture 2), first click on
Clear Layout (Picture 2 3) and then click on Auto Layout (Picture 2 2) to repopulate. A word of caution. This will change the layout of all the pages to the default preset you are using, and if you have customised the layout of any individual pages, you will have to do that again.
Removing and adding a page
To remove a page, first select the page you want to remove by clicking on it. A yellow border will appear at the bottom. ight-click on that and choose from the popup menu Remove
Page. If you want to add a page, first select a page, right-click, and from the menu select Add Page. A new page will be added to the right side of the selected page with the same layout, but, without any photo. Simply drag and drop a photo from the ilmstrip to populate it. Please note, you will not be able to add a single page on the side of a two-page spread as you cannot break such a layout into two individual pages. If you try to add a page, then two pages will be added.
Removing and adding a photograph
If you want to remove a photo from a page, right-click on the photo you want to remove and choose from the popup menu select ‘Remove Photo’. This photo will be removed from the page but will still be in your collection. If you want you can insert another photo by dragging and dropping it into that blank space. ou may have forgotten to include a photo in your book initially. Lightroom is flexible enough to accommodate that too. o to the Library module and add that image to the collection you created for the book.
Add a new page as described and now drag and drop it on to the new page. After all the steps described, your screen should look similar to this (Picture ):
Creating the book
This is the final step. Please read this section carefully as there is a quirk that you should understand.
As mentioned, the ook module is primarily designed to create a hardcopy. So, even when you opt to make a soft copy, that is a PD file, two files will be created. The filename of the first will end with the word ‘cover’. This is a single sheet with the si e of the book fully spread. or example, if the book is 3 x in. in si e, the cover PD will have a dimension 2 x in. This can be printed on a thicker paper and can be used for covering the book at the binding stage. The second PD file will have all the photos that you have chosen to create the book.
To create the book, click on the large button (Picture arrow mark)
‘Export Book to PDF’, ust below the ackground panel. A dialog box will prompt you to enter the file name for the book. In our case, we will call it
‘My Rajasthan Memories’. Lightroom will now create two files as explained. These will have the names My
Rajasthan Memories Cover and My Rajasthan Memories. The latter file has the photos and is what we want. After you create the book, you will see that the first and the last photos that formed the cover are also included as pages of the book (that is the second PD file). Hence, if you are going to use only the softcopy of the book, then nothing needs to be done other than ignoring the ‘cover’ PD file.
If you plan to print you need to remove these pages as they have already been included in the cover pages PD file. ou ust need to first delete those pages (page number one and the last page) as you would delete any page (as explained elsewhere) and then create the two PD files as explained. These can be sent to a printer.