What to do with all of those pictures you take on vacation!
When I travel, I take a lot of pictures. And I mean, a LOT. I think when I got back from China, I found I had taken over 6,000 pictures! Yes, we were going non-stop all day for 28 days, and I saw soooo many amazing places, and in all fairness, there were a number of duplicates in there. Nevertheless, because I saw so many incredible things and had such a fabulous trip, I wanted to share that with my family and friends. But nobody, and I really mean NOBODY!, wants to slog through 6,000 vacation photos (including me!). So over the years, I’ve come up with a few ways I share my travel pictures while also being able to enjoy them myself.
1. Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, etc.
2. Photo book/Journal
3. Blog Page
4. Photo Collage
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Etc.
I’m pretty sure you would have to be living under a rock to not have thought of—or used—number 1. It’s the easiest photo sharing method and will randomly hit the most amount of people. For all of its faults and frustrations, social media has been a great venue for sharing family and vacation photos. And best of all, you get immediate feedback from friends and family.
The downside of this is a) not everyone is on social media (I know, hard to believe), and b) three or five years from now you’ll be looking for that picture you really liked from your trip to the Bahamas, and will have to scroll through countless pictures of your dog to find it. Still, I always love sharing my photos on social media. (Follow me on Instagram! lmorgan_travels)
Photo Book/Journal
Personally, I like doing a photo book after every major trip. It takes a little time to choose my favorite pictures, but after that, it’s pretty easy to do. I use two different services for this, depending on how much I’m willing to spend on quality.
The first online site I use is Snapfish.com. I use them a lot because their platform is super easy to navigate, you can upload tons of pictures at a time, and they have a lot of templates and patterns to create a really nice-looking book. Best of all, they often run specials on their photo books, so they aren’t too expensive.
My only problem with Snapfish is that while the quality is good, it’s not GREAT. And every once in a while, I want GREAT quality. For that I use Printique.com (previously Adoramapix.com). Their quality is excellent, but you do have to pay more for it. When I’m doing a really special book, that’s the site I use. My China book (actually 2 books) I had done in a glossy photo finish that looks very professional. Sometimes you can find them running a special on their books, you just have to keep an eye out.
I’ll be doing a blog post on how to create a great travel photo book, so check that out when I do!
Blog Page
Last year before heading out on my trip around the world, I started this travel blog. It was surprisingly an easy thing to do. I did a little research and found a platform that would work perfectly for my purposes. Wix.com is one of many web development services available, but I chose this one because it allows even the technologically challenged like myself to create a nice, professional looking site. And what I liked most was it was absolutely free! Of course, there are up-sells if you are so inclined and I did end up paying a little extra to get my domain name as my website address, but it doesn’t change the look of the site itself. A blog page can combine both your journal and your photos into shareable content for friends, family, and/or the world. You can write as much or as little as you’d like, ABOUT anything you’d like.
Create a Photo Collage
So this is really what I wanted to talk about today. Creating a work of art for your home that gives you joy and triggers memories every time you look at it. Over the years a number of people have commented on my travel photo collage, and then they asked me how they can create one of their own. So here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to do it yourself.
Materials you will need: Canvas inkjet paper, canvas frames, inkjet printer, scissors, and a stapler. That’s it! For hanging the collage, you’ll want a ruler, a level, small nails, a hammer, and two-sided tape.
The canvas inkjet paper I use is the 8-1/2”x11” from Photo Paper Direct and you can get it on Amazon. They sell a 10 pack and a 20 pack. Here is a direct link to their product: Photo Paper Direct
The 5”x7” canvas blocks I get from Michaels. They have a couple of different kinds, but the one that is 1-1/2” thick is the one I prefer and it is the Gallery Wrapped Heavy Duty Canvas, Level 3 by Artist’s Loft. The other one is too thin in my opinion, but you may prefer it. They often have a sale on their canvases, so keep an eye out for that. Here is a direct link to the Artist’s Loft Canvas: Michaels.
Choosing Your Images
Of course, you may decide it’s not a travel collage you want to do, but one of your kids, or your cat, or just some of your favorite photos you’ve taken over the years. Great! There really is no limit to what your collage theme could be. My collage started out as a 4x5. That’s 4 frames across and 5 down. As you can see, it’s grown since then and is now a 6x6.
For my collage, I’ve chosen just one picture from some of the different places I’ve been or lived. I picked something that is either iconic about the place, or brings back a specific memory. I try to keep the images fairly simple, in fact, the simpler, the better. If every picture has too much going on in it, the group as a whole will start to look too busy. So when you’re choosing your photos, look for images that have strong graphic lines. You can also do some creative cropping to edit out extraneous information.
The other consideration when choosing your photos is contrast, especially if you’ll be toning them like I have. Here, you’ll have to consider color less than how it would look as if it were in black and white. Sometimes, if you squint your eyes you can get an idea of what it will look like. Sometimes a lot of trees, grass and flowers will come across as very flat, whereas white puffy clouds against a blue sky will give you a more dynamic picture. So look for whites, mid-tones, and blacks….typically. I say that and my Taj Mahal picture is one of my favorites and it pretty much lacks a mid-tone range, so all rules are made to be broken!
How to: Create Your Photos and Get Them Ready to Print
The first part of your project is all done on the computer. This will be the most time consuming part of the project (or it is for me anyway!). Choosing your pictures, setting them up to be the right size, and digitally manipulating them to be just the way you want them takes a little time, but it’s well worth it. The first photo you work on will probably take the longest as you figure out your style and how to work through the steps I’ve laid out for you below.
I’ve made all of my images duo-chromatic. So if you look closely, you’ll see the photos aren’t actually “in color.” They’re more like black and white photos, but with a sepia (or green, blue gold, red, or blue) tone to them. Again, this keeps the collection from looking too chaotic, and keeps it cohesive.
If you don’t have a good photo imaging program and/or aren’t very fluent in how to use them, I have written up a How To that goes through the whole process step-by-step. What is a good photo imaging program? One that allows you to set up an exact size for your print, allows you to work in layers, and lets you manipulate the color into mono- or duo-tones. If you don’t have one, don’t worry, I’ve recommended a FREE imaging program for you to use and how to use it. It’s not all that hard, and I’ve included a bunch of pictures to help you out. Click HERE for those instructions.
If you’re using Photoshop or your own imaging program, here are the steps to create the photo for print:
The end product you’re going for here is basically a 5”x7” image with a 1-1/2” border around it. I’ve also done some extra stuff like turning the image into a duotone, rendering clouds in the border, and softening the edges of the image. You can pick and choose which of these (any or all of them) you want to do.
1. Work from a copy of the original image. I almost always recommend this.
2. Change your image size to 5”x7” and 300 dpi or ppi.
3. Convert your image mode to a Grayscale.
4. Convert your image mode Duotone and choose the colors you want to use.
5. Adjust your levels, contrast, sharpness, etc. until you’re happy with the image.
6. Make your canvas size 8”x10” with the image centered in the new space.
7. Create another level
8. Using the eyedropper tool, choose a light color from the image for the sides of the canvas block.
9. Using the paint bucket, fill the new layer. Move the layer down so it sits behind the original.
10. Optional: Filter > Render > Cloud
11. Adjust the opacity of the new layer until you like how it looks
12. Select the original layer so the selection box is on the edges of the 5x7 image.
13. Select > Feather > 25 pixels
14. Select > Invert
15. Delete. This should soften the edges of the image for you so there isn’t a hard line between that and the new color of the sides of the frame.
16. That’s it, you’re done! Now you just have to print it up.
When you’re all done, it will look like this:
How To: Wrap Photo Your Canvas Frames
This is actually the easy part. Once you’ve done one, the rest will come together pretty quickly. For this part of the project you’ll need your canvas photo paper, inkjet printer, scissors, and stapler.
Print your completed images on the photo canvas paper. The white side is the side you’ll want to print on. Set up your preferences so that it is printing the best quality print and on the appropriate type of paper. My printer calls it matte specialty paper, but they are all so different. I would recommend just printing one to start and crafting your first block from that to make sure everything turned out the way it should before printing up the rest.
To get the canvas to wrap smoothly around the frames, you’ll need to make a few cuts. You’ll do these cuts to each of the corners.
Now grab your blank frame and wrap the canvas print right over the top of it. Take some time to make sure your edges are falling on the edge of the frame.
Once you feel confident you have the image square on the frame, lay them upside down on the table. Without letting the canvas slip out of position, pull it tight across the back and put 3 staples along each side. Then tucking the tabs under, staple the short side.
If you have a little over hang on the sides, trim that off so you can't see it from the front of the frame.
That’s it, you’re done! Now all you have to do is hang it up on the wall.
How To: Hang Your Collage
Obviously, you can hang your collage any way you want. If you’re looking for some guidelines, I have my frames hung with 1” of space between them on a grid. You may have a more horizontal space and want to do more across than down, or you may even want to hang them in a more random pattern.
Once you’ve decided on the pattern, measure out where to put the nail holes. Remember that there will be 1-1/2” from the top of the frame to where it will actually sit on the nail. If you are doing a grid and have a long level with a ruler on it, using that is the best and easiest. Once you’ve marked your wall, use small nails to set the frames on and add a strip of double-sided tape along the bottom to keep them from slipping out of level.
Conclusion:
Get creative with your collage. Have fun and don’t be afraid to put your own twist on things. You may decide to go all black and white, or all sepia, or even keep the original colors as they are. You may decide to not hang it on a grid, but in a more random pattern. I've often thought of getting a world map that is larger and hanging it in there with dots representing where the pictures are from.
Reusing the same duotone palette for multiple images, I feel gave my collage a more cohesive look – I think for 36 images I used 6 different palettes – but there are no rules when it comes to creating your own work of art. If you do create your own photo collage, I would love to see a picture of the results in the comments section below.
It really makes me happy every time I look up and see this wall of memories. And while I still have my daily journal and my photo books that I can take out to show those really interested, the collage is always there, front and center. And I can’t tell you how many people comment on it and like hearing about where each picture is from.
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