Family History Book - Family Tree Poster

So now you've scanned a couple hundred photos and published your first book. After all that wouldn't it be nice if there was someway to piggyback on all that work and use those photos for something else? Well you can! How about using the photos to create a poster-sized family tree. This is exactly what I did with some of the photos that I used to create our family history book. In this chapter I will give you a few tips for creating your own family tree poster.

Once again, I used Photoshop to create my poster, but any image editing software will work. The following are some tips to prepare for creating your poster.

First of all, think of the overall design that you want to use. I chose a fairly standard vertical tree design for my poster, with the oldest generations at the top and the youngest at the bottom. You may want to use a horizontal orientation or simply a collage for yours.

In order to get a sufficient number of photos onto the poster it will need to be big. Mine was 20 in. x 30 in. The first step is to create a new, blank, document in Photoshop that is 20 in. x 30 in. Set the resolution to 300 ppi. (pixels per inch)

If you are using a vertical tree orientation it works best if you size all of the photos to be the same height. In my case I resized the photos in Photoshop to be 2 inches high. (Image -> Image Size -> Height = 2 inches) Don't forget to set the resolution of the photos to the same resolution of the poster. Then use the Move tool to drag each photo onto the poster and into position.

If you are using a horizontal tree, it will be easiest if you resize all the photos to be the same width.

My poster had 43 photos. Each photo was captioned with the persons name below the photo.
(Warning!!! If you are working in Photoshop each photo and caption will be a separate layer. As you add individual photos to the poster Photoshop will name each layer, by default, Layer 2, Layer 2, etc. Rename each photo layer immediately with the persons name. If you don't you will rapidly forget which layer corresponds to which picture which will make arranging the photos nearly impossible.)

Arrange the photos and captions on the poster by dragging the individual layers to the target positions. Add titles, lines and other graphic elements as desired.

Here is the finished result of my photo family tree poster. (Click on image to enlarge)



Of course, the are many different color schemes and variations that you can use. Here are two alternatives.


In this example I've used different background colors, fonts and added drop shadows to the photos...

and in this example I've converted the entire poster to a sepia toned black and white image to give it a more uniform appearance. The options are limitless and entirely up to your creative instincts.

Once you've finished your poster in Photoshop it will be a very large file. (Mine was 84 MB) In order to print your poster, save it as a JPEG. My final JPEG was 16 MB. Upload the JPEG file to your favorite print service and in a few days you will have your finished family tree poster. Order extras. They make great gifts for the family.

As described in the last chapter, I highly encourage you to check out Lynda.com if you need assistance in learning to use Photoshop to create your poster.

That wraps up the series on Family Photo Histories. I hope you've enjoyed it and that it has stimulated your your creative juices. I'd love to hear from you about your creative efforts.

Mark

Family History Book - Chapter #3

In the first two chapters of this series I've described the purpose and content of a family photo history book. In this chapter I will address some of the technical requirements for creating the book.

I am assuming that the vast majority of the content for the book will be photographs and documents as described in the previous chapter. In order to get these into your book you will have to scan them or have them scanned for you. In order for the photos to be properly reproduced in the final book there are some technical details that are very important.

FILE TYPE

Most of the on-line services, such as Shutterfly, require that all uploaded photos be JPEGs. Make sure that your scanner is set to save the image as this type of file. If you have files that are saved in TIFF or other formats you will have to convert them to JPEGs using Photoshop or other image processing software prior to uploading. Making sure that your scanner is set to save files in the correct format will save you a lot of time downstream. If you are having the photos and documents scanned for you by someone else make sure you tell them to save the files in JPEG format.

RESOLUTION AND COMPRESSION

In order to be reproduced properly the scanned photos and documents must have sufficient resolution. Typically this translates to somewhere in the range of 180 to 300 ppi (pixels per inch). When scanning your photos I recommend that you set your scanner to 300 ppi. If you are scanning a 4x6 in. photo and plan to enlarge it in the book up to 8x10 you will need to set you scanner to a higher resolution - say 400 to 600 ppi to get the best quality.

Another important parameter is file size. The JPEG file format is a compressed format. Your scanner should give you the option to set the quality level or compression level for the saved file. The quality setting normally is from 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest quality and 10 being the highest. Compression is the reverse. If the quality is set to 10 then the image compression will be least. If quality is set to 5 the image will be compressed a lot and the file size will be much smaller. While you might think that you want the highest quality possible this will result in very large file sizes. This can result in very long upload times. You will want to keep the file size as small as possible to minimize upload time as the following illustrates.

- A 4 in. x 6 in. JPEG @ 300 ppi is approximately 0.85 megabytes (MB)

–- Upload time with DSL = 0.25 to 0.5 minutes

–- A typical book can contain 100 or more images
- Upload times with DSL can take one to three hours for 100 images, depending on line speed.

Based upon the above considerations, I have had very good success setting the JPEG compression on the scanner to yield file sizes of 1.0 to 2.0 MB. If some files are 2.5 or 3 MB don't worry. However, if most of your files are this large it will take much longer to upload your files to the vendor.

RETOUCHING

One of the facts of life is that many our our old photographs have not been preserved properly and are stained, cracked, faded or otherwise damaged. Fortunately most photos can be restored with a bit of editing on the computer. Even if you have never tried to restore a photo before you can make amazing improvements.

There are many photo editing programs on the market today. I have used both Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS, however, most programs will allow you to do basic photo retouching. The main tools that you will use in Photoshop are:

- Spot Healing Brush
- Healing Brush
- Patch Tool
- Clone Stamp
- Smart Sharpening/Unsharp Mask
- Levels/Curves
- Color Balance/Hue and Saturation

Spots and small stains can easily be removed using the Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush or Clone Stamp. Larger spots or stains may require the use of the Patch Tool. Faded photos can be brought back to life by applying Levels or Curves adjustment layers. Cracks and tears in old photos can be repaired using the Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush or Clone Stamp.

The following are some examples from one of my photo books. (Click on images to enlarge)

This photo was badly faded, cracked and stained. However, only two photos of my great-grandfather were available so I wanted to use it. In order to retouch the photo I used the Spot Healing Brush and Healing brush to eliminate the cracks and stains on the photo. I then sharpened the photo using the Smart Sharpen filter in Photoshop and then used a Levels adjustment layer to darken the photo and enhance the contrast.

This is a great photo of my maternal great-grandfather (back row, far left). Again, the photo is badly faded with many spots and scratches. The bottom half of the photo is even more faded than the top half.

Once again I used the Spot Healing Brush and Healing Brush to remove spots and scratches. By applying a curves adjustment layer I was able to bring the photo back to life and increase the contrast. Again I sharpened the image with the Smart Sharpen filter. To darken the bottom half of the picture I applied a overlay gradient mask. Finally I cropped the photo slightly to eliminate some distracting elements on the left side.

Retouching can also be used to bring old documents back to life as well as photos, as this example shows.

The image on the left is a poor photocopy of the original document. It is marred by many smudges, one of which badly obscures the last two entries on the page. Using the same techniques described above I was able to remove the obscuring smudges and bring the document back to almost pristine condition.

I would like to mention one very important aspect of retouching for use in a family photo history book. The book is meant to convey a sense of history. It is important that the restoration of old photos not detract from the sense of history. Old photos should look old. Sometimes a torn edge or smudge here and there adds to the sense of age. Some photos look better slightly faded. You may not want to bring them up to perfect condition. Be sensitive to the image and mood conveyed by the photo when doing your restoration.

I know that much of what I have described above is over the head of many people. But it isn't difficult to learn. To learn more about how to use photo editing software I highly recommend you check out Lynda.com on the internet. This site offers online tutorials fom many software packages including Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro. You can buy a monthly subscription for only $25. In one months time you can run through all the tutorials and become an expert retoucher yourself.

Many photo labs offer photo restoration services. While it can be expensive to restore a lot of photos you might have a particular photo that you want to have restored professionally. However, don't just hand you precious heirloom over to someone at the neighborhood drug store. Meet and speak to the person who will be doing the restoration and make sure that they understand what you want.

Now it's time for you to get started on creating your own family photo history book.

Good luck!
Mark