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Author Topic: "bolg" collage print template?  (Read 3337 times)

johnkiv

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"bolg" collage print template?
« on: April 21, 2016, 12:29:52 pm »

Can anyone recommend a "collage" template that works in Ligntroom?  Attached is what my Photoshelter website can do automatically with all the photos in the gallery.  It will create it without cropping, use the proportions of the files vertical or horizontal.  I would like to create a print layout by selecting the photos in Lightroom, specify a print size, spacing and let the template do the rest.  I have found some custom layouts, but nothing that will do it automatically.  I have worked with the contact sheet layouts, but they work with the photos as square cells from my experience.  Maybe there is a way to do it that I am missing.

All advice appreciated, Thanks, John

ButchM

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2016, 10:23:28 pm »

If your blog is Wordpress based ... you can use the Gallery plugin included in the JetPack set that can do this easily on the fly. Simply upload the individual mages to your blog and create a gallery of the images and select 'Tiled Mosaic" and the plugin will do the rest.

It does a pretty good job of displaying images of different sizes and scales to nicely displayed collection. Click on any individual image of the set and it will open a carousel to view larger iterations.
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john beardsworth

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2016, 09:25:15 am »

If your blog is Wordpress based ... you can use the Gallery plugin included in the JetPack set that can do this easily on the fly. Simply upload the individual mages to your blog and create a gallery of the images and select 'Tiled Mosaic" and the plugin will do the rest.

It does a pretty good job of displaying images of different sizes and scales to nicely displayed collection. Click on any individual image of the set and it will open a carousel to view larger iterations.

I think he wants to create a print layout, Butch, not something for the web.

I've never seen a print template that does this automatically. In Print one could create one's own using the custom package Layout Style and dragging the photos onto the page.



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dwswager

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2016, 09:47:20 am »

Can anyone recommend a "collage" template that works in Ligntroom?  Attached is what my Photoshelter website can do automatically with all the photos in the gallery.  It will create it without cropping, use the proportions of the files vertical or horizontal.  I would like to create a print layout by selecting the photos in Lightroom, specify a print size, spacing and let the template do the rest.  I have found some custom layouts, but nothing that will do it automatically.  I have worked with the contact sheet layouts, but they work with the photos as square cells from my experience.  Maybe there is a way to do it that I am missing.

All advice appreciated, Thanks, John

Without expending a lot of brain power, I am going with door number 3 and say this is actually an impossible task.  Given the geometry problem, either the spacing would have to be allowed to change or the aspect of the images changed (cropping).  Scaling alone would not do it.   If you had an infinite number of images, then it could build this to a point and then it would have to ignore the rest of the images that did not fit.  I could see if you had a finite number of different aspect ratios in the template and images that matched those aspect ratios, then you could than just filter images into spots.

Damn...not I have to monitor this thread to see if it is actually possible.
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ButchM

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2016, 11:19:03 am »

I think he wants to create a print layout, Butch, not something for the web.

Sorry ... was confused by the "blog" reference ...  :-[
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johnkiv

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2016, 10:06:13 am »

dwswager

You may be right.  My brother-in-law, he and his math major, computer-programmers friends were helping a cabinet maker set up a computer system for his shop.  The shop owner told them he could really use a system to have his cut list transferred to a 4x8' sheet of plywood with minimum waste.  The 2 math majors looked at each other, paused, and said that may be a problem without a solution. This was back in the dark ages of mac's with tiny b&w screens.  Maybe there is an app for that now?  Funny how we are back to tiny screens, but they are in our pockets.

The web site seems to do it seamlessly, which leads me to think it can be done.  Maybe pixels on a screen has more variables to work with?

I do find the custom print layout in lightroom kind of clunky.  Maybe i just need to do the work to make it work for me.

john beardsworth

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2016, 10:51:59 am »

It really isn't a complex problem. The width of the container in pixels needs to be divided by the number of columns you choose to have. The main difficulty would seem to be that a printed page has a fixed height, while a web page is effectively infinite.
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stingray

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2016, 08:18:56 am »

A non Lightroom option.

Use InDesign. Create a page the size you want, create the number of columns you want, use the Place Command to select your images and  the images into the columns.  It is not a totally automated solution, but it is fairly efficient.

This could be automated using Javascript.

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johnkiv

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2016, 08:43:07 am »

Thanks,

I will give that a try. John's earlier post that mentioning starting with columns was a "light bulb" tip for me.

Thanks

stingray

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #9 on: April 25, 2016, 09:28:52 am »

I am not fond of InDesign, generally use as a last resort.

I have created sophisticated InDesign templates when I want to print an image with professional level Titles / Metadata.  I use John Beardsworth's excellent plug-in (Listview) to extract the metadata from Lightroom and merge this with an InDesign  template.  This technique is also possible with Photoshop. (Tip.... you must use tabbed delimited files ..another Adobe shortcoming, should accept csv).  I use this so often in the past that  I wrote a Javascript to provide a totally automated solution.

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Jonathan Cross

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Re: "bolg" collage print template?
« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2016, 03:06:13 pm »

Er um - am I being stupid?  I do print collages for display on A3 (42x29.7 cm).  I shoot RAW, so export processed images from LR to my hard disc as jpegs at 300dpi and then open an A3 blank sheet at 300dpi in Photoshop Elements and construct.  It is easy by selecting a whole image in Elements (ctrl A in Windows) then copy and paste on to the A3 sheet. Resizing, overlapping, rotating, inserting text is easy and I have complete control.  I save two versions of the final sheet, one with all the layers and one flattened.

Jonathan

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Jonathan in UK
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