Hello everyone.

I started a family photo book several months ago. Due to remodeling our house I can only work on the book in my spare time.

To see the pages I'm working on click on the link below. For a better view, click on each thumbnail.

Remember the pages are not finished, so any suggestions would be welcome.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Russinator4 ... yPhotoBook

Russ

Russ, those are truely wonderful old photos but I think the writing on top of some of them takes away from the image itself. Would love to see them without the writing. Just my 2 cents.

Russ, I agree with Suzib. Great photos and something your family will share for a lifetime and more. However, the writing on the photos are a distraction..only my opinion.

I'm in agreement with Bill and Suzi. I think the forward and history are important, but I think it all would be better to have the words on one side and the picture opposite. The way it looks now, it's hard to focus on either. I think you must have done some great restoration. The old photos look great. I like the layout with the smaller photos and the captions. It works well.

I think maybe too you should reconsider the embelishments. Because all the photos are B&W the brightly colored roses draw too much attention to them. Whereas the pastel roses seem to work well to add a little color without being a distraction. If you are going to add more and newer photos, you may want to keep the embelishments wthin the era of the photos they are going with. For example for photos during the late sixties you might consider peace signs and tie-dye designs. Here's where those pastel roses seem to work as they appear to be old fashioned roses that would have been found in gardens of that time.

One last thing... I think the crop on the fifth page is too small. I can forgive you cutting off the top of Williams head, but not for Edna's chin. Then again, the photo may be too damaged to view past where you have cropped?

I've probably been a bit too critical, but these are only my opinions and subject to their own critism.

Russ, I think Gary has an excellent idea about putting your text on an opposite page.

Good job on the old photos; I would try for just a bit more contrast -- not much more, just a bit.

Rusty

Hi Russ. It looks like you are trying to do more of a family history book then a family photo book. If this is the case than I would reduce the background opacities more the make the text stand out more. They are great restorations and I would hate to see them hidden behind text. Maybe try doing a black background and and put the image in the outside corner of the page or the center of the page and wrap the text around it in white or a pale gray. Or like Gary said, have the text on a facing page.

Those pictures are just priceless. I agree with everyone else, show those photos....perhaps creating a layout in which the left page features the photo, and the right page features the story with a more abstract photo as the underlying layer. Don't lose the words.....you have a real nice story to tell and will be quite a keepsake for now and the future.

Russ,
If your happy with the layout you have now maybe you can just lower the opacity of the words. Other than that its really beautiful.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

This is my first try at making something like this and I really appreciate the help.

Russ

Russ - the comments presented is exactly my thoughts as I viewed your wonderful family history.

If, indeed, the photos are merely backgrounds to the text, then reducing the photo opacity will make the text easier to read.

If, however, your photos are just as important to your project, I would lift the text off the photos. In placing the text in a separate area, you will probably find you will have more space to go into more detail - not a bad tradeoff to having to redo your work.

I agree, the b/w photos need more contrast - if you decide to have them go alone. And I agree that the embellishments need to be subtle. You don't want anything drawing the eye away from the photo.

Guess I can't really add any new insight - I just wanted to chime in here. LOL

How lucky you are to have these wonderful photos. And to know the history behind them. Your book is going to be spectacular.