My new album

[crazyfoo]

I am attempting to create my first album in Photoshop. This will be a 8x12 album printed from WHCC. As you can tell, I have not gotten very far yet. I was hoping to get some C&C before I get too far with it. What do y'all think? I plan to use a similar feel for 1 through 12 month pictures, maybe using a different font for the name and age, or something to make it different.

thanks for any help!

[MicWayWal]

Justin,

Getting advise while designing albums is a tricky thing. Everyone will have an opinion, maybe TWO opinions. You won't get anywhere fast. So take my advise with a grain of salt.

When designing albums I think first and foremost the images should stand out. In this case yours does not. They get lost in the boldness and busyness of the layout. In fact I did not notice the wording at all until I started to work on my example of what you should do. And overall, I think this layout is a little too bold.

The images you have are bold statements of the subject. Let the pictures be bold and as a contrast let the backgrounds become subtle. This way the images and the cute "word" edging will stand out more.

I didn't change any element or colors. I put a white layer under your background and reduced the opacity of your background to 35%. Then I applied a slight Gaussian blur to your background. I then put a thin black line stroke around the images. I think it makes a better presentation of the images. Now you can also see the wording now that it does not have the background with which to compete.

[crazyfoo]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Michael, that is some good advice! I really liked how the letters bended into the background, but as you said, it just gets lost as there is no contrast between the images and background.