Contact Sheets and Picture Packages

In this automated world, it's only fair that Photoshop should provide ways to automate some of the more mundane tasks that we must occasionally do. Two of my favorites are contact sheets and picture packages.

Contact Sheets

If you come from a background of darkroom photography, as I do, you're already used to making contact sheets of every roll of film you process. When you download images from a digital camera, you might use a transfer program that displays your photos as slides in a sorter, or you might simply copy them from card to hard drive. If you follow the latter course, you don't know what you have until you open each picture in Photoshop and look at it. That takes time. Suppose that you could simply glance at thumbnails of your pictures, and choose the ones you wanted to use without deciphering the cryptic numbers from the camera or having to open each picture separately. Much easier? You bet.

All you need to do is to save the images for the contact sheet into a folder. You can even place several subfolders inside one main folder. Then you choose File Automate Contact Sheet II to open the dialog box in Figure 18.17 and select the folder you want to make contacts of.

Figure 18.17. Click Include All Subfolders if you want their contents to be included in the contact sheet.

If you're going to print your contact sheets, be sure that the document size is no larger than the paper in your printer. Be sure that it fits inside your printer's printable area, in factmost printers don't print right to the edge of the paper. Low resolution (72 dpi) is usually good enough to see what's going on, and saves time and space. Decide how many thumbnails you want per page, and set them up across or down as you prefer. Finally, if you want to identify them on the contact sheet (which I strongly recommend), click the Use Filename As Caption check box and select a font and size for the caption, which is the name of the file. When you click OK, Photoshop will automatically open your files one at a time, create thumbnails, and paste them into a new document. You can then save and print this contact sheet just like any other page. Figure 18.18 shows a typical contact sheet. Note that the pictures are in alphabetical order.

Figure 18.18. Each little photo has its filename as a title.

Picture Packages

Remember school pictures? You got a page with one 5x7, a couple of "stick-on-the- fridge " size for the grandparents, and a couple of wallet-size photos for mom and dad. Around the holidays, your local discount store or department store offers similar deals. You don't need to bother with them. You can do your own and save a bundle.

Choose File Automate Picture Package to open the dialog box. Theres a menu that lets you locate the photo you want to package, or you can use whatever's already open. Choose a paper size according to whatever your printer can handle. In Photoshop CS, you have options for 10x16 and 11x17 paper as well as 8x10. Figure 18.19 shows the dialog box and Figure 18.20 shows the photo size selection menu open.

Figure 18.19. Here's where you set up the package.

Figure 18.20. Portrait sizes, wallets, little tiny ones, even passport sizeswhat more could you want?

Label your photos, if you want to, with the name of the subject, your studio name and copyright notice, date, proof warning, or whatever you want to put there. Choose a font and size for this type, and decide where on the page it should go. Unfortunately, you are limited to only a few fonts, most more suitable for copyrighting or captioning than for adding an elegant title.

Set the resolution as appropriate for your printer, and click OK. Photoshop will assemble the package for you, just as it does with the contact sheets. When you're ready, save it and/or print it. Figure 18.21 shows the page, ready to print.

Figure 18.21. Be sure that you retouch your photos before you assemble them.

If none of the layouts is quite what you want, you can click the Edit Layout button and change sizes and arrangements to make your own custom package. Click a photo outline and drag to resize it, or enter a new size in the dialog box, if you prefer. Click Add Zone to add another photo to the layout. Figure 18.22 shows the Edit Layout dialog box.