So, your a photographer right? You get a fun assignment; shoot an estate property with 11 classic cars in the rear and a good front shot for a magazine advertisement for Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance. All done, great job on the photos, what a fun project.
Then – the – phone – rings . . .
It seems the magazine add for the event is past its deadline to submit art work, and the client needs an a print ready add; CMYK, TIFF, 7.375″ x 4.75″, 300dpi, text as ordered including Reatlor’s BRE, approved company logo and QR code linking to property website.
Oh yeah, deadline is 12 hours away, and I’ve never made a QR code!
G~U~L~P , , , N o p r o b l e m !
Here is the drill for making the final add image:
- Start with a new image in Photoshop that matches the add spec sheet (this will be provided to you) and in our case; 16 bit, CMYK, 300dpi, 7.375″ x 4.75″, white (255,255,255) background; save image as PSD Photoshop format.
- Open images that will be used in add; sRGB JPG are fine.
- View one of the images to be used in the add; select-all, edit-copy
- View the new image, edit-paste. Lots of ways to copy/paste images as new layer ~ use whatever works for you.
- Use edit-transform-scale and hold shift key while re-sizing (this keeps size ratio the same.)
- Repeat for all other images.
- All images will be a layers in Photoshop, move and re-size to taste. Moving one layer above another in the layer stack will cause that image to move to the front. I use a bevel to give the photo edges a nice look; many options here. Layer – layer style – bevel and emboss.
- Create text layers using the text tool; suggest using a separate text boxes for each chunk of text, using same font in each area of layout and separating text with font size ~ graphic folks will tell you is usually not a good idea to mix fonts. When text is done, try a printers trick of “double bump”; duplicate each text layer to increase depth of text color.
- Save. Save. Save. Now is a good time to send the full Photoshop layered copy of the working image to your cloud backup.
- I send proofs as a “PROOF” watermarked medium resolution JPG at 8bit, RGB. NOTE: you can’t simply “save as” a jpg when your in CMYK mode as the colors may look funky.
- Duplicate and close original. (really duplicate and close the original!) As above, now is a good time to send the full Photoshop layered working copy to your cloud backup.
- Flatten the duplicated image; layer-flatten
- Convert to 8 bit RGB; image-mode RGB and 8 bit
- Save as medium quality jpg to send as proof.
- Remember to watermark as “PROOF”; I have had low resolution jpg add copy accidentally sent to printer! If you don’t have a ready to go proof watermark, simply create a new text box with white PROOF and adjust opacity (slider at top of layer window) to 10% to 25%.
When approved, make and send the final image.
- Duplicate the working copy image (really, duplicate the image!)
- Flatten the duplicated image layers; layer-flatten. NOTE: don’t save-as on any image until after layers are flattened, according to current Photoshop gurus , , , this of course may change with new versions of PS!
- Save as TIFF; file save-as TIFF; use default TIFF settings. NOTE; you can save TIFF images without flattening but the printer wants flat images if they are asking for TIFF. Always check with printer spec sheet or call the printer if not sure on final format.
- Send flattened TIFF CMYK 16 bit image to print (other printer specs may differ.)
this took me under 60 seconds the first try. Many free QR tools; you tell the tool you want a QR code that links to a website, enter the website URL, click “create the code” and then download the image (usually a PNG file)
Read this post for more info, and I used This QR Code Tool.
That’s It!
Making add copy can generate extra cash, and/or provide great advertising opportunity (see my name in the add), and/or make you the hero to your client!
Ciao!
Thanks for taking the time to read; please leave a comment and share!
Steve
Leave a Reply