Torgesen Family Times


{We are trying to enjoy and record the moments that make life special}
Related Posts with Thumbnails

How to make Lightroom blogboards / storyboards

I love those storyboards or blogboards that you see on websites and blogs – don’t you?  They are designed to “tell a story” even more than just the individual photos would do with a sequence or by showing relationships between the photos.  They do a wonderful job – don’t you agree? 

I call this blogboard/storyboard “brother and sister love” as  it shows a number of interactions between my kids. 

brother and sister love

Well, there are some that may be free (although I haven’t found them!) but because they do take some work to set up, most people sell this as a product, like… for money (lots!).   I just couldn’t stomach paying that much for something seemingly so easy.  But, yet I wanted the same look.  But I don’t have enough knowledge how to do this in photoshop elements (what I own, but don’t use that often).  Although, I could do the research and try to learn and read a ton and test it out and finally figure it out (after how many hours and hours) – I don’t have that kind of time anymore with 2 kids!  I use Lightroom 3 ALL.THE.TIME and would love to use this in a blogboard/storyboard way.  How could I do this, I thought…

 

I was reading one of the many blogs that I love (oh there are so many blogs I love to read!) and one reminded me about the Print module in Lightroom 3.  I totally haven’t played around with this module at all – I mean – I get all my prints from professional printing places.  I don’t even have a black and white printer at my house.  If I have to print something, I do it at work or ask my husband to print it at work.  It’s just too much hassle with all the ink and calibrating and plus, they never look as good as I’ve received from a professional printing house. 

 

So, I took a few minutes one day and played around with the print module in Lightroom and figure out that making blogboards or storyboards in Lightroom 3 was so easy and intuitive – just like everything in Lightroom! 

 

I started with one of the Lightroom templates and make alterations from there.  I added photo borders to add some space between the photos, which further down the right hand side of the program you can choose the background page color.  I chose white since my family blog background is white – but, oh the possibilities! 

 

image

Then you drag and drop different sizes of photos onto the page.  There are some standard sizes available, but endless possibilities when you start playing around with those templates.  Then, you drag and drop your photos from your filmstrip below – just select a picture and put it in the spot you want.  The standard sizes that were added to the page can be customized to fit the picture you want, the size you want, anything!  Here I chose one portrait with 2 intersecting squares.  As I said, just drag your photo from the filmstrip and drop it where you want it. 

 

image

 

You can add your identity plate as a watermark, or add your watermark to each photo.  For my final photo – I chose the identity plate (which is totally customizable!).  This allows you to move the “watermark” anywhere you want and choose the opacity and scale. 

 

 

image

Now, we’re almost ready to print!  But, first – you can choose to have the blogboard or storyboard the size of your pictures or have a bit on the side or bottom for another choice for identification of your studio or watermark.   I didn’t choose that here, but this is where you could add some size of the paper, if you will, to the final size to make that happen.  I chose “print to JPG file” and hit “print to file”.  Choose where to save the image and voila! 

 image

 

Perfect Blogboard or storyboard for your blog using software that you already have. 

 

Plus, hit the “plus” sign next to “template browser” and save your template to use again and again.

 

 

 

image

 

My final blogboard / storyboard – pretty snazzy huh?

Sara in cute dress

  And shown with a black background, too!  (See how easy templates are!)

Sara in cute dress black background

Next month, I’ll try to see if I can learn something about the web module!

18 comments:

Phillipa Sara said...

Alison this was great information. I've been trying to figure out how to do this and you have saved my day...loving the pictures.

Jessica said...

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

lifeinvignettes said...

Just wanted to say thank you! This is EXACTLY what I needed.

Rachel said...

Thank you!! Explained it so easily, and I'd spent I don't know how long I'd tried to work it out. Now I can use just lightroom for blogging and skip PS altogether!

lyssa beth said...

THis is AWESOME! Thank you so much! I was wondering where and how everyone was doing this! Thank you for sharing :)

cyndiiwithtwoeyes said...

Thank you so much! I have been trying to figure this one out, too. I was using Powerpoint as a last resort. As a total LR junkie, I can't imagine using anything else. THANKS A MILLION!!!

Art From My Table said...

I have been trying to figure this out! This is very helpful, and, I have another question, I'm wondering if you can answer. Can you design your own custom board, and how? I did a february photo challenge, and I'd like to get them all in a collage, in 2 parts. So, I would need about 15 squares. I'd also like to label them as each photo has a name. Any idea how to do this? you can email me directly at chellies@comcast.net. Thanks again! I'm going to have fun with this. Blessings to you!
Chellie

Hampton Roads Portrait and Wedding Photographer, LaKaye Mbah said...

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to try this today!

Palmetto Priss said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Palmetto Priss said...

Thank you SO much!! I cannot afford PS at this time so this is PERFECT! Thanks so much for sharing!

Kimberly
Palmetto Priss Photography
South Carolina

Christina said...

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!! :)

Dana @ SweetThings said...

Thank you for the "free" help!

Amy Hartman said...

Thank you for this! I've been using this for a while now, but I still can't figure out how you change the "paper size". All I can seem to be able to use is an 8x10 and I'd really love to be able to change it to the width of my blog and vary the height as well. I'd love to know! Thanks again.

Melissa Cwell said...

You just solved a mystery for me. I had figured out how to do this, but not how to save the file as a picture. Was missing that "print to jpg" thing. Thank you!

Brenda Smith said...

Thank you so much for the tip!

Nicole Fergtography said...

Thank you so much! This was a great step by step information. Just completed my first story board.

Betsy said...

how do you export this out of lightroom and not print it. Like how did you get it on your blog?

atorgesen said...

Hi Betsy,

You "print" as a jpeg. It's easy!