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Friday, November 13, 2009

Playing with Picasa Again - Need your Help!

I have been playing with Picasa again. I recently won a 2'x3' vinyl banner from U-Printing on The Shopping Duck's blog. I had already ordered a free 2'x1.5' vinyl banner from Vista Print a few weeks ago and I did a collage of our llamas, which I will show you later. So, I decided that I wanted to do a different banner collage this time to show off my fiber arts. Picasa allows you to select photos from your computer and then you click on collage and it randomly arranges those photos. It does not allow you to move individual photos in that collage, you must click on "shuffle photos" and it randomly moves them around again. I wanted one of the custom fiber blend batt photos in the upper left part of the collage so I could write my information on that (I use Adobe Photoshop to add the text). This is the first collage I made but we think the wording is more difficult to read on the orange background.


So, I deleted some of the photos and kept shuffling the photos until I got the blue CFB into the upper left portion of the collage like this:

I still wasn't really happy with how it looked so I deleted several more photos and ended up with this:

So, my question is, which one of these three do you like best? I have until the end of November to make my final selection and get it emails to U-Printing so they can make my vinyl banner for me.

To see the photos larger, just click on them - that way you can read the lettering. The click on your "back" arrow to return to the blog. Or, right click on the photos to open them up in a new window or tab.

Thank you for taking the time to look and comment! I really appreciate your help and respect your opinions.

UPDATE: Someone made the suggestion to use white lettering instead of black - which I have done on the third image. That one happens to be my favorite because the size of the images are larger than the other two collages and the orange and blue batts finally shuffled next to each other! Someone suggested using a tan background - which I could probably DO except that would mean doing a text box in Photoshop and then reselecting all my favorite photos again in Picasa and then hope that the tan text box finally shuffled to the right position in the collage. Someone suggested that I use Photoshop to do my own collage - which is a fabulous idea, but I have no idea how to do that! Sigh...so to save myself from a HUGE amount of additional work, I'm hoping the white lettering looks better.

Thank you everyone for your fabulous ideas, suggestions, comments, etc. I knew if I put these out there I would get some great feedback. You guys Rock!

One more try - the second collage adding the tan grid lines to separate the photos a bit and the text in white.




14 comments:

Karen said...

Is there a way they can put the lettering on a tan background? The orange and blue is so hard to read. The tan in the third pic from the left, under the wording is the color I would shoot for. The color of the fencing in the second pic on the bottom row is soft and pleasing to the eye also.

Unknown said...

out of those 3, i like the second one best. but if you have photoshop, why don't you make your own collage and maybe use white lettering. that way you could use what you want and move them to where you want. maybe even border the pics like you did with the llamas.

have a great day...hugz!

Jennifer MacNeill said...

I like the last one but I think they all look wonderful. The colors are gorgeous!

brokenteepee said...

Why don't you try white lettering on the blue background. I think that would show better.

Right now I think these three would all be very hard to read.

The colors are very arresting - it might be too much for a banner actually. The writing might be lost altogether.

tahtimbo said...

I really like the layout of the third one. The only drawback is that the switch from the orange background to the blue background makes it difficult to read the text.
You did a terrific job on these, but the third one is the one I like best.

Daisy said...

I like the middle one best, with the writing on the blue background. But I think white lettering would be easier to read.

WillOaks Studio said...

It does seem a little hard to read the black letters against the strong textures and colors. I agree to at least try white letters on the blue OR made a different "box" for the type that doesn't have such a strong background. Otherwise, it's a beautiful collage and collection and will be such an attractive banner! Kudos!

BeadedTail said...

I like the lettering on blue rather than orange and I'm not sure if white letters would be easier to read or not. I like the 2nd and 3rd ones the best. Can you put an outline around each of the boxes of product to make each one stand out more and not blend together?

jude8753 said...

I like the one with the tan grid, but since you have the white writing on blue maybe you could try making the grid white also to see if that makes it pop more.

Linda said...

I like the one at the very top of the page ,I believe it has more visual impact as the larger picture keeps you focused from it to the written words. The colours are good too. Lindax

Linda said...

The rainbow coloured swirl wool pic, will always draw your eye to it, and away from the rest. In the top picture it is also smaller and therefore had less impact on the composition as a whole.

Linda said...

I promise this is the last. I meant the top picture in this posting. not the one above.

storybeader said...

the white shows up much better against all the colors. Good choice - I like the writing in the two boxes!

Unknown said...

I like the second to last, the one where the writing is on the blue background and either black or white print will look fine.