C&C of ad

Sharpy, I will change my profile to add the "image editing ok" thanks for showing me what you did.
And thanks to everyone else for the input I will play with it some more and see what I can come up with and post the final result for more critique.

Here is my latest. I did what you said Alan but the images didn't come out as clean as yours. Any Ideas, I have hard edges on them still and they start going transparent in the center which wasn't even selected after inverting the selection. Thanks againg

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The darkness of the B&W doesn't work well with your black text.

In the latest version, the red text stands out well against the B&W background. But somehow it still isn't all that clear. Maybe get rid of the drop shadow and use a stroke around the text? Or maybe a different font to be a bit clearer (or maybe it's just me).

Also, since you'll be hanging these up around town (right?) to drum up business, you'll need some sort of contact info on there. I can see why you might not want to include those details here, but maybe you can mock up that text as well with some generic phone number or address.

In general I like the layout, but it feels a bit too crowded to me. Having 4 pictures squeezed in there might be too much. That's particularly true if you add more text with your company name or contact info. Maybe just the image of the family seated on the stairs is enough to make your point. Then you have room for clearly identifiable text that isn't sitting on top of a distracting background. I think most people would glance very briefly at your poster as they go by. The message has to jump out at them without them having to study it.

And as much as I agree that you want to minimize the amount of text, maybe some smaller text at the bottom could explain exactly what you mean by "at cost." We all know what you mean, but maybe some passers-by won't. You might explicitly state that there is no sitting fee and that an 8x10 will cost $X.

Just my two cents. Good luck.

Hi Jared,
( I'm sure Bob and I are good buddies now. )

I think the problem you have with your inserts is to do with feathering, try smaller amounts.
Top left looks OK. , bottom left , try duplicating the layer and use Multiply blend mode and adjust the opacity to suit, then a little saturation from H&S will help with Transparent centers. As for your text on the pillar base, looking better. Suggest as MCB hints it may help without the drop shadow. The angle of text on the word Free is not at the correct angle with the base, on the text layer select Edit, - Transform, - scew and hold Top Right handle and move to right slightly this will help. Try adding a layer style to your text as I did in the earlier example (bevel & emboss) , looks good.
Hope this helps a little more.
Kind regards Alan.

Here's another try at it. I decided to do a gradient background and I think I like it. I've also thought about putting an embossing aroud the larger picture. I had the contact info and "pay only printing" before but I think when I saved it as a jpeg I had that layer hidden so it didn't merge. Thanks for all your help and keep the comments coming.

Jared

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I would suggest not including the bottom left child picture. The background doesn't look professional. The text on the column is a little cheesy - sorry no offence.

I prefer simplicity.

For the text i added a large drop shadow and a default yellow glow. Century Gothic is my font of the month lately.

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I tend to agree with Battery: It was looking a little crowded.

On another note you might look at some of the collages Dwight and I have done in Performing Arts.

I would also suggest you figure out a way to say more than just "Free Portraits", most people think nothing is free and will think there is a gimmick.

What I would suggest is to add a white border along the bottom that is large enough for you to tell a very short 40 words or so story on why you are doing this. You might even say "models needed - male or female - together we can build our portfolio". I think you will have better results and the good thing is you might get "prettier" people to apply...pretty people make pretty photos!

Taygull I like the idea of the text, especially since I will be putting some of these up in our college's school of music and theatre arts buildings. If you look at my most recent version of this it says "at cost" and on the bottom says "pay only printing". Thanks for the idea and I'll try to work the text in somehow. Do you mind if I steal your saying "together we can build our portfolio" I'm not very good with words. Thanks again

Jared

No problem....You need to make sure you make the collage as cool as possible. I hope they are not your family but the photo you have would not appeal to the average "college kid". Why you would want to shoot them I don't know (they got no money ).

Find one of the hottest girls on campus, tell her what you are doing and ask her to help...I'll bet you'll be suprised. I would also suggest getting some cards made. Google VistaPrint, you can create your card in PS just like I did and they will print 250 for the cost of shipping and maybe a $5.00 upload fee.

Shoot me a pm and I'll be glad to help you build your poster or work on the text for you.

Taygull
Thanks for the help. I think I will use this one for families and such. I was hoping to use one poster for all groups but it is obviously not going to work. I am targeting college students in the school of music and theatre programs because they need head shots and the like and I need a portfolio, so if I charge nothing or extremely cheap and we both win, in theory anyway. I don't realy have anything in my portfolio to do a "cool" collage with but I work security in the school of music and am friendly with some of the musicians so I'll see what I can drum up.

Jared

Ok I have added a few more of your suggestions and made a business card what do you all think. the white space in the bottom right will have a small pouch for the business cards.

Thanks

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business card didn't upload for some reason so here it is.

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