Choosing photos for a calendar

Very interested to hear more about putting together a calendar, I’m starting to think I should look into it too…

Curious to hear the difference between Zazzle, Shutterfly, etc.
and why you’re making certain choices. Maybe the subject of a blog article
–Kate

Well, Kate! You asked for it! You got it! When I first read your comment I thought: “It’s a fairly simple process that I could answer in a comment, but it’s not so simple.” So, here goes:

Firstly, I must say that there are no right or wrong ways to do this. This is just a way that I came up with that makes sense to me. Here is how I got from 1,817 photos, taken in Utah/Arizona between May 24th and June 1st, 2008, down to 14.

• Step 1:The first step is in deciding on a theme for the calendar. A theme, to me, can be as simple as a time of day, a location, or a season. For last year’s calendar, I decided that the theme would be one picture from each month. The picture would represent that month. As I took it in that month, how could it not represent that month? My calendar! My rules!!! This year has two themes, one for each of my travels: New Mexico (White Sands), Utah
• Step 2: I use Lightroom 2 to filter my photos. For my Utah pictures, I started with the following filters: Dates: May 24 – June 1, Aspect Ratio: Landscape (because of the calendar format). That left me with 1,067 photos to winnow down to 12. Sounds daunting, doesn’t it?!
• Step 3: I bring up the filtered photos into the grid view. Here is where the fun begins. I size them so that I get about 8 per screen. Then, starting at the first one, I keep my left index finger poised about the ‘B’ key, which is the hot key to add a photo to the Quick Collection. I quickly press the right arrow key -> and fly through the photos, pausing only for about 1/2 second for each one, if that much. If I see something that I like, I press the ‘B’ key. Never worrying about how many photos I am ‘keeping’. I’m flowing intuitively. This is not the time for thinking. It is the time for feeling.
• Step 4: OK, now out of the 1,067, I have chosen 73 photos. A much more manageable size. Now, I make a pass through these and remove any that have obvious technical flaws such as improper focus, burned out highlights, solid black shadows (where that wasn’t the intent). This step usually doesn’t yield much, but it is necessary. This drops me down to about 67 photos.
• Step 5: Eliminate duplicates or slight variations: This is another good step. After removing slight variations, such as two shots that are very similar, using only slightly different exposures or zoom factors, I am now down to about 35 photos. Here is where it gets hard.
• Step 6: I take an overall view of remaining photos. Do I have mostly landscape and perhaps only 1 person shot or in-town shot. If I have only one abstract, should I keep it or get rid of it? If so, these may get eliminated. Is there a nice distribution of subjects, if that is what I’m going for? After doing this, I’m down to 20 photos. Only 7 to go. (I need a cover, too. So, I need 13.
• Step 7: Eliminate technical difficulties: This requires closer inspection. If I see something that needs extensive cloning, for example, to make it look better. Away it goes … but this all depends on the mood and usually results in removing 0 or perhaps 1 photo.
• Step 8: If I cannot decide how to get rid of the last 3 or so photos, I get outside help. I ask my wife to come in, have a look, and for whatever reason is valid to her, remove 3 of the photos. That’s it. Now I have 13 remaining.
• Step 9: Now, all I have to do is pick a cover shot and the order in which they will appear on the calendar. This is the fun part. I usually make it easy on myself and place them in the order that I took them (date/time). People are generally looking at these one month at a time, not as a body of work. Why stress?
• Step 10…: Finally, do some adjustments to exposure, color, sharpening, etc. Upload them into the Zazzle/Shutterfly calendar tool. Add any text, spell check, make the order.
• Finally, create a regular collection called 2009 Arizona Calendar. Drag the ones from the quick collection into it, clear the quick collection, and start looking at New Mexico photos!

So, there you have it. 10 not-so-easy steps to making your calendar. As for picking a particular service, I rely on word of mouth. If someone has done extensive research, liked it, etc. I’ll give it a try. I’ve heard good things about Shutterfly, who I used last year, and Zazzle, who I’ll give a try this year. Zazzle is offering 40% of $17.99 until the 27th, which makes your calendar cost about $10.80 each. Shutterfly, without any discount, is $19.99. These are hard economic times, ya know!

Here are the 14 that I have remaining. One of them has to go. Which one will it be? I’ve not even done my adjustments yet.

Mind you, these are not necessarily the ‘best’, but the ones that I liked at this particular moment.