Autographing a Photo - Expert Advice Requested.

tomscott

Hi,

I am in charge of fundraising for my daughter’s dance team. We plan on sending a team photo with all the dancers’ autographs as a thank you to the team’s sponsors. I was considering a couple ways of doing this.

Traditional... have each dancer sign each photo. Are there special markers for this purpose? (We plan on needing about 50 done and there will be about 25 on the team).

Digitally... I could ask each dancer to sign a blank (white?) piece of paper, scan it and make some kind of layer in Photoshop. I'd have to make the white of the paper transparent. Except I have no idea how to do that. I have Photoshop Elements 6.0.

I'm thinking in either case the team photo would have to be taken on a background that's a consistent color so the signature (a contrasting color) shows up. And there would have to be enough background room for the autographs.

With the digital option, we could have various sizes printed. Manual signing would require 8 x 12.

Two questions...

1) Any thoughts ideas and opinions?

2) How would I do the digital option in Photoshop? (Just pointing me in the right direction is helpful. I have the Adobe "Classroom in a Book" for PSE 6. Just haven't read it all).

Thanks!

digismile

Scanning each signature is certainly possible but will likely create a lot of work later on. You would need to bring them into photoshop, likely as an individual layer to start, size and reposition, etc. Advantage is that it would give the most fexibility (read:extra work) with a variety of output.

Signing each by hand by each dancer would be pretty time consuming for everyone involved.

Personally, I would opt for simplicity and consistency. Here's a summarized process:

1. Stick with a single size, say 8x12 finished size with a 5x7 photo in the middle.

2. Create a signature template by using an 8x12 piece of paper, where you block off the area where the photo will be (just to prevent people from signing here.

3. Have everyone sign the border area.

4. Scan the page (preferably @ 300dpi).

You can now combine the 8x12 signature border with a 5x7 image of the dancers. It would be a layer above the signature layer, where you position it in the center.

Should be pretty simple to do.

just my thoughts,

LittleLew

Digismile's idea is right on.
I might suggest that you not be too strict about keeping the signatures to teh border. A stray line or so over the picture will give it more verisimilitude.

rsi1986

I don't think the PhotoShop idea is bad. With the signatures scanned all you have to do is use the magic wand tool to select the white than hit delete. From there just drag it to the photo. Each signature would be a separate layer that would allow you to move each when needed. Just make sure to name each layer so you don't loose track of what you are moving.

davidweaver

Lots of work either way:
A: Getting all 25 folks in a line to sign 50 photos is a solid deed.
B: Scanning and Photoshopping all the seperate sigs is a solid deed too.

I like to assign work instead of doing it so I'd go for option A...BUT...

Option C: Get a piece of Vellum and tape it to the image then have each person sign over their part of the pic. 1 scan in PS. 1 Layer (try multiply) :-) It's asynchronous to get the sigs too. <--My choice if I had to do it.

rsi1986 wrote:

I don't think the PhotoShop idea is bad. With the signatures scanned all you have to do is use the magic wand tool to select the white than hit delete. From there just drag it to the photo. Each signature would be a separate layer that would allow you to move each when needed. Just make sure to name each layer so you don't loose track of what you are moving.