Comp card question

divamum

So one of these young actors wants two shots put on a comp card, as well as the more typica 8x10.

As far as I've been able to gather, standard for comp card is 8.5x5.5 (yes/no?)

Is there a LR or PS template for that anywhere to speed things up?

If not, how do I get LR to let me specify the page size in "print" so I can set it up? I can click "page setup" and then "custom", but... it doesn't let me enter specific dimensions and when I close that dialog box it goes back to one of the defaults.

Also, any samples/examples of 2-shot comp cards anybody would be willing to share would be great. Thank you!

edit for alarming, pre-coffee typos

Memories by Melinda

I have been using LR3 and the crop overlay lets me set a custom size.

divamum

Memories by Melinda wrote:

I have been using LR3 and the crop overlay lets me set a custom size.

Right... but I have to set it up as TWO photos, so cropping won't work. I need to set them up as a 2-up collage, and it would be easier to scale them within the aspect ratio side-by-side.

kidzmom

Is a comp card the same as a business card? I've heard of a lot of people doing 4x6's. I was just looking at a thread recently here on sharing your business cards...The thread was HUGE..but these were business cards. Anyway, in PSE it is a cinch to make layouts (the advantage of that little baby). Anyway, I can't wait to see what you come up with! See what you did...you took TOO many good photos and now he can't decide on just one!

divamum

kidzmom wrote:

Is a comp card the same as a business card? I've heard of a lot of people doing 4x6's. I was just looking at a thread recently here on sharing your business cards...The thread was HUGE..but these were business cards. Anyway, in PSE it is a cinch to make layouts (the advantage of that little baby). Anyway, I can't wait to see what you come up with! See what you did...you took TOO many good photos and now he can't decide on just one!

No, a comp card is a modelling format wherein the subject has multiple shots on one (typically) 5.5x 8.5 (inch) card, eg HERE (this is a great company for mass repro, btw - I've used them before. They're lithos rather than on photo paper, but for actor stuff it's a very cost effective way of getting lots of copies to use for hard copy audition submissions, most of which will wind up being thrown away.....). Comp cards are the norm in modelling, but not usually for performers, hence why I'm needing to find out more before setting it up (since my personal experience has always been w/ single 8x10s for performers).

It's no biggie to do, I don't think, I just want to ensure I have the industry standard right, and then figure out how to make LR do it!!

adbsgicom

This might help if you are using lightroom. Lightroom's print package tends to want to put the same picture in each frame unless you do the contact sheet, which isn't a flexible for what you might want to do. So, what you can do, is make your template, save it, and then edit it in notepad, gvim or whatever text editor you want. There is a field called oneImagePerPage which is set as 'true'. Change this to 'false' (no quotes and don't delete the comma by mistake). Save and go back into LR and viola! You have a print format that will take different images per frame.

Under windows 7, the presets are conveniently placed under \users\\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Print Templates\User Templates

divamum

Thanks Andrew. I have no problem using different images set up on a single lightroom sheet (the trick is to put them into "quick collection", and then you can arrange them that way), but I still need to figure out how to set up the page itself. As I say, I can click on "custom" in page setup, but then it won't let me enter any actual custom values, and since 8.5x5.5 is a non-standard, non-default size... I'm struggling.

I'm also still wondering about the 2-up format in the first place... hoping somebody may have done modeling shots for somebody and can confirm that it's "kosher" and if there's anything I might need to know....

Thanks (and for all the replies so far)!!

Llywellyn

Did you just try Google searching model comp card templates? Looks like there are several samples out there (here's one).

Personally, I would do this in a layout program like InDesign over anything else, but realizing you may not have that, I'd turn to PS before LR. It doesn't seem LR is suited well for something like this (yet).

divamum

Llywellyn wrote:

Did you just try Google searching model comp card templates? Looks like there are several samples out there (here's one).

Personally, I would do this in a layout program like InDesign over anything else, but realizing you may not have that, I'd turn to PS before LR. It doesn't seem LR is suited well for something like this (yet).

Thanks Kerry! Yes, I'd looked at a few repro houses for layouts etc, but the one you linked is the first one with samples of *actor* comp cards, which is helpful. I think you're right - I may just do this in photoshop and call it a day. Now that I know the dimensions, it's no particular challenge to set it up.

Thanks!

Kinkajou

I've never put one together, but I know that WHCC does printing specifically for comp cards, and their own program (ROES) seems to be easy to use for layout. I'm sorry I don't have more info, but I think it might be worth looking into.

adbsgicom

divamum wrote:

Thanks Kerry! Yes, I'd looked at a few repro houses for layouts etc, but the one you linked is the first one with samples of *actor* comp cards, which is helpful. I think you're right - I may just do this in photoshop and call it a day. Now that I know the dimensions, it's no particular challenge to set it up.

Thanks!

Please share a sample when you are done. I'm curious.