Ask Brooks

Why put text on folio images?

On the topic of folios, I think it is a great idea and I think it is gaining popularity. I have to say though that I find the artist name and other lettering on each image rather off putting. In a way I am surprised of your design choice, given your usual ethos of the humbleness and modesty of the artist. It reminds me of cheapo Ikea or office "motivation" photo posters or even banner advertising. In a way it is advertising for the artist really, which for me introduces a branding or commercial aspect and takes away from the image itself. I believe that the artist name and info belongs on the back. If one were to frame the prints, surely the text would/should be cropped out.

— Dirk

Thanks for the feedback. I understand your comments, but there are several reasons we include text on the folio images:

1. Should an image ever be separated from the folio for any reason, it would lose its identity and origin.
2. We think of folios as something between a book and original artwork; text in this context seems okay.
3. With so many photographers producing their original artwork using the same technology (pigment prints) that we use, we feel it is important to distinguish our prints as being something different from their originals. Since these are not signed by the photographers, this text seems an acceptable way for them to be identified.
4. The common text on each image ties the various images in the folio together as a whole.

As you say, should someone choose to mat the prints for framing, they can choose to include or exclude the text components — and we do the layouts that way on purpose.

As to text on the back, this is possible and we do hand-write titles on the back of the Chiarenza folio, for example, but generally prefer the text on the front as part of the design. Besides, typeset text is more readable than my lousy handwriting! Besides, if the text were on the back, matting with the text visible is no longer an option.

I do appreciate your thoughts about this. I fact, in some of my personal work, I do folio images (originals, in this case) without the text, so you can see I do agree with you in some cases.

Folio questions

I just finished your excellent Folios workshop and boy was it great! I have just a few questions however that are left after listening/watching the whole workshop.

1. Can you comment about design wisdom you have gained about placing text on the inkjet prints especially as to the aesthetics of fonts, sizes and particularly whether full black print or what level of "grayed out" print you find most effective?
2. Can you comment on what the "translucent sheet" material is that you sometimes use to make the transition from the printed material to the finished images?
3. What are you cutting on with your X-Acto knife? Is it some type of "healing" mat?
4. Will LensWork ever get in the business of selling generic folio covers with a picture hole cut out for those who wish to buy such an item by the piece?

Thanks for help with these small details and congratulations on such a high quality tutorial!

— Scott Jones

First, thanks! Glad you found the workshop useful.

Here are some thoughts in response to your questions:

1. Finessing text is an art in itself. The world of typography is filled with the same sorts of subtlety as the world of fine art photography. I would suggest starting with a few primers on design and typography just to get your feet wet. We're working on a couple of new LensWork Creative Labs to do just that, a Photoshop edition and an InDesign one. We hope to have them available for download in April.

   In the meantime, Designing with Type: The Essential Guide to Typography by James Craig, William Bevington, and Irene Korol Scala is an excellent resource that's not too heavy in the obscurities that can bog down a beginner. The exciting and fun news for us photographers is that the world of digital printing has opened up the possibilities for us to include text with images in ways we never had access to in the analog darkroom. Just watch out for the trap of exquisitely refined and printed images with amateurish and immature use of type. It's a combination that will jump out at anyone who know a bit about typography.

2. The translucent sheet we use is Dura-lar. We purchase it from Dick Blick — their stock #55505-1007. This cuts out to 2x per sheet for our size folios.
3. Yes, a healing mat works best. I found a very large one at the fabric store that was both larger and less expensive than the ones you find at the art store. It has an intense blue front side with grids and lines, but the back side is a perfect photographer's neutral gray. Sweet!
4. Not likely, but you might check out http://www.danecreekfolios.com/ for some nice knock-offs (he was kind enough to ask our permission to which we assented enthusiastically) of our design. He has a limited number of colors and only one size, but despite those limitations they may be just what you are looking for. Very reasonably priced, too. Available individually and I see he now has a sample pack, too.

Photoshop for creating folio layouts

I want to try and print text page/s and make a folio. I cannot afford to buy InDesign nor do I wish to learn a new program for a single task such as this. Is it possible to explain how best to set it up and to do it in Photoshop with it's text tool. Perhaps a Photoshop template?

— Frank

Actually, I cover both Photoshop and InDesign as tools to create folio layouts in our Folios Visual Workshop on disc.

Although Photoshop can be used, its text tools are primitive compared to InDesign. When I have a choice, I always use InDesign — but that's not a choice unless you have it! So, with this in mind, Photoshop is an alternative and can do the job, just not as easily. As far as that goes, you could also use Microsoft Word, Works, Publisher, QuarkXpress, PaintShop Pro, or almost any other program that allows you to add text and image to a layout. Heck, in theory you could use Powerpoint!

And, don't overlook the non-computer methods. In LensWork and LensWork Extended #59 we published a portfolio of work by Carol Golemboski in which she used hand-written and drawn graphics on acetate sheets to add graphic elements to her photographs. She placed the acetate on top of the gelatin silver paper and then projected her negative through the acetate onto the paper with her enlarger. It worked well. This method could easily be adapted to add text, graphics, or even simple crop marks to a wet darkroom print, either gelatin silver or platinum/palladium, for example.

Just because you don't have InDesign, that shouldn't be an impediment to your creativity. I use InDesign because it's a great tool and I own it. It's certainly not the only game in town.

Text on the page with an image

In doing one of your "standard" sized Folios (Say, with the print done as an 8" X 10" if I've figured your dimensions correctly from the DVD workshop) what would be a typical print size to allow for text along the bottom? I like the idea of titling the photos, just can't quite figure out a good layout for the prints themselves!

— Rob White

Well, my real answer is . . . whatever looks right. But let me try to be more helpful, if I can.

I think of text as part of the artwork, not just some additional information tacked on for description. For me, therefore, the layout of the words and letters is as important as the fussing and finessing I do in the image.

There are several aspects that I consider:

Size

Relative to the page, relative to the image size

Font face

Serif, non-serif, font family

Font style

Italics, bold, light, etc.
Small caps, all caps, lower case, title case
Old style, proportional, ligatures

Font metrics

Optical alignment, spacing, scrunching

Placement

Right or left aligned, centered, justified

Color

Black, gray, color, stroked

Treatment

Plain, stroked, drop shadow, textured

Non-text elements

Lines, glyphs

All of these need conscious decisions in how we design the text elements in the layout. All these decisions influence where on the page the text will go. The best advice I can give is to pay attention to typesetting and get a feel for it. Spend a little time looking specifically at the typesetting in places where type is handled with care as part of the layout in artwork, for example in book jackets and title pages, on posters, greeting cards, DVD movie boxes, broadsides, and, if you can find them, examples of work done by calligraphers whose work is all about text and layout. Study as much as you can and learn how type is used by others whose experience and expertise can be a guide. We do the same thing with our image making; why not with typesetting, too?

In my folios, I want the image front and center, the text diminished and in a support role. I'll often use a gray color, a relatively small font size, and most commonly center the text so it's weight on the page doesn't throw off the balance of the print. If you were to measure it, you'd often find the title of the prints or the title of the folio about a quarter inch from the bottom, but that varies depending on the image, the folio, the layout, and the text treatment. Here is an example.

But, in the Made of Steel folios where there were larger text components, it required a completely different layout.

Just as you take time to play around with an image trying different printing variations, fussing with tones and contrast, cropping and toning, and all the things we do until a photograph is right and done, take time to play with the text layouts, too. Find what feels right. Don't get lazy and just slop it on the page. Don't get rushed and give up too soon. Care and sensitivity is what artmaking is all about.

Binding Gelatin Silver Prints into a Handmade Book

You've talked over the years many times about working to find a way to present your work and your experiments with book binding and book making processes. I know that the ultimate result of all your research was the Folio but I'm interested in the options available to make a more traditional book out of silver gelatin prints. What book making methods did you have the most success with? Are any of them doable on a hobbyist level?

— Jim

   

Short answer: yes, but I was never satisfied with them. Here are a few notes:

• First, the best book available on bookbinding at the time I was working was Creative Bookbinding by Pauline Johnson — which is still available. We used this as a text book in the classes I took. She discusses and demonstrates a number of techniques for making hand bound books, all of which work for books, but didn't really solve my problem of binding gelatin silver prints. I suspect her book could be very useful now in the age of digital printing and the papers used in inkjet printers. A number of the paper handling techniques, sewing techniques, and other information has been very useful over the years, so I still recommend this as a resource for basic skills.
• The real problem for me was that gelatin silver papers are thick and don't flex enough for binding. Single weight paper were better, but would too often crack the emulsion when flexed too far. I even tried using non-hardening fixers (e.g., F6 without the borax) but could never completely eliminate the problem.
• Books are often bound in "signatures" which are typically printed on both sides of the paper and folded so they can be sewn in the crease. Obviously, this isn't possible with single-sided gelatin silver prints. The challenge then becomes how to get the single-sided sheet into a book.
• One method that does work, albeit a bit clunky, is to bind a book with blank pages and then simply glue the gelatin silver print onto the bound page. This is called a "tip-in." This adds bulk to the book as you add more photographs (because of the thickness of the photographic paper), so you need to add spacers in the binding process to accommodate this added bulk. The obvious weak point in this strategy is the glue and the inevitable problem of the adhesiveness diminishing with time and the print becoming loose. Virtually all the examples I viewed at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson had this problem to one degree or another.
• Another variation on this theme is to purchase a blank book and then trim out every other page as close to the spine as you can. This makes room to accommodate the thickness of the photographs you glue in, but leaves a less than professional edge from the trimmed pages that is visible when the book is open.
• Using the "tip-in" method above, you can add text to the book if you want. Careful pre-planning, obviously.
• I did see and try various experiments with other substructures that could hold the single page in place in the bound book. Most involved some extensive, finicky, and expensive metal work to create swinging metal frames that were joined to a spine. Think of those large hanging rug displays you see at Home Depot, but book-sized and holding prints rather than carpeting. I saw some that were quite nice, but all made by people who had some degree of skill as a jeweler working with fine metals. I was simply not skilled enough or willing to be trained to make these metallic superstructures.

So, I eventually realized the problem was simply unsolvable for me using the kinds of tools and skills that I was likely to develop for use as a hobbyist. Hence, the folio concept of unbound prints that uses a die-cut art cover as an enclosure.

Of course in today's list of options we have to include Blurb.com, Lulu.com, et al in the print-on-demand books category as an alternative to hand-bound books. I just wish the printing quality was better. Here again, folios seemed to offer the best of all worlds — images without a compromise in fidelity, a collection of prints, an artifact whose tactile qualities are a joy to behold, and something that is both doable and affordable in low-volume productions.