Digital Photography Hacks

Show Who’s Who in Group Shots

Here’s an easy way to let others know who’s who in your group shots.

Most group shots are documented by listing the people in the photo from left to right. It’s frustrating to count the names, then the people, to try to determine who’s who. And, of course, people don’t always stand in neat rows, as shown in Figure 8-33.

Figure 8-33. A family portrait without neat rows

Why not use your digital-editing abilities to make a handy photo key instead? Make a copy of the image and open it in Photoshop. Desaturate the image to simple black-and-white tones (Image→Adjustments→Desaturate), and then adjust the brightness and contrast (Image→Adjustments→Brightness/Contrast) until you have a ghost image of your photo.

Use the Text tool on the floating Tools palette to add labels to the image. Use a nice, bold font in a pleasing color to help separate the text from a busy image, as shown in Figure 8-34.

Figure 8-34. Digital labels to help identify who’s who

Now, output your photo label and attach it to the back of the printed original, or place it online next to the original. Anyone looking at the photo will be able to scan the key quickly to match names to faces.

You can also use this method to point out landmarks on a landscape photo, or to indicate areas of interest.