Questions I’m asked every day are “Are my photos good enough quality for the Order of Service”, “Some of my photos are quite old, are they ok?”, “Does it matter if some of the photos I want in the Order of Service are damaged?”. If this is something you’re worried about, then the simple answer to all of them is: YES.
The most important thing about photos you choose for the Order of Service booklet are that they’re the ones that mean the most to you. This is far, far more important than any aspect of the quality or age. If you look at them and they radiate the essence of your person, remind you of a very happy memory or celebrate them in the way you want them to be celebrated, then that is all that matters. Everyone who attends the funeral is there because they loved your person and will look at these images and say “Wow, isn’t that a beautiful photo of her” or, “Ohhh, I remember her wearing that dress!” – not “Well, this photo isn’t very sharp, is it!”. And arguably, the patina of older photos (especially gorgeous vintage ones) is very much part of their charm.
That said, it’s totally understandable that you’ll want the images to look their best and it’s important to know that they will always look darker in print than on the screen. This is because screens are backlit so will make everything lighter. Paper is not, and depending upon the stock you choose, can mute colours to a greater or lesser extent depending on how absorbent it is. For that reason, I would highly recommend doing some basic photo edits to ensure they’re in the best possible position for looking wonderful in print. If you’re using me for your Order of Service design, all editing is included as standard in my pricing so you don’t need to worry about a thing. However, if you’re doing your own design or are working with someone who doesn’t include it, here are some of my top tips for improving your images, using just your phone. And read to the end for my favourite hack for any photos that are faded or lacking in sharpness.
1) Don’t worry about scanning!
It’s controversial, but I actually think that taking photos of older photos with your phone gives better results than most scanners do! So if you’ve got hard-copy photos that you want to translate into digital files, I’ve got a separate article HERE which talks you through doing this step-by-step for best results.
2) Lift the shadows
In the Photo app on your phone, go to your editing options, and find “Shadows”. If you increase these, it’ll brighten up the darker areas of the images, allowing you to see more colour and texture. This is one of my favourite edits and something I do to almost every image.
3) Altering the contrast
This can go either way – the contrast is the difference between the darker and lighter areas of your image. If you’ve got one which is already very contrasted – for example a bright window in the background of a room, or a very bright tone of a particular colour (such as very bright grass or trees), you might want to lessen this. If you’ve got one that’s a little washed out, increasing it will improve the vibrance of the image and really make your colours pop.
4) Vibrance
Not dissimilar to contrast, I often decrease the vibrance on images where there’s a dominating colours, or the image is heavily saturated and could benefit from being more tonal. Lower this and it will help to harmonise your photo with others that might sit alongside it.
5) Increasing the Brightness
Increasing the brightness will lift the dark areas of the image and lighten the whole thing up in just one swipe of a finger!
6) Change it to Black and White
This is my top tip for a gorgeous photo but that’s either faded or hazy. In the ‘Saturation’ settings, slide this right to the bottom to change it to black and white, and from there you can be far more heavy-handed with the other edits described above – particularly things like the contrast. This can make a huge difference in sharpening up images and making them much crisper and more defined.
If you follow these tips you should be able to make some good improvements to images both quickly and easily, which in turn will really allow them to shine in the Order of Service.
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