YearBook Publishing And Printing

During the holidays, you might find that you have a lot of rather Christmas-focused photos that don`t really fit in with any of the actual yearbook themes that you are trying to work with. If this happens, it`s fine to break the rules for one section of the yearbook and have an area where you actually just use a Christmas themed layout.

Holiday yearbook themes are used separately from the main yearbook theme in most cases. If you can tie the two together, that`s fine, of course, but it`s also great just to have a holiday theme for a few pages.

The holidays, particularly Christmas, are very popular for obvious reasons and chances are you`ll have more than enough photos to put together a special holiday layout or two. It can be a lot of fun to work on a couple of pages that have nothing to do with the yearbook theme at all.

Don`t be afraid to branch out in your yearbook themes. Include the holidays as separate layouts and enjoy it.

In some cases, you may find that the yearbook photographer has somehow missed a vital shot for the yearbook. While you can usually prevent this from happening by sending more than one photographer to important events, there are occasionally still problems.

Restaging a photo isn`t always acceptable, but you should be able to do it when it is something fairly simple, like snapping a shot of the principal signing a new contract or students warming up.

If at all possible, ask for a redo immediately so you don`t have to gather anything again later. If the first photo didn`t work, ask the person to repeat the action and then snap again. It`s very important to make sure that you don`t disrupt events, but in many cases the subject will be willing to do a repeat motion.

Restaging for yearbook photography is acceptable as long as you aren`t actually passing off a forgery. For example, if you shoot someone making a goal during practice and then use it as a replacement photo for a missed game shot . . . that probably wouldn`t be too ethical! Keep this in mind and make good choices.

We all know how terribly stressful things can be at the end of the school year, particularly if your deadline is just a bit beforehand. There is going to be too much to deal with at this point if you`ve left everything until the last minute.

Yearbook covers should be finished by mid-year at the latest, if you want to avoid the problems that come with trying to finish this part of the yearbook up at the last minute. In fact, everything that can be done early should be done early and this includes yearbook covers.

The stress that you`ll release by getting this important task done early is huge. It will allow you to focus on other areas and to keep your students on track once you`ve planned and perfected the yearbook cover.

Get your yearbook cover done early in the year. It will save you a lot of hassle and will be just one less thing for you to worry about.

It can get a bit chaotic this time of year as you juggle photos, text and yearbook layouts. It`s best to have a system so you can ensure that all your pages are ready to go by the time you need to send the yearbook in.

Even with a yearbook ladder, those yearbook layouts can get out of hand pretty quickly. This is particularly true if you are switching back and forth and moving the yearbook layouts around to find the best order for them. As the deadline draws closer, it`s very easy to lose track of whether or not you have everything you need.

To make life a little simpler, try keeping a notebook where you can jot down changes made. Include page numbers and make note of when you move a yearbook layout so that the page numbers change. This will make it quicker to find that specific yearbook layout that you need.

Don`t let your yearbook layouts get lost. Take the time to set up a system so you can manage them.

Unfortunately, even after all your hard work and proofing, you still run a risk with your yearbook. If the yearbook printer you`ve chosen isn`t careful and conscientious, you could end up with mistakes in the book.

It`s not that uncommon for names to be changed, or even photos to be switched around. While no one wants to think of this happening to their yearbook, it is, unfortunately, something that happens frequently.

The best way to prevent problems with yearbook printers is to choose a good one right from the start. This is very important. You`ll need to do a little research and find out if there are any complaints against the yearbook printer. If so, then check them out to find out how legit they are, but also consider looking for a different service.

By choosing the right yearbook printer at first, you won`t have to worry about something going wrong with the yearbook.

It happens almost every year. You`re nearly done and ready to send the yearbook off to be printed, but you still have a couple of yearbook layouts waiting for those last minute photos. It can be terribly frustrating, but if you prepare ahead of time, waiting for those last photos doesn`t have to be as stressful.

Last minute yearbook layouts don`t really need to be last minute. You can actually prepare them as much as possible. This includes designing the border and title and writing any text that you are able to ahead of time.

Once the photos come in, simply place them on the prepared yearbook layout and add any captions necessary. You might want to include pre-created borders for the yearbook layout and then proof the layout to be sure no spelling mistakes have been made.

By this point in time, you should have the rest of the yearbook layouts proofed and ready to go. All you need to do is pop in the photos and send the yearbook off to the printer.

One particularly effective means of teaching is having peer instructors. This works very well with yearbook photography when you find yourself too busy working on the actual yearbook to be able to help students one on one.

Setting up a yearbook photography situation where students are paired, beginners with experts, will help you get better photos in the long run. As long as you have a couple of students who are very good with the camera, you`ll be able to set them up to teach another student. Make sure they are fine with this ahead of time, of course.

Students often listen better to another student. That means it`s actually better to pair students up or have one expert photographer teach the others their techniques, rather than try to do everything yourself. You`ll find that the students actually learn better this way, most of the time.

Do be sensitive when pairing students up. If two kids hate each other, they won`t be doing much teaching OR much learning!

Chances are, your yearbook ladder isn`t quite as right as it was when you first made it at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, even our best plans tend to be changed. Maybe a new photo opportunity came up or you may have found that you can`t fit all the year`s events into the space you allotted originally.

Whatever the case, now is the ideal time to reevaluate and update the yearbook ladder if any changes need to be made. There`s no need to keep attempting to stick to the original when you know it won`t work. Flexibility makes for a far better yearbook anyway.

There`s no reason not to change the yearbook ladder if it`s out of date and not working anymore. In fact, this is the perfect time, halfway through the school year, to stop and take a second look, to make sure that everything is on track.

Even if you don`t need to change anything with the yearbook ladder, it`s a good idea to take another look to see that you are on track.

Full color yearbooks have a variety of benefits that make them worth the extra money. If you`ve been working with black and white pages in the yearbook until now, it`s time to consider going full color.

• Students prefer full color yearbooks and are often more interested in purchasing them.
• When all pages are full color, you don`t have to worry about which photos to use for the black and white pages.
• Full color yearbooks are often sold for a higher price and bought quite willingly. People see color as being of higher quality.

Full color yearbooks offer better quality to students and allow you more range to work with. You aren`t limited by the few color pages that you can have, instead, the entire yearbook is open.

One way to keep yearbook photojournalism interesting is to use speech bubbles for your text, essentially turning your page into a comic strip. In fact, you can have a lot of fun by cropping pictures and turning them into a comic book page, if you like.

Speech bubbles have the potential to go terribly wrong if you aren`t very careful, so be sure to take the time to check any work done by students. Avoid anything that could be construed as offensive or making someone look bad.

Having a comic strip with real students can be a huge amount of fun and if you do it right, everyone will love it! Use older comic strips as inspiration or take a look at some of the older ads that are found in magazines like National Geographic.

Yearbook photojournalism is something that can be treated in many different ways to really bring out the interest in your yearbook. Have some fun and get creative.