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Thursday, March 3, 2016

How to Blow up Photos to illustrate a travel story

Here's a problem which has been bothering me for some time, finally solved. I was mentoring a friend who is giving a speech to a Toastmasters International speakers' club. His speech is about climbing a mountain (something he actually did) and reaching your goal.

At the top you see the A5 size photo, printed on A4 paper. The paper can be cut using a safety guillotine to make A5, which uses less of your colour ink. 
Below in the centre is the photo as an A4 picture. To the right is the A4 of the right hand half the picture. Finally, you see the two pieces of the left and right half of the picture in A4 stuck together to make A3.

I suggested that he use a photo of the mountain. I was going to suggest he use an A4 picture. I typed A 5 and then thought he could use A5, which is book size, at the start of the speech, and end with A4, twice the size, the size of typing paper. At the end.

But A4 is really too small for a speech to a large room. The feedback speakers often get is to print A3.

Years ago when somebody I knew worked in an office, they had a printer which printed A3. It looked great.

I keep suggesting that somebody could print a picture in two halves A4 and sticky tape them on the back down the seam. But I've never done it.

Today I decided to try it. How do you cut your photo in half? Easy. Any photo programme enables you to select part of your photo. So you simply pick a mid-point and copy the right or left, then print it. (Rotate the picture if needed. Alternatively cut it vertically.)

Then print the two halves.Stick them together. The larger the paper the flimsier it is. You might want to leave it flimsy in order to roll it up. If not, stick it on the back of a piece of card.

Still too large to carry? Then take two pieces of thin card (eg from the back of a shirt, or even a cereal box, or a large card envelope. stick one on the back of each of your A4 pieces and fold where the original fold is. You could even display the A3 photo on a table like an open book.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

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