39. CREATING TWO-PAGE SPREADS AND MODIFYING BACKGROUNDS

NOW THAT WE’VE made some basic layout changes, let’s talk about how to spread one picture across multiple pages. First, you need to add two blank pages to the existing layout (Figure 39.1). Select the page on the left and click on the arrow in the bottom-right corner to open the Modify Page options. We’ve been using the one- and multiple-photo page layouts, but now we can move down to Two-Page Spreads (Figure 39.2).

When you click on Two-Page Spreads, you will see that there are various layout options for the spread. I like the spread with a white boundary box around it. Once you’ve selected the layout, you can go into the filmstrip and drag the picture you want to use onto the two-page layout (Figure 39.3). You can control how much of the picture you can see by zooming out (Figure 39.4). Single-click on the image to bring up the Zoom slider.

You can also insert graphics or colors onto the backgrounds of your pages. If you want to do this to an individual page or spread, go into the Background panel and uncheck Apply Background Globally. Next, highlight the two-page spread that you just created.

Figures 39.1–39.2 I find it’s better to make the two-page layout from blanks rather than change an existing layout in Lightroom.

Figure 39.3 Drag your picture directly onto the new two-page spread.

Figure 39.4 Zoom out on the image to see the full image on the spread.

Now you can grab the exact same picture from the filmstrip and drag it into the Drop Photo area (Figure 39.5). This will create a washed-out background for the selected spread. You can further customize the background by changing its opacity with the Opacity slider (Figure 39.6).

Figure 39.5 To add a picture as a background, simply drag it from the filmstrip onto the Drop Photo area in the Background panel.

Figure 39.6 Use the Opacity slider in the Background panel to make the background image more or less visible.

You don’t have to use existing pictures for the background. In Figure 39.7, you can see that I’ve selected a page with one picture and clicked on the arrow to the right of the Drop Photo area in the Background panel. This opens a menu of thematic graphics that you can use for your backgrounds. It’s easiest to review the various backgrounds by applying them to a page in the Single-Page View (Figure 39.8).

Let’s suppose you want to add elements that are going to run across all of the pages. Start by selecting all of the pages to which you want to apply this background element. I decided to give all of the pages in my example a black background, so I selected everything but the two-page spread that I created previously.

Next, put a checkmark in the Background Color checkbox at the bottom of the Background panel, and then click on the color swatch to open the Background Color picker (Figure 39.9). Select the color you want to use by clicking on one of the preset color boxes at the top of the box, or by clicking on the color bar with the eyedropper.

You can also select a light background color and combine it with a graphic.

Figures 39.7–39.8 Selecting one of Lightroom’s preset background graphics.

Figure 39.9 I chose a black background to give my book a clean and consistent look.