Horizontal photo across two pages?

I am somewhat torn on the question of whether or not I prefer photos that are in the horizontal orientation to span two facing pages or not. I'm wondering if people have definite opinions on the matter or not. I am using a vertically oriented book as the starting point.

On the plus side for why it looks good to span the photo across two facing pages is just that in many cases photos, at least in books, look better bigger. Spanning the pages lets you show the photo larger. If the photo contains a lot of details then this allows them to be more visible.

The other good thing is that horizontal photos don't always look good when printed on a vertical page. The photo doesn't sit right on the page nd there's simply too much white space that has to be filled with something.

On the negative side, and for me this is always a pet peeve, the seam where the pages meet in the middle never looks good. It just never does unless you break the back of the book or it's a super-heavyweight coffee table book. For some masochistic reason art directors always seem to put portraits of people or other subjects with a clear center right in the middle. It just looks awful when that happens.

A third option might be to print the horizontal photo such that the reader has to rotate the book to view it, but that gets tiresome as well.

Is this like splitting hairs? I'm trying to lay some ideas out and I just feel like the choice is somewhere between a rock and a hard place. Probably right on the center line!

Bosayia,
From my perspective any time an image runs across the gutter like that it just bothers the heck out of me. I would rather see the image by turning the book 90 degrees than deal with the gutter issue.

John Koehrer said:

Bosayia,
From my perspective any time an image runs across the gutter like that it just bothers the heck out of me. I would rather see the image by turning the book 90 degrees than deal with the gutter issue.

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Ditto.

Thanks, I certainly know the feeling. As soon as I start to feel like that's the answer I lean towards the most I see a beautiful two-page panoramic spread where the middle is so big and clear that it threatens to make me a convert. I'm normally quite clear with myself on what exactly I do and don't like, so this is an odd situation for me.

John Koehrer said:

Bosayia,
From my perspective any time an image runs across the gutter like that it just bothers the heck out of me. I would rather see the image by turning the book 90 degrees than deal with the gutter issue.

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From the perspective of printing such a piece it's a bit of a pain. The signature has to be folded after printing and mass production techniques aren't perfect. Pictures are usually easier to do a crossover on than hairline graphics but alignment can still drift due to the inexact sizes and shape of the mill stock to be printed on. Multi unit printing presses can deliver perfectly color registered images on a sheet but only guide to a point on the edge of the sheet. If the squareness of the sheets are inconsistant then when folding the signature the position of the fold will change sheet to sheet. This is exacerbated by some papers fighting the fold due to the grain (direction of the paper fibers) and moving a bit there. The more expensive papers may be trimmed before it's printed to make for better folding but you can't count on it. Also the more pages imposed on a signature the more problem getting all the pages in line. On top of that the two halves being printed on two different parts of the sheet may not get the same ink balance and when brought together might show up.
This doesn't mean you can't get good results, a good bindery tech can make a publication look pretty darn good but you can't expect each piece to be exactly the same and perfect. Just know what you can expect from the process.

It may not be what you are looking for, but I have a beautiful book of Ken Duncan's photographs. It has been made using a top edge spine so no photo goes over two pages. Below is a pic from an advert. I hope that is alright.

I also agree with John K. In a well-planned book with sewn-in signatures sometimes a picture can successfully extend across the gutter if it is on the center two pages of the signature. Also, one can use gatefolds, although I don't like them either.

I would rather just turn the book 90 degrees. When it crosses two pages and there is the seam down the middle it kills it for me. I just can't enjoy the image.

Landscape format images across two pages is a definite no from my point of view as the whole balance of the image is very likely to be destroyed. I spent months arguing with British publisher David and Charles over this issue when I wrote a book for them. They took the view that the format should be of the tall narrow style because it was the most economic use of the paper, any consideration for the wishes of the photographer were way down their list of priorities. They also wanted to have images bleeding off the edge of the page and place dreadful "key lines" around all of the images in the book. I eventually won the fight on all issues but in doing so it took away all the pleasure and fun of writing the book. Sorry for the rant folks but it still is a very sore point for me.

It seems to me that there are two kinds of photography books. The kind in which the photos illustrate a point and the kind in which they illustrate a scene for its own sake. The so-called coffee table books of well-known photog(s).

In the former an A4 picture can be accomodated although I have seldom seen the need for such a size and in the latter the photo's quality is so badly compromised that it defeats the object of printing it that size.

If the photo is sufficiently impressive to warrant a double page spread then I'll spot this in a single page and buy it double paged size if possible to hang on my wall.

pentaxuser

Les McLean said:

I spent months arguing with British publisher David and Charles over this issue when I wrote a book for them. They took the view that the format should be of the tall narrow style because it was the most economic use of the paper, any consideration for the wishes of the photographer were way down their list of priorities. They also wanted to have images bleeding off the edge of the page and place dreadful "key lines" around all of the images in the book. I eventually won the fight on all issues but in doing so it took away all the pleasure and fun of writing the book. Sorry for the rant folks but it still is a very sore point for me.

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David & Charles thinking they know everything? Surely not!

We had one editor there who had a 'thing' about any writing in any photograph, even down to the logo in a pack shot of SpotPens. They had actually removed the logo in the galleys. We pointed out that not only would Tetenal (the distributor) and the manufacturer sue; we'd support them. The logo went back...

Frances sends her regards, incidentally, and so does David Warr.

Cheers,

Roger

Roger Hicks said:

David & Charles thinking they know everything? Surely not!

We had one editor there who had a 'thing' about any writing in any photograph, even down to the logo in a pack shot of SpotPens. They had actually removed the logo in the galleys. We pointed out that not only would Tetenal (the distributor) and the manufacturer sue; we'd support them. The logo went back...

Frances sends her regards, incidentally, and so does David Warr.

Cheers,

Roger

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Roger, please pass on my regards to both Frances and David and would you be so kind as to give Frances a big Geordie hug for me, clearly David is not included in this request.

I have a book by Elliot Erwitt, called dog/dogs ISBN 9780714838052. It is a book of nothing but B&W photographs of dogs. Basically no text at all, but the format chosen is really interesting.

The first half of the book which as an A5 format, is all portrait format, after the centre where there is a small amount of text, the rest of the book is in landscape format.

Wonderful book, must be around 250 pages with about 50 years of photographing dogs.

Years ago when in the graphic arts and printing trade we were contracted to produce a pictorial publication with something like 20 double page spreads with not only the image, but text running across the gutter. We knew we were in trouble as the author was a close friend of the owner and what his friend wished for, he was going to get.

Well, interestingly enough, we were given much help from a printer who specialised in printing publications for the male orientated purchaser with special emphasis on beautiful colour centrefolds.

Firstly his printing set-up allowed for extremely precise registration of 4 colour plus a fifth colour of B&W text which was printed with a halo where required, allowing one to see B&W text on a dark coloured background.

The master stroke was to select a special tight wire spiral for the binding. This spiraled wire had a circle of about 10 mm and the strict design layout meant that one could open the book, lay it flat, view the picture as the photographer intended with virtually no visual impediment. The text was placed where it ran between the spirals and a double or triple spacing was all that was required to allow one to read perfectly.

I might add that the book was a standard A4 size but the layout was such, that the book when opened, was about 625mm from left to right, it was really stunning.

There was also a book about New York (I think) which was called Tall, or something like that, that was very interesting.

Mick.