Hi Folks:

Update: If you’re looking for 2014 calendars, please click here.

As one year closes and another begins, a popular present this time of year is a calendar for the coming year.  One of the things on my ‘to do’ list this year was to create a set of background calendar templates that I could use with Lightroom to create a 2011 calendar.  Before I could get to them, however, John Murray was kind enough to create a set of .png files of his own and to make them available for download: 2011 calendar templates.  Thanks, John!  On his website, John suggests using the .png files with Lightroom’s ‘watermark’ feature in the Print module; I’ve always used them as a graphical identity plate, but either way works.

That done, I got to thinking about people who don’t have (gasp!) Lightroom or Photoshop or another equivalent software package, and that got me thinking about Microsoft Word.  I started with a letter-sized (8½” x 11″) page and set the margins to ½”, then created a table with 10 rows and 8 columns and added in the dates, like this (the outlines are there only to show the borders in this example):

I created 11 more pages and filled in the appropriate dates, then chose 12 images with a landscape (rather than portrait) orientation.  Mine are all images of landscapes as well, but let’s not confuse things.  I inserted one image into the top row of the table on each page, and added a caption in the second row.  Combined, the 12 pages of the completed calendar look like this:

So, if you want to make your own 2011 photo calendar, you can create your own table in Word, WordPerfect, Excel or whatever, or you can simply download this Word file (in Word 97-2003 compatible format): Word 2011 calendar template.  Using this format won’t give you the colour control in printing that you’d get with Lightroom or Photoshop, but if you’re making calendars for friends and family they’ll be happy just to see your work.

Have a great 2011, folks.  Now go out and make some photographs!

Mike.

P.S.  Clicking on the image of the 12-month calendar above will take you to a .pdf file of a completed calendar with my images that you’re welcome to download.  All of the images have two things in common.  First, they were all made in Victoria, BC.  Second, they were each made in the representative month, so the image for May 2011 was made in May 2010, etc.  Enjoy!

UPDATE: A contact of Matt Kloskowski of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips has also provided a Lightroom template for 2011 calendars as a preset.  You can find the download link and instructions on Matt’s site.

P.S. II, the Sequel: You can find more of our posts on photography and Lightroom tutorials here, and you can find links to over 200 other sites that have Lightroom tips, tutorials and videos here.