Need you to critique this annual calendar

[kubelik]

I think a bit of selective brightening might help the image, by evening out the background somewhat.  ultimately, you're striving for a calendar here, so the focus can't all be about the photo.  having January, February, and April much darker than the other months is a little jarring.  the background may also need to be more heavily blurred if you're going to layer transparencies - the bokeh is great as far as a photo goes, but again, the focus here is on creating a viable calendar.

a bunch of people have already mentioned the "2013", I'm just going to say I agree with them.  lastly, the red numbers for the weekend dates can be very hard to read against the green background.  it's not a highly legible combination which is why it's something that's typically avoided except at christmas-time - and even then, it's far more popular to use red/white or green/white combinations as they read much better.

[Cgdillan]

Hi,

I created an annual calendar with a photo of the Hawk that came visiting on the 16th of December this year. FYI, this is the third version of the calendar and I believe (hope, pray, etc...) that I am done, but I would like you all to give me your thoughts on how the calendar can be improved. I am sure I have missed something... The image is sized to be printed on A3 paper. The noise you see on a 100% view of the image does not show up on the printed copy. An item to note that I have just noticed that the months February and November need to be center alligned and I will do that. Look forward to your inputs.

Thanks in advance.

I actually really like everything about it except the 2013. Maybe you could put the 2013 inside a similar green box as the months. The only other thing would be maybe desaturated the reds in the text just a little. Other than that I think it's great! Great work!

[rpt]

kubelik, Cgdillan thanks for the inputs. Yes, I am going to rework some of the aspects. The red color (colour - ) for the holidays is surely changing. Not still sure what to do with the year though. Cgdillan's idea is something I will try... Some have mentioned the borders being uneven. I will make the left bottom and right borders the same. Not sure if I should do the same with the top border. Will think about that.

About the colors jarring, I was aiming it to be a print calendar and the print looks better than the screen image so currently not planning to change that.

Frankly I have used TKexe to generate this calendar and have not done anything except enhance the image in LR. I have no experience in editing in PS and zero experience on layers. Hence I have not done any of that. However, I realize that it would look better if I did that. So after some practice I will try that.

Again to all who chimed in, thanks. The next few weeks are very crazy at work so I am not sure when I will turn it around. But I will (I shall return!)