Planning Your Image Package
The question is not "how do I render this?" It is "what images does this design need to make its case?"
Why this is a design decision
The set of images you produce for a project is a curation decision — a claim about which views, which scales, which times of day, and which representational modes best communicate what the design is and why it matters. Random images from convenient angles are not an image package. A planned set of images that together address the spatial, material, programmatic, and experiential content of the design is how professionals present work. This planning happens before InDesign layout and before the bulk of Photoshop production — the images you need to make should be determined before you decide how to make them.
What a complete project image package should address
| Question the images must answer | Image type that answers it |
|---|---|
| How is the site organized spatially? | Plan view — Lumion orthographic, Illustrator technical rendering, or CAD plan depending on what level of analytical or atmospheric content is needed |
| What does the design feel like to move through? | Ground-level perspective or sequence of perspectives — the hero image(s) of the project |
| What is the spatial quality of the most important design moment? | Section/elevation — either Illustrator line rendering or Photoshop photo-collage |
| How does the design address the site's key conditions? | Diagram images from Illustrator — site analysis diagrams that show what the design is responding to |
| What does the space feel like at different times? | Daytime vs. evening perspectives — demonstrating how the design changes through the day |
| What is the detail and material character? | Close-range perspective or section detail showing material specificity |
Image sequencing for presentation
The order images appear in a presentation is a narrative decision. A strong sequence moves from context to specific: overview plan → key perspective → section → detail → diagrams → detail images. This is not the only valid sequence, but it gives the viewer a consistent scale journey from large to small, from organizational to experiential. Plan the sequence before opening InDesign — the layout you build should serve a narrative that already exists, not discover a narrative by arranging images.
Quality review before InDesign
Before placing any image in InDesign for final layout, review all images as a set:
- Do they share a consistent color temperature and tonal range? (Card 16)
- Is scale consistent across images that show similar elements at similar distances?
- Does the shadow direction match across all images that include direct sun?
- Are all images at the correct output resolution for their intended placement size? (Card 02)
- Is there a clear visual hierarchy within each image — a focal point the eye reaches first?
- Does each image communicate something distinct, or are two images showing the same thing from nearly identical viewpoints?
Fix problems at the image level, not the layout level. A layout cannot rescue an image that doesn't communicate.
The image set for Assignment 04
Assignment 04 requires five images: two built from scratch (photo-collage perspective and section/elevation photo-collage) and three Lumion outputs that have been post-produced to presentation quality. These five images together should address at minimum: spatial overview (Lumion orthographic plan view), spatial experience (daytime and evening perspectives), and section/elevation quality (the Photoshop-built section). They will become the primary visual content of your InDesign poster layout in Assignment 05 — build them with that context in mind. An image that looks fine in isolation may not serve the poster layout; an image built with the layout in mind is a more useful deliverable.
Try this
Before finalizing any image, lay all five side by side at the same size on your screen. Not in InDesign — just in a folder view or opened simultaneously. Evaluate them as a set. Do they feel like they are from the same project, the same place, the same season and time of day? Are the colors consistent? Does one image read significantly differently from the others in terms of contrast or saturation? Identify the weakest image in the set and ask whether the problem is fixable in Photoshop or was a decision made earlier in the process (composition, Lumion setup, collage source selection). Fix it before you open InDesign.