TIPS ON PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR LAYOUTS

Hello!  This is LG blogging today here at Scrap That!.  When I just started scrapbooking I thought that the process of creating a page was the hardest part, but I found photographing my finished layout more difficult because I was having a hard time capturing the real look of my page. The color was off, the alignment was slanted, and the photograph looks so different from the actual layout.

As I have tried several cameras I found out that the main key to get a good photograph of your layout is LIGHTING. Here are some tips that i have read and discovered:

• the best time to photograph your layout outdoors is 1hr after sunrise and 1hr before sunset. This is the ideal time of the day because the sunlight is not that strong and the brightness is just right.
• when taking photos indoors, take a photo in the afternoon when the sun is so bright. Find a room that has enough light. Make sure that the wall painting is white because colored rooms bounce back the colors to the layout.
• you can also use a white cardboard to bounce the sunlight.Simply locate the sunlight in your room. Position the cardboard directly to the sunlight to bounce the light towards your layout.
• if you want to use an artificial layout, create your own mini lightbox. You can find the intructions here: HOMEMADE LIGHT BOX. If I have time I definitely will make me one of those.
• never photograph your layout using your flash or putting your layout directly to the sunlight! This will create strong shadows or the light might bounce back on the photo of your layout if you have used a glossy photo paper.

POSITIONING of your layout is very essential too. This will make it easier for you to crop your image later on using a photo editor software. Here are some tips on positioning your layouts

• you can adhere your layout on a wall at eye-level
• you can also use a photo stand
• or simply place your photo on the floor (this is mostly what I do)
• before taking a photograph of your layout, imagine a grid on the view box of your camera. Make sure that the spaces on all sides is parallel to the layout.

CAMERA. I think the best results is with a digital camera, preferably an DSLR camera like the Canon Digital Rebel. But if you don't have one it is okay to use a regular digital camera keeping in mind that the quality is different when using a DSLR. With good lighting you can still get a very decent photo of your layout.

• Set your camera to Auto Depth of Field setting and shoot. The auto depth of field keeps all elements equally important visually, which makes the text and photographs all stay focused.
• Use a tripod if your speed is below 100 to make your photo sharp.
• ISO must be set not higher than 400. The higher the ISO the greater chance of getting grains-look on your photograph
• Instead of just taking one photo of your layout, take several. It's easy to delete anyway. This will allow you to capture the perfect photo.

PHOTO EDITING SOFTWARE. After photographing your layout, it is still important to add some minor adjustment to your photograph by using some photo editing software. I actually use 2 software, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Usually I use Lightroom to edit the colors because it has the capability to adjust the colors individually unlike Photoshop. If you edit a color on Photoshop it will adjust the entire photo and make it all green for example. In Lightroom it only adjust the green colors thus you can make it more vibrant or pale. I do them first on Lightroom then I just do the cropping or cleaning(removing spots) on Photoshop.

Whatever photo editor software you use, just adjust the levels, brightness, contrast or color balance to get your desired outcome. Crop it! I suggest you place your layout near you so that you can use it as guide as you do some adjustment. Make it look like as close to the actual layout.

You're done! You can now upload your layout online!

Hope I was able to help you get an idea on how I photograph my layouts.  Until next time!

LG

Easy Folded Flower Tutorial by our Designer Vicky Alberto

As promised, I am going to do an easy folded flower tutorial as seen in one of my recent May Scrap That! kit layouts. At the end, you'll have a two-layer, 6-petal flower as shown below. The beauty of these flowers is that you don't need double sided paper (like you do with most other folded flowers). This is not a new concept and I cannot take credit for inventing this flower... I found it a long time ago on the internet along with other folded flower tutorials that I will be providing in the near future.

Step 1: Punch out 6 large circles and 6 small circles. I used a Fiskars and a Creative Memories Punch.

Step 2: Fold the circles in half with the pattern (that you want showing at the end) on the inside and then fold up the bottom a third of the way up. Make sure that all of the circles are folded the same way. Mine I do with the curve facing left as shown below.
Step 3: Unfold back to a semi-circle position and use the crease that you just made as a guide to "open the petal".
Step 4: Repeat this for all 12 circles.
Step 5: Glue your flower layers together by glueing one bottom "flap" to the back of a petal at a time, until all of them have been added. I find that using a glue stick is less messy and works best so that if you need to adjust the petals to be spaced more evenly at the end... then it allows you time (since it dries slower than other adhesives).
Step 6: I ink the edges before glueing the two layers together and then finish off by adding Stickles to the centre or a brad.
That's it! You can also make this a 7 or 8 petal flower if you like a more crowded petal look. Enjoy!

Distressing Tip from our Designer Karen Wilson

Methods of Distressing

 

Distressing is a big thing in the scrapbooking industry right now. There are several ways to achieve this look. First off there is the simple, fast distressing you can get by running your exacto knife along the edges of your papers, the more force you put into it,the more intense your distressing will be, you can also go deeper into the paper in some areas, to give more depth. Another way is tearing(a great therapy!). You can dry tear your paper but a way that I prefer is to run a wet q-tip along wherever you want to tear and start tearing, the wet line will help guide where you will tear. Which ever way you decide to distress you can also roll some of the edges towards you. A fav thing of mine to do is, whenever I distress, I ink my edges. It gives it a beautiful worn look. Hope you found this info helpful!

Here are two examples of my work where I used distressing.  You can visit my blog to see close ups.   http://agirlsscrapobsession.blogspot.com/

** NOTE - you can also use a distressing tool.  Making Memories makes one that does a great job!  Hint...you may just find one in the upcoming July kit! :)