Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Let's all get better at Photo Placement: Part 3

Multi-Photo.

Before printing your photos:
- Analyze your list and determine how many you want to print for a layout
- Are all the photos in the same color scheme? Will matching patterned paper and accessories be challenging? If you prefer unified look, turn all photos from same event into black and white.
- If one photo is particularly better than the rest, print it larger {5x7}
- Print rest of photos 4x6 or make them wallet size by placing them in a 4x6 on photoshop or equivalent.
- Do not be afraid or cropping on the computer before printing. The best feature of a digital camera is that we can manipulate the photos we take. Print a close up, crop out the background, or print a perspective photo with a small object and a big background.

Placing the photos:
- Decide on matting. You can use cardstock, sand the edges, paint the edges, no matting {photos touching}, digital overlays {can be printed with these or they can be printed on a transparency and tacked over the photo}, or use the background paper as matting.
- When in doubt, make a line. The line doesn’t have to be straight, the photos can be staggered but it should make a line across the page. Vertically, horizontally, diagonally. Placing the photos closer together looks better than having huge gaps.
- Push photos in the center of the page to form a “circle.” Many of you chose a layout like this for your inspiration. Journal around group of photos and add title above or below. This is an easy template to use and reproduce but it needs 4-8 photos to look good, great way to capture many photos from Christmas morning or another special event.
- Don’t like those option? Make blocks. A block can look like using ONE photo on a layout. Put like photos together in a block of whatever shape you want {circle, square, star, heart, trapezoids, rectangle, etc.} and place the block in the side, or side, or up, or down and use the rest of the page to journal, or mix patterned papers. Don’t have enough photos to make the block you want? Use patterned paper to fill in the spot and place you journaling on it or a silk flower, or your fave embellie.
- Photo placement also depends on the orientation of the photos. Are they all horizontal? If so make a vertical line in the middle of the page. The line can be straight. The photos can be overlapping and titled. The photos can be cropped so that they do not span the whole page. The line can be center, to the left or to the right. The line can even be like a zizag or can be slightly horizontal. You can even cut the line into a wave going across the page. The wave can be cut from the bottom, or the top, or both ends. All the photos can be aligned and you can have a large one breaking the linearity. Rule: 3 4x6 uncropped photos can make this line. Or 4 cropped 4x6’s.
- Are all the photos vertical? Make a horizontal line across the page. The same rules apply. The photos can be straight or tilted. The line can be high, middle, or low on the page. Wave thing applies here too.
- Are the photos a mixture? Then the circle method is good. Place the most important photo in the middle of the page and use the other photos around it. Journal around the photos or make a block that looks like a photo.





Denitza:
- In the layouts you chose, all the photos are touching. You like it when the photos form a line spanning the whole page but the photos in that line are all tilted so that they’re overlapping in some instances. The photos are always in the same color scheme.
- The layouts you chose mostly use 4x6 photos that are cropped a little.

Robyn:
- You chose layouts that either form a line or having the middle “circle” method I described earlier. The layouts you chose seldom use 4x6 photos. Each layout has a dominant photo that is blown up and all the other photos compliment and aid the story. The photos are all close together and you chose every different kind of matting possible. You like straight photos and not tilted so that the photos are often overlapping.

Brenda:
- You like when photos are in a block. So make block with your photos. A lot of the layouts you
chose have 4x6 that form a square at some place within the page. Use the rest of the page as a
canvas to mix patterned papers, doodle, or place embellishments. You like the wavy thing and
that’s the same as having a line going across the page except the line incorporates soft curves.
So make your blocks girl.

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Weekly Challenge #10 - Lift your fav

Extreme Concentration (Doodle) Participants:

  1. Nitza
  2. Mel
  3. Christy
  4. K
  5. Jess
  6. Tiff
  7. Lucinda
  8. Melissa
  9. Annie
  10. Angela
  11. Rachel (gets honorable mention)
You guys make me so proud!! You truly nailed that doodle challenge and I am jazzed! Some of these LOs are truly "publish worthy" in my opinion. Keep up the good work!

This week's challenge is simple... pic your favorite magazine/book/SB.com LO and lift it as closely as you possibly can. You all know you have that one LO that you've been dying to try. The one you're saving that "special" embellishment or paper for... well, this is the week to check it off your list! It would be great if you have a photo/scan/upload of the target LO for comparison. You can upload and link it along with your link to your completed challenge. If that's not possible then just an honorable mention of the source will do. Have fun!