Scrapbooking Beats Housework!: August 2015

I hope you are all enjoying summer sunshine and getting out to the lake! I'm not even sure why I am posting this months' challenges. We have all been so busy with summer activities that we have all fallen behind in the challenges. But it is August 1st so I will get these posted. If you only get one done this month I think we will all understand. I still have to do all July challenges!!!

I'm attaching a very interesting tutorial on how to photograph your layouts written by Helen Tilbury [http://helentilbury.blogspot.ca]:

Ain't that something we all need to know???

Not many of us have it prefect but I have been

on an endless mission for the last 3+ years to

get there. You only need to hit my archives when

I first started this blog to see that I was CLUELESS

as to what I was doing. I am vastly improved now

BUT there is still one thing I am doing wrong.

Funnily enough it has only started bothering me in the

last few months...It's like I'd never "seen" it before...

just like this article says. Distorted perspective - yup,

got that!! Very marginally but it's there. I haven't

actually tested out this tutorial on my version of PSE

so I'm hoping that it will be as simple as it sounds here

when I do. I'll bullet-point my top layout photography tips.

1. Check your layout before you start by scouring
every millimetre of it with your eye, for fluff, remnants of

embossing powder, bits of glue, etc - have a large

face-powder brush kept specially for brushing off your layouts

before you start photographing them (You don't notice these

little things when taking a quick look at your layout - but you

DO notice them once you have uploaded your images - then

you have to start again!

2. Check your camera settings. Shoot on manual or aperture-

priority and adjust your F-stop to the lowest number possible

without blowing out highlights. Make sure your white balance

is set to CLOUDY and you shoot in the SHADE - there have

been a few very annoying times for me when I have

photographed a bunch of layouts only to discover, once uploaded,

that they were all "blue" from having my white balance set to

"Flourescent" from shooting indoors the night before.

3. Adhere your layout to the wall of your house or to a pillar/

column etc (any vertical flat surface) using removable adhesive

(I use Prestik but in the UK it goes by the name of Blu-Tack,

some people call it "Sticky Stuff" - hope you all know what I

mean - it looks like grey or sometimes blue, chewing gum!

4. Photograph your layouts HEAD-ON. Do NOT photograph

them standing over them on the floor - your results will NOT be

as good and you will have problems with llight and perspective

control.

4. Have a very steady hand (like me - lucky!) or use a tripod -

you do not want ANY shake at all. Lucky for me there is

A LOT of light where I live so I always have a huge aperture

(a very low F-stop number) so the shutter speed is so fast

that there is no time to shake or blur at all.

5. Stance & Angle. Stand with your legs as wide as you

can (like a giraffe) to stabilise yourself and get a good

distance between you and the photo (a couple of yards

on average) - try taking some photos closer & some further

away too (not more than about 1 metre) & do your best to

make sure that you are HEAD ON with the image -

not shooting down or up to it.

6. Take a lot of photos. Typically I take about 40 images

of a layout - including close-ups and dimension shots,

then choose & edit the best, and once that's done I delete the

rest immediately. It's all digital now so no problem with that

- better to have a good selection so click away! Every click

makes you a better and more confident photographer too!!

7. Edit your layout photos. Start with the proportion control

(see link above), or if that's all a bit fancy for now, just use

the straighten tool like I have done for years! Then use the

crop tool - set to MANUAL so you can adjust it just right -

around the edges of your layouts - then brighten it up as much

as you can by adding "fill light" - then a touch of highlights

(don't overdo this or you lose detail) and a teeny touch of

shadow. This will immediately pack a mean punch. Now

desaturate so you don't all look like you have a fake tan

(orange) and lastly sharpen for a crisp image. Be careful

with this last one as it will add grain if you have a bad

quality image to start with so you may only be able to

adjust slightly.

This may all sound very complicated but I've done it so often

I can do it with my eyes closed now (so you will be able to

as well, with some perseverance) & if I have a whole lot of

images taken under exactly the same circumstances, once I have

them cropped & straightened I can batch edit them all

together as opposed to individually. You can do this all

FOR FREE in Picasa (and probably other free software

programs) well - everything except the proportion control,

which you will need PSE/Photoshop for.

And there you have it - layout photography demystified. It's
an important skill to learn if you want to show off your layouts
online - you take hours to create them so you want them to
look their very best for the whole world to see! Helloooo?
Are you still there?? Well this was rather long...
hope it was helpful!?!

CHALLENGE #1:

Anita:

Carrie:

Marlene:

CHALLENGE #2 is from Page Maps:

Anita:

Carrie:

Marlene:

CHALLENGE #3 from Scrap Our Stash:

Anita: This too-busy layout is the right page of a double layout where Challenge #2 is the left page. For this Scrap our Stash challenge, I used:
B = burlap (under "Tales from the Tunnels")
R = rulers
A = advertisement
D = Dots made with Tim Holtz distress ink (on pant legs
bottom left corner)
S = Stencil (dots on man's pant legs) and strips of paper

I thought the background card stock really went with the story behind these old tunnels although this side of the card stock is busy. This close up is an advertisment that I tore out of a Saskatchewan Tourism booklet.

Carrie: For this Scrap our Stash Challenge (Brads), B = borders. I did go through my stash and these borders have been in a box for years. If not for this challenge they would have stayed buried. R = roses. I wasn't sure they fit with the theme but they are also very lightly on the borders. A was a stretch. Al came up with the Avalon Peninsula which I definitely wouldn't have thought of. I went online for a map that I could print. D= die cuts; and S= stamping & the scissor cut on my border.