Photography Tips for Scrapbooks

by Christina VanGinkel

'Hang' your photo on your scrapbook page with ribbon or wire. Use the page's border as the 'wall' from which the picture is hung.

Pick your best photographs to scrapbook, and use the rest in traditional style photo albums if there are ones you do not want to dispose of. In the same sense, consider elements from photos that may not be good enough to use in your scrapbook or even photo album as a complete picture. Cut out the useable element and add it to your page layout as an embellishment.

Mat your photographs in one, two, or even three corresponding colors that are drawn from the photo itself. Make each mat approximately ¼" larger than the picture itself and each other for a consistent size increase.

Cover a photograph that is vibrantly colored with a piece of vellum that you have used as a journal. The bright colors will be strong enough to show through, yet the journaling overlay will add a nice touch.

Pick a color scheme when planning a page's layout. If you are not confident in choosing colors, invest in a color wheel. Consider the photographs colors when making your decision, and do not rely solely on the theme.

Do not be afraid to crop your photos, via your computer or in the traditional sense with a paper cutter, scissors, handheld cutter, or die cutter. Templates or stencils can also be used to trace a shape to be cut out for fun cropping ideas.

Using your computer program, attached printer, and select specialty paper, transform your photographs into embellishments such as stickers.

Print photographs in black and white and embellish them with photo safe markers. The look can be reminiscent of the past, when photographs were often hand painted, or they can be colored in a way that they are overtly modern in design. The brighter the colors you use, the more modern the look. Do not feel as if you have to color in the whole photograph either. Pick an element or two, such as a design on a shirt, or a hat, and just color those, or for a look from the past, stick with soft pastels, true to the olden days.

If you have several photographs that go together to tell a story, edge them with a cutout that looks like old fashioned film. Print the same pictures smaller, using a film grain setting common in computer photo editing software. Use these smaller pictures as a border for the larger prints.

Use the collage setting of your computer photo editing software to incorporate several pictures that may not be strong enough on their own, into a layout. Use them as a border for a central picture, or as the background for a design element such as a diploma or award.

Use a mini frame over a full size picture's main focal point instead of cropping the photo. This is a great way to draw focus to the main part of the picture and maintain the original photograph's size.