Photo Tip from Wilna

For most of us that love to scrapbook, one of the main things is to share our albums with family and friends. The fact that my family lives in England and In South Africa, makes that a little difficult! One way that I love to share my scrapbooks are online with online albums and also on my blog. One thing that I have realized through the years is that scanning a page is not really an option for me anymore. Because we work 3D, the embellishments  is a problem when you scan plus the fact that the color is never jest the same. So, a few years back I started to take pictures of my pages. One thing that's a real comfort to my heart is that all my pages are on a digital format and are posted online so that should anything happens to my actual scrapbooks, the effect will not be as devastating.
Today I want to share with you a few tips on how to take pictures of your pages in a few easy steps.

1. I bought this $5-00 easel at Michael's and use it to place my pages on. As a back, I have a piece to cardboard just to keep the page upright.

2. Find a good light source. As you can see in this picture, I place the little table in front of the big window. This will let the colors look as true as possible. Natural light is by far the best light source for taking pictures of your projects.

3. Now you can take the picture. A few tips here: I always set my camera's picture size smaller. Because most of the pictures will be posted online, you don't need huge files. I also take one or two pictures as sometimes one might be out of focus.

4. Open Your photo editing software. I use Photoshop Elements 6 which you can download for a trial month. You can also use online photo editing sites like Photobucket and the Scrapblog. Once your picture is open, you can straighten and crop it to a square size. I always use 5x5. If your colors are not the same as your page, you can run levels and adjust the brightness a little. I seldom change the colors itself.

If your page is filled with detail and you want to show it, do a close up of the page at an angle. That way you can show the 3D effect at it's best.'

Please ask me Questions if you want to know more or even if you have some suggestions that might work better. I still love to learn new tips and tricks!!
Happy picture taking!
Love
Wilna