I wanted to dedicate this last post to some general tips and tricks for dealing with poor quality photos. Let’s get started -
1. Size it down
Sometimes you can’t win and the photo is just a bad photo. In cases like this, it’s time to shrink it up. White space is a powerful tool on a layout and can draw your eye to the photo, no matter the size.
BATGIRL by Kate Christensen | This is the only photo I have of my oldest daughter in her Halloween costume, taken in 2007. I always passed it by because I hated the quality. I finally decided to tackle it this year because I want it off the computer and into our book. I’m so glad I did!
MAX GUY by Kate Christensen | My son and I took these photos with Photo Booth on my laptop. Terrible quality! But I love them so much and wanted to create something special for him. Shrinking them up and applying a sepia tone really helped.
SOMMAR BRUDAR by Lisa Ottosson | Lisa shows off this cute series of photos by shrinking them and displaying them photo-booth style.
EVERYDAY DETAILS by Diane Payne | Diane acutally duplicated the photo since she couldn't enlarge it! Brilliant! She says, "A friend of mine took it for me from a distance with her iphone. Instead of downloading from facebook I asked her for the original so I could enlarge it and I got the exact same photo. I didn't enlarge it at all due to the quality and I enhanced them the best I could in Lightroom. I changed them to black and white to try and hide how blurry my face was and used two of the same photo on the layout since it was so small."
2. Group them together
Multiple photo layouts are a perfect way to use some of those not-so-great photos.
THE GOOD LIFE by Kate Christensen | Not the best photos, but they sure capture the relaxed, grandpa and granddaughter moment perfectly.
THE GREAT CEILING COVER-UP by Sue Althouse | "Not the best photos, not the most photogenic subject, but my husband worked hard on the project and I wanted to scrap it! I tried to have some fun with the title to make up for the lousy photos."
TODAY WE LOVED by Lisa Ottoson | Keeping the design simple and the photos right in a row, Lisa captures a sweet moment perfectly.
3. The right crop
Oh, how the right crop can make a difference!
NOT A MORNING PERSON by Kate Christensen | I couldn’t get my daughter to hold still for this, but I really wanted a picture of that morning hair. The whole bottom of this photo is completely blurry. But with the right crop, you wouldn’t even have guessed that.
PROJECT LIFE WEEK 47 by Laura O'Donnell | Laura really wanted to include these silly pictures of her son in this Project Life layout, but there was a little bit of clutter in the background. She converted them to black and white and then used 3x4 pocket templates to help crop it out. She also added strategically placed elements to help hide it.
4. Embrace it!
Let them shine! Don’t fight it at all and let those imperfect photos bring a fun and unique energy to your layout.
THE BEST ONE by Kate Christensen | Trying to get a picture of us all on Mother’s Day was a circus. And you can feel that in the layout.
THEY MAKE MY HEART SING by Lisa Ottosson | What a wonderful candid shot of a little family time.
I hope you've had fun this week! And I hope this series will help you get those imperfect photos into your scrapbooks.