Test Your Skills 2

Test Your Skills

Digging Deeper With Photos

In this challenge we’ll focus on photos. Here’s the start of a scrapbook page using photos that I shot with my iPhone on a family camping trip.

Challenge: Name the Number 1 No-No on any scrapbook page that’s already apparent on this page. How would you address this problem?

SEE ANSWER

The Number 1 No-No is poor photo quality—usually photos that are too dark.

There are all the photo problems mentioned in the Design No-No’s PDF:

Photos are too dark
The horizon line is crooked
Photos are too saturated
Photos don’t match in color
Photos don’t fill a mask
Photos that would look better cropped
Lacking photo definition on overlapping or clustered photos

But notice which photo no-no is at the top of the list. Uh, huh. “Photos too dark.”

Sometimes it’s just one photo that’s too dark. Other times the whole shootin’ match is dark, which is the case here.

Let’s fix these photos, shall we?

SEE FIXED PHOTOS

There! That’s better!

Knowing how to fix photos is definitely a skill that must be learned. There are some auto fixes you can use in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, and sometimes they’re good or at least make the photo look better.

I rely heavily on the actions I created for my class Fix Photos FAST. So if you need help fixing photos, consider taking that class.

Challenge: What two things NOT listed in the No-No’s might be considered a problem?

SEE ANSWER

Problem #1: The lower left photo is facing away from the other photos. Best practice dictates that photos usually look better facing inward.

In situations like this you can sometimes flip the photo horizontally, but in this case my daughter is reading a book with words visible on the cover, and flipped words won’t fly.

Another option is to switch locations with another photo, which is probably what I’d do here, but…

Problem #2: The photo in the lower left corner doesn’t fit with the rest of the photos. Yes, it’s on the same camping trip, but all the other photos are about roasting marshmallows and this one is about reading a book.

SEE ANOTHER EXAMPLE

Challenge: Which photo doesn’t fit?

If you guessed the left photo, you’d be correct. Even though all three photos are of the same girl, the subject matter on one photo doesn’t fit. Will your journaling be about the summer birthday party she went to or her visit to a park in the fall?

So make sure that all the photos on a page fit your page topic.

SEE MY PHOTO SOLUTION

Back to my camping photos. Here’s how I fixed the problem. I simply chose another photo that showed Allison about to bite into her S’more.

By the way, if you’re not from the U.S., a “S’more” is a hot, sticky, roasted marshmallow placed between two Graham cracker squares along with a piece of chocolate. Aaaaaahhh.

Challenge: Is there anything else you could do to “plus” these photos before moving on to the rest of your page design?