Photo editing basics before you scrapbook

Always work on a copy

The most important rule of photo editing is to protect your original file. You never want to accidentally save over your original memory with a cropped or altered version. Before you start adjusting sliders, duplicate your photo.

Edit the copy and leave the original safe in your main folder. This way, if you make a mistake or change your mind later, you can always start over. When you save your edited copy, keep the file at its full size.

You will shrink the photo to fit your layout later, right inside your digital scrapbooking software. A standard digital scrapbook page is 12 x 12 inches at 300 pixels per inch, which equals 3600 x 3600 pixels. Keeping your photos large ensures they look crisp when printed. For more details on image sizes, read about dpi and resolution.

Crop and straighten

Once you have your copy open, look at the composition. A tilted horizon is distracting, so use your editor to straighten the image first. Most programs have a tool that lets you draw a line across what should be flat, and the software will rotate the picture for you.

Next, crop the photo to strengthen your focal point. Cut out messy backgrounds, random strangers, or empty space that pulls the eye away from your subject. Cropping helps your photo tell a clearer story on your scrapbook page.

• Straighten tilted horizons first.
• Crop out distracting background clutter.
• Keep the main subject as the clear focal point.

Remember to keep the file large. You can always crop more later when you are designing your layout.

Fix light and color

Adjusting the lighting makes a huge difference in how your photos look on a page. Fix your exposure and contrast first. If a photo is too dark, increase the exposure slightly. If it looks flat or washed out, bump up the contrast so the dark areas look richer.

After fixing the light, look at the color. This is called adjusting the white balance. Indoor photos often look too yellow because of artificial light bulbs. Use the warmth or temperature slider in your editor to cool the image down until the whites look truly white.

Getting the colors right helps your photos coordinate with your chosen color palettes for scrapbook pages. You will find it much easier to match papers and elements when your photos have clean, accurate colors.

Black and white conversion

Sometimes a photo just refuses to look right in color. If you have a picture with mixed lighting, harsh shadows, or very busy colors, try converting it to black and white. Removing the color takes away the distraction of clashing tones.

Black and white photos are incredibly versatile for digital scrapbooking. They match absolutely any kit or paper pack. If your subject is wearing a bright red shirt but you want to use a soft blue kit, converting the photo to black and white solves the problem instantly.

You can easily mix black and white photos with color photos on the same layout. This is a simple trick that helps tie a page together when you have multiple pictures from different events or locations.

Sharpening

Sharpening should be the absolute last step in your photo editing process. It adds crispness to the edges in your picture, making details stand out. However, you must use a very light hand.

Only sharpen a little bit. If you apply too much sharpening, it creates strange, bright halos around the edges of objects in your photo. These halos look unnatural and distract from the memory you are trying to preserve.

Apply just enough sharpening to make the eyes or fine details look clear, and then stop. Remember that your photos will also look slightly sharper once they are printed on paper.

Tools for basic edits

You do not need expensive software to make these basic adjustments. Free editors handle cropping, lighting, and sharpening perfectly well. The built in Photos apps on your phone or computer have all the sliders you need to fix exposure, contrast, and color.

If you want a more advanced free option, GIMP is a powerful program that works well for both editing photos and building layouts. You can learn more about how to scrapbook in gimp if you want to use a single program for everything. Whether you use a phone app or a desktop program, the editing steps remain exactly the same.

Once your photos are edited and saved as JPG files, you can bring them into your layout along with your transparent PNG elements. If you are unsure about file types, check out our guide on PNG vs JPG: which file format to use.