A Picture Perfect Digital Scrapbook

Part of the art of digital scrapbooking is making certain all of the different elements match up and look their best. You want to ensure your embellishments appear as 3-D as possible, you know it's important to make certain your digital layouts offer a color scheme that compliments your scrapbooking crafts and you only add the latest in online technology. All of these features are critical to creating the best digital scrapbooks you can, but a simple thing like getting your photos in order can really make or break a project.

Adobe Photoshop is a simple program with easy to solve fixes. Here are some tips to help you get started upgrading one of the key features of your digital scrapbook through Adobe Photoshop - your pictures.

Get Rid of Red Eye

If the pics are taken with a flash instead of natural lighting, the odds of red eye are huge. The good news is that the problem is an easy one to fix.

Using the Adobe Photoshop Program, all you have to do is select the red eye tool brush. Zoom in on the eyes and then adjust the brush size to the size of the pupils in the photo. Go to Sampling (found up towards the right of Help) and select First Click. Click on the red eye area and Voila! The pupil will turn back to black.

Crop Your Photo to Fit

When you are working with set scrapbook templates, making certain your photo is the right fit is a big part of making your scrapbook pages look their best. Cropping your photos will help achieve this.

Select the crop tool, found three down on the left hand side of the tools. Click on crop options and enter the size and width you need the picture to be for your digital scrapbooking layouts. Hit Enter to crop the image. Save the new version.

Clean Up the Background

If background photo clutter is interfering with your creative scrapbooking vision, put that clutter away. Blurring out these distractions is a cinch with a few simple steps.

Open your photo and click on the Lasso icon. This tool will appear in the second row down on your left hand side. Use the lasso to circle the part of the picture you want to have as your main focus. Go up to Select and click on Inverse then go back to Select and click on Feather. Before you get wild and start to feather, head on up to Enhance and adjust your Color until you get to the Hue and Saturation option. There, you are simply going to de-saturate the color that's there until it no longer catches the eye.

Note: You can also use the blur tool in the background, but it's always good to try de-saturating the color first.

If you are just getting started with digital scrapbooking, fixing your pictures is one of the key things you can do to ensure a quality scrapbook page. Take the time to perfect your images and you will be on your way to perfecting the art of creative scrapbooking.