One of the first lessons that people are taught is how to appropriately crop (trim or cut) photos. There are several reasons that one may choose to crop one or more photos for a page layout. For the purpose of this article I will discuss what I consider to be the top three reasons for cropping photos, along with simple step-by-step instructions.

CREATE A FOCAL POINT

How one crops a photo will determine what draws a person's eye to the page, and what the page is about. There are those times when the subject in the photo appears to be in the distance. In those cases, you can crop and enlarge the photo, thus making the subject larger, bringing them to life on your page. Cropping and enlarging is much easier with digital photos because both can be accomplished right on your computer; however you can also employ the skills of your local print developer to do the same.

TO REMOVE DISTRACTIONS

There are those times when are photos are not exactly what we want. Maybe your thumb is in the corner, or there are people in the photograph that you have no clue who they are. By effectively cropping your photo, you can eliminate the distractions within the picture that you don't want. This will not only help in enabling you to include more photos on your page, but it will create a cleaner and visually appearing page. Remember that you want your eye to be drawn to the special moment you captured on film, and not by all the distractions in the background.

BE CREATIVE

A wide assortment of cropping tools are available for you to choose from, ranging from a pair of sharp scissors to templates and designer punches. You can crop your photos in various shapes such as, stars, circles, hearts and ovals. There are decorative scissors that enable you to creatively enhance the border your photos. If you are looking just to soften up the edges of a square photograph, you can use a corner rounder which works very nicely. The ideas are endless when it comes to your own personal creativity. I recommend creatively cropping sparingly as you don't want to distract from the page, but enhance it with some fun elements.

HOW TO CROP

Start by choosing the desired photographs that you want to crop for your page. Look at each photo and determine how much of the photo is needed to create focus and be utilized well for your page theme. Don't remove parts of your photo that display historical markings or significance. Decide on the desired shape. You can choose circles, hearts, geometrics, or squares and rectangles. Cut the shape by tracing from a template, using a circle or oval cutter, paper trimmer (for straight lines) or a pair of scissors. If you want to soften up the corners you can use a corner rounder, or decorative scissors to add an additional element. Repeat these steps as necessary for each photo. A strong word of caution: NEVER crop (cut) Polaroid photographs. The chemicals within will leak and destroy the picture and your page.

Now that you know why and how to crop your pictures beautifully, may I suggest you gather up a couple friends and have a photo crop party. Scrapbooking is so much fun when shared with friends. Happy cropping!

Learn more about this author, Lisa Stephens.
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