Taking photos of your layouts by Nicole

Taking a digital photo is a quick and easy way of making a copy of your layout or a digital image to be stored on your computer, uploaded to the internet or emailed somewhere, like for submission to a magazine.

How you present your layout can make all the difference as to whether or not it is accepted to a magazine and it makes a huge difference when entering images into on-line challenges and competitions.

There are a few things to keep in mind when photographing a layout and following these basic tips, you should get the best image possible.

Firstly never take a photo of your layout at night, no matter how good your inside lights are. Light globes, even daylight ones will give your layout a yellow hue, thus presenting the colours incorrectly.

Go outside and find a light spot that is not in the sun and put your layout on the ground. Place a cloth down first if the area is dirty. Have a GOOD look at it. Is light reflecting off your photo? Is the shade

even or is the light dappled? As you can see here, light reflecting from a photo can completely ruin how it looks

.

Now stand directly over the top of your layout, maybe even straddle it if you have to. Hold your camera straight over the top using the viewfinder or screen to line up the top and bottom edges. If they are not straight, move your camera until they are. Don’t worry if you can see your feet in the picture, you can crop those out later. A tripod can be helpful at this stage.

Take your photo is macro mode if you have it, otherwise auto will be fine and DO NOT use the flash.

I usually take 5 of 6 photos to make sure I get at least one I’m happy with. I also like to take photos of my layouts on their side as I think that when uploading to the Internet, often detail is lost in a straight photo. Experiment with different settings on your camera while taking these photos. I usually take mine using the ‘portait’ setting as it gives me a good depth of field allowing me to focus on one little detail and blur out the rest.

Next go to your photo editing software and crop the edges out of the photo. Try and crop it tightly as possible. It will look more professional that way. You may find at this stage as well that you may need to adjust the image as well. I usually need to brighten the image slightly and adjust the contrast. Often too, I increase the colour saturation until it more accurately reflects what my layout actually looks like and sometimes I need to balance the colour. When you’ve finished, reduce the file size to around 100kb and submit to your favourite magazine or better still, post it in the Scrap To The Max gallery.