Photo Cropping for Homemade Scrapbooking

When you are having fun with scrapbooking, you can't always leave a photo intact.

There are various reasons for this. Often, if you left a photo complete, it would overwhelm the page.

Occasionally this is ok, but only if you are only going to put one or two pictures on a page. Most of the time something in the photo should be trimmed before it is used.

When to Crop a Photo

Photo courtesy of Graphia

There are a few times when you should definitely crop a photo for your scrapbook. One is if there is a lot of "dead space" around the subject of the photo. Things like blank walls or expanses of grass can be cut out. Nobody really wants to look at that.

Also, when you are scrapbooking pictures you should cut out distractions in the background if you can. Things poking into the picture from the sides should just be cut if it will leave the subject of the photo untouched.

By removing clutter from the edges of pictures, it leaves your whole page looking much cleaner.

Cropping Into Shapes

Only you can make the final decision on how to crop your photo. You need to do it in a way that will be flattering to it. But the great thing about homemade scrapbooking is that there isn't really a "wrong" way to do it.

Many times you can just cut nice straight lines, turning your photo into a smaller rectangle. If you are going to do this, it is recommended that you get a tool for cutting perfectly straight lines. This will prevent you from turning your picture into a parallelogram. If you cannot get a tool like this, just take your time, and think about using a ruler to assist you.

If you want to do something more interesting with the shape of your photo, there are scrapbooking tools that will help you make perfect circles and ovals instead. Of course, it is also easy to get any number of stencils that you can trace around to achieve just about any shape.

Cropping with a Fancy Edge

There are various tools you can get that will give your photos a fancy edge. The most common of these are scissors that can have any number of shapes in their blades. From spikes and waves to Victorian scrolls, you can use these to create just about any effect as you trim the excess space from your pictures.

It's Up to You

Cropping is not a mandatory thing. Just because there is excess space in a photo doesn't mean it has to go. Good examples of this include pictures where the focus is in front of a lovely landscape. If you don't feel the need to trim down your photos, don't bother.

This is again the wonderful thing about scrapbooking. All the decisions are up to you. Create your pages as you see fit. If cropping will bring your picture into focus and really allow you to make it pop, then by all means do so. Just remember that there are lots of different methods you can use to do it.

For those of you that intend to give scrapbooking a try, or if you have made your own homemade scrapbook please Share photos of your scrapbook here and tell us what you learned and what your preferences are.