Hobby

You have the photos, you have the colorful background papers, and you have the creative vision, but somehow your pages don’t have that magazine page look that you’re trying to create. The key is in the layout – professional layout artists study the subject and work with experienced pros before putting those fabulous pages together. Here are some of the ways they accomplish it.

How the Pros Do It

Have you ever noticed that a well-designed page in a magazine or on a web site pulls your attention to the most important element on the page? That’s because the human eye automatically scans a new page in a particular way. The pros know that and place the important elements in one or more of the natural points of interest. It’s easy to use those points of interest in your scrapbooking layout, too.

Divide your page into thirds vertically and horizontally. That means two lines going each way. The four points at which the lines intersect are the point of interest. You’ll notice that none of those points are directly center on the page. If your typical scrapbooking layout is centered only, then you’re making your readers work too hard.

Place the most important element of your page on one of the points of interest. Don’t just center a photo on the intersections, place the important element of the photo on the sweet spot. That could be the subject’s face, a birthday cake, a Christmas present or whatever you want your viewer to focus on. Use one or two interest points per page and design around your important elements. Remember this rule when cropping your photos, too. Get that central subject on one of the points of interest.

Focal Point

When you’re using more than one photo per page, you may find that your scrapbooking layout seems out of balance. Photos taken at different times or with different cameras may seem darker or lighter when put together, while enlargements and close-ups can overwhelm other photos on the same page. Using a focal point can help balance your page.

When a photo is darker than others in a scrapbooking layout, it will overpower the others, so you can balance it out with background colors. Use two colors on the page: one dark and one light. By putting the darker photo on the lighter background, the weight of the picture is balanced. The darker background will make the lighter photos look more important to the eye.

Take a look at the group of photos you’re planning to combine on a page. If your eye goes to a specific photo first, use that one as your focal point. For instance, in a group of pictures of a child, the school portrait will draw your eye over the candid photos. If there is not enough difference between the photos, enlarge the one you want to focus on.

Your scrapbooking layout can have the professional feel if you use the same techniques as the pros.