Happy Friday, everyone! Linz here with today’s photography tip. Actually, it’s more of a photog/scrapping tip! Have you ever spent hours searching for the perfect kit to match your favorite photo of the moment? Of course you have! It can be so tough to find one that’s “just right” for photo. For me personally, I like my photos to match the kit — in more ways than one! Certainly I want the theme to mesh well, if there is one. In lieu of a theme, I try to choose a kit that goes well with the feeling or mood of the photo. I mean, it just wouldn’t look right to scrap one of my typical photos of my little man being his wild little self if I decided to go with a calm, serene type of kit, right? So that’s another way we can “match” things. Finally, I absolutely LOVE when the colors in my photo also appear in the papers and/or elements within the kit. Maybe you’ve never paid much attention to whether or not this is true for your pages. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way, but there are definitely ways around it. Let me give you an example!
I loooved my son’s expression in this photo! The whole vibe just went so well with the grunge and metal in Off Tha Chain by Tracie Stroud & Krystal Hartley. There was just one problem! This photo was taken outdoors on a lovely spring day. Blue skies, bright sunshine and green grass just weren’t jiving with this page at all! So I chose to crop it close (eliminating the view of our backyard) and turn it black & white. Another quick tip — branch out here too! Sure, the desaturate feature is quick and will remove the color from your photo, but it often leaves it looking drab and dull. Play with blending modes, curves, levels, etc OR there are plenty of free actions and/or scripts that will do the work for you! Once you’ve compared the results, you’ll never go back to the old way. 
One more example…
This is one of the first photos taken of my newborn son (3½ yrs ago) and also one of my favorites. I was working with Baby Jackson by Mickey B Designs, a gorgeous kit full of unique, realistic elements. It’s a calm, peaceful photo so it was a great match in that sense. However — here I go again with my color obsession — his hospital blanket had bright pinks, purples and blues. I found the pattern and colors very distracting! They really took away from the beauty of the photo. So I once again got to work, using an action as well as several layers of different blending modes. The result is much better suited for the page, don’t you think?
I hope I’ve given you all some things to think about today. This is just one more way to improve the quality of your pages or even just scrap a little outside your comfort zone. We’d love to see what you can do. Feel free to link us up if you’ve decided to play with these techniques. We all enjoy spreading the love!
Have a great weekend! 
