Many of us have some fragile older pictures that are black and white that we want to preserve in a scrapbook, but need to be handled in a special way. Other times, working with black and white can provide an unique medium for your scrapbooks. Here are some techniques and ideas that may help you in dealing with black and white photos and page layouts. | |||||
I was working on a wedding page and wanted to include a copy of the newspaper announcement of our wedding. I've read you don't want to mount newspaper near photos for acidity reasons - and I wanted something that would last (newspapers yellow and brittle with age - our's is 8 years 'young' and already starting to look old). I color copied the newspaper onto acid-free white card stock. When it was cropped down to the size of the article - it looked just like the real thing! Shena Kelly - Seattle, WA | |||||
This technique of color copying newspaper works great for heritage albums that have old newspaper clippings that are essential in preserving the history and stories that go along with the family photos. Carrie and John - Cut'N'Fun | |||||
For hand coloring black and white photos, lighter colored clothing works best because it's very hard to color over dark tones. Faded denim is wonderful to color. Don't try to color in the skin. To practice your photo coloring technique, take a couple of shots of a white wall or sheet. Put something colored in the corner of the picture to make sure it gets developed and not ignored as a 'bad' photo. You can then divide the photos into sections, working with different colors in each section to get an idea of what each color looks like. It's a good idea to label each section with the matching color/number so you can later refer to your chart to pick the right color for your photo. Heather Wellers | |||||
I have recently received a couple of boxes full of heritage photos. It has been quite a challenge organizing them. Some of the photos were in a magnetic album. I have heard different ways to remove the photos from the sticky pages and have tried them all. What I found to be the easiest and less damaging way to remove the precious photos is to use a blow dryer on the lowest setting. The most important thing to remember when using this technique is not to get too close or to hold the heat on too long, as the heat will damage the pictures. This technique works really well at loosening the adhesives and allowing your pictures to come free without tearing. Alana Gisler | |||||
For a fun idea of a black and white picture, try putting a big adult hat on a child. It's adorable! Black and white photos of newborns, especially naked, are cute (and they hide skin blemishes.) Michele Fischer - Aberdeen,WA | |||||
When taking black and white photos, avoid as much background clutter as possible. Black and white shots are a great way to showcase the subject, but not if it's surrounded by other stuff vying for attention. Use natural lighting if you're using a point and shoot camera. Sunlight through a window does as well as shooting outdoors. If the subject is a person, try to avoid either extremely dark or extremely light clothes or backgrounds, both of which can throw off the lighting balance. Heather Wellers | |||||
Recently my husband needed a black and white photograph for a program book for an award he had received. I had just started a new roll of film and didn't want to waste the roll by shooting unnecessary pictures just to load up with black and white film for the one or two shots needed. The new instant photo copying machines they have at Wal Mart and other film stores will convert your color pictures into black and white. It was great! I took a color picture with the film I already had, developed it and then took the picture to a local film store. The machine not only converted the picture to b/w, but 'cropped' the picture to eliminate any unwanted background and offered a range of sizes per sheet. Ellen Long | |||||
Those old professional photos from 20 years ago sometimes have yellowed when stored improperly - I even had one with everything looking very orange! To make the picture suitable for including in my album, I silhouetted the pictures by cropping closely around the subject. This gets rid of all extraneous orange. Then I mounted it on a blue acid free paper for a background, which really de-emphasized all that orange, and made the photo much more acceptable. Lori Bickford - Monmouth, ME | |||||
I am redoing my old scrapbook and have decided to do each side of my family in a different color. All the photos are black and white and I think they will stand out best on dark colors. Dark blue for my mom's side of the family, dark red for my dad's side, and dark green for early pictures of me. I will also use small checked, polka dots, along with the plain dark colored paper. This will work visually well and make it much easier to keep track of each side of my family. Mary Johnson - Curlew, WA | |||||
I am working on an historical album for my family. There are many heritage photos and documents involved. I have found that several times a photo that I want to emphasize is a small one, so I mount it with three or four mats. Sometimes the picture is very light, so I mat it with black paper, followed by white paper which I trim with victorian scissors and then mat it again with black paper. This not only makes the photo appear larger, but also makes it appear darker. The reverse works well too...if the photo appears dark then begin with white paper and do three mats ending in black. Susan Newell - Hartwell, GA | |||||
Black and white is very dramatic and I love to work with it! One of my favorite ideas is to use an acid-free paper lace doilies over the black scrapbook page. This can add elegance and looks wonderful with heritage pictures. I have used my Antique alphabet stamp set and embossed the lettering in white on the black card stock. It's a WOW page! Angela Henderson - Rockport, IN | |||||
| |||||
|
