"Ask The Masters" - Part 4

Today's installment of "Ask The Masters" addresses some digital effects that you can use to really make your photos and scrapbook pages unique. You can use these techniques whether you are a digital scrapbooker or a paper scrapbooker - or a little bit of both! If you are a paper scrapper, you can apply these techniques to your photos before printing them out and using them on your paper layouts. So, here's the question:

"What are three way-cool digital photo effects?"

The first effect is given to us by Memory Maker Master Jessica Sprague. She suggests using spot color. Adding spot color can be subtle or dramatic. In order to create this effect, create a duplicate layer of your color photo and change it to black & white. Making sure the black & white version is on top, and you are working on that layer, use a small, soft eraser brush to erase the parts of the photo you would like to spot color. By erasing the black & white image, you allow the color from the layer beneath to show through. When you are done, merge the two layers and print your photo.

I used this technique in the following photos of my kids carving pumpkins. The original photos had all sorts of other colors that completely clashed with the papers I wanted to use, so this technique was perfect for toning down the photo colors, but still making the pictures pop!

I just LOVE this technique!!

The second effect suggested, by Kelli Noto, is to use a soft blur. There are many different ways of achieving this effect on your photos. Kelli used a soft light photo action to create a "dreamy feel" to her photo. I achieved the same effect using the "Diffuse Glow" filter in Photoshop Elements. I have shown what the photo looked like before I applied the filter, and then the result after. I just LOVE the dreamy feel it gives this photo of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy.

And lastly, Jenn Brookover recommends using a digital border to draw attention to your focal photo. This is a fun technique, and there are SO MANY digital borders out there to play with! Here is a layout I did where I used a digital border to emphasize my photo (this entire layout was done digitally, but you can create the same effect with paper):

There are so many fun options available for photo editing! Jump in and try a few next time and see how special you can make your layout! Happy editing!