3 Reasons To Crop Your Photos

Cropping your photos refers to trimming them with scissors or a paper trimmer.

This can be a scary thought when you are new to scrapbooking. Our advice is to scrapbook copies of your photos and keep your originals in a safe place.  This is particularly true for vintage and old photos.

Three reasons why you would want to crop your photos for a layout include:

To Highlight The Subject
Sometimes the main subject of your photo might be a bit far away, but you can make the subject the focal point by cropping the size of the photo down which will reduce the distance to the subject and highlight them in the photo.

To Remove Distractions  
Often when you look at a photo that you have taken you will notice something there that you didn't see before you took the pic, like a person or animal or perhaps the dirty laundry basket!  In these instances, you can crop that distraction out of the photo.

To Fit More Photos On The Layout
Sometimes you will want to include multiple photos per layout but if you leave them full size they will not fit the page.  In this case, you can crop them down to a smaller size which will enable them all to fit on your layout.



Most often we tend to stick to standard shapes such as squares, rectangles or circles but you can get creative with your crop. Been on a fishing advneture?  Why not crop your photos onto a fish shape.  Autumn leaves are all around?  Why not cut your photos into leaf shapes!

Cropping is entirely optional, but don't be afraid to experiment with it.