Scrapbook Layout Photo Editing Tutorial

I have been wanting to share a simple tutorial of how I use Picmonkey to edit my scrapbook layout photos! Picmonkey is a free web based photo editing software.  It works really well for editing layout photos and I think it's pretty easy to navigate too!  

When I start I always pick out which of my photos is best (I usually shoot 3-5 of a layout) and load that into Picmonkey.  My first step is to resize it to size that will look good on my blog (or whatever size is required for my design team work).  For my blog I usually do 600 X 600.

Next I work on the colors.  Whenever I shoot my pictures it is always in indirect sunlight.  If you do full sunlight you will get shadows.  I don't want any shadows and can easily correct my colors to be true using Picmonkey!  Weather permitting I shoot on my front porch - if the weather is bad I get close to a window that has lots of light shining in.  Outside is definitely my preference!  

The first thing I do for Color is Click on "Neutral Picker" and click on a part of my layout that is White.

When you do that it attempts to correct your White to be more White and take out the yellow or blue tones.  I find it works pretty well.  Sometimes it goes a little too yellow - but I wait until I am all done with colors and exposure before I decide that!  At this point you can also correct Saturation - I was happy with mine here (and usually am) so I didn't mess with that!

My next stop is Exposure.  This is the one time I usually pick Auto Adjust!  I find it to do a pretty good job of automatically adjusting things.  If it doesn't you can always adjust that a little more.  This step is also really important for brightening your layout up and getting those whites white!.

My last step is to Sharpen.  I rarely adjust the Sharpness beyond 3 - it gets too pixelated if you do that.  Clarity is something I don't mess with a ton either - but if I do I don't go above 10 there.  As you can see here I did some adjusting on both of those here!

So for comparisons sake here's my original layout:

Not terrible - but after all the work I put in on it, I want it to look as good as it does in person!  Here's where it ended up after editing:

Much, much better!  Now I also of course have to share a little about this layout!  This is part of my Treasure This Time Tuesday weekly feature!  Every Tuesday I try to share a new layout about one of my four kiddos that documents little things about them Right Now.  I had noticed that time was getting away from me and I was losing the little memories.  So this is my attempt to change that.  It doesn't happen every week - but I get pretty close!  

This week is my sweet 11 year old son!  This is probably the best picture I have taken of him in a long time.  He is in that awkward tween smile stage so if I can capture him naturally smiling, it's a win!  I created my title using my Silhouette Cameo and placed that surrounding the picture.  I also used my half circle as a base for adding some other words that describe him.  My journaling is where I get more into some details of the past month.  I asked him what he thought I should talk about and also just reflect on some things in the last month that have happened.  I love how it turned out and that we will be able to look back and remember this month!

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Echo Park

Stickers: Echo Park

Enamel Dots: Recollections & My Mind's Eye