Originally uploaded by gonemissing.

Low-lighting and the general excitement to get moving are two strikes against you when it comes to taking Halloween pictures that really capture the moment. I’ve gathered tips from around the internet that will expand your ideas for fun shots and improve your photo quality.

Fun Photo Ideas

1. Stick your camera on a tripod and document your transformation through makeup, costume, etc. Try to maintain the same position in each photo to for a fun effect as you flip through photos in a slideshow. (from Photojojo.com)

2. Sometimes the nicest pictures are the ones that are most overlooked: the little details. Consider taking close-up pictures of a child’s hand dipping a brush into Halloween makeup. Get a shot of the crooked mouth on the jack-o-lantern. Take a still shot of the pile of candy on the table. (from About.com)

3. It’s usually better if you don’t shoot from head to toe since shoes are often the weakest part of a costume. (From New York Institute Of Photography)

4. To maximize the photo, figure out what’s the best part of the costume. Is it just the mask? Or is it the mask and the torso too? Then get in close - the closer the better — and fill the frame with the parts you’ve decided are best. Strive for
90% person and 10% background in your picture. (From Yahoo.com)

Halloween-Specific Photography Tips

1. You’ll get your best Halloween photos at dusk. For that hour or so while the sun is setting, you’ll have enough natural light to easily forgo your flash while still capturing the glow of your jack-o-lanterns and the bright colors of your costumes.

After dusk, use a high ISO setting (400 or more) and hold your camera as steady as you can (or use a tripod) to capture action without a flash. The rich, dark colors characteristic of Halloween are essential in setting a spooky mood, so make sure your flash doesn’t overpower them. Remember, Halloween’s not a bright holiday; and dark and creepy shots can work in your favor. (from Photojojo.com)

2. The more light your jack-o-lanterns pump out, the more bewitching they’ll appear through your lens. It’s crucial you turn off your camera’s flash so it doesn’t overwhelm your candlelight. Your jack-o-lanterns are not going to move, so your best bet is to use a long shutter speed and set your camera on a steady surface or a tripod.

If you’re photographing outdoors and your shots only capture the glow of the jack-o-lantern and nothing of its outer shape, try creating some makeshift lighting with a flashlight raked against the outer hull of the pumpkin. (from Photojojo.com)

All of the sites I read recommended 2-3 candles in each jack-o-lantern.

3. Take pictures as soon as your subjects are in costume. Makeup has a way of rubbing off, and costumes have a way of getting disheveled. (from About.com)

4. If you’re shooting a child or a group of children, bend down low to kid’s-eye level to get the real effect of their ghoulish costumes. (From Yahoo.com)

5. With groups of monsters — young or old — it’s the same. First, pack them together, have them touch, and fill the frame with them. Second, keep it casual. Don’t line them up like soldiers at attention. If you’re photographing three, group them in a triangle — this arrangement usually looks best. In a larger group, have some kneel or crouch down in front of the others so you get an up-and-down arrangement. (From New York Institute Of Photography)

I heard your requests for a step-by-step tutorial on how to assemble your own Schoolwork Scrapbooks, and we have now released the first of the Paperclipping Premium Tutorials.

This was a popular project and I wanted to make it affordable to anyone, so we priced it low. You can get this tutorial for only $7.99.

Please share your results with me, and let me know how you like the tutorial. And don’t forget to share this with a friend!

Want to learn more about the Schoolwork Scrapbook Premium Tutorial?

My friend, Dedra, sent me a link today that made me so happy. The link goes to a thread in the message board of a kit club/scrapbook store that she designs for, A Million Memories.

Michelle, the owner of the site and the one who started the thread, mentioned my recent post on using found items and began a challenge with a small prize. Here is what you should do if you want to join in:

I thought a fun challenge would be for us to gather things around our house, or in our cars, at work, or wherever that are things that you could use in your scrapbook, if you didn’t have all of the fun goodies we have today. On the paperclipping site, she had clothing tags, barettes and a bunch of little bits and pieces of things that I thought looked like fun. So here is my challenge ~ let’s spend the next week finding things that we can use in our scrapbooks that we wouldn’t necessarily BUY to go in our scrapbooks. Make sense? I’ll give away a rak at the end for my favorite pile of findings.

Before throwing away Trinity’s ripped backpack from last year, I cut away some of the pieces that will someday be more meaningful to Trinity than any expensive embellishments I could have bought at the store. From her old dress shoes I pulled some unusual bling and some metal pieces.

What kinds of things are you finding?

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Side note to those of you waiting for the Schoolbook Workshop: The premium episode is finished and ready but we’ve run into some problems with the landing page for the download. Thank you for being so patient while you wait for us to make it available!

One of the most valuable digital lessons I’ve learned (using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements) was how to crop photos down to smaller sizes and then print them all on one sheet through my photo developer. I first learned how to do this from Jessica Sprague’s Paper + Pixels article on the Creating Keepsakes website.

The layout you see above (which you caught a glimpse of in paperclipping 18) was my first time using the skill. But since then I’ve used it again and again, expanding to multiple sizes instead of just the 2×2 that Jessica demonstrates.

I love that I can print numerous photos on just one sheet, rather than print a stack of single photos to crop manually. If you have Photoshop software, make sure you read Jessica’s article and try the technique. It’s one of the most useful digital skills that I’ve learned.

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Products used: Cardstock (Bazzill); Patterned paper (7 Gypsies, Creative Imaginations, Creative Memories); Chipboard letters (Heidi Swapp for Advantus); Letter stickers (Creative Memories); Word strip stickers (K.I. Memories); Small green squares (Stampin’ Up); Brads (Making Memories); Pen (American Crafts); Ink (Stampin’ Up).

To learn about the design principles I used in this layout, you can watch the previous episode of Paperclipping, Episode 19.

Today’s Tip

I wanted current, individual photos of each of my siblings and myself for this layout, but most of the shots I had were of groups of us. So, I punched squares through the group photos until I had an individual picture of each sibling. I love the group photos I ruined to get the individual shot, but I have no worries. I can go right back to my photo developer and print another copy.

Blog Note: Did you know you can enlarge most of the photos and layouts I post on my blog? If you don’t use Flickr for your online photos, you may not know how to do this. Click on the layout you want enlarge. You will see the same size of the layout on my Flickr page.

Above the layout is a button that says, “All Sizes.” Click that button and then click the button that says, “Original.”

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Together Again
12×12 Two-page layout

Family Photo taken by Jerry Hyman, my father-in-law.

In this episode I share some simple design tips for directing the eye.

This episode is in the archives. To learn how to access the archives, please visit the membership information page. Enjoy!

ETA: I have now posted the layouts from this show:

Together Again

Backyard Baseball

The Kits & Pieces kit club interviewed me for their newsletter. Some of it is about myself and my thoughts on scrapbooking but a lot is about Paperclipping and our plans for its future. I think you might be interested in reading it, so here is the link to the Kits and Pieces interview.

We have a winner: Linda!

Linda had two entries, which you can see here and here.

Linda: I will email soon about your free download of the new Premium Episode, which we will release next week. Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone for your comments and birthday wishes and especially to those of you who played along with the birthday layout contest.

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Paperclipping
12×12 2-Page Layout

Products used: Cardstock (Bazzill); Patterned paper (Basic Grey, 7 Gypsies); Handmade button (Vision Trims); Brads (Making Memories, Stampin’ Up); Stamp (Ali Edwards for KOTM, Colorbox); Ink (Stampin’ Up); Pen (American Crafts); Rub-on (7 Gypsies); Letter stickers (Creative Memories); Misc.: ribbon, butterfly, photo turns with brads, sewing item–found items or unknown source)

This birthday layout is all about lines, both the obvious and the not-so-obvious.

It was the space-technology styled lines at the bottom of the invitation and at the top and bottom of the Yoda napkin that inspired the concept. I wanted to continue those lines through the layout.

How To Add Lines For A Strong Graphic Feel

When adding lines, look for previously existing ones and then extend them. For example, do you see the “It Is Your Destiny” embellishment to the upper left of Yoda? I could have placed it at a number of different vertical points next to the photo on its left. I chose the point I that I did in order to extend the orange line at the very top of the napkin with the top orange line in the “Destiny” embellishment.

Next, by placing the orange and red strips of paper and the bottom row of photos where I did, I created two strong not-so-obvious lines. The top of the yellow strip is at the same height as the top of the photos. This creates an “implied line,” which means that although there are spaces between the paper line and the photo lines, you “feel” a line unconsciously that extends all the way across to the far right photo.

Even more important than the implied line is the line created from the negative space between the upper and lower rows. That line flows from the left side of the page to Yoda’s light saber. Because I made it’s width equal to the width between the bottom right photo and the yoda napkin, you feel as if that space is the same line, making a ninety degree turn and becoming vertical.

It then opens up at an angle, the exact same way that the graphic lines in the Star Wars invitation and napkin do. In other words, that negative space echoes the Star Wars design, which gives us a sense of design continuity. It feels like it was meant to be that way when the reality is, I could have placed the strips and pictures anywhere.

Contest Reminder

The contest closes at noon PST today, so if you have birthday themed layouts to enter, you have a little time left.

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Star Wars Birthday
12×12 2-Page Layout

Cardstock (Bazzill, Creative Memories); Patterned paperc (My Miind’s Eye); Pen (American Crafts); Misc.: invitation and party napkin (Star Wars).

Because birthday parties are usually divided into sections (the games, the eating, the cake, the presents) I’ve been tempted to section my photos that way on a layout. But since those activities often take place in different areas (the kitchen, the living room, the backyard), doing so could cause an uneven color balance on the layout.

Now, I like to mix the different photo events so that two pictures of one activity are at different ends of the page. Not only does it balance the color scheme, it also gives the layout a fun and energetic tone.

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Happy Birthday, Aiden
12×12 2-Page Layout

Products used: Cardstock (Bazzill, Stampin’ Up); Patterned paper (Creative Imaginations, Creative Memories, Close To My Heart); Sticker tabs (Close To My Heart); Chipboard letters (Heidi Swapp for Advantus); Letter stickers (Creative Memories); Brads (Queen & Company); Paint (Graumbachers); Pen (American Crafts); Button (Junkitz).