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Choosing the photos....

MrsPeel

MrsPeel

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Pollywog
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May 7, 2012
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I think am beyond obsessive.
I spent 2 days looking for the photo for Anne's challenge-

Do you have a method for choosing a photo for each challenge? or you just go scrapping chronologically, I mean, latest photos you took?

I know that being on so many CTs many of us scrap photos more than twice, but I try not to go on and on with the same...
how do you choose yours?
 
I try to use current photos and try not use the same pictures (for documenting purposes). However some kits beg for certain pics right?? Like snow kits or special occasions. I keep all my pictures in LR, organized by date and title. That helps but at times I obsess over finding the "right" picture too!!!
 
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I can understand. The photo makes the LO.


That said, I tend to use my Photoshop Elements Organizer faithfully.
I add Keyword tags to every photo and often more than one tag.


It helps, too, that I went through my 2014 photos recently, deleting duplicates. I have
a better idea of what I have. I still need to save them to my external hard drive!


Scrapping vintage photos during challenge month doesn't work for me. Too much editing
required on a photo from 1950!!
 
Most of the time I have some idea in my head of what I want generally - action shot, sleeping shot, one dog, two dogs - depending on the kit or the challenge. So then it's just a matter of finding it. The photo for Anne's challenge did take me a while. I had a totally different idea in my head than what I ultimately went with.
 
I have a "to be scrapped" tag and I scroll through until I find something. Sometimes I search for, say, pics in December for a Christmas kit, but for Anne's challenge, I just scrolled and scrolled until I found something that would work. Once I scrap it, I remove the tag so I don't scrap it again.
 
I obsess over finding the right picture. I'm not a great photographer so I also try cropping and enhancing in a variety of ways before I'm satisfied with the photo I chose. And sometimes I will choose a variety of photos and try different stuff with all of them before deciding which fits the layout/message/occassion, etc.

I guess I should admit I do two types of scrapping. One is for me and one is for memories... If we have gone on a vacation or had a reunion I will make a "collage" book where I scrap almost every decent photo into the story of the event. Those I print and share with whomever is involved, often printing multiple copies. I rarely post those pages to forums though.

I am seeing those pages evolve into the more artsy type pages I try to do for Lilypad and/or other sites and I do often re-use some of the photos from those pages here. (then I start obsessing over them.... )
 
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still looking for a photo for anne's challenge ... i had one with lots of hair that needed extracting, and was half way done when my computer crashed. grr. PS CC is supposed to auto save but it did not save any of the work i did, just the layers and the frame. i am not going to use that photo again. looking for an easier photo! :)

i do a mix of everything. first, i will always try to use recent photos. then i will go back and pull from the archives. my only photo org system is by date (year/then month) ... like Kelly. i have a plan to further tag and organize in LR but haven't gotten there yet. i often try to find photos that match a CT requirement ...and yes, sometimes a kit begs for a photo that has already been used, so i use it again and don't stress over it.

often finding the right photo takes me longer than the scrapping!
 
sometimes I know immediately what I want to use, but usually I will get sort of an idea of what I would like to scrap - for that challenge: "what sort of pictures could poke out" and "what photos are whole with all of the poke-out parts in place" and then I scroll lightroom. Generally I will start in a particular year, but as I go I always come across more photos I want to do a page or project with, and will make notes of dates of those to go back to. sort of scrapbook serendipity ;)

i need to tag, but this way works too (most of the time)!
 
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I print all the pages I scrap! They are like precious to me, especially after spending so much time with them! lol I take 100s of photos (sometimes in a daY) and I don't TAG them on the puter. But I upload by dates, and then have nifty 3x5 cards I write the dates on them, and a blurb about what is in each folder.
for ex:
Dec has this:
12/01-chores lib books sunset leaves
12/2 tree up j&d game mom chai
12/3 rearrange hs room charades
12/4 J's lamb
I have a card for each month, and have them in 2 or 3 month sets (that is how I print)
right now I am working on aug-sep another oct & Nov and December is by itself cause I do so many pages for Christmas

I also do blast from the past. This lets me go thru and redo a photo I want, or one I might have missed prior. I put these in the quarterly books I print.

Once I do a photo or memory set, I highlight it and then when the 3x5 card is all done, it goes into a little container. I sometimes go back and look at them to make sure I got all the memories scrapped from it.

I love the whole process of scrapping, even unzipping and filing...it is my hobby and I love it!

I have circles around a few on each card that have top priority for scrapping. I am always blown away, because usually the BYOC here will be spot on for these photos, and I do at least 5 each time the BYOC comes out!
 
I usually scrap recent photos (within the last couple months). This is the first time I have done MOC or any type of forum challenge really, so after reading the challenge I usually have a photo that comes to mind, either that I've already taken or to take. I primarily do weekly pocket scrapping so I am scrapping my current photos on a weekly basis. Sometimes when a new kit comes out that inspires me to go back to old photos as well.
 
I scrap whatever suits the mood and will go back several years for a photo...if I have the motivation to hook up my external hard drive to retrieve the photo, lol!

The benefit of taking way too many photos, and having a larger family, is that I will always have one to scrap. I do have an idea of what I am looking for when I am thinking about a layout so that helps a bit. I get really annoyed with myself when I scrap the same photo more than once as I do print all of my pages but have no problem using a few different photos from the same event/activity/session and will also sometimes scrap a duplicate photo with a different crop if it conveys the meaning of what the layout is about. But I do not have my photos organized for scrapping nor do I scrap chronologically.
 
sometimes it takes me forever to find a photo! and I have thousands LOL


At the moment for MOC I'm managing to get a lot of last years holiday scrapped, but I don't normally scrap chronologically - I get bored quick and jump from project to project, which I need to control as I'm attempting PL!!


Sometimes I have particular photos I want to scrap and find a kit that works with it/them


Sometime I see a kit I *have* to have and really want to scrap with, then its finding a photo that works


We should swap photos again Cynthia? I love scrapping pictures of Sarita! Having just a little boy I don't get to play with girly kits too often as I don't always like scrapping with photos of me LOL xx
 
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My computer died in June and I've found it really difficult to get a handle on my new one. I started Project Life last year and I am very very behind, so for this year's MOC, I'm trying to do as many PL pages as I can to get caught up. I've done 4 weeks and an insert just this week, so I'm super happy for that!!! I'm not really doing individual pages for personal scrapping right now, but when I did, I had to to scrap list and I wasn't above taking a photo specifically for a challenge, LOL!!
 
I use a mix of photo's- new and older depending on what kit type of page working on, tend to panic on challenges due to lack of photos i remember to take about everyday life...totally defeats the purpose of having a smart phone! I adore vintage found photos and will work them into pages for me. I don't always post all the pages I make.
 
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I try to go chronologically, but sometimes a kit just screams for a photo I have already done. I love how many of us buy a kit THEN find the photos to justify it. So many gorgeous products out there!
 
I have the same thing!! I make way way way way to many pictures. Sometimes I know what picture I want to use and sometimes I'm looking looking looking, or now the picture I want to use but cannot find it. I make a few challenges in a day so I can think about it beforeI do a challenge.
 
I just depends on what mood I'm in. As I import my photos, I create collections in Lightroom of anything I might want to scrap. Then, when I sit down to scrap, I will pick something that makes sense for the challenge or for the kit I want to use.
 
Thanks girls,!!!!

The tagging thing is something I should do

lorryfach said:
I have a "to be scrapped" tag and I scroll through until I find something. Sometimes I search for, say, pics in December for a Christmas kit, but for Anne's challenge, I just scrolled and scrolled until I found something that would work. Once I scrap it, I remove the tag so I don't scrap it again.
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this is amazing Lorry!!!! thanks. that will help-

jenn mccabe said:
still looking for a photo for anne's challenge ... i had one with lots of hair that needed extracting, and was half way done when my computer crashed. grr. PS CC is supposed to auto save but it did not save any of the work i did, just the layers and the frame. i am not going to use that photo again. looking for an easier photo! :)
Click to expand...

ohh don't talk to me about extracting hair...that is one almost impossible task with the hair Sarita & I have :giggle

i often try to find photos that match a CT requirement ...and yes, sometimes a kit begs for a photo that has already been used, so i use it again and don't stress over it.
Click to expand...
I need to learn not to stress about CT pages.... !!!!

often finding the right photo takes me longer than the scrapping!
Click to expand...

most of the time for me :giggle

AnneofAlamo said:
I print all the pages I scrap! They are like precious to me, especially after spending so much time with them! lol I take 100s of photos (sometimes in a daY) and I don't TAG them on the puter. But I upload by dates, and then have nifty 3x5 cards I write the dates on them, and a blurb about what is in each folder.
for ex:
Dec has this:
12/01-chores lib books sunset leaves
12/2 tree up j&d game mom chai
12/3 rearrange hs room charades
12/4 J's lamb
I have a card for each month, and have them in 2 or 3 month sets (that is how I print)
right now I am working on aug-sep another oct & Nov and December is by itself cause I do so many pages for Christmas

I also do blast from the past. This lets me go thru and redo a photo I want, or one I might have missed prior. I put these in the quarterly books I print.

Once I do a photo or memory set, I highlight it and then when the 3x5 card is all done, it goes into a little container. I sometimes go back and look at them to make sure I got all the memories scrapped from it.

I love the whole process of scrapping, even unzipping and filing...it is my hobby and I love it!

I have circles around a few on each card that have top priority for scrapping. I am always blown away, because usually the BYOC here will be spot on for these photos, and I do at least 5 each time the BYOC comes out!
Click to expand...

do I need to say again how much I admire you?????????? :flirty

I had no trouble at all until a couple of years ago, getting worse health wise ad Sarita turning into a teen, my agoraphobia soaring and all the everyday stress...I kinda stopped taking photos... I have tons of photos of food but generally makes me hungry to scrap them LOL

I need to start printing again too!!!!

VickyD said:
We should swap photos again Cynthia? I love scrapping pictures of Sarita! Having just a little boy I don't get to play with girly kits too often as I don't always like scrapping with photos of me LOL xx
Click to expand...

OF course!!!!!!!! I'll separate some folders and stick into a pen drive for you to take on Sunday!!!!! :heartslub

lauracw said:
My computer died in June and I've found it really difficult to get a handle on my new one. I started Project Life last year and I am very very behind, so for this year's MOC, I'm trying to do as many PL pages as I can to get caught up. I've done 4 weeks and an insert just this week, so I'm super happy for that!!! I'm not really doing individual pages for personal scrapping right now, but when I did, I had to to scrap list and I wasn't above taking a photo specifically for a challenge, LOL!!
Click to expand...

sorry about the computer Laura!!!! I thought I had not seem you for a while!
I have to admit the idea of taking a photo especially for the challenge appealed to me :giggle

great tips girls, thanks!!!!!

I think I should go tagg some .....
Huggzzz!!!!
 
I try not to use the same photo twice (though it has happened - especially when I first started scrapping and didn't have very many photos to choose from). I will use photos in my project life album and on page though, somehow those feel completely different to me.

My system is pretty random. Just this month I finally started tagging things in Lightroom. I've used smart collections by date up until now, but I finally started a "to scrap" collection. When my son was little and I was scrapping a lot more I was always pretty caught up, but now that I have two and way less time to scrap it seemed necessary.

I also came across a genius rating system from a digital photography book I was reading that is basically 5 stars or delete it. His point was that what are you going to do with 2, 3, and 4 star photos. They're not so bad you don't want to keep them, but they're not great either. So I've started rating photos that way as well. There's some overlap, but sometimes it's just a great photo I have no intention of scrapping.

That being said, I still seem to keep going back to my big collection anyway, so it's all kind of random.
 
It depends. I try to scrap current picture but sometimes with specific kit, I must search old pictures. I can also scrap a photo more than twice if the picture is very beautiful of if I want to write something else about the picture.
 
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