Posted by Mommybruno
We've all worked with black and white photo at one point or another - I know for myself, I have piles of old pictures that are black and white. But why would you purposefully change a color photo to black and white, you may ask?
Well, there could be several reasons. The colors in the photo may be clashy or garish. Or perhaps you want to use a color on your layout that wouldn't match the colors in your photo. Sometimes the change to black and white can be cosmetic, to cover up a flaw in the photo. Maybe you want to set a certain mood on your page that would be enhanced by a black and white photo.
Here are some layouts our Digi Creative Team came up with to showcase black and white photos.
Squirrel Crazy, by Art_Teacher (Laura): "Our reveal this week was to only use black and white photos. One of the best things about them is that you can get rid of distracting color backgrounds and draw more attention to the photo's subject."
Advice: Attitude, by FairyMouseMom (Egle): "By only using a black and white photo, I decided to keep this layout more of a monochromatic theme of blacks/whites/grays...with just a slight pop of color with the striped paper strip used underneath the dots on the left hand side."
Watching You Grow, by Smiley-Scrap8 (Ronnie): "This week's reveal is black & white photos. I thought, what a better way to show off my ultrasound photos which only come in black & white. My favorite part about using b&w is that you can scrap with any colors you want, the brighter the better. I'm never afraid that the paper and elements will swallow the photos because there is such a strong contrast."
So Thankful For You, by Mommybruno (Cassandra): "In this particular layout, I changed my photo to black and white because I thought the colors were distracting (what color is my grandpa even wearing, LOL!). By removing the color I've made sure the focus stays on my grandparents."
Luv My Furbaby, by sarahwhithers (Jenn): "I love using B&W cuz I think any color always looks great with them."
Just "Gourd" Friends, by Art_Teacher (Laura): "Black and white photos really pop on a colorful background, and I especially love the feel they give to Halloween photos!"
Keep Your Face Toward the Sunshine, by FairyMouseMom (Egle): "With this layout I chose to use the black background and added the pop of color with the embellishments and font color I used."
Storytown, by Mommybruno (Cassandra): "This series of photos had a terrible yellow cast to them that I couldn't fix, so I changed them all to black and white. This way I don't look so orange, LOL! With older photos like these, black and white can be your friend."
True Love, by Art_Teacher (Laura): "One of my favorite ways to use black and white photos is on heritage layouts. It brings a remember when feel to the layout. These photos are only 25 years old, but they work better with today's digi designs when they are black and white."
Love Blooms, by Digi Guest Fong33 (Sandra): "This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom and dad when they were dating in Hong Kong before they immigrated to NY."
Grundy Love, by Mommybruno (Cassandra): "I changed the photo to b&w because the yellow wall behind Grundy was really bothering me. But he has such cool eyes, I didn't want the whole pic to be without color - so some spot coloring here. (I made a copy of the photo layer, turned the copy b&w, then erased the parts I wanted in color. Merge the two layers together and voila!)"
Advice: Goal, by FairyMouseMom (Egle)
Black and white photos offer flexibility to the scrapper. They coordinate with any color paper and elements. They have a timeless look and they can help to keep the focus on the subject of the photo instead of the noisy background. So the next time you're getting frustrated trying to match papers with pictures, maybe it's time to take the color photo right out of the equation!
Well, there could be several reasons. The colors in the photo may be clashy or garish. Or perhaps you want to use a color on your layout that wouldn't match the colors in your photo. Sometimes the change to black and white can be cosmetic, to cover up a flaw in the photo. Maybe you want to set a certain mood on your page that would be enhanced by a black and white photo.
Here are some layouts our Digi Creative Team came up with to showcase black and white photos.
Squirrel Crazy, by Art_Teacher (Laura): "Our reveal this week was to only use black and white photos. One of the best things about them is that you can get rid of distracting color backgrounds and draw more attention to the photo's subject."
Advice: Attitude, by FairyMouseMom (Egle): "By only using a black and white photo, I decided to keep this layout more of a monochromatic theme of blacks/whites/grays...with just a slight pop of color with the striped paper strip used underneath the dots on the left hand side."
Watching You Grow, by Smiley-Scrap8 (Ronnie): "This week's reveal is black & white photos. I thought, what a better way to show off my ultrasound photos which only come in black & white. My favorite part about using b&w is that you can scrap with any colors you want, the brighter the better. I'm never afraid that the paper and elements will swallow the photos because there is such a strong contrast."
So Thankful For You, by Mommybruno (Cassandra): "In this particular layout, I changed my photo to black and white because I thought the colors were distracting (what color is my grandpa even wearing, LOL!). By removing the color I've made sure the focus stays on my grandparents."
Luv My Furbaby, by sarahwhithers (Jenn): "I love using B&W cuz I think any color always looks great with them."
Just "Gourd" Friends, by Art_Teacher (Laura): "Black and white photos really pop on a colorful background, and I especially love the feel they give to Halloween photos!"
Keep Your Face Toward the Sunshine, by FairyMouseMom (Egle): "With this layout I chose to use the black background and added the pop of color with the embellishments and font color I used."
Storytown, by Mommybruno (Cassandra): "This series of photos had a terrible yellow cast to them that I couldn't fix, so I changed them all to black and white. This way I don't look so orange, LOL! With older photos like these, black and white can be your friend."
True Love, by Art_Teacher (Laura): "One of my favorite ways to use black and white photos is on heritage layouts. It brings a remember when feel to the layout. These photos are only 25 years old, but they work better with today's digi designs when they are black and white."
Love Blooms, by Digi Guest Fong33 (Sandra): "This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom and dad when they were dating in Hong Kong before they immigrated to NY."
Grundy Love, by Mommybruno (Cassandra): "I changed the photo to b&w because the yellow wall behind Grundy was really bothering me. But he has such cool eyes, I didn't want the whole pic to be without color - so some spot coloring here. (I made a copy of the photo layer, turned the copy b&w, then erased the parts I wanted in color. Merge the two layers together and voila!)"
Advice: Goal, by FairyMouseMom (Egle)
Black and white photos offer flexibility to the scrapper. They coordinate with any color paper and elements. They have a timeless look and they can help to keep the focus on the subject of the photo instead of the noisy background. So the next time you're getting frustrated trying to match papers with pictures, maybe it's time to take the color photo right out of the equation!
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Special thanks to our Digital Creative Team for their contributions to this article. You can view more project ideas and scrapbooking tutorials by visiting our Resources Page.
2 comments:
I have never scrapped a b&w photo, but I love your suggestion to change old color photos into b&w. Great post and ideas.
Geralyn
Thanks so much, Geralyn! We hope you have fun trying some of them -
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