Getting your traditional scrapbook pages into a digital form can be done with two different methods. You can either use a high-quality digital camera to photograph the page or scan the page into your computer. Either method can turn out an excellent photo of your scrapbooking page, but each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Taking a photo of your page layout with your digital camera can be a challenge. You need to carefully consider available lighting. Use natural lighting, and turn off your flash. Flash can cause reflections on photographs and shiny page elements. Go outdoors for natural light or indoors near a sunny window. For best results hang or lean your page upright to avoid distortions.
Once you have photographed your scrapbooking page, upload it to your computer. You can use any photo-editing software to make corrections before you place the photo online. You may need to save the photo in a web-friendly size and format. Most sites have guidelines for image sizes.
If you want to use a scanner to convert your scrapbooking page to a digital format, you need to consider the size limitations of your scanner. Scanners are now very affordable. However, models that accommodate 12x12 pages are usually more expensive and less available.
You can still use a standard flatbed scanner for your scrapbooking page. However, you will need to first scan a 12x12 page layout in two sections. Once you have the two pieces of your page, use an image editing software, like Photoshop, to merge the two pieces back together. It may take some trial and error to do this, but the results in the scanner are usually of higher quality than using the digital camera method. If you are using a high-quality scanner, the scanned page layout will show truer, brighter colors and sharper images overall.
Most scrapbooking pages are three dimensional and use objects that are raised on the paper. When you scan the page in a flatbed scanner, you may have shadows caused by your embellishments. You may still need to use your image editing program to correct these shadows caused during the scanning process. Scanning scrapbooking layouts takes a little practice, but once you’ve done it a few times, it often is quicker than the digital camera process.
Whether you choose the digital camera or the scanner method, putting your scrapbook pages into a digital format is the first step towards getting them online. Sharing your pages with others on the internet allows you to become a part of the online scrapbooking community. Look for scrapbooking forums and build your own gallery of page layouts for others to see and discuss. You may even want to enter your page layouts in scrapbooking contests or submit them for publication. There are many ways to share your scrapbooking pages online.
