Trends in
Digi Scrapping
Well, while wandering through digiland, Auntie
has found a definite change in trends with digi
scrapping. Gone are the days of plain
background, frame and photo prettied up with a
couple of embellishments. It is so much more of
an art these days.
In our own forums the topic has been hot, with
our new designer ScrapStew Sue taking the lead
in the subject of Trends In Digi . There were
some fabulous replies to the starter thread as
we all have fun playing with new trends. Wow!
Thank you, Sue, for getting us a bit more
addicted.
It seems that bracket scrapping has taken a big
place in the trends today. Whether in paper,
hybrid or in this case digi, brackets are taking
a front seat. Basically any layout that is
completely framed by shaped brackets is a hit. I
love to see these, a smaller version than an
8x8" but more interesting than a plain 6x6".
Ideal really for smaller uploads to a website,
or to pass over in an email as a little surprise
gift. Then if you wanted to print it out, you
have a perfect size for all printers that aren't
wide format. Wow.
Having looked around the web at various stores
there are a lot out there not just the brackets
for different styles and tastes, but more
inventively, packs of templates, enough to make
a whole album and reasonably priced they are
too. so there you have a blueprint for bracket
album making.
Another hot trend is the accurate extraction of
objects. Not hard you think? Well think again.
Think of a photo you have tried to extract
something from? I was never pleased with the
result myself, 'til I was shown a simple way to
make sure I had the details of the edges
Using all the extraction tools your particular
software has, try the background remover first.
Use a high setting to get just the most
predominant color, always use undo if you take
out part of the object. Then switch to the lasso
tool use the magnetic lasso if their is enough
of a contrast between your object and the
background if not use the point to point lasso
or polygonal lasso as it is called. Get in up
tight at very high magnification use the control
and h (in PS) if you get a few points (nodes)
wrong. Or go to undo as many times as there are
mistakes. Take your time, this it is worth it.
When you have it as you would like, copy and
paste it into a new document.
Now go in at high magnification with your
feathering on at 5px for a large extraction and
down to 1 for a small and outline the object
again choosing all the finer details this time,
for hair or feathers this can be difficult but
persevere until you have a look that is
acceptable to you. Choose contract from modify
the selection, and then copy and paste into a
new document that has a back layer of a
contrasting color. Go in again at high
magnification and see and rectify any flaws. I
should have said earlier keep your previous
extraction work open so you have the stages you
can go back to if something goes wrong. Always
save as you go along too.
When you are satisfied, use the stroke style set
at default 3px to highlight the edges and any
stray pixels . Then the magic bit use the magic
eraser tap it on a stray pixel, if you have any.
It should disappear. Tap the space around the
object until the red band narrows right down,
then click cancel style. Voilą you should have a
nicely tightly extracted object. This
works very well and removes any stray pixels and
smooths the edges too.
Well Digi must go now she is off on her vacation
to the Isle Of Wight;
So speak to you all soon my luvvies!
