The beautiful drawing, paintings and other works of art are such a special part of the preschool and school years. At times there is such an abundance of huge paint covered papers, it is difficult to remember that eventually, our children will stop producing mini-masterpieces. You probably have a few favourites, and here I will give you two ideas for including them in digital scrapbooks and photobooks.Photograph it: I know it seems obvious. But i don’ t mean simply putting it on the table and taking a flash flooded snap. Do it properly. Go outside for some natural light. Lay the paper down on the ground, and then carefully stand on a chair above it. Aim your camera down, but check for intruding toes! Try to avoid direct sunlight, as white paper will reflect too much light and over expose your photo. This method is great if you want to extract your photo or turn it into a background image. If you want to use your photo as, well, a photo, then try to think of interesting ways of presenting it. if your kids have an easel, put it up on that, or add it to the fridge. My favourite way to photograph child artwork is to take a photo of your child holding up their creation. Not only does it create a more personal photo (perfect for sending to grandparents), your child will love having the chance to show off their art work.Scan it: Most paintings will not fit into a home scanner. In this case, scan the painting or picture in small parts, and then use a stitch programme to put it all together. I use Photoshop for this, but there are free ones available. The benefit of a scan over a photo is that often the colours are more accurate and there is more detail. Also, if your scanner has the setting you can scan the resolution quite high. i always scan at 1200 dots per inch, but 300 is usually fine. I scan at the highest resolution possible to that I can turn it into a background paper or a photo matte for a scrapbook page. You can blend, erase edges, add texture- be just as creative as your child was in creating it!
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