A question about photos in the gallery

[MiniOwner]

How do you photograph your layouts so that they are straight in the photo?

[cw18]

I use the perspective tool in PSP X -- makes life much easier

[MiniOwner]

...but what is that?

[Bluemoonjules]

PSP is Paint shop Pro

I just make sure I am standing directly above the page, and try to get it square ....or you could blutac it to the wall

I then crop so there is not background showing

[cw18]

Paint Shop Pro X (version 10)

It's the photo editing software I use -- I've used various versions of PSP ever since I got my first PC, and I'm a "stick to what you know" person

Perspective tool straightens up an image.... I mark 4 corners, and it then straightens the photo so they make a true parallelogram

[MiniOwner]

... thanks.

[klmpink]

I took photos of mine for the first time this weekend. I put them flat on my kitchen table leaned over it so the camera was in the centre. Lining the layout up so the top and bottom of the layout are parrallell to what I can see in my viewfinder.

Once on my computer I use microsoft office picture manager (think it comes with microsoft office) to crop the picture in tight around the layout. Thats the easiest way I have found to do it without buying new software.

HTH
K

[Miss Lemon]

Paint Shop Pro X (version 10)

It's the photo editing software I use -- I've used various versions of PSP ever since I got my first PC, and I'm a "stick to what you know" person

Perspective tool straightens up an image.... I mark 4 corners, and it then straightens the photo so they make a true parallelogram

Does anyone know if Photoshop Elements 5 has a similar feature? Sounds great.

[gwyneth 123]

Does anyone know if Photoshop Elements 5 has a similar feature? Sounds great.

Yes, and a lot more, great package, can thoroughly recommend Photoshop Elements 5.

[Maz-C]

i was wondering this as all my gallery images look erm 'naff' as my skills only banch as far a 'paint' i have ps elements but dont understand it which is a shame as ive seen some amazing things you can do with it.

[fruitysuet]

would love to know how to use the perspective tool in PSE5 (don't know where to start looking!). At the moment I spend what seems like forever trying to get myself standing square on to the page when I photo it. Struggle with bending over the page with it being over the floor (erm should I admit but my huge boobs usually cast a shadow!) and I tend to lean the page as upright as possible against the back of a chair next to the window to get good light.

Other tips - try to take photos in good daylight as using flash will cause glare from glossy photos, metal accents and so on; also this will happen if you photo your pages in their page protectors.

It can take dozens of shots for me to get anything like and then sometimes they still need tweaking to get the colours more like the real page and also slightly rotated by a degree and cropped to get a square page with no excess around the edges. I have to admit I have got really lazy and only tend to upload projects now for design commitments as it can take such a long time for me to get the jpeg to such a good standard.

Don't even get me started on figuring out the scan and stitch (I can do the scan and stitch but those annoying corners in the wrong colour bug the hell out of me - plus the scanner is attached to a different pc which I don't normally use).