Highlighting Part of Your Photograph

Using large photos for my layouts gives me the ability to re-frame images to my liking. Here, I've highlighted the most important part of the image -- my husband and daughter walking hand-in-hand. I've seen many other digital scrapbookers use this technique very well, and I wanted to give it a shot.

I took this photo last spring at Rome Point in Jamestown, Rhode Island. My daughter was a late bloomer and was just starting to walk well at 16 months old. The beach at Rome Point is very rocky and she definitely needed to hold a adult's hand. I thought it was so sweet to see them walking together like this.

Here, I simply darkened the remaining area to get the desired effect. However, I can think of several other ways to de-emphasize the background. Here are some other possibilities:

-Lighten the area.
-Reduce the contrast.
-Apply a pattern over the area, reducing the opacity to get the best effect.
-Blur the area.
-Apply any "artistic" filter (Filters > Artistic).
-Any combination of the above.

Another advantage of using this technique is that it allows plenty of room for journaling. Most landscape photographs have large areas of low contrast, such as the sky or water. This provides a great background for text. After darkening the water and sky in my layout, the white text became very easy to read.

So, this is one way to enhance your landscape shots with your family. There are many possibilities, so play around with it and have fun!