Heritage scrapping color palettes?

[vawitt]

Hi, everyone. I'm fairly new to digi-scrapping. After my grandma passed away, my aunt had a bunch of photos - many B&W, others color - from the 1920s through the 1990s scanned. They are scanned at 300 dpi but need some cleanup, which I can manage.

I'm wondering about color palettes for the B&W images. Also wondering about page size. Most of these pix are 3 x 5 or smaller (those older square photos that people took in the 60s) and many are random - not of any particular event. I could group by person, I suppose, to collect a few on a page...I'm thinking of a long-term project where I can develop enough pages for a memory book, but a little 3 x 5 would be lost on an 8x8 page, I think.

Lots of questions - open to ideas.

~Listening for advice in chilly IL

[cats4jan]

I have a fondness for sepia - and since the oldest photos I had were already sepia, I changed my b/w's to sepia and I scrapped using tans and browns. I really like my pages, but what I discovered is it got a little boring seeing all that sepia.

However, I don't seem to like many colors with b/w. Red looks great, but how much red can you put on a page? I think the issue isn't the color you use on the pages with the b/w photos - but more the tone of the color you use.

Personally, I like deeper tones with b/w. But, I have to admit - I really struggle when using b/w photos.

Samples of heritage pages can be found here - (http://www.digitalcraftcottage.com/photos/showgallery.php?cat=549)

[msbrad]

I've been working on heritage pages too. In addition to cleaning up the photos, I have enlarged some a bit also.
Another thing to take up space on the page is to journal whatever you know about the person, their relationship to who, and some events that took place at that time.

As for colors, I use a lot of the browns, tans and golds...but... I also use some blues and greens. I even added some pink to a page of myself and my great grandfather (photo was 1954). I was little, so I felt some pink was ok there.
m

[cats4jan]

Hi Michelle

Are you following me? :D

[vawitt]

Thanks for the good ideas, ladies, and Janice, thanks for the link! Seeing some examples really helps.

Once I get going, I'm sure I'll be back for help with specific pages.

~Val in rainy IL

I have a fondness for sepia - and since the oldest photos I had were already sepia, I changed my b/w's to sepia and I scrapped using tans and browns. I really like my pages, but what I discovered is it got a little boring seeing all that sepia.

However, I don't seem to like many colors with b/w. Red looks great, but how much red can you put on a page? I think the issue isn't the color you use on the pages with the b/w photos - but more the tone of the color you use.

Personally, I like deeper tones with b/w. But, I have to admit - I really struggle when using b/w photos.

Samples of heritage pages can be found here - (http://www.digitalcraftcottage.com/photos/showgallery.php?cat=549)

[msbrad]

Hi Michelle

Are you following me? :D
Seems like it. I guess we know the good places to hang out!
m

[Grandemomo]

I love color, and so did my grandmother! I try to reflect the "mood" of the picture; was it taken at a special occasion? Is a new baby involved? Was it indoors or outside? Ask yourself different questions about the photo and a color will probably come to mind. Use the color, but make it softer by desaturating it if the photo calls for it, such as a B & W or sepia toned photo, especially. There are lots of heritage kits around, but few show me anything but boring beige tones. They didn't have a boring life a hundred years ago - just boring cameras that used boring film. Take it from a 65 year old - we weren't boring, and neither were our grandparents, LOL! Enlarge those photos; they don't have to stay at 3 x 5 size. At 300 dpi you can make them quite a lot bigger. Put it on a mat of a different color; use one of the photo bending actions and you can go anywhere you want on the color wheel! Texture is important, too, as is any type of contrast. Stack different colors and textures under the photo for more interest. (Hint: In the 50s we were all wearing pink and black or pink and gray!) Do a Google search and see what the favorite colors of a decade were. Look at pictures of vintage linens and appliance colors that were popular. (Google images is a fabulous research tool) There are lots of ways to find colors of the era, whenever it was.



Hi, everyone. I'm fairly new to digi-scrapping. After my grandma passed away, my aunt had a bunch of photos - many B&W, others color - from the 1920s through the 1990s scanned. They are scanned at 300 dpi but need some cleanup, which I can manage.

I'm wondering about color palettes for the B&W images. Also wondering about page size. Most of these pix are 3 x 5 or smaller (those older square photos that people took in the 60s) and many are random - not of any particular event. I could group by person, I suppose, to collect a few on a page...I'm thinking of a long-term project where I can develop enough pages for a memory book, but a little 3 x 5 would be lost on an 8x8 page, I think.

Lots of questions - open to ideas.

~Listening for advice in chilly IL

[vawitt]

Grandemomo - thanks for all the great tips! The idea about Google Images for general ideas of colors in the various eras is a good one that I hadn't considered.

I had to smile at your comments about "only boring cameras". My grandma, subject of my first effort, was always very fashion conscious and wore the latest colors and styles....so your observations fit her just great!

I'm finishing up my first effort and will post for feedback.

~Val in sunny IL

[Grandemomo]

My grandmother was very conservative and always the proper lady who taught Sunday School. Soft sweet colors for her pages. Her sister, however, ran away to join a carnival to be what they called a "hootchie-cootchie girl" in those days. (A carnival dancer) It would have been the 1920s era. She was promptly brought back home by her family, but that lady, who I didn't know until she been long-married and very settled, never stopped loving to dance. She was married for over 50 years, widowed, then got married twice more and widowed each time, and she died while on vacation, feisty until the end. She never stopped dancing, either. Thanks to her encouragement I met my husband of over 40 years! :p

You can bet I'm going to scrap her in scarlet, LOL! No sepia-toned old lady, that one!