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rickshawshannon freeman │ board memberrick-rack materials Digital Image Suite (Microsoft) • paper from “Autumn Blend” kit by Nancie Rowe Janitz (scrapartist.com) • flower by Carrie Stephens; stitching, paint by Jessica Bolton; photo frame, cardboard by Maya from “The Basics” kit (scrapbookgraphics.com) • 2Peas Wedding Day font |
quick tips
welcome to reality
by shannon freeman
"I can spot digital layouts a mile away."
How many of you have heard something like that? If you’re anything like me, a remark like that just makes you more determined to fool everybody!
There is much truth in that statement, though. Digital pages, especially ones that utilize effects that paper can’t copy, aren’t hard to pick out. When it comes to pages that mimic paper, it’s often still easy to spot them if by nothing else than by how straight everything is, how precise the circles and edges appear, and how evenly spaced the elements are. Paper layouts are more likely to feature numerous imperfections, which generally show up in the lighting and shading. So it would be reasonable to conclude that the less perfect your elements are and the more uneven the shading and shadowing is, the more realistic your digital creations will appear to be.
All you have to do is train yourself to translate what your eyes would expect to see on a real page, to what you create on the computer screen. Is the background paper a little too “flat”? To make the color and shading of the paper appear more realistic, use the Burn tool to burn (darken) portions of it. Start out with a subtle burn; you can always go over certain areas again to deepen the shade. My preference is to burn the outer edges, more along the base than the top, and also under other elements (around outer edges) like photos and embellishments. The latter will feature drop shadows, but not all elements cast perfectly uniform shadows, and this is where the burn tool comes in handy. You can also burn portions of elements that lie over other elements. For example, I darkened the flower in the upper right corner, as the photo in front normally would have puckered it more in real life and caused a bit more shadowing.
Nearly all physical products produce their own shadows. Basic drop shadows are a given when producing a paper-like digital layout, but pay attention to how flat or bulky each element is when adjusting the depth of the shadow. A photo, for example, would usually feature a very shallow shadow, whereas flower petals might require longer shadows. Also, dimensional items often cast more than one shadow, generally due to more than one light source. Consider applying a second shadow to bulkier elements. With the flowers and cardboard, I applied a very narrow shadow to define the edges, and then a second longer and softer shadow to emphasize the three-dimensional aspect. Go lightly on the first shadow, as the second will darken the first.
Another method of infusing your layouts with imperfection is by utilizing any distortional tools that your software offers. Use it to gently tweak things like ribbons, fibers, stitching, and the corners or edges of papers and photos. In the featured layout, I used it to make the stitching less circular. Also, remember that paint strokes and stamps do not stay in one piece when stroked or stamped across multiple elements. Slice them apart along the element edges to increase realism.
It's up to you how much time and effort you invest in creating paper-like layouts. Some people prefer the flawlessness of digital, creating beautiful effects with their software that cannot be recreated with paper. Others get a kick out of having people question whether their layouts are real or not. Either way, it’s fun to see just how far we can push our digital capabilities!
Want to learn how to make realistic cast shadows? See our article “Creating Realistic Cast Shadows.”
