For quite awhile now the trend in photo size for published scrapbook layouts has been LARGE photos, the larger the better. The majority of published layouts in many publications included enlarged photos, and a new classification of layout has been created. These layouts, called “moments” layouts in either a reverential or mocking tone depending on your viewpoint, usually consist of a single enlarged photo on a single page layout. Magazines love these layouts since they reproduce well in small print sizes. Avid photographers love “moments layouts” because they allow them to showcase a “perfect” photo. Some other scrapbookers love the format for it’s ability to tell a story without having to have photos of every moment of it.
So everyone loves “moments” pages, right? Wrong. A vast segment of the consumer scrapbook market is made up of scrapbookers who are “event” scrapbookers only. They want to get as many pictures of their child’s birthday party on one layout as possible. They don’t want to record moments and their feelings about them. They want to record events and the who, what, where, and when of them. Their scrapbooks are more family newspaper than personal journal.
Some market-savvy industry publications have heard their customers discontent with the overwhelming amount of “moments” content and are now preferring or calling specifically for pages that are created from pictures that are standard 4×6 prints or crops of 4×6 prints. This may be a wise business decision for the publications and good for the industry as a whole, but it requires that designers who wish to continue to be published follow this trend that was artificially created outside their ranks, instead of evolving naturally within the design community.
And this trend, unlike other style trends of color or similar elements, provides a particular challenge to professional designers. The reason that many photos are cropped for use is to improve the photo: remove background clutter, provide focus on the photo subject, or make similar changes to the framing of the photo. This is needed because most scrapbookers are mostly average photographers. They will not zoom in close enough on their subject, or not pay attention to the edges of the frame. These common errors can be improved on with cropping, and the result is also then a smaller photo that can be fitted easily on a page.
But what if, like most professional designers, a scrapbooker is a pretty skilled photographer? Most of my photos are extremely carefully framed and do not have room for cropping without losing some of the intended subject. That means I have few photos that will work smaller than 4×6 without getting them actually printed smaller than that, and few that I can crop into other than a rectangle shape to work with. I’m sure that many other designers with above average photography skills must face the same dilemma in trying to tackle pages requiring multiple 4×6 photos on a single layout.
So what is the solution? Well, I’ll probably drive the guys who do my photo printing for me nuts with numerous requests for wallet photos. And I’ll probably spend time trying to find in my files photos that couldn’t be framed well because of the circumstances they were taken under. And I’ll probably learn umpteen different ways to arrange a bunch of rectangles on a two page layout. And I’ll hope that this trend doesn’t last forever….
About Nancy Nally
I think that we’ve moved to a place with scrapbooking where the original intent has been lost. These are not “designer” books, these are records of a family’s life together. As such, the background is quite important. The “noise” that might distract from the subject is also the history of that family- the chair they rocked a baby in, the a/c in the window that was such a problem to get installed, the year we got that brand new piano. Always cropping that out of the picture is to crop out all the stuff that might be historically relevant later. -c
I agree with the previous comment, all the “clutter” in the picture is what makes it personal. I don’t scrapbook with the intention of publishing, I scrapbook for the fun of it and to preserve my (and my family’s) memories, whether it is a special “moment” or an event.
I have to agree with cakhuxel up there. She has it right on. If you’re sbing to record family history some of the best SBs have those pictures where you can see the old cars, bikes, wagons, furniture in the background. Those are sometimes the memory catchers and the younger kids love to look at those things. If your making your SB as a personal journal, then taking one perfect photo and writing a page on it is the way to go. Guess that’s why we all love to SB. We can do it how we like it
This is an interesting topic, in fact I’m going to be responding to it on my blog, but here’s part of it:
I understand your problem with cropping — I’m not a great photographer myself (yet), but I do tend to take close ups, fill the frame, etc. and for that reason, in fact, I often do not crop, and like to have my photos printed in “digital ratio” (e.g. 4×5.3″ rather than 4×6) to avoid cropping out what I wanted to keep in when I took it, dangit.
However, I would have to take issue with your phrasing:
>>Some market-savvy industry publications have heard their customers discontent with the “moments” content and are now preferring or calling specifically for pages that are created from pictures that are standard 4×6 prints or crops of 4×6 prints. This may be a wise business decision for the publications and good for the industry as a whole, but it requires that designers who wish to continue to be published follow this artificially created trend.<<
In what way is this trend “artificially” created? In my mind, an artificially created trend would be one that was being foisted on the public by the companies (perhaps to sell more product — fit more goodies on a page that has only one photo, for example?) — this “give us designs for more photos on a page,” a request from ordinary scrappers, would seem to be the OPPOSITE of an artificially created trend.
I for one like moments pages. The in-depth journaling particularly appeals to me personally. However, when Becky Higgins’ sketch article seems to be one of the few places to highlight fitting more than just one overlarge photo, things do seem a bit lopsided, and I think offering more designs for more “typical” scrappers, and their more “typical” photos makes sense. Surely making things more accessible for non-professionals can only help, in keeping them happy, supporting the industry, and maybe even foraying into other aspects of the craft, whether more advanced techniques, design, whatever.
I don’t think moments pages are going away, for all the reasons listed at the beginning of the post. The beauty of scrapbooking is the room for many different reasons and results. Obviously for you, the design/creativity aspect is foremost. For others, the “family album” is most important. And both are fine. In fact, it’s fine for people to choose to do some of each, and maybe even should be encouraged.
So in order for you to do a multi photo layout you think you need to use bad photos??? with digital photography printing is available in multi-sizes therefore cropping is not necessarily the only way to get smaller or out of the ordinary sizes.
I think you have underestimated your average scrapper- most of us are family historians, in our books you will find single, multi and large photo pages– we use what best will convey the message. What you won’t find are contrived staged “photoshots” that we are passing off as our life.
I beleive if you sit back you will see there is never a reason to “go back” we all grow and learn and adapt our new skills to new trends making them our own– trend setting is what business wants to see –its a slow curve to pull in new sbing participants and engage the veterans.
As a person who scraps her life, I myself find the “moments” pages as both good and bad. There are some photos, professional pics for the first birthday, etc… that lend themselves well to this trend. I have seen, for the most part, however, that scrappers who scrap for their families, tend to do these pages in limited amounts because they don’t necessarily want their books to be 150 pages each. I think that there is room for moment and event pages in a scrapper’s book. I think that it just depends on what your goal exactly is.
While I have only stumbled on your site recently and love most of it, on this one Nancy, I have to disagree with you (and have responded on my blog). Scrapbooking with multiple photos on a page is not a NEW Trend and it is in no way “artificially created”. In fact, for most scrappers I know, this is the way that they prefer to create in their albums and it is likely how many scrappers (whatever their current style) began scrapping. The fact that the magazines are responding to their requests to showcase multi-photo layouts is a good thing. If a magazine wishes to continue to inspire it’s readers, they NEED to recognize that there is not just one style, and they need to try to appeal to them all if they wish to remain successful.
Secondly, just because the mags are calling for multi-photo layouts does not mean that you as a member of the design community have to respond to them. I am sure there will still be calls for ‘moments’ type pages, and open calls as well with no specifics listed. If you, and others wish to continue to be published, you need simply pick and choose which calls appeal to your style rather than adapting your style to what is being requested in these multi-photo calls. Getting published should be about showcasing your talents and expressing your style – not necessarily about ‘adapting’ to fit.
More importantly though…I think that it is wrong of you to imply that an event scrapper cannot journal emotionally (about the moments). I scrap both single and multi photo pages, and have never felt restricted as to what I can journal on the page. I am not restricted to journaling the who, what, when and where. I journal from my heart in every case.
I think that’s it’s important to remember that the magazines that many of us hunger to be recognised by primary customer’s are not the “designer” scrapbooker but the average scrapbooker who does scrap for their own personal satifaction and do use 4×6 prints usually. I think it’s time the magazines remembered that, too. While the one shot pages maybe beautiful I personally think they are also easier to design. Single focal point-why with many pages I’ve seen you can design the page then stick any picture onto the mat and it will work – just gather your supplies – it’s even easier if you use a single collection – then stick the pic on. – the photo sometimes seems to be an afterthought to the whole process
I agree with Kristine that this is not a ‘new’ trend by any means and is not artificially created. I also agree with her that scrappers don’t have to submit to every call out there, just the ones that really fit their style. If you don’t like multi pic layouts, then don’t force yourself to do them.
I also want to respond to your comment about not having many pics that would work smaller than 4×6. No matter how good of a photog a person is, there is no way that she can fully document big events like bday parties or holidays and only get perfectly framed photos that don’t need cropping. Taking a look at your gallery, the pics from an Orlando convention (CKU?) are an example of this. I would venture to guess that if you were to scrap those photos you wouldn’t be trying to do one or two photo layouts or enlarging too many of them. They are ‘normal’ pics, which is what most scrappers out there have. And that’s ok.
I also have to agree with those who said the background often makes the pictures. Yes, the perfect closeups are usually ‘better’ photos, but so much is lost when you don’t see any background. There’s no point of reference. Those pics could be taken in my backyard, your grandma’s house or the Vatican and nobody would ever know. Its nice to have the perfect pics in my albums, but I also relish the pics with the chaos of Christmas at my MIL’s house with 30 people in the background.
A lot of the comments said what I was going to say, but better.
For me, the joy of scrapbooking and the reason I do it at all is bc scrapbooking takes random, crappy, “non professional” photos — what most of us have — and turns them into family heirlooms. For me, that is the biggest part of the creative process. Once I get that settled the rest is just construction — definitely the less-fun part of scrapbooking.
There’s also a whole other issue inherent here. I am not a bad photographer. i am a really good photographer. *But* before I went digital I took a lot of photos just trying to get the one good shot, and that is specifically bc I did not take posed photos. I frequently took photos that were right in the middle of what was happening, in order to document it — people dancing, presents being opened, people exchanging vows, people walking across a stage. And I was rarely able to get a good shot. The reason for this was simply the quality of the camera I could afford. Even now, my digital camera was only $100 and that restricts me in terms of what kinds of pictures I can get.
So there is a whole class issue here that REALLY bothers me. Bc now, scrappers are not getting published on the basis of their own design abilities and creativity. A large part of my creative process involves figuring out exactly how I am going to take this mass of random pictures and improve them and organize them in order to tell the story.
More and more now, people are only going to get published if they can afford to buy a $1000 camera with all the bells and whstles.
So scrapbooking, which was already a bastion of middle class white priviledge, is becoming more and more class restrictive, and that is really bothering me.
IMO scrapbooking is about scrapbooking — not photography. The two are connected, but not equal. And pages should not be exclusively chosen on the basis of photography when it’s supposed to be about scrapbooking.
Oh and when I look at my childhood photos from the 70′s, I LOVE seeing that old couch where I used to watch TV, and the product packaging on the dining room table, and the toys scattered that I used to play with, and what the rooms and the block looked like where I grew up, and the clothes I used to wear. That documentation is precious to me and I find so very little of it in the modern magazine pages. It makes me crazy!
Thanks for an interesting post. I had no idea the trend was changing and I am thrilled to learn of it.
I’ve been an avid scrapbooker for a number of years and this is not a new trend. In fact, I’ve belonged to many groups, clubs, crops, workshops and attended a huge number of trade shows, scrapbook fairs, and a couple of scrappers retreats. Most everyone scraps with multiple pics per page. I’ve never seen a scrapbook that was totally “moment” oriented, and in all I’ve viewed there were only a handful of “moment” pages. I have seen quite a few pages where a 4×6 photo was the focus and smaller cropped photo’s of the same or similar event were included.
I think magazines are finally realizing that most scrappers DON’T use the “moments” orientation and are finally adjusting to that standard.
Scrapbookers that include the who, what,where, when and why, surely can include the moments and the journaling that goes along with. Never assume that just because a scrapper likes to have many photos on her page, that she doesn’t or can’t express her feelings on the subject.
Nancy you’re right, for ‘pubsters’ its an artificially created trend. For the above posters that probably don’t know many pubsters they’re correct- those layouts are already the trend.
I guess the catch 22 is that the pubsters are being *used* to sell magazines. Thats why they get paid. No matter if we like it or not, they will always be pimped by the industry to make more money. Its the price you pay. I know lots of DT members that have made ‘fake’ layouts for books (their kids don’t play sports but they need to be in a sports book, etc.) Nobody is going to pay you to be exactly how you want to be all the time. Its a choice- do you scrap for the money or the creative expression?
The thing about mulitphoto layouts is that I find myslef unable to do them now that nobody in the pub world is. Nobody is there to dictate what is ‘cool’ in the 2 page layout world and then the layouts just look old to me…. like i made them when Becky Higgins was my scrap goddess.
HTH