Weekly Bright Idea!

My brother is a fabulous amateur photographer. He is certainly good enough to be a professional, but has chosen another career path. (He is a geologist and teacher). For at least 40 years, Gene has been using the slide format for his work. He's rather a purist, and loves the challenge of capturing the perfect photo in his camera- there's no editing, cropping or darkroom work. Although he has finally purchased a digital SLR camera, he still uses his 'analog' camera for his best work. Through the years, I've seen countless slide shows that Gene has shown. One of the things that has struck me, is how beautiful photos are when projected onto a screen. The reason is, slides are pure film. Since they have not been printed onto paper, the image is simply pure light shining through the film. When you print a photo onto paper, you are limited by the paper itself, which is two dimensional, and the ink, which may or may not replicate the true hues and values of the photographic subject. In a sense, digital images are like those slides. Although many photographers and designers are adept at using Photoshop to edit and enhance their photos, digital images are pretty pure too. When downloaded to our computers, we can then view them through the light of our computer screens. This 'internal light', gives a life to our images that viewing them printed, just can't duplicate. So, how does this relate to digital scrapbooking? Since i love to ramble, I'll ramble, and eventually get to that. When I first started digital scrapping 2 years ago, I printed out every layout I did. I put them into small albums (I scrap at 8x8). It's been so fun to see those albums multiply, and my skills grow. For about a year, I've pretty much stopped printing my layouts. One reason is that the cost of ink for my printer has increased dramatically. Another reason is laziness. I just got behind in my printing, and it was overwhelming to catch up. But another reason is that I love how my layouts look on my computer. I love the glow of the screen, the pure color, and the radiance. When you study painting, you learn that pigments and light are totally opposite. For example, black paint is pretty much every color mixed together, and white is the absence of color. With light, it's the inverse. White light is the presence of all of the light rays, and black is the absence. Maybe that's why I see colors so much richer on my computer screen, and why some of the layouts seem to glow. I like to capitalize on this effect with some of my layouts. It would be cool if all digital photos & designs had a magic inner light, but there are a lot of variables that contribute to the way a photo looks on a computer screen- everything from the quality and calibration of the computer itself, to the quality of the photo. But still, it's magic to me to see photos and layouts, mine and others, on the screen. I think what really hooked me was putting my layout gallery on my iPhone. Now I have a tiny little light box to view our photos and my layouts. Here are a couple of layouts that I think capture an inner light: