Scrapbook background ideas and when to keep them quiet
Use a plain colour behind busy photos, a quiet pattern behind simple ones, and a texture or map when it adds a fact. If you notice the background before the photos, it is too strong.
Pick the background after the photos, not before. Lay the prints or images on the page first and look at what their edges already contain.
A crowd, a beach or a garden already carries pattern, so it needs a calm ground. A close portrait against a plain wall can take a stronger one.
Make a digital scrapbook
Add your photos and keepsakes in tbf scrapbook, then arrange them on the pages.
Background ideas to try
Plain grounds
- Off-white
- Kraft brown
- Charcoal or black
- One colour taken from the main photo
- A paler step of the sky
- Mid grey for black-and-white prints
Quiet patterns
- Fine grid
- Small dots
- Thin stripes
- Tiny gingham check
- Faint ruled lines
Photographed textures
- Floorboards
- Sand
- Brick wall
- Knitted blanket
- Tablecloth from the house
- Grass or gravel
- Wallpaper from a room in the photos
Backgrounds that say where or what
- Street map of the place
- Train or bus timetable
- Your own music notation
- Menu or programme page
- Child's drawing at low contrast
- Faded handwriting from a letter
Read the photos before choosing a ground
Squint at the page or view it at thumbnail size. Where photos and background merge into one grey mass, the background is competing. Where each photo reads as a separate shape, it works.
Take one colour from the photos for a plain ground: the sea, a jumper, brickwork. Use a lighter or darker step of it so the photo edge stays visible.
Backgrounds that carry information
A map, a timetable or a page of sheet music can say where or what without a caption. Use a copy, not the original, and keep its useful part clear of the photos.
- A street map centred on the house or hotel, with photos kept off the marked spot.
- Your own music notation or a programme detail used with permission.
- A page from the programme or menu, enlarged and lightened.
- A child's drawing scanned and used at low contrast behind their own photos.
- Handwriting from an old letter, faded until it reads as texture.
Photograph your own textures
Floorboards, a knitted blanket, sand, brick and a tablecloth all make grounds that belong to the place. Shoot straight on in even daylight so there is no bright patch or shadow.
Fill the frame and hold the camera parallel to the surface. A tilted shot makes the texture shrink towards one edge, which shows once a straight photo sits on top.
When the background has to give way
Put a plain mat behind any photo with a busy edge and behind every block of writing. A border of 3 to 5 mm in one colour is usually enough to separate the two.
Test the actual prints over the pattern before gluing. On screen, try a plain panel or lower the pattern opacity; darkening a background can make dark writing harder to read.
Keep an untextured reading area
Test the longest piece of writing over the chosen ground at its final size. If any word is hard to read, put the whole text block on a plain panel instead of adding shadows to each letter.
Steps
Lay photos on a neutral ground first
Place the photos on white or grey and fix their positions. Only then try three backgrounds behind them and keep the one you notice last.
Match one colour
Pick a colour from the largest photo and use a lighter or darker step of it for the whole page. Save the exact match for a thin mat.
Keep the useful part visible
With a map or score, leave the meaningful part, a road name or the opening bars, uncovered and near the top left where the eye starts.
Check the spread at arm's length
View both pages together from arm's length or at thumbnail size. If two backgrounds fight across the fold, make one of them plain.
Questions
Should every page in a scrapbook have a different background?
No. Keep one background through a section and change it when the place or subject changes. A new ground on every page makes the book look like loose sheets.
Can I use a photo as a scrapbook background?
Yes, if it is quiet: sky, water, grass or a wall. Lighten or soften it so it sits behind the other photos, and avoid one with faces in it.
What background suits old black-and-white photos?
Warm off-white, mid grey or black. Bright colour makes old prints look faded beside it; a tone close to the print's own paper keeps them together.