I've read a couple of threads that start to allude to a question that I have - does anyone have an average or a preferred amount of photos that they use on a layout?
From my traditional paper scrapbooking days often the objective was to get a lot of photos on a page so that you get more photos on those really expensive pages in those really expensive albums! Now in the digital world, it seems a lot more common to have just one photo - something I'd never ever do traditionally! Certainly it seems that I find many more templates with only a photo or two than templates with lots of photos. Although I do try to keep some negative space and not overclutter the page as well.
In digital, I've done it all, but most of the time I'm using probably 4 - 6 photos but I've done more and less, and I would still tend on the side of more than less... old habits die hard! My goal is about capturing the story that goes with all those photos, so I guess that is why.
How about you?
I love the layouts with multiple photos, though if I have a photo that I really love, then I like to scrap that one by itself. Most of my digital pages are one photo layouts, but that's only because most of my photos are in storage, so I'm running low on pictures to scrap!
Gosh I can't imagine running out of pictures that must be tricky!
Do you keep most of your layouts on the computer or do you print them out? In an album, or as loose pages?
I know, running low on pics is horrible! I can't wait until I can unpack all my good ones! I keep all my layouts on my computer. I print certain ones I like at home at 8x8 in., but I mostly scrap my nieces and nephews, so when each one graduates from high school I plan on getting a 12x12 in. book printed for them and give it as a graduating gift. In time I'll pick my fave layouts for myself and have a book printed too I suppose, but I only started seriously digi scrapping about a year ago, before that I paper scrapped everything. I will go back to paper too, when I get all my supplies out of storage, though I'll always do some digitally. I just love doing both kinds, for complete different creative outlets!
I (try to) make two albums a year: one with our holidays/week/weekend getaways and another with highlights, mostly for/about the kids. The holiday one always has lots of photos on a page, up to twelve if I can cram them all in, but mostly 7-9 photos a page. Although sometimes I use a single big photo to mark the next hloiday/getaway in the album. The highlights album does have a couple of one photo layouts, but somehow I prefer using 3 photos. If I want to record a story I tend to use more photos, if I am just utterly in love with a picture I make a one photo layout.
I work a little on the holiday album throughout the year, but finish it up and print it in December each year (unless we plan another trip for Christmas in which case the delay may take months...). The highlights album is not always printed (I have one printed), because I tend to work on a few years at the same time - that album is more of an experimental thing, I only make layouts for that one when inspiration hits or when I come across (or make) a kit I just can't resist!
If I'm doing a regular layout I tend towards 1 photo and always have to remind myself that I can use more than one. But I definitely struggle trying to arrange more than one on the page. That's one reason I really love doing the pocket style, because I don't have to think about where to put multiple photos. Particularly ones that aren't necessarily related to each other. So now I do mostly pocket style layouts, and then I'll do a regular layout with a photo I really like.
I generally stick with one or two, I love white space, and like Marisa, stick with a pocket style layout when I am scraping multiple photos. I do enjoy pages that do have a lot of photos on them, I am kind of in awe of them, because mine always feel too cluttered when I have more than three or four photos on them.
I actually stumbled across this site because I was looking for journal/decorative cards to try pocket scrapping (which is completely new to me so I am loving all the layouts in the gallery)... there are so many gorgeous ones here and I love that you don't end up with a whole set with some that you will never use - you truly can select just the ones that make your heart sing! There is so much talent here
I think Melo's point is really valid for me, too, that holiday pages/albums tend to have a lot more photos. I love the idea of having an album-a-year goal, hopefully pocket scrapping can help me catch up.
In the beginning I always tried to scrap 2 or 3 related photos together on one page, but after gaining experience and looking at a lot of layouts from more experienced scrappers, I have come to prefer just one, often a bit bigger than the standard photo size. It is also just easier, lol! That said, I do love those LOs that successfully combine 12 or more small photos, e.g. 'This Year in Summary'. I think it depends on the feeling you want to capture - either isolating/highlighting a certain moment or telling a bigger story of an event. I found my feet being inspired by sample LOs in old-fashioned paper scrapbooking, but an idea for digital might be to use some quick pages to start getting a feel for what feels 'right' for you.
For some reason I never take enough photos, as much as I try, I think I'm too busy in the moment and then after regret that I didn't get more photos. For that reason I usually never put very many photos on a layout. Most of my layouts are 1-2 photos then I struggle when I start adding more. I too love white space and I always love all the pretty things in a kit and want to just use more of that. I have never been a fan of pocket style layouts. One, because I never have enough photos that I feel go together for a pocket page and two, the grid style of a PL always feels so cookie cutter to me. I love to blend, paint, cluster and make a mess on my layouts and feel like I can't do that with a PL. I have seen some amazing pocket pages but for me I'll stick to the way I do things for now.
It's great that scrapping can be so many different things for different people. I have practically no photos of everyday life, which I'd like to focus on capturing occasionally, but I have an amazing partner who is in charge of the camera when we travel and I end up with thousands of photos to choose from! He's happy to sit and take a hundred photos of the one scene, just to get that one amazing shot - I don't have that patience! I have to admit, I'm not very good at clusters but I think I'll apply Marisa's idea of scraplifting to improve your technique to clusters and see how I go. I will keep an eye out for your work in the gallery Melanie because I think a well-balanced cluster can frame a photo so nicely.
I think how many photos you use depends on your style of scrapping - I don't scrapbook my "modern" photos (although I'll probably start at some point.) I scrapbook my family history/genealogy and I've been lucky enough to find information dating back over 1000 years. So as you can imagine, images of very distant ancestors are few and far between. I tend to choose one image (where possible) - be it a painting or tapestry or even a photograph taken of a statue.
Great to see there a so many ways to scrap (as scrolling through the gallery section proofs).
For me it differs quite a lot how may pictures I use.
If I have a picture that deserves all the attention I might go with just that picture and little elements. Sometimes I use one big picture and two other small ones of the same subject, e.g. the big one clipped to a mask and the smaller ones in frames, almost as if they were elements. The smaller ones usually look quite a lot like the bigger one, so it still gets all the attention it deserves in my opinion. If they are really colorful, I might make the others black&white for that reason.
I also make pages which focus more on story telling. The pictures usually are not that spectacular (well, not that the others are... ) and are about everyday life. In that case, I use quite a lot of (small) pictures on a page, like 5-7. They usually cover up one month.
I do the same for days when there was a special occasion with a story to tell. Or, when there is no particular story to tell, but lots of pictures (like a shiny day in the park) I can put up to 7 or 8 pictures on a page.
On most pages though, I use about 3 pictures a page. Mostly pictures that are related in some sort of way (can be because of the event they were taken, the subject or because of matching colors).
When I started scrapping, I loved space. I had one picture, usually a pretty small one, placed somewhere around the middle with a cluster with it on a colorful background. But since I Always use the pages for photo albums -and I believe the pictures and memories should be the focus rather than all the nice elements... I found out it didn't work that well for me. It might look nice (I still think it does) but the pictures turned out to be too small eventually. I'm still thinking about redoing those album pages. I will stay at thinking modus for quite a while since I can hardly find the time to start scrapping last year's photos
I love seeing good multi-photo pages in the gallery, and probably a little over half of my pages have more than two photos on them (sometimes lots more). I tend to be a photo-focussed scrapper though, and I'm not nearly as likely to have a ton of elements on my page. I still don't get anywhere close to getting all my photos scrapped lol. (I will admit - the single photo pages look a lot better as thumbnails though
). I like the fact that you can search the gallery by number of photos for inspiration 
I totally agree Teddy, being able to search the gallery to find inspiration to match how many photos you have is a fantastic feature.
I think my focus has always been on making a specific album for a specific purpose - so it becomes about getting as many photos in the album as I can.
I am getting a lot more clarity on a couple of 2016 scrapping 'goals' and a feature photo page (just like you described Katherine with lots of white space), pocket pages and scrapping everyday events are on the list so far.
I think for me it depends on what sort of page I am scrapping eg for my weekly pages I usually have seven one for each day with journaling about the week. For normal scrapbooking if I have a photo I particularly like it will be my focus of the page. If I have several photos on one sort of topic I want to use that is what I will put on the page or if there is too many I might do them over two pages depending on what I want to journal. I don't usually look to have a certain number. The amount of photos is driven by the photos I took on one subject and the ones I want to use. If I want to do a page where I have journaling to do but don't have any great photos I'll still use them but focus more on what I have to write.
I mostly use between 1 and 3 photos so the details are better seen. Except when it´s a daily life register... usually those don´t have that much detail...
I also tend to use between 1 and 3 photos. I, too, like to look through galleries for inspiration. When I purchase a kit, I like to look at how others have used the same kit.
I like 3 or 4 normally. But on my big yearly album I use 7 to 10 so I am always looking for pocket pages with the right set up for this type of book.
Every year I put together a book for my daughter and as I'm creating the book my husband and I will get into arguments over how many pages should be on a page. He's for cramming as many pictures on a page as he possibly can because he'd rather not spend extra money for extra pages in the books. I personally like 2-4 pictures on the page because it's easier to tell a story without overwhelming the page. Sometimes for fun I'll create a page with just one picture on it just to get under his skin
.
But I think over all you need to look at the pictures you have and consider the story you're looking to tell. Is it something really memorable and a picture that will tug at your heart strings later in life? Then I'd go with just 1 or 2 pictures. If you took a trip to the zoo and have a lot of story to tell then add more pictures.
I also always struggle with having enough pictures. It's hard to keep a balance between living life and enjoying the moment vs. living life through a camera lens and missing the moment's meaning. (If you ever want to hear a crazy person complain, ask me about my feelings of people recording fireworks on their cell phones.)
I usually don´t put more than 4 photos into one layout; except using those multiple frames, which I try to fill out
The number of photos I use on a layout depends on what I'm scrapping and how many pictures I have. I love, love, love pictures and tend to use several if I have them and I'll crop some of them to get more on the layout. If not, then I'll scrap the one or two picture layout. On average I'd say my LOs have 3+ pictures.
I seem to scrapbook around 5 pictures per page. I just can't seem to justify only 1 as I take far too many to just choose my favourite. I know I overdue the pictures on my pages but deciding is just so hard
It depends on what how many photos I have of the item that I'm scrapbooking. I range from 1-10 photos per layout...1 or 2 pages.
It really depends on what I'm scrapping, and the mood of the pic. If it's a BIG event, like Christmas...there are tons of pics...and multiple pages.
But, if it's just a sweet moment that I captured with my boy or a random silly pic I snapped...then I only use 1...to highlight that moment.
Wow, it will be a long time before I run out of photos to scrap!
When I'm "paper" scrapping, I tend to use 4-8 photos on a page. It depends on the subject, how much journaling I need to make room for, etc. As a newbie to digital scrapbooking, I find that I am using anywhere fro 1-4 photos on a page.
I like doing odd number photos on my page, and that goes with the same number of elements to design the page...
I agree with you, 5-6 photos, and often times more, to tell the complete story. (But I always print 12"x12" so I think that that size gives each photo enough space.)
When making a vacation or travel scrapbooks, here's my long division (remember having to "show your work" in math?):
I usually scrap a 2-week vacation into a 90-ish page book. On a typical 2-week trip, I take maybe around 1500 photos (yikes, yes -- especially if it's to a place I've never been). I try to quickly go thru and delete half of those, so I end up with around 700-800 pictures total. Of course, not all of those will make it into a book but I think each of my vacation pages averages 5 pics. Then, if one photo turns out spectacularly, I might use it by itself on a page, maybe full-bleed and on the opposite page, put 10 or 12 photos all together.
That is so awesome, Sally!! I am a family history buff too. I would love to hear more about your methods. I don't have nearly the photos you do, but I still feel overwhelmed.
I'm a hybrid pocket page scrapper and so my LOs usually contain multiple photos. In saying that, once upon a time I was a traditional scrapper and even then I usually tried to incorporate multiple photos into a spread. I never liked the flowery one pic spreads i saw in the magazines and rarely found inspiration in them.
Pages