msliz
Drama Llama
The Procrastinator
Posts: 6,419
Jun 26, 2014 21:32:34 GMT
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Post by msliz on Dec 30, 2017 14:32:13 GMT
Awhile back, I scanned a bunch of my parents' photos, and I'm just now going through them and editing them. "Editing" in this case consists of separating the photos which were 4 or 5 to a scan, straightening, and cropping to tidy up the edges. Maybe some spot corrections, but nothing major. A real no-brainer until I got to the photos of my mom's teen years. When my mom was a teenager, around 1950, she went on tons of group outings to the beach and to dances with her church group, like every weekend. It's how she eventually met my dad actually, when she hitched a ride to the beach in his truck because the other cars were full up.  Anyway, I have gobs of photos of mom with different random guys, standing really close or with his arm around her. Now, she might remember who each Mr. Random is, but I sure as heck don't care. But here's my scrapper's dilemma: if I crop out Random, I lose the context of the photo, the background, the cars, and everyone's clothes and hairstyles. But if I don't crop, there's the distracting question of "who's that guy with Grandma?" The photos I'm collecting are all digital, so I'm not cutting into originals. They're just for myself for inclusion in a small book to be handed down. The kids will get the digital files too, but they'll probably never look at them, just the book. What say the Peas? To crop or not to crop? That is the question. |
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Post by mom on Dec 30, 2017 14:40:56 GMT
Nope. I would leave them as is. Its part of her story.
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Post by mikklynn on Dec 30, 2017 14:42:08 GMT
In this case, I'd say no. The photos aren't going to cause any family drama, so I'd leave them.
I have occasionally cropped people out, or covered them up with an embellishment. For example, my grandchildren's other grandpa has a SO. She is not involved with the kids at all. I had a really cute photo of my grands and their grandpa with huge smiles. SO is looking really awkward and off to one side. I cropped her out, because it made a better photo and they don't have a relationship with her anyway. If they did, I would have left the photo as is.
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Post by grammadee on Dec 30, 2017 16:48:44 GMT
I agree with mom. Leave them in. Even caption them with "Gramma with another random guy". It sounds like it was part of her story, and can become part of her legend. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 30, 2017 16:58:22 GMT
Leave them in, these people were a part of her youth group and they help add context to the photos. It would be another thing if the photos were compromising in any way, but if that were the case you probably wouldn’t use them at all. Sounds like these were just documenting innocent teenage fun.
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Post by joblackford on Dec 30, 2017 18:41:46 GMT
They sound like great photos - a real treasure. I would leave them as they are too. Her sociability and the way she interacted with so many different people at these outings is an important part of her story (and social history, I would say). It may be quite a contrast for the kids to see Grandma like this, or maybe she's still very sociable and it makes sense that she always was. Either way, I think it really adds to her story. I love my old family photos, even if, or maybe especially if, there are a lot of random people in them.
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Post by threegirls on Dec 30, 2017 18:48:37 GMT
I also vote to leave the random friends in the photos.
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Post by sleepingbooty on Dec 30, 2017 18:58:09 GMT
If there's a "random guy" in there who is an abusive ex or someone that didn't leave a positive mark, I'd crop that one out. Otherwise, keep them in! It reflects who your mother as a young adult was: a social, likable and popular girl. I think that's a pretty awesome story in itself.  Heck, that could make for a great mosaic layout with small versions of all these pictures... "Serial heartbreaker" or something like that. Go msliz's mother, woot woot!  |
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msliz
Drama Llama
The Procrastinator
Posts: 6,419
Jun 26, 2014 21:32:34 GMT
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Post by msliz on Dec 30, 2017 19:00:19 GMT
This is funny, I thought the response would be split more evenly, but nope. You're agreeing with each other! I agree too. I'll make a few pages of Mom just out having fun  |
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Post by sleepingbooty on Dec 30, 2017 19:07:57 GMT
This is funny, I thought the response would be split more evenly, but nope. You're agreeing with each other! A thread definitely not on NSBR.  |
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Post by Linda on Dec 30, 2017 20:18:24 GMT
I'll agree - leave 'em in.
And if your mum's hometown has a FB page about history or growing up in ____town, consider posting them - someone may be able to give you some details you don't have. The town I lived in from 9-17 and that my mum and grandparents grew up has such a page and people often post older photos - sometimes they are labeled "Jane Doe and friends 1933 at First Beach" and sometimes they aren't - and sometimes others chime in and names are given and dates are figured out and we all enjoy seeing the old photos.
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Post by 950nancy on Dec 30, 2017 22:17:38 GMT
This is funny, I thought the response would be split more evenly, but nope. You're agreeing with each other! I agree too. I'll make a few pages of Mom just out having fun  Could you make a "Not the Father" page like Maury would say it? |
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Post by canadianscrappergirl on Dec 31, 2017 0:15:38 GMT
This is funny, I thought the response would be split more evenly, but nope. You're agreeing with each other! I agree too. I'll make a few pages of Mom just out having fun Could you make a "Not the Father" page like Maury would say it? Snort that's funny I say leave them in too! |
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FurryP
Drama Llama
To pea or not to pea...
Posts: 7,214
Site Supporter
Jun 26, 2014 19:58:26 GMT
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Post by FurryP on Dec 31, 2017 1:11:40 GMT
Nope. I would leave them as is. Its part of her story. Me, too. |
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Post by lakritze on Dec 31, 2017 4:49:39 GMT
Another vote for leaving Mr.Random in the pictures. I have some pictures from my grandmother with 'random men' I have no idea who they are but I still like the pictures because of how happy my grandma looks.
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Post by lisacharlotte on Dec 31, 2017 18:34:46 GMT
I have all our old print photos separated by year/era/location for our married life. Pre-married life it's just split into his and mine. His is much, much bigger because he was a serious amateur photographer. He has tons and tons of photos of one of his old girlfriends. Her name is Melissa, and when I was sorting pictures, every now and then I would shout out, "You'll never guess what I found...more pictures of Melissa!" One of my scrap goals for 2018 is to really get a move on scrapping backwards and getting all those pictures out of boxes. I told my husband I might have enough photos of Melissa to include her very own scrapbook. I plan on adding pictures of her to the books I put together of my husband's pre-married life, along with photos of other girlfriends he. I'm not worried that people will know that he dated people before me. I would be more worried if he didn't considering he was 32 when we married. It was his life before he met me. I don't plan to edit photos from my pre-married life either. I'm always careful to no try and edit history in my scrapping. To me it would be like going back and cutting people out of scrapbook pages I have done in the past. It's just that, a part of my past, and I plan to remember all of it, the good the bad and the ugly. I think life is boring if it's only the good stuff. You need the bad to put the good in perspective.
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scrapnnana
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,316 
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Post by scrapnnana on Jan 1, 2018 11:47:55 GMT
If there's a "random guy" in there who is an abusive ex or someone that didn't leave a positive mark, I'd crop that one out. Otherwise, keep them in! It reflects who your mother as a young adult was: a social, likable and popular girl. I think that's a pretty awesome story in itself. Heck, that could make for a great mosaic layout with small versions of all these pictures... "Serial heartbreaker" or something like that. Go msliz 's mother, woot woot!  |
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Post by peasapie on Jan 1, 2018 18:26:51 GMT
I would only crop enough so that you can see your mom...without cutting out so much that you lose the context.
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oaksong
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,167
Location: LA Suburbia
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Jun 27, 2014 6:24:29 GMT
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Post by oaksong on Jan 1, 2018 19:38:47 GMT
They sound like great pictures that tell her story. One thing you could do to minimize the background people is to put a frame on top of the photo (like the chipboard kind that Simple Stories makes), highlighting mom but blocking out some of the others. That way the photo and context are intact, but the subject is clear.
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Post by don on Jan 1, 2018 20:29:08 GMT
Liz, just do it! next year. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 30, 2024 13:28:34 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2018 23:17:51 GMT
Chop away.
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Post by katmandu on Jan 5, 2018 20:23:13 GMT
I guess I have a different perspective than most of the rest of you. I wouldn't crop the pictures, and would save them, but I wouldn't include them in the book either. It sounds like you have a bunch of those social gathering pictures that don't have her so close to Mr. Randos so why use those ones? You don't have to pretend she didn't have friends/boyfriends/flirtations when she was young, and the other pictures will show these people in the background, but why highlight other guys? Especially if you don't know who they are, you don't know whether their relationship would be something she would look back fondly on ... or not.
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