Using a photo as a background

It's really easy to use a photo as a background in My Memories Suite. The programs allow you to choose a "Custom" background. See pic below. When you click on the background function it gives several choices.  Click on custom and you can search for any jpeg image on your computer - "papers" or photos.

Can I just use a big photo box as a background?

You can add a big photo box and stretch it to cover the page then add other photos and elements on top of it. There are also photo templates in both programs with one giant photo covering the page and a smaller one on top - you can delete this smaller one if you don't want it.

You can do this BUT YOU MIGHT REGRET IT! If you have a large photo as the background then any time you click on it the page will think you want to edit a photo and will keep defaulting to that box. This can be a real pain if you're trying to add text or embellishments. Try to get into the habit of using the background function, not a photo.

What if I don't like the custom background?

When you choose a  rectangular photo as a custom background the program will choose the middle of it to make a square. You might not like this. You might want it to choose one side instead. You can't adjust the positioning of the custom background. So we use a big photo box, right ? NO!! Either you make crop your background square first in Picmonkey of another program OR you make the background in two stages in MMS:

STAGE 1

1) Start a new page.
2) Add a big photo box to cover the page.
3) Choose your photo and select the square you want.
4) Once you are happy with this page SAVE it as a 3600 x 3600 jpeg.

STAGE 2

1) Start a second page
2) Add a Custom background and choose the jpeg you just saved from page 1.

Easy! You get to adjust the photo but use it as a stable background.

Example ...

Here's a page which uses a photo as a background. I don't have many examples because usually I reduce the opacity of the background. You can see that design idea HERE.