Taylored Expressions March Studio Challenge! 8-)

Hi All & a Very Happy Tuesday to you! 8-) It's time for the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge.  This is a monthly opportunity for the Taylored Expressions team to share what makes our stamping studios hum.  Each month we  have a fun, crafty question so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more.

The question for March is:

You oughta be in pictures!! 

We all love to share our completed projects with others on our blogs and in on-line galleries.  So, when the stamping ends, the photography begins.  This is a fun step for some and a frustrating one for others.  How is it for you? 

Tell us how you get those beautiful project photos.

OMGoodness what a Super Question! For me, sometimes it's a breeze and sometimes not so much, lol ;-) I actually had a heck of a time with the above photo, lol and after futzing and adjusting it's still not quite as sharp as I'd like,  So, I'm actually really excited to see what my Fellow Baker's Dozen Team mates photo process and tips are, as I really don't consider myself "All that and a bag of chips" when it comes to photographing my projects, lol... In fact, Quite the Opposite! 8-)  I just try to keep it as simple as possible for me, and hope like heck that the pics look good to you guys out there! lol... ;-)

Here are a couple of pics of my Ultra Deluxe Photo studio set up ;-)...

LOL, Seriously though, nothing Super Fancy here..:-) This is actually the other side of our home office I share with my Darling Hubby, It's actually his desk that I use to set up my lights with their little diffuser covers. Two of them are , set up on his desk and the third is set up on one of our dinning room chairs, that I drag in each time I take pics, lol Pretty Fancy Shmancy, huh... 8-)

And here you can see I use the chair to my Crafting Table covered with an Ivory pillow case for my backdrop for photographing my Sweet little Basket Full Easter cards.. In a pinch I will use a file box and the same pillow case draped over it, right on our kitchen table if the sun is shinning thru just right,that is lol... But for the most part I think the pics taken with my little light set up turn out the best and it doesn't matter if the sun is shinning or not or even if it's 3:00am.. I can still take my pics! 8-) My light set came from OBN Photo, though I no longer see the set up I have in their online shop..It came with three lights, three diffusers for the lights & 2 different sizes of light boxes, one large & one small, but you know, I have never used them, lol.  To me it's just too many steps, and a bit of a hassle to have to take everything out, set it up and then turn around and put it all away, lol So I really do try to keep it as simple as possible. And I think the lights with their little diffuser covers do a pretty decent job all by themselves...;-)

Here are a few finished pics taken with my Photo set up shown above...

Believe it or not, the camera I use is my I-Phone 4s's Camera...It actually takes better pics than the little digital camera my Hubby gave me, and so many less steps to worry about too.. I just pull up a little stool to sit on and take my pics with my I-Phone and email them to myself as I go, no memory stick or uploading to my lap-top required.. LOVE that!! For me the less steps the better, lol...So When I am all finished putting away my lights, and the dinning room chair,lol, its pretty cool that my pics are already on my computer in my in-box. 

From my email, I just drop them into I-Photo( I have a Mac) and edit them from there..There is a cool little "enhance" feature in I-photo that I use, that does most of the work for me, and I just tweak the saturation and sharpness from there a little and crop of course.. Then it gets imported into Aperture to add my watermark, and that's really about it for me.. See, I really do try to keep it simple simple.. lol One tip I've found when taking pics with my I-Phone is that it helps to have something to stand you phone up on, to keep it still and steady rather than trying to hold the camera still in your hands while taking your pics.     

Oh and I've listed all the product I used for my Photography "Subject Project" below.. So If you have any questions on my Basket Full Easter card set's how to's, just email me or leave me your questions in the comments, and I'll be sure to get back to you... 8-)

Be sure to stop by and check out what the rest of the Baker's Dozen has whipped up for you today...

• Carole Burrage
• Charmaine Ikach
• Jen Shults
• Kerri Michaud
• Lynnette Kauffman
• Sankari Wegman
• Shannon White (That's me!)
• Shelly Mercado
• Stephanie Kraft
• Tammie Edgerton
• Taylor VanBruggen
• Wanda Guess

Here are the items I used for my project today...

InLinkz.com

 

Hope you all have a Fantastic day & Thanks so much for dropping in! 8-)