Back in the Saddle

Welcome back everyone! I (again) am hoping that this is the start of a new and improved Crafter's Eden. Full time work is hard, but I have ignored my passions for crafting and writing for far too long. That, friends, is my advice. Don't starve your passions. I saw a great 'meme' on Facebook the other day- ignoring your passion is a slow suicide. Noting that, my hubby is on board and 'riding my tushie' to make sure I make time to craft and write. And, I have never shared how much I enjoyed my passions with my husband before and how far I really wanted to take them. And to have his support and encouragement just lights that fire even hotter. So this past week (on staycation- WOO HOO!) I have placed a not-so-pre-order for Stampin' Up! holiday goodies, stocked up on paper, created a light box (seriously, where WAS this thing the whole time?- and for 3 bucks!), and set goals and started crafting again.
I feel great :) It'll be hard once I go back to work tomorrow, but with Chris by my side and my goal list in hand- I know I can do this.
So first thing first- I created this bad boy after doing quite a bit of research on how to take better pics of my cards. It's hard- especially trying to sell my cards online- to showcase the amount of detail or work that goes into them. I find myself saying "Oh they look better in person" to people. A lot.
Etsy was a great resource, but for the most part they called for natural light. GREAT! But I live in a trailer and get very little natural light. Plus, very soon, the sun will be limited up here in the great white North so I am doomed with my florescent kitchen light? Back to the drawing board!
So I, in my pintrest and Google hazed state, found something called a light box.
Great. I really REALLY don't want to spend another small fortune on my business.
Oh pintrest. I really do love you.
A few other snazzy folks had created one with just a few odds and ends around the house. I don't remember which blogs were most helpful (like I said- haze) but the jist of it all was cardboard box, white tissue paper and poster board - oh and tape! All of which are found at my local Dollar Store.
That plus borrowing my daughter's desk lamp and using my own floor lamp my camera, plus a decent software program, created high quality photos for said blog and better advertising for my business to do some selling.
Check this space out! So you can see the box and my daughter's desk lamp propped up on some boxes to give it more height so I can have the light come down from the top. I still need to play around with lighting and my editing software, a photographer I ain't,  but so far it's been awesome.




Check out the difference: The first photo is how I used to take photos. (usually I'd drape a sheet on a chair- but this time I used a cleared spot on my desk- but still same idea. Flash on a white background with my phone camera):

I had  no idea how to utilize my software - so I didn't edit any of my photos other than cropping them if needed and rotating them. So it's not bad. Show cases what the card looks like- but...dulls it. You can't really see the glitter or the color. This was the 'old' way.

So now the photo with the 2 corsets (tutorial to come!) is in the light box with my camera flash off and the exposure value at the highest level (2 from 0- I have no idea what the means lol) but it brought in more light and according to the photo blogs, it's easier to fix that way. Again, this is me just learning. There is an autofix feature on my soft ware, so let's put that to good use!

So here it is! Cropped, watermarked, and autofixed. I am not sure if it's 'perfect', but I am happy with it :) I find the colors more vibrant and just looking 'side by side' the first photo looks 'passport quality' and I like to think the last one is more 'magazine quality'.
I know I have a lot to learn and will continue to hone and play around - I want to get better color quality so they look truer to Stampin' Up!'s color pallet.















So that's all that's new with me here. Excited to carry on, use my light box and new goodies and dive right back in with both feet.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Brandie~