Exploring Creative Photography

Photographing products can be a tough task.  Too basic of a color, too busy of a background, poor lighting conditions and shaky hands can produce less then stellar product photographs.  Most designers put careful time in creating a piece and are excited to share its completion. Your photographs of it need to be just as creative as the piece and showcase your design style.

A clever way to showcase your jewelry designs and brand message.
Here I created a heart from my jewelry designs and filled it with
photos that paint my story. Explore, Create, and Live Free Spirited. 

Choosing the right colors and themes can be overwhelming.  If you create fun and flirty jewelry, your backgrounds need to reflect that mood in order to compliment your piece.  With the rise of social media, designers of every degree are utilizing the benefits of social platforms to promote their product and create a brand awareness.

Instagram is a great visual platform for capturing everything we do in the current minute. Clogging your IG feed with more then 3 or 4 pictures of the same thing at the same time can be shunned upon by fellow Instagramers, who crave varied inspiration to retain their commit to follow.  Its very important to choose "the perfect picture" to capture your message to your audience.

Blogging, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, You Tube, Vine, Flickr, and Websites are some of the larger social media platforms designers are using to get their brand across.  Smart phones are replacing the everyday camera at a fast pace. Why, you might ask? Because you can instantly download to one of these sites and share that current moment.

Pay attention to the details you want to showcase. This dress
screamed vintage prom and the focal point was the fabric and
the center details. One photo was enough to portray that point.

Thinking out of the box is essential. Having great photo enhancing apps is key. Mix these two together and any photograph can be creative and eye catching.  I have been an Apple Iphone lover since the beginning.  I currently use it to take most of my pictures for social media.  After I select the set I want to share, I load them to my fave social media sites and tweak. Then I caption and upload to social media.

I play with colors, textures, props and lighting to get the look I want.  Frames, chalkboard prints, scrapbook paper, and signs play big roles in my product photography sessions.  If the lighting seems dull, I load the photos into editing apps and correct them.

Details, I love up-close details, they are in themselves a work of art when photographed. Details almost always get pinned to my inspiration board in the studio.  Scraps of fabric, trims, and broken jewelry.  Snippets of ephemera, tags and event badges.  Photographs of vintage things, and magazine cutouts line my inspiration boards.  I layer them with the things that inspire me.  I think inspiration boards and detail photos are always a must.

The Selfie! I've been doing the selfie for decades.
Here's a selfie I recently took at my best friends
bridesmaid dress gala. This headband is so me.

Some of my recommendations:

• -Chalkboard or rustic black backgrounds for leather, distressed, metal, and industrial vintage pieces. Try chalkboards, chalkboard paper or spray paint foam board with chalkboard paint. (I will post my homemade chalkboard paint recipe next week). 

  

  A chalkboard rustic background to showcase my authentic
  baseball necklaces

• -Try paper bags, parchment paper, old sheet music, wicker baskets, maps, metal signs, books, globes and wood for additional rustic backgrounds. 

  

  Earrings I made for a friend, layered onto a
  piece of scrapbook paper from My Minds Eye.

• -Kitschy wrapping paper, wall paper, scrapbook paper, or fabric for sweet, sugary products, baked goods and dolls.
• -Furniture, trunks, dress forms and candle bases work wonders for height and dimension.
• -Take photos from the bottom up, angled or upside down for some creative fun. 
• -Look for eye catching reflections in glass windows or elements.
• Don't forget the selfie, sometimes its all about the selfie.
• -Outside props work fabulous. Think rustic barns, house siding, trees, benches, pools, lakes.
• -The beach. Gotta love the photographic properties that the beach has to offer. Sun, sand, shells and  water. 
• Inspiration boards! Make an inspiration board of the things that inspire you and inspire your brand. Add to it or take away from it the further along you go on your journey. 
• Never steal someone's background or imagery for your own work.  Remember copyright is essential. Always respect other designers works. 

  

  Layering a piece onto a photo greeting card.  I used a greeting
  card and necklace I received for Valentine's day, photographed
  them together. Worked like a charm. Card from Taylor Swift,
  Necklace-Francesca's Boutique.

Next week I will post some creative backgrounds and paint recipes for you to use and create.

xo
Lisa

Relic Photography Project, Plaques of New Orleans

I used to always have my camera with me wherever I go, now I only bring my Iphone 5 which has a better camera then my digital cannon or Olympus camera, the colors are more detailed and vivid, then the cameras I used to bring with me everywhere. Now I point and click with the Iphone 5. I recently was on a trip to New Orleans for 10 days and became so inspired by every thing down to the smallest of details which made up the whole city. I took so many pictures that I started to run out of GB on phone camera memory, there was just so mcuh to consume and take photos of. I found bringing the city to life would be task, overall views couldn't really bring it to life, but the details could, the relics and found architecture hidden in the city would really help you to see the magic that I could see while I was there. Since I am in love with so many themes and color palettes, filtering these photos was a tough job, fun, but tough, as I loved the black and white look, the sepia, soft focus pastel and vibrant detailed color, each one was beautiful and gave a different effect to the photos. For this project I decided on black and white coloring, since it was for Dave's birthday, the black and white coloring gave a more masculine and professional feel. I choose specific photos which symbolized how we felt about New Orleans and the magic we found there, the result these photos: 

•   -Carousel details from the Carousel Bar 
• -Mardi Gras parade float icon from Mardi Gras World
•  -Typical French Quarter Architecture 
•  -Court of the Three Sisters, Bourbon Street -Nola Trolley Service
•  -Catholic Church, St.Louis Cathedral  

Each of these photos were taken from my Iphone 5 and enhanced with filters using Snapseed on the Iphone, the final resolution for each was over 5 megapixels, which were perfect for printing in 8 by 10 inch size with complete clarity. I used a medium weight paper to print them on from my HP ink jet printer, black plaques, foam brush and modge podge. Below is the exact supply list and directions to make your own.

•  Supplies: 
• -Ink jet or laser jet photo (a photo from your most memorable place) 
• -8 inch by 10 inch black plaque (Michael's Craft Store)
•  -Mod Podge,By Plaid 
• -Foam brush 
• -Rolling pin 

-Heavy books
 Directions:

1.  1. Print your photo or have printed at your local print store to an 8 by 10 size, cut out, set aside.
2.  2. Spread Mod Podge onto a 8 by 10 plaque using foam brush. 
3.  3. Lay cut photo onto the plaque making sure its lined up with the edges, and the hanging portion on the back of the plaque is at the top, not bottom, so that you can hang it on the wall. Then press down, use a rolling pin to roll out any bubbles, lay a stack of books onto it until dried flat.  
4.  Tips/Tricks:
5.  -For an even faster, less mess version, use spray adhesive in place of the Mod Podge, roll flat, let dry. 
6. -Paint your plaques in various colors, mix and match with colorful imagery from your travels or most memorable experiences.
7. -Follow this technique and apply small instagram sized photos to wood blocks and scraps.