Monday, October 22, 2007

Photography and Photoshop skills


Square Art Magnet Set
Originally uploaded by m.Lee
(or lack of them)

Monday! What a long weekend it was for me. Not terrible, but with some difficult moments for sure. Hope others fared better than I did.

Due to having my sets broken up by selling them individually at the Open Studios a few weekends ago I have needed to retake some square magnet photos. Heck, who am I kidding I have been needing to take photos of all sorts of products like these for ages. And yesterday I finally had a sunny day where I had time and my camera battery was actually not dead when I went to take them. I got magnets and mirrorsand quite a few shots. But still not everything.

For awhile I was trying to be like Kate And take pictures in my inexpensive light tent and then use Photoshop to give them a pure white background. I could do a fairly good job, but not even close to what she seems to do with ease. I've decided that spending the time fighting with my slow running copy of Photoshop Elements to get inferior photos could be better spent elsewhere. Like creating new work! Or quality time with my daughter and husband. Lots of things are better than Photoshop. Goes to prove that I was right not to listen to people that tried to push me into studying Graphic Design because there were lots of jobs (mid 90's) so it was practical. Guess what, lots of people listened to that advice.

So here I am with photos using my original backdrop, wood! It is much easier and I like how it looks and how it reinforces that these are made from actual woodblock prints and are not printed out from a computer.

The blee is sleeping and I have finished my morning tea and Wallaby yogurt, time for me to shower or something productive.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pictures are time consuming! I just retook a gazillion photos, but when I'll have the time to upload them, crop them & put them into my shop is anyones guess.
Your photos look great btw!

Athena's Armoury said...

I love your use of wood as a background. You're right it totally reinforces how your pieces are made. Pictures are a very time consuming practice. I'm certainly still learning.
-Janine

Marissa L. Swinghammer said...

Thanks for the feedback I may never get a knockout on that tiny Etsy bar but somehow I think I will survive. Pictures are very difficult, especially compared with scanning.