Photography by Lateblossom

Disclaimer: I am not a photographer. At least not in the sense that my husband is a photographer...he's good and uses a Nikon D-90 SLR and keeps it set on manual and knows what all those knobs and symbols and settings actually mean. I don't use Photoshop, I don't have a light tent, and my camera is a digital point-and-shoot. But I think my photos look good enough for government work, so if you're interested, here's how I do it.

What I Have:

1. Nikon Cool-Pix 10.0 Megapixels, 5X optical zoom

2. Table-top Ott Light, which gives full-spectrum light for (mostly) true colors

3. Two pieces of cardstock in a color to compliment the card being photographed

4. Picasa 3 photo-editing software, downloaded for free HERE


What I Do:

1. Select cardstock to match the card I'm photographing.

2. Set up the cardstock, Ott light, and card as shown in this photograph:

This is what a low-budget set looks like.

3. Make sure the camera is set to Macro (the Tulip icon). This setting allows you to take close-up pictures that are much clearer than if you leave the camera on the default setting. Also, make sure the flash is suppressed (the icon of the slash through the lightning bolt). The flash creates harsh shadows that are hard to edit out, and the Ott light gives plenty of light when aimed at the card as shown.

4. Snap the photo. I rarely zoom all the way into the card. Here's the unedited photo for this card.

5. Download the photo to your computer and open it in Picasa to the Edit function.

6. First, crop your photo so there's a pleasing margin around it. Cropping is the first option under the "Basic Fixes" tab to the left of the photo.

7. Then, click on the "Auto Contrast" function (also under the "Basic Fixes" tab). About half the time, this will give you fine results with no further tinkering. The other half of the time, you'll need to undo the "Auto Contrast" because it will make the card look over-exposed or too dark. If that's the case, click the "Undo Auto Contrast" button and then click the "Tuning" tab.

8. Under "Tuning," you can slide bars for fill light, high lights, shadows, and color temperature. I just dink around with each until the photo looks bright and the colors are as accurate to real life as I can make them.

9. Once everything is as good as it's going to get, I export the photo to a folder I titled Resized Photos. (To Export, just click the Export button under the photo.) When you use the Export function in Picasa, a box called Export to Folder pops up that allows you to choose the folder to export to and gives you the option of resizing. I size mine to 640 pixels, which seems to give good clarity on the blog without being so big that it takes forever to upload. The Export to Folder box also has a watermark option. This is NOT a fancy watermark function. I just add a simple "copyright Susan Raihala" line. (Watermarks are a whole 'nuther kettle of fish!)

10. Click "export" and your photo is ready to upload to your blog or to SCS or to wherever in the World Wide Web you want to upload it. Here's the final result:

This card, which I LOVE!, was embossed with gold EP on cold-press watercolor paper and painted using Douglas Fir Twinkling H2Os. The stamp, by Rubber Stampede (c 2003), is lovely embossed and left alone, but the colors and shimmer of the Twinkling H2Os really make it festive.

I hope this tutorial helps those of you struggling to get decent photos. For those who want outstanding photos (and not just of cards), I encourage you to study Pioneer Woman's photography blog. That woman has the magic touch for Photoshop, plus you get to see her photos of ranch life. It's enough to make this city slicker want to run away from home and become a cowgirl.

Peaceful Poinsettia Greenery

At first, I didn't like the branch of greenery that comes with Peaceful Poinsettia. It doesn't look like poinsettia leaves, and I didn't think it would be very pretty. I almost didn't use it, which would have been tragically stupid because it's a perfectly lovely image. So much for first impressions!

I am not sure about the threading water punch on this card, though. I think the MS lattice border, which I used so effectively here, would have been nicer. But it's not bad as is, and threading water does add excellent interest to CAS cards.

Rambling about Photos: I did dink with the color in Picasa a bit on this card and hope this doesn't look as blue as some of the cards I've posted lately. I tried shooting some pics yesterday (mostly overcast, but some sun got through!) and had some trouble with white looking blue again. I wonder if the sun has shifted enough that I need to change which window I shoot at, or if I need to add my Ott light to the sunlight to brighten things up a bit. Wish I had a south-facing window, but there's not a single window on the south side of my house. I'll keep fiddling.

Supplies
stamps: PTI Peaceful Poinsettia, Signature Christmas
ink: SU garden green, Palette noir
paper: SU garden green, PTI white
accessories: threading water punch, red satin ribbon, dimensionals

CAS19 Redux and Chatter about Photographs

Here's a little card I made for CAS19 Sketch: Natasha's Pink Blooms and forgot to photograph. It's 4.25 x 4.25, which is a great size here in the US of A because it fits in a standard A2 envelope and doesn't require additional postage, like square envelopes do.

Well, my question about photo backgrounds was pretty conclusive: most of you prefer the colored background for white cards. The few who preferred the white background confirmed for me that I wasn't crazy, though. In the case of the card in my previous post, I like the white better, too, but only by a little bit.

For the record, I take most of my photos by the west-facing window in my craftroom, almost always in the afternoon. The window has a white sheer over it, which softens the light a bit. The light hits from the side (I position the card perpendicular to the window). My camera, a Nikon CoolPix, is set on macro (the little tulip icon) and I turn off the flash. If I have to shoot at night or on a really cloudy day, I use my Ott light and still supress the flash...which tends to make everything look yellow. The photo above was taken on a cloudy day without the Ott light, which accounts for its bluish tone.

I set up the background with two sheets of cardstock, one propped against a CD case holding clear stamps. With the white card bases, the background color sometimes distorts the white, especially blue backgrounds. I try to fix this as best I can in Picasa, but it's tough sometimes to get the card looking really white.

Have a great weekend! DH is planning a century ride tomorrow (100 miles on his bike), which means I'll get a little time in my craft room...assuming small children play nicely. Check out my blog Questioning my Intelligence for THIS POST about living with an Ironman triathlete. It's pretty funny, if I say so myself. ;-)

Supplies
stamps: Simply Said, Hero Arts (sentiment)
cardstock: real red, chocolate chip, white
ink: chocolate chip, real red
accessories: rhinestone, dimensionals