Chicago Style
Confession: I think I spent 20 minutes trying to get a good picture of this.
Is there a secret to taking good photos of your layouts? I can’t seem to find a spot with even lighting in my house, and the great outdoors keeps washing out the colors (even on cloudy days). I’m not a big fan of the scanner, and that doesn’t work too well with 12x12s anyway. What’s your secret? Or are you still on the quest for that perfect technique, like I am?
I too am looking for the perfect indoor spot. For the time being I just take them outside. . . then i just auto smart fix in photoshop and that pretty much takes care of the washed out colour (most of the time).
i spend most of my time when photographing layouts trying to get one that is straight. ha.
well, pretty much ALL mine turn out terrific the FIRST time, sorry…
are you kidding? I need you to show me how to use my camera!
Love that layout! The stitching is awesome!
Happy 4th!
i used to have the perfect spot in my house when we lived in arizona… ever since moving to maryland, it’s been so hard to take a good photo because of the sun not being out 99% of the time.
i don’t know your exact technique to your photos, but i use masking tape and tape it to a wall with good lighting [usually different part of the house at different times of the day] and it helps to get a more consistent photo. and then i just mess around with the colors and saturation in iphoto [i’m not cool enough to know how to use photoshop, even though we have it, lol].
<3katie
i have a hard time finding good light in my house. I try to take them by the window in my scrap room. still have to ps them most times though. have a great 4th.
I’m going to pay attention to these comments, because I need the same advice.
Have a safe and happy 4th!
I am definitely on the quest, too- and it doesn’t help that the lighting in my home SUCKS! As in- it doesn’t really exist! ;)
I actually did a blog post about how I photograph my layouts over at the Crazy Daisy Kit blog. However, I’m not always satisfied with how mine turn out either.
Especially with transparencies! How do you keep the glare from glaring?
Somebody knows the secret and they’re not sharing it!
Come on and spill it people!
Mandi…love your stichin’…again! As well as your simplicity in your layouts…you see the photos and not the junk on the page…my pet peeve…
Anyhow…I use a black table or surface for most of my blog post photos…and I stand on a step stool so that I’m above my subjects. I’m no professional…but this works fairly well for me. Hope the helps, fondly, Roberta
http://con-tain-it.typepad.com
I hope when you figure it out you will share with the rest of us. I am so glad to know I’m not the only one that has problems photographing my layouts or projects. Just last week I tried to phoyograph a shadow box project I made at a workshop with Tim Holtz and Cheryl Darrow. The frame was covered with embossed metal and the inside was a curio of canvases covered with paper, ink and trinkets. I could not get a shot without a glare or a burst of light reflected from the flash on the glass. I tried inside and outside… no luck. I don’t know how to turn off the flash on my camera for the inside shots. It was very frustrating. Thanks, ms.cheryl
i think the greatest problem to this question is that somedays everything goes so right and the colours are true. try doing it the next day and yuck. photoshop can’t save all my terible indoor photos! maybe some sort of indoor ligh box set-up??
I have the SAME issue…but yours seem WAY perfect to me. Outside works best but only at certain times and on certain days. This is the part that frustrates me the most about scrapbooking: I dread trying to take a decent pic of my layouts! iphoto isn’t a whole lotta help. Just ordered Photoshop and hope I can figure it out enough to help them look somewhat decent. Even if I knew how to scan I couldn’t because my projects are never flat…and I like them that way :)
ouuuu la la, loving this blue layout. I love me some blue. Happy 4th my dear:)
taking pictures sucks! i don’t understand why the outside washes the colors out so much??
i’m always interested in learning how to take photos better…i’m usually doing something different each and every time. and i usually take AT least 20 minutes!
love this layout…i would never have guessed that you didn’t like the way it photographed. it looks great!
i would photograph outside, but in an evenly shaded area. i have a covered balcony that works perfectly. also always use my 50mm. i lay mine flat on the floor and hover over them to photograph. if you’re shorter than 5’5″ you may need to stand on a chair to do it that way.
then i do two step editing in pse. first i do an unsharp mask with the settings at 85, 1.0, and 4 (i think this is the order, i’m not on my comp right now). second step i do enhance-adjust-lighting-move the slider bars a tiny bit.