Wednesday

12 Days of Christmas Challenge ~ Day 2


Two Turtle Doves (or in this case, one...!)

Boosting Your Artwork's Creative Curb Appeal: 

Photo Ops, Flops, and Crops!

Hello Friends,

This is Catherine Anderson, your Power Poppy Bloomie of the day!

The lyrics for that old Christmas carol say, 

"On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me: two turtle doves." 

Perfect for Day 2 of our challenge! I'm honored to showcase the blissfully beautiful "Heavenly Peace Dove" stamp set! 

(Digital version available here .) 

Suppose you are on your lunch break. You're giving your thumb an aerobic workout, scrolling in a mad dash through the Instagram posts of the 462 people you follow.

What makes you pause and linger? 

Bold color? 

Dramatic composition?

Detailed close-ups?

Whatever trips your trigger, I'll wager that for the artistically minded, it's never "ordinary!"

Just as a realtor stages a house to grab the attention of prospective buyers, your artwork needs to be seen at its best. Even if you don't post on social media, cards get given away. Markers fade. 

TIP: Here's a thought! After all the hours spent coloring, wouldn't it be rewarding to create a personal portfolio of your work?

If you post publicly, it doesn't matter how fabulous your cards look in person if your photography fails to capture their beauty. 

So here are a few tips that I've called "Ops, Flops, and Crops" guaranteed to help bring out the best in your art!

Photo Ops

Top Tip #1:

Take an abundance of photos...No "one and done!" 

Remember: digital pictures are free. Just delete the ones you don't choose.  

For this photo shoot, I snapped over 90 pictures. For my "Time to Fly," I took almost 200! There is safety in numbers. It allows you to be choosey about your handful of winners. 

Top Tip #2:

Use natural daylight.

I take my photos outside in early morning or late afternoon. Areas with a bit of shade are better than the glaring sun. But beware of rogue breezes! My "Joy to the World Bouquet" nearly got swept into the pool during its photoshoot. 

(Who knew I could run that fast?!)

If you must work inside, a fixture that simulates natural lighting...such as an Ott-Lite...is a great option.


Top Tip #3:

Use a photo editing app.

Don't you hate when your white backgrounds look like you ran them through the washing machine with a load of dark laundry? 

My photographs are taken with an iPhone. It does great, but my whites used to look dingy. A free, easy-to-use, editing app called Pic Monkey, has cured that complaint! 

Top Tip #4:

Never forget "who" the star of the show is. 

The whole purpose of staging the scene is to draw attention to your artwork, not make people ask for a link for that cool prop!

Top Tip #5:

Gather a staging toolbox.

How would you set the scene for "Heavenly Peace Dove"? 

My vision was to create something ethereal...like the gentle rustling of feathers. 

My tool box consisted of a white sheet, white quilt batting, a few diaphanous clouds of..ahem...polyester stuffing, some pink quilter's calico, a few white ostrich plumes...and a metallic pastel ribbon. 


Photo Flops

Oh, dear! Let's chat about some things that distract from your work. 

When choosing the best photos, there are bound to be some runners up that don't make the cut. 

Let's examine some of my poor little rejects. Let them have their day in the sun while we learn what looks good by understanding what looks not-so-good.



Flop #1

Composition counts!

The ribbon looked quite pretty in real life. However, in the photos it weighs the celestial atmosphere down with a thud. 

Plus it's positioned all wrong. Horizontal compositions tend to be stagnant and boring. The dark ribbon leads your eye in one side, then straight off the other. 

There is no unity in the elements. It's too busy.

(In addition, the intense glow from the setting sun obliterated my delicate white gel pen details. A shadier location would have been better.)




Flop #2:

Pay attention to how your scene is interacting with your subject. 

In other words:

NO bunny ears!

(Unless you are taking pictures of your rabbit, in which case, it is perfectly acceptable!)





Flop #3

Stick with your theme. 

I wanted a little contrast behind the card's ostrich plume. 

However, the chair spindles and ferns...which are gorgeous in many of my photo settings...kill the ambiance in this one. 






 Flop #4:

Artwork looks best when the photos are taken squarely.

This card suffers from 3 things:

1. Awkward foreshortening

2.  An angle that captures some of the gold watercolor details, but washes out the more important marker work

3. The tight vertical crop visually constrains the bird from looking like he is lifting off in flight








Flop #5

Beware of those exaggerated angles.

We all love the casual vibe! 

Many of us spend ridiculous amounts of time meticulously arranging our settings to look disarranged. 

Angled compositions work best when the project is actually laying flat.

With a standing card, angling my camera visually made the ground slope. Thus, the illusion is given that the card is falling...(Dove alert!)


Photo Crops

Don't despair if your photo isn't picture perfect. 

Sometimes a flop just needs a crop to become a real winner!









Although this beautiful horizontal photo was hardly a flop, I needed a square shape for Instagram's format. 

Here's where your phone's camera grid 
comes to the RESCUE!

With this easy tool you can:

• shift the image 

• zoom in or out

• check the placement of your focal point  

• crop to the desired size

TIP:
You'll find the grid when you click "edit" for that particular picture in your photo stream.

Doesn't this make seeing where to crop a breeze?








Here's the Instagram version:



I hope these photo staging tips will make your beautiful coloring stand out from the crowd! 
For a list of the Copic markers and Prismacolor Premier pencils that I used for "Heavenly Peace Dove," please visit my Carde Diem Studio blog!

For more thrilling inspiration, check into the Power Poppy Blog everyday! Our wonderful Bloom Brigade is merrily making magic with Marcella's brand new Quiet Christmas series!

Wishing You Christmas Peace and Joy!

Catherine

41 comments:

Judy Rozema said...

Fabulous tips! I find that capturing the embossed shine without the glare is always a challenge. Your dove is divine!

Lisa K said...

Thank you for the photo tips.

Bonnie said...

A beautiful card and props! Thanks for the tips!

tinyfeet said...

Oh My Word! Your card is gorgeous! I purchased this very digital image before I even got to day 2's blog post! Your card is outstanding! Thanks for the tips!! God bless you!

Cynthia said...

Your card is beautiful, Catherine. Thanks so much for the staging and photo tips!

cghundley said...

Lots of great tips
and beautiful photos.
Carla from Utah

Jill said...

Stunning and great tips too!

Tina Z. said...

Great tips, thank you and this is so beautiful!

Jane Crisci said...

Thank you for all of the tips!! Your card is beautiful!!!

Marianne said...

Thanks for all of the tips. Love the colour combo of your card.

Shirleen A said...

Wow! I never thought so much thought went into taking photos card. I don't post to social media so I usually just do one photo on my desk. But wow! I learned something new today. Thanks!

Maryann scrapbooking said...

Encore une carte fabuleuse.
J'adore cette grande plume blanche qui finalise le projet.
Bravo et A demain.
MaryannG

PoJo said...

Beautiful card!

Judy Woodland said...

This is so helpful, thanks for the great tips. And your card is stunning, the coloring is GENIUS!! Great use of that image. It's gorgeous!!!

Terry Quinn said...

WOW,WOW! JUST so beautiful.

Kathy J in Ellicott City said...

That is stunning!

Ann said...

So pretty, love the gold with the feathers.

Jennifer said...

Amazing card! Love the colors you chose. Love all the great tips on a photoshoot too! TFS

Esther Asbury said...

What an elegant card, and I love all the photo taking tips (complete with illustrations!!).

Arlene said...

I love your card Catherine, your coloring is wonderful! Thank you so much for all the tips on photographing our cards. I'll always have these in mind the next time I take a picture of one of my cards.

Ginny K. said...

Love the pretty dove card you made, thanks for the info on photos

Heather said...

Gorgeous!!! Your coloring is absolutely stunning! And those are some great photo tips!

LOU said...

Awesome tips to make photography easier! Thanks Catherine.
Love your card too!

Debbie A Smith said...

First- your card is just stunning! Swoon worthy really. Second- thanks for all the photo tips.

Henriëtte Creatively Happy said...

A stunning card Catherine, I love that you made the shade in a beautiful pink / bourdeaux colour. That makes the beautiful dove image stand out even more.
Your photo shooting tips and tricks are great, I hope that they make my photo posts next time much better.
Thank you so much for sharing, stay safe and have a wonderful day.

Barb said...

It's always a pleasure to view your artwork, Catherine. This piece is absolutely stunning! The color palette is just gorgeous. I enjoyed your detailed photo taking tips. Thank you for sharing them!

Gab said...

Thanks for all these great tips ... I really want to get better at taking pics of my cards

Camille Short said...

Oh my goodness, so many fabulous tips in this awesome post! YOU ROCK!!!

Berina RGA said...

I always have trouble taking pictures. This post helps a lot!! Thank you!

V. K. said...

Your Peace Dove card is so beautiful. It's illuminating and magical. The coloring, sparkle, and plumage along with that gold background is amazing. I appreciate the photo taking tips because you did a great job of showing what not to do.

Valerija said...

Wow, so wonderful card! Love the Peace Dove image. Thanks for the tips!
Valerija xx

Anonymous said...

OMG this is absolutely stunning - pure eye candy

GothBarbie said...

Amazing color skills! Very inspiring!

Nicola Gold said...

Wow, what a stunningly ethereal piece of artwork you have created and fabulous tips!

Unknown said...

Beautiful card.

Hannah Gibson said...

Love what you did with the dove stamp set! Great ideas for creating better photos of cards!

Dracowin said...

Beautiful and elegant card and some great photo tips. Thank you.

Sue said...

This dove is gorgeous. Thanks for sharing your tips.

Denise Bryant said...

Gorgeous Turtle Dove image!

kReN said...

Gorgeous! kReN@afourthlife

Keen Crafter's Hand Made Goodies said...

This is stunning