new pillowcases (part 2)...

 

 

...I so appreciate all your comments to my last post; I feel like I've touched a "common nerve" about all that photo-fiddling we all seem to do when blogging! I have to say that most of what I've learnt about taking photos is all down to trial and error; being able to take so many photos of a single subject with my digital camera so quickly probably allows me to get better at it, despite it being very time-consuming once I start browsing through all the photos. I often tell myself that I should take a course in photography or at least pick up a book about it but, honestly, photography doesn't really stand a chance in my world because I much prefer to use my time crafting and trying out all the many crafty ideas I have!...

I don't know if you're at all like me, but this is usually my approach when I take photos for my blog or my Etsy shop: I shoot as many photos of my subject as it takes for me to I feel that I have some that I can turn into decent photos with a bit of tweaking with my photo-editor (usually playing with the light and colours). When I take all these photos, I'm always trying different angles with respect too my light source and I take them in little batches, uploading them onto my computer as I go along so I can look at them on my big screen. In the last little while, I've been using PicMonkey for all my basic editing because it's fast and easy to use and, for more advanced editing, I fall back on Photoshop Elements. Do you have any photo editors that you would recommend?

 

 

I have to admit that I played around with the photos of the floral pillowcase with the white background you see in this post for quite a while; the white of the fabric is a very pure white and my photos always seemed like the white was coming out either too blue or too yellow. Even as I look at the actual pillowcase while I'm writing this post, the colours of the flowers in the photos seem too red and not blue enough, but I guess the light is dim and grey today as it's raining and I took these photos on a sunny bright day when colours naturally look less blue. Anyhow, whether the flowers on it are slightly more red or blue, I do like the fabric of this pillowcase; it's a bit different than the fabrics I tend to use for my pillowcases because it's more lightweight and softer to the touch and it has a nice weave to it when you look at it closely (which none of the photos in this post have captured!). For more pillowcase talk, I will be back with another batch this weekend so I hope you will pop by... Thanks for the visit!

 

 

Comments

[Angela @ Cottage Magpie]

Oh, the cabbage roses. I always swoon for them. So pretty. I love the double row of edging, too, almost like a filet crochet. Great counterpoint to the blowsy flowers.

As for photo editors, I use Photoshop, but I don't necessarily recommend it. It works very well, but it's an awful lot of expense just to retouch photos. I only use it because I used it extensively when I worked in the dot com boom and so it's just what I'm used to. If you can get a copy of it, though, it's quite powerful. Not only can you adjust the color for shadows, midtones and highlights on three axes (cyan/red, yellow/blue and magenta/green), but you can actually drill down and adjust individual colors as well. Of course, the trick is to get close enough and then STOP so you can actually post some photos! And by "you" I mean ME. :-)

The way you are doing is obviously working. Beautiful as always,

~Angela~

[Alessandra]

I use Pick monkey, too!!!!
I load big amours of pics and then it's very hard to choose….in fact, I usually post a lot of pics!!!!
xxxxx Ale

[Heather]

I use picmonkey and sometimes Ribbet. Gorgeous pillows! Heather x

[Angela-Southern USA]

I adore the big cabbage rose one! The edging is perfect as well. Look forward to part three! I just take loads of pictures and weed out the bad ones (too impatient).lol

[mini four]

When someone writes an article he/she retains the plan of a user in his/her mind that how a user can be aware of it. So that's why this article is outstdanding. Thanks!

[Julianna]

I love the cabbage roses! What fabric is that?