My photos are getting better!

Good news, everyone!  (Picture that in Professor Farnsworth's voice for maximum awesomeness.)  I'm starting to figure out this whole "product photography" thing.  I've now replaced all of the most problematic photos in my Artfire store with new and improved ones.

My tripod rocks my freaking world, btw...I can't believe I went without one for so long.  It's only about $30 and it makes everything so much easier!  


Two other things that made a major difference in my photos: lamps with lightbulbs approximately the same colour as sunlight (the bulbs I'm using are fluorescents with a colour temperature of 4100k; 5000 or 5500 would be even better, but this is all they had at the store) and the "Color Cast" feature in Photoshop Elements.

I'd seen the Color Cast feature before, but didn't really understand what it did.  Then I was reading about light bulbs and how the wrong one could give photos an overly yellow cast, and the purpose of Color Cast suddenly clicked for me.  For those of you who don't know, if you go to Enhance-->Adjust Color-->Color Cast, your cursor turns into an eyedropper shape; if you then click on a part of your picture that's supposed to be black, white, or gray, the computer will sense any colour that shouldn't be there, and remove it from the picture.  This feature is approximately ten thousand times better and easier than trying to colour-correct a photograph manually...trust me on this one. :P

Mind you, now that I'm using lightbulbs that give off almost completely white light, the Color Cast feature doesn't need to change my pictures very much - sometimes it doesn't change a picture at all.  It's definitely true what they say: setting up your pictures properly from the getgo means you don't need to edit them as much afterward, and that means less work in the long run.

p.s.: When I retook my Artfire photos, I also took pictures of a bunch more paintings that haven't been listed yet.  I'll be adding them soon!  In the meantime you'll have to content yourself with the 40+ amazing handmade items currently available...like, for instance, this 3-D wall-mountable bacon.

Click here to see the full listing!

...And don't forget that you can enter the coupon code SHESAIDPOPBLOG at checkout to save 15% on your first purchase!