Project Photography, Tools, & Editing - A How-To Video

It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum.  This month, we were asked the following questions:

Show us your project photography setup.

What type of camera do you use, and what settings do you prefer?

How do you edit your photographs?  Walk us through your standard editing procedure.
Visit the MFT Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team.
OK, let me start by saying I am not a professional by any means.  I do my best, try to learn new "tricks" as I can, and make an effort to improve my photos, so you can call me a work in progress.  *wink*
Project Photography Setup
This is the photo tent/light box that I use.  It's about 16" square and comes with different colored drop cloths.  I only use the white one.  Because I have it on my floor/carpet, and not on something white, I added a couple pieces of white cardboard with a piece of white card stock laying on it to the 2 areas that light does not shine through.  That helps me keep a very white background.  Here is a pretty stock photo.  You can buy one from Amazon HERE.

Here is how it looks "in real life".  I have an extra light so I add one to the top, shining down, and one on each side.  That helps me light up the inside of the box nice and bright.  It is laying on the floor/carpet because I have no where else to set it up.  I do not like to set it up and take it down repeatedly, so it's a fixture in my stamp room.  On the floor. 

Here it is with all three lights on.  You can see there is quite a bit of light. 

Now for the funny part... I mentioned my light box is always on my floor.  Well... so am I when I photograph my cards!  LOL  Imagine a superman pose, laying on the floor.  That's me down there... getting ready to take a picture!  LOL  It's not ideal, but it works for me.  

Camera and Settings

I use the Sony DSC-HX1 to take photographs.  It can also be used an HD video camera, which is a nice bonus.  You can find it on Amazon, HERE.  It has plenty of perks that hopefully make up for my lack of expertise.  This camera was suggested to me by Kim, the owner of MFT.  

 I like the big display screen and it's pretty user-friendly.

Here are the settings on the camera.  I tend to stay on the P setting.  Confession: I have no clue what that means.  I have it on P, make sure the macro is on (the little flower) and that is the end of my prep work.  I'm thinking I need to carve out some time and read the manual.  *note to self - learn how to use camera ASAP

Editing Software and Procedure

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 to edit my photographs.  I purchased it from the Apple App store for my iMac.  Looks like there is a new version out, and you can check it out HERE.

Thanks to Karen Giron, I was able to figure out how to record what I was doing on my screen, so I created a nifty video showing me editing a photo, real-time.  I use several different methods when editing my card photos and this is just one of them.  This a "newer" method of editing, thanks to a lesson from the fabulous Joanne Basile.  Like I said... always striving for improvement!  
Click HERE to watch the video, or click the "play" button below.  

Here are the before and after photos for the card photo I used for the video above. 
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Thanks for stopping by today!  Don't forget to go visit the rest of the team.  You'll find the links on the MFT Blog.