March isn't doing much roaring just yet

I've been spending quite some time on etsy. Listing new items and scouring the forum for tips on how to improve my shop. I've been pleased with all of the encouragement I've received and the compliments on my pictures. They are still a work in progress, but I thought I would share my journey to the perfect etsy picture. :)

I had never taken still photos of inanimate objects before, only candid shots of friends and family, so this was a challenge for me. I went in search for a background. I went to the fabric store and was totally confused. I had NO idea whether I should buy a dark fabric or a light one. Small pattern, large pattern or NO pattern? Blah! So, I settled on this. Yeah, I wasn't too happy with it, either. Just way too dark, not enough light. Many problems with this picture.


So, one night I started researching Photo tents/light boxes. I didn't want to spend lots of money for one, so I was delighted when I found tutorials on how to build your own lightbox!! I spent quite a bit of time looking at different sites and pictures. When I went to bed that night, I couldn't sleep because I was thinking of the lightbox I was going to build. I was making my shopping list in my head, planning all of the stores I was going to, etc...

The next day, I headed to Hobby Lobby to buy poster board for my background. I decided on white and a royal blue. I went to the Dollar Tree to buy tissue paper and glue sticks. Then I went to Wal-mart to buy desk lamps. I already had a large box for the frame of the lightbox, so my shopping was complete! I think I spent a total of $ 20-25.00. When I got home, I couldn't wait to get started on my project. It didn't take me long to put it all together, but it was still pretty late. Reid was ready to go to bed, but I told him that I HAD to take some pictures, or I wouldn't be able to sleep.


So, I grabbed some of my scrubs and started snapping pics. Here is one of the first pictures from that night. I was SO disappointed! I couldn't understand why the picture was so... pink!





I opened the picture in Abobe Photoshop, and adjusted the levels. It helped quite a bit.






Then I decided that I wanted to try a different background color, so I tried the blue background.



I'm still working on the light being too pink. I've had to adjust each of my pictures in Photoshop, but I think I have it figured out. I need to adjust the "white balance" on my camera. I'll let you know how THAT goes.