Photo lighting

I've been getting a lot of emails about how I photograph my cards. I thought since it was Mother's Day I'd do a quick post addressing some different lighting ideas as my gift to you!

1. Where the light source is coming from is very important. In this example, the light is behind and to the left of me. Rather high in the sky (I'm using the sun). It washes the card out a bit, and makes it hard to see the small details like the embossed BG.

2. Here I turned the card just a bit, and it faces full sun. See how it casts icky shadows and the bottom of the card is dark? It also highlights all the flaws! Yet, now we can see the embossed BG perfectly and the stitching at the bottom (and the tiny insect crawling on the main image panel! lol).

3. This is inside, but still using natural light filtering in through a window. It removes the bad shadows and shows the card rather well, while NOT drawing attention to the minor flaws. BUT, you can no longer see the stitching at the bottom, and some of the depth is gone. This makes the card look a bit flat.

4. I went back outside for this one and stayed out of any direct sun. This example is back-lit. You can see the subtle nuances of inking on the BG best here, and all of the flaws are hidden (except for my horrible stitching job around the oval panel which has nothing to do with lighting and everything to do with user error).

5. I also took a photo using my home made light box studio but inadvertently deleted it! Figures! It was the best of the bunch for this particular card! Sometime with white or cream cards, my light box is best because I can use tiny spot lights all around it to better highlight the card base.

So these are just a sampling of different lighting and BG techniques you can use to showcase your specific card to it's fullest extent. Remember that each card will be different concerning which type works best.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers, mother-to-be, and grandmothers. You are doing a great job and we thank you!

Much love,