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July 20, 2013

Photographic Gifts

©TimeLine Media - source files for greeting cards

It is my mother’s birthday on Monday! I have given her many photo gifts as you can imagine – from canvas prints, to albums, to prints mounted into frames. This year, I am giving her something that she requested a while ago. She really like to send out greeting cards for birthdays and holidays, but she cannot find ones that have lines printed on the inside for writing. It seems like this would be something that would be easy to find! So for her birthday, I made some custom cards. The photos were of flowers from the garden at her house that her brother manages. He is quite talented with caring for these – I am trying to learn his tricks! Most of the printing houses online can print both the outside and inside of cards in case you want to add text to the inside of the card. Instead of text, I just added a page with lines that my mom could use to write her notes.

5x7 card with lines — 5×7 card with lines

Custom Postcards

Then, I made some covers for the cards with the flower photos. I took my longer than I want to admit to make sure the flowers were on the correct side as they were folded. It was not until I saw the cards delivered that I was completely sure I did it correctly.

©TimeLine Media - 5x7 greeting card — ©TimeLine Media – 5×7 greeting card

I also wanted to ensure that they printed well on the paper. Optical prints are printed on photographic paper, either matte or glossy, and I am familiar with how my images look out of Lightroom translated to that kind of paper. The cards are pre-press printed onto card stock. Check with your lab before you print to see how to setup you software to soft proof how they will look prior to ordering. There are some slight change you may have to make in contrast and sharpening to ensure a good transfer. These turned out nicely! I hope my mom enjoys them. Maybe I’ll start a greeting card business line.

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July 18, 2013

Photography, Technology | 0 comment

Color – Tech Thursday

My photography has been primarily been in color. Ballroom dancers especially, love to show off their dresses and costumes in the vibrant hues with which they were made. In photography classes, I was first introduced to the color wheel and how the information it contains can help photography composition.

Color Theory

Examining the color wheel, you can see where lots of branding and logos get their colors. Complimentary colors lie across the color wheel from each other – red and green, or purple and yellow for example. Analogous colors are adjacent to each other on the wheel such as red and orange or blue and purple. This is another added element of creativity you can use in photography. As an example, here is another flower shoot that had some challenges.

This day lily has some beautiful color – newly bloomed, and early in the morning when the sun is lower in the sky, and not too harsh. It helps to keep the photographer cool too! So here is the first photo showing the flower with all the background elements surrounding the plot where they are planted.

A nice snap, but I don’t like a few things in this frame. There is an older lily that does not open any longer in the right side background of the frame. Then in the far back of the frame is a brown/gray area of the fence that was immediately behind the flowers. The first change I made was how close I was to the subject. Using a macro lens, you can get very close which easily eliminates some of these problems.

Adding flash to the photo also let me darken the background more than the first photo. This helps to take the fence out of the frame even more. The final change that I made was to use color to make a more pleasing background. Here is where card stock and a holder of some kind could help, but I did not have any of that available. So, I moved a large recycling bin into the background! It is a large, BLUE, plastic can that was easily maneuverable. On the color wheel, the reds/oranges are across from the blue range, so I thought it would be worth a shot.

I am happy with the results! It is subtle, but it added to the saturated look of the entire image. Try a color wheel experiment the next time you are shooting flowers, product shots, or fashion. The information from the color wheel can add to your creativity.

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703-864-8208

June 16, 2013

Personal, Photography | 1 Comment

Flowers with Flash Modifier

The weather has been very kind the last couple of days. Flowers seem to be popping out of yards to enjoy the sun as well. To get out and enjoy the new blooms, I have used the macro lens more with some flash modifiers to make some nice even light on the flowers. I am finding so much more about how light and lenses can be used this way which is drastically different from portrait setups. I’ll post more about this as I learn more from this setup. In the meantime, here are some hydrangea and clematis flowers that were fresh out of the garden.

Garden Flowers

Clematis flowers ©TimeLine Media — Clematis ©TimeLine Media

When you get out the macro lens, a whole new world opens up in your garden. At this time, the blooms in your yard hold many details that can only be seen up close. The clematis flowers have a beautiful color and very detailed center. It is only with the macro lens that you can appreciate all of the tiny structures of the flower. In subsequent posts, I hope to show more of my work in the garden. The combination of the macro lens and flash helps to make my photos stand out!

Hydrangea flowers ©TimeLine Media — Hydrangea ©TimeLine Media

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703-864-8208

Posts Tagged ‘macro’

Custom Postcards

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Color Theory

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Garden Flowers

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