How to Photograph Reflective Ornaments

Last year when I listed my Pocket Mirror Christmas ornaments in my Etsy shop I was able to hang them on my Christmas tree to take pictures of them. I wanted to list some a little earlier this year, though, and since I don't have my Christmas tree up yet, I had to think of another way to photograph them.

I've detailed in an earlier post my creative solution to product photography with a limited budget and small living space. I started with the same basic plan to shoot in front of the glass door leading to the deck of my town house. I get good, open lighting for several hours of the day there.

I used pieces of foamboard again, standing one scored board on end and laying another one across the top. I grabbed one of my pin-back button parts and stuck it in the top board and draped the ribbon of the ornament over it, letting it hang freely, like this:



Since these ornaments are highly reflective it takes a little creative positioning to compensate for that. I've found that a strategically place black board can take care of the problem. Watch what the light is doing and how the reflection changes as you reposition this black board in front of the item you're shooting, varying the angle as necessary. Don't worry if you have to get a little of the foamboards in the picture because you can crop that out later.



I think these pictures turned out pretty well. What do you think? These ornaments were all made with Christmas print fabrics I've collected. I'll be listing these and others in my Etsy shop soon.

Christmas in July

I'm participating in the Etsybloggers Street Team's Christmas in July sale. I keep a Christmas section in my Etsy shop all year long, letting some of the items expire as the year goes on and bringing them back during the fall. This year I'm bringing them back early and all Christmas items are marked half the usual price so get 'em while you can!

This is your once a year chance to get my handsewn Puzzle Ball Christmas Ornaments for only $20. Every stitch made by hand, I don't use a sewing machine for these. I'm considering extending my sale through the month of August, too, since it'll take me a while to make more of my Mini-Puzzle Ball Ornaments (I sold out last year).



I also have my Pocket Mirror Christmas Ornaments which were good sellers for me last year. Some are my original designs, some made with one of a kind images recycled from vintage magazines, but any and all will be beautiful hanging on your Christmas tree.



Grab a few of my "Merry Christmas Darling" buttons to add to your packages this year or let me make some custom buttons for every member of the family!



Keep checking back because I'm planning to add something new to my Christmas section every day!


By the way...the cross-stitched log cabin wreath posted at the top of this blog entry is not for sale. It's one I did many years ago and I'm keeping it. But I am considering putting a photo of it on mugs in my Zazzle shop, so I'll let you know when that's available. Stay tuned....

A Mirror On Your Christmas Tree

I came up with a fun thing to do with my pocket mirrors this Christmas...hang them on your Christmas tree! Here's the front and back of one that's my original design:





I've saved a few special, one of a kind, images I'm recycling from vintage magazines published around Christmas and they'll be perfect for these. Here' my first two:





I have more vintage Christmas ones still to come, as well as something special for collectors of vintage cameras or guitars, or for you favorite computer geek (because I like those things, too). Here's one I made with a picture I took of the Miranda G 35mm slr I got years ago from my dad (I blogged about this camera rehere):



I'll be happy to make you some custom pocket mirror ornaments to hang on your tree. I can make you one that says Merry Christmas to someone special or use your photo to make one. Just leave me a comment here or a convo on Etsy and I'll fix you right up!

Summer/Fall projects

A cool breeze is blowing at my house today and fall is definitely in the air. But this project I just completed for an Etsy customer reminds me of summer.

When she first contacted me she said she wanted a special pocket mirror to give to her daughter. She said she loves pink and elephants and butterflies and glitter.

Two thoughts occurred to me:

1. I'm knee-deep in a custom order of 15 Mini-Puzzle Ball Christmas Ornaments and don't have a lot of time for graphic design brainstorming right now.

2. "Girly" does not describe me. I'm about as "tomboy" as you can get and have been so for all of my 50 years on this planet.

I decided to call in reinforcements.

I told the CafeMom Etsy Moms Street Team about this because I knew several members are talented graphic artists who might be interested in this project. After gathering some designs from the ladies and submitting several to the customer, this one was her favorite.




I pressed it by hand with my professional button machine and materials and covered it with mylar and turned it into the pocket mirror pictured here.




You should check out the Etsy shop of the Cafemom Etsy Mom who helped me with this project, mamaslittlemonkeys for some great stuff for babies, kids and their mamas. She's also opened a second Etsy shop, fleurdeink, for some really special flower pens she makes:








If you're a member of CafeMom.com and also an Etsy seller, stop by and see our CafeMom Etsy Moms Group sometime.

I'm a Winner!

Today I discovered another benefit of being a member of the Etsybloggers Street Team. I visited one of my fellow member's blogs and left a comment on one of her posts. She had shared a photograph she'd taken with a question about the best way to crop it, seeking comments from her readers. She planned on picking one of those who left comments to win some of her vintage photo greeting cards. Contests are always fun and I really liked the photo, so I left a comment.

And I won! So, thanks to TheFabMissB!

Maybe I'll have a contest of my own here on my blog. I might give away some of my vintage buttons, magnets, thumb tacks, pocket mirrors or tie tacks.

What do you think? Leave a comment about what you'd like to see me give away from my Etsy shop.....

Taking Pictures Part 2: Reflections

I've written before about my creative solution to taking pictures of small products, like the buttons and small crafts I sell from my Etsy shop. I know a lot of Etsy sellers use a light tent for this, like this home made one. But anything I do has to fit in my tiny townhouse so setting up a light tent and finding a place to keep the equipment when not in use didn't seem to be a viable option for me.

Instead, I use a couple of foamboards, scored and folded and set up as both backdrop and reflector. When not in use, these are folded flat and stored behind a bookshelf, conveniently out of the way. I made another makeshift reflector out of half of a large can, too, which works very well for small objects.

It's all about the light...where it's coming from...and where you want to put it.

One challenge for me was controlling reflections, since the buttons I make have a shiny surface. A little maneuvering, a slight change of angle and a healthy dose of trial and error can make all the difference.

But pocket mirrors were a particular challenge not only because of the shiny surface of the button, but also because of the image reflected by the mirror. After all, you want to show the mirror, not what the mirror sees. In this photo the reflection of my reflector (a foil-covered piece of foamboard) can clearly be seen:



That's not a photo I'd want to post in my Etsy shop, even after cropping out the edge of my background and the reflector set up on the left side.

Sometimes the best solution is the simplest. Here's what I did to fix that:



By tilting the angle of the folded piece of foamboard that was serving as my background, I made sure that the only thing reflected in my pocket mirror was the white surface of the foamboard.

Since I'm using window light, which can vary according to the time of day or weather, I usually tweak the brightness and contrast of these product shots with graphics software. (I use an old version of Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements to do this, although free programs like Gimp or Picasa are favored by many Etsy crafters.)

Here's the final result:



By the way, the pocket mirror I've used in this example isn't available in my Etsy shop. It's a personal project for some friends of mine. But you can check out the Imaginary Bitches website and a very funny new web series written by Andrew Miller and starring Eden Riegel, Elizabeth Hendrickson and some other familiar faces from TV. It's getting some great attention from the press., including raves from People Magazine and TV Guide. Better yet, go to their YouTube channel and watch all the webisodes for yourself and if you enjoy it as much as I do, subscribe and share it with your friends.

From Pink to Black

Pink & Pinker is gone! The bear I mentioned in my previous post didn't languish for too long in my Etsy shop before finding a new home.

The next bear I finished was a custom order that came to me when someone spotted my Blue Jean Bear on my Flickr and asked if I could make a black denim bear with scraps they had on hand. I'm always interested in doing custom orders like that, so they sent me one leg's worth of an old pair of jeans and here's the result (I added a red ribbon around the bears neck after taking these pictures):





This customer happens to be an amazing photographer. She sent me a couple of her pictures so I could turn them into pocket mirrors to include in her package with the bear. Here they are:





You should check out her blog here and see her work on her on her Flickr, too.

Sale Time!

It's sale time...I mean that two ways. First, I have things on sale in my Etsy shop. All my pocket mirrors and notecards are 10% off now through Dec. 8th. This is part of the Etsy Blogger Street Team's Holiday Sale. And second, I'm hoping that this sale will lead to ...uh...sales!

Here are some of the pocket mirrors I have, which are all made from recycled magazine images and are each One Of a Kind. These would make perfect stocking stuffers or wrap them up and put them under the Christmas tree!