You are not alone... the camera made me go grrr too...

Because it's never just one thing you have to overcome... I'm posting about my severe hatred of taking pictures and my lack of know how or camera savvy.

When I started out I struggled with the camera.  OK, I'm still working on it.  I have never taken a class.  Apature value and time value still confuse me a bit, but not as much as they used to (thank you JennaDesigns).  I think I've nailed the macro settings and where the photo brackets, or focuses.  I really really HATE editing & adjusting color after the shot.  It's not that difficult to adjust your curves, mess with the saturation and hue.  IF I try to do this... my colors never look true, or the white pages look so bright you can't see them anymore.  So... my photos are a bit dark.  Yes, the table I photo on has a bit to do with that... but I feel as if it's become part of my brand.  It sets my shots out from anyone else's.  So I own the shots that I have taken.  I am good with the "darkness" because I know my colors are as true as you can get with a digital image and monitors may vary a bit. Who else has a gorgeous barn board table with THAT much character?  I get some comments about it every once in a while.  It seems without fail, a day or two later, someone will tell me they love my photos... thank you!  For someone who has NEVER taken a photo class I think I'm doing OK.

Obstacle overcome!  <3  in my mind at least :P

Front Paaaggggeeee Baby!

For those of you who are coming across this post & don't know why all this hub bub about the front page, I'll explain.  On Etsy they have a group of sellers featured and it cycles evey hour.  It is pretty special to be on the front page, because not only do you get a ton of exposure to your shop, but you also know your doing something right.  Especially as a book binder, you need to make a book LOOK fun & pretty & accessible.  It's not as easy to do that with a book as say maybe, a pair of earrings or a great top.  You have to make people say, "ooo... i want!"

To be on the front page it's all about the photo.  The better your photo is, the more likely your shop will be seen and make it to the elusive front page.  In the last week I've made it to the front page 3 times!  At first I sat here scratching my head.  Why all of a sudden am I getting noticed?  Then it hit me... I am cool!  No, seriously!  I have taken photos, and retaken photos, and taken them again... each time getting a bit better.  I also had a great Etsy friend explain my husband's Rebel Xsi to me, thank you Jen (aka JennaDesigns).  I know it's a pain.  As they say, practice makes perfect.  I think I still have a ways to go.  I know my shots can be better, and they will be better.  But I need to practice.  I thought I would throw up past backgrounds for you all to see.  Sometimes it's all we need, is a little inspiration... or an absolute accident!

The first photos of my journals my wonderful husband took, on the back of a quilt I made.  These photos were nice, but the lighting in our old apartment was not the best.  With experience I know now that I just should have moved around to get the right window at the right time of day.

Then we built a light box.  It was great to be able to take pictures at midnight when we had time and could control everything... but do you notice that it looks like I forgot to put pages in the journal... white is just too harsh for my journals, soo....

I used a tan peice of kraft paper.  This was better, but still boring.  And tan matches some of the journals and not others, as you can see.  This is a beatiful journal... but the background does nothing to make it look extra special.

Then a custom order came from my graphic designer, Melissa at TheSpeckeledPear, and that was it, I took shots on this table & hooray!  This is a table I used in my gallery (yes, I owned a gallery).  I bought it from a friend of mine's father that made it out of old barn boards.  It has so much personality & character.  I have taken all my pics on it since.  It gives the journals a romantic feel.

And these are the shots that made the front page.  Better, right?  I hope you all go out and work on your photos, I know there are a few of mine that need tweaking :D  Don't be afraid to try something new!!!

Tutorial... how to get your pics to fit in Etsy's gallery mode with paint.net

        There are probably many ways to do this... this is the way I've figured out how to do this using www.paint.net, which is

#1. FREE

#2. Very similar to photoshop

If you frequent Etsy you know you there are two ways to view shop pages, in Gallery Mode & in List Mode. In List Mode the product photos are square, in Gallery Mode they are 155 x 125 pixels.  This was the most noticable in my husbands shop, LampLightPottery, where his pictures of the ceramic vases were chopped off at the top and bottom.  This is my solution to that problem:

         

Click "File" then "Open..." to find your photo...

Find your file location and click "Open"...

Select your "Rectangle Tool"...

Above your photo click "Normal" and select "Fixed Ratio" from the drop down menu...

Make the width "155" and your height "125"...

Right click in the top left corner of your photo and drag your selection to the bottom of the photo...

Select the "Move Selection" tool and adjust your highlighted area...

Click on the "Image" and choose "Resize" from the drop down menu...

With the "Maintain aspect ratio" box checked make the width of your photo "1000" pixels...

Click "File" and "Save As..." from the drop down menu...

Choose the location on your computer to save your photo & type in your photo name, click "Save"...

Click "OK" or hit enter to save your "Save Configuration"...

And your done!  You can use this as a basic tutorial for adjusting your photos and change your resizing size, or anything else that you'd like to change to suit your needs.  There are many more options that you can use to adjust your photos, this is the basics to show how to make the most out of your shop in Gallery Mode!  Good luck!!!