Showing posts with label background. Show all posts
Showing posts with label background. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Polka dots it is
As if anyone wants to see one more post about my Plini backgrounds. Fortunately for those wondering, this will be the last as I've made my final decision. Polka dots it is! I'm about 75% done re-shooting the photos and color-correcting them. I don't know why I didn't think the polka dots were a good idea at first. They're exactly the feel I wanted the Plini figurines to have. Whaddyathink?
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
a new background, me thinks maybe
Oh my gracious dear me...it's been way too long since my last post. I can't say I haven't been busy though. More Plinis, finishing up my custom order for a wedding set, making a birthday card for my Nana, feeding the "outside cat" (see my previous post), and other various things.
But today, what's weighing heavily on my mind is my wanting to change up the way I photograph my Plinis. I've always had them on a bright white background. But it's really very time consuming and sometimes I don't think I capture the natural color of certain Plinis as good as it could be.
I don't know if that's a good idea though. I do like a white background because there's no distractions and nothing to influence your opinion of the Plini besides the Plini itself. Plus, I think it gives a teeny artsy gallery type of feel. I don't want my Plini figurines to be translated as disposable toys, but rather teeny works of "non-hoity-toity" art. If that makes any sense.
So I've been playing around with some backgrounds and weighing the pros and cons in terms of how long it takes me to prepare the lighting as well as edit the photo.
For the first one I photographed a Plini on a recipe page of a book. I was thinking it might be interesting if the page related to the plini. So say I had a Plini with cookies on her head, she could be sitting on a cookie recipe page. The lighting was pretty easy to deal with and I think it looks interesting with some of the text in focus and some not. But I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Mind you, I took these pictures really quickly so they're not perfect. Just for comparison.
This second one is photographed on artist canvas. It still sticks closely to my orignal white backgrounds, but has a little texture. Is texture a good thing? I don't know. The lighting was a little harder to work with and I had to play with the color balance because it mostly picked up blues. But overall it didn't effect the color of the Plini in a bad way.
My third try I went with what appeared to be a black background. But when I photographed it I realized it had a teensy bit of sheen on the paper which equals instant dull gray on camera. I played with the contrast and the photo got very grainy. Then I had to tweak the coloring of everything for a while. I don't think I like the black at all though. I was thinking it might make the bright colors pop and it just might if I manage to find a better piece of black for the background and photograph it better. But for now, I don't feel like dealing with it. I have enough to deal with with the white backgrounds.
The fourth photo I went with this "pretend lace" cardstock paper I have. I loooooove lacey things and back when I was taking pictures of my food-themed jewelry I'd usually photograph them on a doily. But this looks kind of fake and strange I think. The color was a bit of a pain to deal with too. It picked up a lot of blue and when I tried to fix it the photo got a little grainy. Also, I'm not sure if I like that pink shows through the eyelets of the lace. Will pink match with every one of my Plinis? Hmm...
And lastly, I thought maybe a solid color would look nice. I've been using solid colors for other various things in my shop, why not my Plinis too? Question is...do I stick with just one solid color for all of them (for uniformity) or whatever color compliments the Plini at the time? The problem I have with colors is that they react strangely with the Plini colors sometimes and I end up having to color correct them a lot.
Well that's what I have so far. Overall I like the book pages the most. But I've seen that technique a good amount of times. Is it too unoriginal? I've been pacing around my apartment looking for other surfaces and things to try out. I guess I'll keep brainstorming and let some ideas percolate.
But today, what's weighing heavily on my mind is my wanting to change up the way I photograph my Plinis. I've always had them on a bright white background. But it's really very time consuming and sometimes I don't think I capture the natural color of certain Plinis as good as it could be.
I don't know if that's a good idea though. I do like a white background because there's no distractions and nothing to influence your opinion of the Plini besides the Plini itself. Plus, I think it gives a teeny artsy gallery type of feel. I don't want my Plini figurines to be translated as disposable toys, but rather teeny works of "non-hoity-toity" art. If that makes any sense.
So I've been playing around with some backgrounds and weighing the pros and cons in terms of how long it takes me to prepare the lighting as well as edit the photo.
For the first one I photographed a Plini on a recipe page of a book. I was thinking it might be interesting if the page related to the plini. So say I had a Plini with cookies on her head, she could be sitting on a cookie recipe page. The lighting was pretty easy to deal with and I think it looks interesting with some of the text in focus and some not. But I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Mind you, I took these pictures really quickly so they're not perfect. Just for comparison.
This second one is photographed on artist canvas. It still sticks closely to my orignal white backgrounds, but has a little texture. Is texture a good thing? I don't know. The lighting was a little harder to work with and I had to play with the color balance because it mostly picked up blues. But overall it didn't effect the color of the Plini in a bad way.
My third try I went with what appeared to be a black background. But when I photographed it I realized it had a teensy bit of sheen on the paper which equals instant dull gray on camera. I played with the contrast and the photo got very grainy. Then I had to tweak the coloring of everything for a while. I don't think I like the black at all though. I was thinking it might make the bright colors pop and it just might if I manage to find a better piece of black for the background and photograph it better. But for now, I don't feel like dealing with it. I have enough to deal with with the white backgrounds.
The fourth photo I went with this "pretend lace" cardstock paper I have. I loooooove lacey things and back when I was taking pictures of my food-themed jewelry I'd usually photograph them on a doily. But this looks kind of fake and strange I think. The color was a bit of a pain to deal with too. It picked up a lot of blue and when I tried to fix it the photo got a little grainy. Also, I'm not sure if I like that pink shows through the eyelets of the lace. Will pink match with every one of my Plinis? Hmm...
And lastly, I thought maybe a solid color would look nice. I've been using solid colors for other various things in my shop, why not my Plinis too? Question is...do I stick with just one solid color for all of them (for uniformity) or whatever color compliments the Plini at the time? The problem I have with colors is that they react strangely with the Plini colors sometimes and I end up having to color correct them a lot.
Well that's what I have so far. Overall I like the book pages the most. But I've seen that technique a good amount of times. Is it too unoriginal? I've been pacing around my apartment looking for other surfaces and things to try out. I guess I'll keep brainstorming and let some ideas percolate.
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