Improving the photo quality of my cards part 2 - taking the photograph

It's Thursday so it's my day to share with you some of the goodies I've used over at Quixotic Paperie!  It is also the follow up from my post yesterday with tips on how I improve my photographs for posting.

But first, here are two teenage girl birthday cards I made using the Creeper Crew set by The Greeting Farm...

I used Bazzill Kraft cardstock for the card base, the BasicGrey Curio paper pad and the sentiments are from the Whimsy Party Mini Letter Seals.  I used my Sew Easy Tool for quick hole making for the stitching - love this tool!  I inked the edges with my Ranger Archival Inkpad in jet black.

And now on to how I use my light box. Yesterday I shared with you how I use the Picasa 3 software (my post here) and today I'm going to tell you about how I take my photographs using a light box.  So these following pictures show you the difference between using a light box (first photo) and simply photographing on the sidetable in my dining room (second photo) and I haven't used any software on them at this stage...

Both pictures were taken at night.  The first photo that uses the light box is truer to colour in real life and the lighting is more even.  The second photo is far more yellow (because of the light bulbs of course) and you can see the shadowing on the wall.

As I'm not a good photographer (believe me, I'm rubbish!) I'm reluctant to spend money on expensive equipment.  Originally I was going to make my own light box using this tutorial here by Digital Photography School, but I came across a very cheap light box by Maplin that costs £14.99 that you can find here.  In addition to my light box, I bought a couple of work lamps and I buy the daylight bulbs from the internet as I can't find them in the shops.

Maplins now sell a studio kit for £39.99 which is basically the light box plus two table lights and a camera stand - you can find it here.  Maplins is a UK site - I'm not aware if they sell internationally, sorry!  I would have bought the studio kit if they sold it at the time but, hey ho, we move on and here is my set up in my craft room...

Please excuse the mess.  If you look closely, you can see some of the gorgeous cards on the windowsill some of my wonderful blogging mates have sent me - they give me nice warm feelings!  Anyway, back to photographs!  Here are the pictures after they have both been improved using Picasa 3 software....

I think it now comes down to personal preference.  I still prefer the first photo that uses the light box as I think it looks more professional, but which one do you prefer?

So that is how I photograph my cards for my posts - thanks for bearing with me to explain it all! I hope you found that useful.  If you have any specific questions leave a comment and I'll get back to you!  See you for now!


For my cards I followed this month's sketch over at A Sketch For You To Try. and I am also entering these cards into the following challenges:

• Anyone For Anya for teen/punk 
• Karens Doodles Netherlands for inside out
• That's Krafty Thursday to use kraft cardstock
• Wags 'n Whiskers for circles
• Prairie Fairy Friday for here come the girls
• Farm Fresh Fridays for congrats
• Crazy 4 Challenges for chocolate (all that choccie colour, yum!!)
• Paper Sundaes for birthdays

Paper/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock, BasicGrey Curio paper pad
Stamps: The Greeting Farm Creeper Crew set, Whimsy Party Mini Letter Seals

Mediums: Copics
Accents: thread
Tools: Tim Holtz distressing tool, Nestabilities circle dies Sew Easy Tool