Basketball Bounce

August 31, 2010

Quick Picture Makeovers!

As many of us know, having a shop in Etsy, Artfire or any other handmade selling venue means that having great pictures is a MUST.  We always have to remember that people are buying what is on the picture and that the person has never seen the item in person. Having this in mind having a crispy clear, well presented item is very important. I noticed that there are a few main issues when it comes to photographing, which I will list below:

1- Blurry pictures & yellowish backgrounds

2- Clutter or unnecessary distracting elements in the background of the picture.

3- Selection of background colors that are too similar and that make the item disappear.

These are of course just a few issues out of many, but I decided to start with these and give a few examples of Picture Makeovers that I proposed to all these amazing shop owners. Hope you guys enjoy and learn! :D

Picture Makeover #1

Taking a picture without it being blurry can be a challenge sometimes, therefore my advise is always try to use a tripod or hold your breath for that snap second! :D 

Many times, if the picture is very blurry and you can’t figure out what is going on in the picture, then you know what to do, take the picture again. Like with many things in life, doing it all over again works best, but in some cases you can manage to get away by tweaking things out.

In the example below, I was able to tweak a picture where she just needed a little of  editing to make her picture a bit more crispy, clean & clear! :D

 

Faerie Secret Garden Necklace

MAKEOVER1by BrightFireBeads.

 

Basically I used Photoshop tools to get rid of that sepia color in the background and the blurriness in the necklace. Do have in mind that Photoshop is not the only solution, there are many sites like Picnic.com that have editing tools for those that don’t have Photoshop. The only difference is that Photoshop does have many tools that these sites don’t have, but for the purpose of light photo editing they do the job.

Going back to the editing of the picture, I basically worked with both the Replace Color tool and the Unsharp Mask tool in order to get the background and the blurriness fixed.  The Replace tool basically gives you the liberty of manipulating whatever color is selected with the eyedrop tool.  I selected the sepia color and worked with the lightness bar in the Replace Color Box. After that, I worked with the Unsharp Mask tool in the Filter tab from the top Menu. This tool gives you the ability to manipulate how much of sharpness you want, versus just doing  Sharpen, or Sharpen More. This gave a bit more edge to that amazing necklace. I hope these simple steps helped you guys in your editing process.

 

Check out some other amazing jewerly

                          by BrightFireBeads !!

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Makeover #2

Clutter or unnecessary distracting elements in the background of the picture is the other factor. Try to always take your pictures in a clean environment with no distracting things in the background. This takes away the attention from the main focus which is you product. You want the prospective buyers to have there eye just on  your item.

Also as far as backgrounds goes, for example, I sell buttons and trims. I use a plain white $.50 cents cardboard as my background. It  looks clean and professional. Some people like to have  patterns and textures to give it a twist, which is great, but only if it doesn’t take away the attention to your item and it’s not so bright and busy that it fighting against your product.

I found this cute shop that had the perfect example of having a distracting element in the picture. I think it looks like some sort of lamp base.

Foxes Embroidered Towel

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                                by SewWriteCreationsMAKEOVER2 In this particular picture you can go many ways, using the Clone Tool or just Painting with the brush. Given the nature of that one element on the top corner, I decide =d to go further with the regular brush painting, why? because if you try the other option and it does not come out as you want you have to move to your next option, is that simple. The Clone tool works great for literally cloning one area and repeating that same element somewhere else. In this case I wanted to clone the white from the rest of the lamp base but painting it was just easier in this situation. If you decide to play with the Clone Tool method, this is how it’s done:1-Click on the Clone Stamp Tool on the far left tool menu.2- Hover on top of the area you want to clone (in this case the white area) and select ATL button,  a circle with a cross with come up, versus the regular circle symbol. This means you are ready to clone.3- Go around the area that you want to clone like if you were painting on top of it.4-Open a new Layer, in the “Create New Layer” buttons in the bottom of your Layers Window.5-Once you are that new layer opened, with the Clone tool selected in the menu, (you will see this time a circle brush) start painting. You will see the area that you just cloned being painted again. Voala’Is you decide to go with the Brush tool method, this is how it’s done:1- Create a New Layer in the Layers Window.2- Go to the Brush Tool in the far left Tool menu.3- In the upper Menu in the top of the page you will see the brush setting and size, change it to a blurry one like any of these sizes: 45, 65, or 100.4- Set your Foreground Color to be White in the bottom of the tool menu on your far left.5-Start painting the white area that you want. You can always go back of delete that layer without affecting the original picture, that is why we created a new layer :D This method seems less steps for this particular picture, but remember that is not going to always work this way, this is why you need to know who to work with the other tools that Photoshop provides. That is why I decided to post the Cloning option.

Check out some other amazing embroidery

                    by SewWriteCreations !!

       il_430xN.161221515 il_430xN.161225997

         il_430xN.144506845 il_430xN.168831865

If you need someone to do the job for you, visit my shop QuickPicFix

August 30, 2010

Undiscovered New Shops!

Ok, so I figured that with the recession and the bad economy, many are coming with creative ways of having some extra income (including myself :D) This leads to many people opening shops in Etsy and many other online selling venues. I discovered a few amazing shops and wanted to share with you guys!

 

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Wish Granted Earrings Green & Copper
Fairy Necklace
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DoxyDame $16 ElainaLouiseStudios $55
   
   
Antique Brass  Nightingale Necklace Simple Elegance
Bridal Pin
il_430xN.144666796 il_430xN.156058531
 AllureByU $ 22 CReid0409 $25
   
   
Off the Page Flower
Hair Pin
Orange Linen- Pillow Cover
il_430xN.168376460 il_430xN.170111559
TriggerHappyTrends $6   Sukanart  $34.95
   
   
Primitive Halloween Candy Corn’s VW Beetle Photograph
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 LittlePenniAnn $11.99  Vmphotography  $13

August 29, 2010

Simply Weird, Unique & Interesting!

Ok, so while I was looking for sellers to post for the previous post, I found myself amazed with all the beautiful, unique items that are simply weird & interesting! Check these out!

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Loopy Goth ArtDoll   
OOAK Sandra
 
Purple people eater
Bracelet
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Loopyboopy $125  Dogzillalives$120
    
   
Int Bonus d20 Dangle
Earrings
  Organic Swirl Focal 2
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Unintentional $12   MitosisGlass $8.50
   
   
Sterling Silver Evil Eye Ring Steampunk Acorn  Girl  Necklace

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Twistedsisterarts $100

  CosmicFirefly $45

The minute I saw these items I thought, “thank God for Etsy!” I just think that it’s amazing the weird and beautiful things one can find in the net! I really enjoyed searching for these shop!

August 27, 2010

Dark & Cute Treasury!

Hello Everyone!

I decide to start the first treasury with cute gothic inspired items that could be great gifts for young people. Considering that Halloween is coming up I thought that featuring a couple of shops form Etsy with dark but cute stuff would be a great way to start off. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Cute & Dark Gifts

less than $20 

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Men's Studded Cuff  Red & Black Gingham  Clippies
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TinaagleShop  $17 KalliopeKreations $5
   
   
Sugar Skull Plush Alice in Wonderland Pouch
il_430xN.168484456 il_430xN.160339625
Raspberryrocket $4.99 HautTotes $15.50
   
   
Gothic Arm-Warmers Piosonberry Pumkin
Patch Earrings
il_430xN.166349672 il_430xN.167734363
Darkfusionboutique$20   MollythePirate  $10
   
   
Black- The Devil Bunny Gothic Girl & her Umbrella- Print
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 Zeropumpkin $17  VelvetMorning  $10

August 26, 2010

Etsy! One of the best things that happened to me!

Hey guys! This is my very first post in my blog, so I am very excited! I hope this blog will serve as a source of inspiration for many artists and poeple that love the arts. I plan to make my little treasuries with a different theme every week and help other shops from Etsy, and many other handmade online venues to gain exposure, so stay tuned!

Like I mentioned in my About Me section, I am a fashion designer with turst for lots of inspirations. I have two shops, one with cute buttons and embellishments, Vidalbuttons ShopQuick PicFix Shop where I fix other peoples pics. My intention with this blog is to make this blog a venue where many people from different handmade places can get together and see other peoples creations. Why? I get a feeling that what happens with Etsy and all these places where people sell stuff, is that we create our own mini handmade worlds and we need to make 1 world :D