Photo Taking Tips for the Artistic Mother Art Group

A big thank you to my husband, Marty Callan, for taking the above photo.

Presentation is everything! You've worked so hard to make your beautiful works of art; so you'll want to take some great photos to best show it off. Disney of Ruffles and Stuff has done an excellent tutorial on how to take the best photos of your work. She has examples of how your subject will look in different lighting and with different backgrounds. I recommend you pop on over and read all about it. Below I have done a quick summary of her photography tips. But if you're visual like me, you'll want to see her examples. When you go to her site, look in the archives for her post. It was done on March 2nd, 2010. For some reason I wasn't able to get the link to go directly there. Sorry.

1: Always take photos in outdoor lighting! A cloudy day is best, to avoid shadows, or look for some shade.

2: Use a good background! Use a large white mat board or a white sheet, pretty papers, or nature, so long as you can see your subject clearly.

3: Get creative with your photo. You don't want your subject to always be centered! Play around with different angles, fun backgrounds Look for interesting backgrounds.

4: Photo-editing programs. So important. You can use iPhoto and Photoshop for cropping, adjusting the exposure, and color temperature, and if you don't have access to those, try using Picnik, which is a free online photo-editing site.

Sidenote: Now check out my nine year old daughter Emily's blog. She has done a post about things she and her brother Martin made with paper mache. This post is sure to be an inspiration for your kids. Then click on "home" and "older posts" to see all of her posts and look around. She's an incredible kid.