Floral Watercolors - and Photography Set Up

Good morning! Thought I'd drop by with a card this morning for a couple of challenges - and I have also gotten a lot of questions in the past about how I photograph my cards, so I thought I would share a few pictures of my set up in case it might help someone else! I enjoy photography almost as much as making cards - and love having crisp, clear photos to share. It has taken me quite a while to come up with a system I love, and that process will probably grow and change more as time goes on, but for now I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing.

That info is at the bottom of this post - but first, here is the card I made:

And, the challenges! First up - inspiration from the Altenew March Challenge - From Places Abroad:

This stamp set from Altenew was brand new just landed in my mailbox the day I started this - so perfect for the Never Before Used Schtuff Challenge:

Also linking up with this weeks Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes:

And finally - this took me a couple days to complete, so counts for a couple days of the 30 Day Coloring Challenge. I've lost track of what day I'm on - but as far as I know I only missed a day over the weekend when my hubby and I went away to celebrate our 15th anniversary:

I used the lovely (new to me!) Altenew set called Persion Motifs, and stamped a pattern with Versamark ink on the smoother side of some Ranger watercolor paper. I used some MFT dye inks to watercolor this - they work perfectly if you just smoosh them on your nonstick mat and add water! The sentiment was heat embossed in gold on a strip of black cardstock, I added some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in gold flicked on the watercolor paper, and finished off with a couple of Pretty Pink Posh gold sequins.

Okie Dokie - now the photography! Here is my set up:

I have 3 pieces of foam core board - the top two are taped on the back with Washi Tape, so I can fold them up and put them away, and I have a couple pieces of 12x12 pattern paper that I prop up inside. The whole thing sits on a tall stool that I can set next to the window in my craft room to catch the natural light during the day.

I angle it whatever way I need to, depending on the time of day, to catch the best light. The foam core board is a new addition - but I found that it helps so much with eliminating the shadows from the back and left side of my cards - the white bounces the light back and reflects it on the side of the card not facing the window. 

I shoot with a Nikon D7100 right now - with a 50 mm lense. I always shoot in RAW format - I find that it gives me the most adjustments. Up until just a month or two ago I had a Canon DSLR, but I am so in love with my new Nikon! I edit my photos in Adobe Photoshop, and use a photo editing plug-in called Rad Lab (you can check it out HERE) that I love! It gives me the ability to edit my photos and see exactly what they look like as each change is applied. 

Anyway - if you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I would love to answer anything you might be wondering about - and I hope this gives you new ideas on photographing your projects as well! Would also love to see what other people use, so if you have a blog post, feel free to link up in the comments so I can check it out! 

Thanks so much! Have a wonderful day!!!