What’s for lunch, babe? I’m starved! Can I interest you in some veggie potstickers from Trader Joe’s…? They’re nutritious and delicious (well, I don’t know about that first part), and they’re my new blog workout snack/easy lunch.
Easy is important because I’m always chasing the sun through the windows to take the best, brightest pics I can with as much natural light as possible. This time of year that means being done with all of my beauty pics by no later than 4:30 p.m.
Most afternoons I blaze through my lunch, which very often constitutes the aforementioned potstickers or other snackage from Trader Joe’s, to catch the afternoon sun and take as many blog pics as I can before it sets.
I’m like a charging rhino every afternoon! — dragging tripods, heavy cameras and giant light boxes up and down the stairs while awkwardly holding huge disc-shaped reflectors just out of the shot, and then *click* pose for the picture.
Then it’s back upstairs to download the pics from my camera card to the computer, upload them to the blog, captioning the pics (“Here I’m wearing…” and “Swatches from the left…”), writing the product review and voila! Instant blog post.
I hope you enjoy the finished product. If you do, please subscribe. And if you’re already a subscriber, thank you very much. 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. In addition to hanging out here on the blog, I’m also active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+.
This is actually really fun!
Hi Karen! I absolutely love your blogging tutorial posts – do you by any chance have a post already that shares the photography set-up you mention above? If not, could you? 🙂
Hi Natalie,
I’m sorry I didn’t see this until just now, but I’ve talked about my equipment a few times. Some of the posts are probably out of date though. This is still pretty accurate.
I have a lot of lighting equipment, but the things I use most often for photography lighting are Canon’s 600EX-RT Speedlites.
With newer Canon DSLR cameras, I think from the T3i and up, the camera can trigger the flashes wirelessly without any additional devices, so that I can set one or two of the flashes on light stands around me, along with one of the flashes on the camera, and all of them trigger simultaneously when I snap the picture.
If you’re just starting out, I think the best tool to have for lighting is a good fill flash like one of these 600EX-RT flashes or even a less expensive one like the 430EX-II.
You can do a lot with a good flash, like point it upward or sideways against a wall or the ceiling to bounce some light around the subject. It even helps outdoors in sunlight, where you can use it to diffuse harsh shadows caused by the bright sun.
I hope this helps. 🙂
Karen, thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I appreciate you!
Your work really shows! I feel like the photos have gotten brighter, more beautiful, and so clear. A little TOO good, in fact… Always giving me too many ideas for my wishlist! 🙂