DIY Network

Digital Photography: Making Greeting Cards Tips for Shooting, Designing and Printing Photographic Greeting Cards From "The Whole Picture" episode DTWP-211

Have you ever wanted to create your own customized greeting cards? In this project professional photographer and The Whole Picture host Erin Manning shows how easy it is to create professional quality custom greeting cards that will really stand out from the rest.

Included in this lesson:

• Tips on how to choose the best subject for your card to give it a personal touch.
  
• How to set up and light a home studio in which to photograph the subject.
  
• How to construct and layout a greeting card using some inexpensive computer software
  
• How to print greeting cards on custom paper so they'll have a professional look.
  

Create your own photographic greeting cards like these. . .

. . .using digital photography and some simple software tricks.

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	Arrange your props to tell the story.

Materials:

digital camera
clamp lights
tripod
colored gels
computer photo-editing software
greeting card software

Setting the Scene

Here are some of Erin's choice tips on creating the look and background for your greeting card images:

• The first step in creating the picture for your invitation is to decide whether the invitation is going to announce the party's theme or just be a generic image so that your text will tell the story.

• Look around your home for specific items that fit the theme or ordinary things that can be worked into it. Remember to try and keep the items all about the same scale, So that your scene can be more compact and interesting.

• Next, decide where you're going to shoot the scene. If you're shooting on a table, it's always good to have a shelf or wall where you can suspend a background. A mantle provides a great location because you can use it to clip on lights and as a backdrop.

• Choose a background that will either be generic and disappear into your scene or become part of the scene. You don't want the background to overpower the foreground and distract from what you are trying to say.

• Arrange your props to tell the story. Don't be afraid to put too many things into the scene, you can always remove them later when you see it through the camera. Add special things in like numbers to mark the year of the birthday or a special item from your wedding day for an anniversary party. Once you have things in place, take the time to step back and look at the whole scene. Then make adjustments to help it say what you want it to.

• When you think you have everything about where you think it should go, put the camera on the tripod and turn it on. Look at the scene through the LCD or viewfinder and adjust your zoom until you get the framing you want. With table-top photography, I like to make sure the framing is tight so that there is not a lot of extraneous background distracting from the theme.

• Snap a few pictures and review them in the LCD, then make adjustments in the scene until it looks right to you. Take a few more pictures and get everything set until you're sure that your scene is tells the story you want it to say.

	Professional photographers sometimes use colored filters on their camera as an effect to enhance their scene.

Getting the Photo Right

Erin's tips on controlling the scene, lighting, exposure, etc. to get just the image you're looking for:

• For this type of a photograph you can use your light as a design element in your scene.

• Use clip on lights or desk lamps so that you have more control over the direction of the light. where you put them all depends on the story you are trying to tell. For instance, placing a back light will help bring your subject out and separate it from the background.

• Once the lights are where you think they should go, take a look at the scene through your camera's LCD. look for really bright or dark spots. And then adjust your lights until you get the look you want.

• For more control, you can always add in lamp dimmers to decrease the light. You can also change out the bulb TO a smaller or higher wattage.

• Take a few pictures and review them in the LCD. You are going to have to adjust the lights a little more once you see what your camera has actually captured.

• When you have a few pictures you like, go ahead and work with your scene a little more. Move things around and leave blank areas where you can easily add in text on the computer later. That way you won't cover up important parts of your scene.

• As long as you have everything in place, go ahead and zoom in and take close-ups of individual areas. You can always use these pictures to carry your theme throughout the party on items like place cards or package tags.

• Professional photographers will sometimes use colored filters on their camera as aN effect to enhance their scene. Here's an inexpensive way you can experiment with color as a design element: go down to your local craft store and purchase sheets of colored gel designed to put in front of lighting. This will give your scene spots of color And can be a very effective design element.

• Another trick I like to use is to get a gel sample book. They have small pieces of many different color gels. While small, the pieces are just big enough to put in front of your digital camera's lens to give the entire scene aN overall tint.

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