Branching Out

I have been shooting the majority of my pictures with super white backgrounds on Etsy.  I have been happy with the result for the most part (some issues have come up I am at a loss to fix). So, I dug out the ole photography books again and started reading more about staging.  I have had a particular look in mind for awhile now I would LOVE to learn but I have been unable to figure out how to achieve it. (Even before the whole change from white to darker, patterned backgrounds on Etsy.)

Check it out here minus the basket full of baby.  I think this look would be WONDERFUL for lighter colored items that get lost in my white background and for things that end up super FLAT on white (a problem I have been noticing more and more.)

Poodles aren't flat.....they just look that way in my picture.

I have spent a lot of money at the craft store trying out different things that I end up not being happy with.  My last purchase was for some run of the mill, craft store vinyl.  Good idea in theory, bad idea for glare.  But I was on to something.  A Google search revealed what I was looking for.

Professional vinyl back drops.

No glare.

In patterns/designs to scale so that my items will look right.

And the Etsy shop above had all the back drops I can see in my head in smaller sizes for product photography. YA!

So I made an order and am excitedly rereading my photo books in anticipation of their arrival and learning how to take different pictures using them. (One of my goals for this year was to continue to learn more about photography.)

Even if I never use them for Etsy or eBay pics, I might get really good at taking pics of babies........