Behind the Scenes: Holiday Header Photo Session

Like the new look?  A postmark inspired logo/avatar has been added across the CU pages and profiles here on the blog, Facebook , Google+, Pinterest, Twitter  etc as well as a fun festive header/cover image in time for the holidays.  A fresh new look can be as quick and simple as a few supplies and a little bit of time (not too much!).  To inspire your own photo fun, here is a behind the scenes insight into the photo session - it was very quick, simple, and fun to shoot on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon.

Materials:

• Flavoured pre-made mini meringues (I bought these ones at Coles).

• Holiday decorations (these beauties were an absolute bargain at Ikea).

• Silver wrapping paper (no idea...I simply used some left-overs!).

 Set-up:

• Indirect natural light.

• Wrapping paper used as a "backdrop".

• Packaging materials (from my Ikea decorations!) used as fluffy white filler.

The staging was basic and the shots simple, taking advantage of the bouncing light and imperfect reflection of the silver wrapping paper. The total photographing time was only a few minutes.  Post production was also quick and basic: a contrast adjustment, sharpen, collage variations optimised to suit the various page header sizes, and then a transparent overlay with a holiday message and logo were added in Photoshop.  Here is an example (my Facebook timeline cover) of the end results:

Don't be intimidated if you don't have a fancy camera or software - you can get great results with a point-and-shoot and basic software either from your camera manufacturer or a free program like Picasa (love Picasa for collages by the way - so EASY!).  If you do decide to create a new header of your own, I would love to see it!  You are welcome to share in the comments or post at Creativity Unmasked on Facebook. If you share you own post/site in the blog comments, you are welcome to include a live link for extra site traffic using the format <a href="http://www.yourlink.com">text you want shown for your link</a>.  Have fun!