Pictures are hard. Seriosly. Dude.

When setting up for my Etsy shop I took TONS of pictured before I settled with the style that I did.

I originally had planned to have all of my pictures set up like the one below but with different color chevron background in the different pictures.

The problem was, no matter what I did, the picture always came out too dark! When I went outside to take the pics; whenever I had a white background, my camera would MAKE the picture dark for some reason! I have no clue why, because when I took away the white background... BOOM! Bright picture. Makes no sense to me and I could not find the manual of my camera for the life of me.

I tried many different methods. I tried poster board. I tried non-reflective white back drops. I tried just a plate alone. Nothing worked.

So I gave up and tried to take the pics inside... that didn't work either. They still were coming out too dark no matter what I did. Even after editing they just were not bright enough for me. I tried using a lighting box with the lights it came with. I tried moving the lights. I tried using the lighting box with natural light. I tried it inside without the lighting box (this one was the closest to what I wanted.) And I also tried using different lights with the lighting box. At the end of the day... no luck.

While outside one day I was looking at the way the sun was hitting the grass and casting shadows. So I started taking pics of the grass and comparing the lighting. I then decided to put the crayons in the grass to see what would happen... and what do you know! A perfectly bright picture. Really it makes no sense to me. My camera can take a bright pic of crayons in the grass but when I put a white plate in that SAME spot and take a picture it automatically makes the picture SUPER dark.

I did not want my whole shop to look green from all the photos in the grass so I tried taking the pics on the sidewalk. The first time I did they ended up too bright because I was sitting in the direct sunlight. I noticed though, that when the sun went behind a cloud, the pics came out great.

So at the end of the day. I took pics on the sidewalk in the shadow of my apartment complex building. I noticed that I have to take pics between 5 and 7:30 PM or the shadow will not be there and they will come out too bright. I also can not take pics on a cloudy or rainy (boo! Florida has been having TONS of these as of late) day because they will come out too dark.

This is the pic I went with after all the failed pic attempts.

While I am not 100% thrilled with my shop's pictures, I am satisfied. I suppose one day when I have the time and patients I will try to achieve the original look I was striving for.