Show & Tell: DIY Headshots with a iPhone

Hello!



So, today's post isn't really craft related so much as blogging related. I am not one for "selfies." In fact, I wish I could stop Facebook from sharing my profile picture every time I change it. I feel very self aware when people are commenting on pictures of me even if they are compliments. However, many people out there that have blogs or professional social media profiles (i.e. LinkedIn). Having a headshot not only makes your profile look more professional, but it also allows your audience to relate to with what you're posting.


If you're like me, you're probably not going to pay someone for a headshot for a blog you do part time. That doesn't mean you should never get a professional headshot. I absolutely find professional pictures are worth the money spent. I know from experience that anyone that can get two kids smiling at the same time deserves sainthood.


If you are in need of a simple headshot, you can get it accomplished right in your living room. I had been wanting to update my headshot for a couple of months. My first headshot was done with my nice DLSR, remote and tripod in my craft room. The background was a white wall, and I diffused the light with some wax paper taped to a window. It turned out pretty good.


However, I now look a bit different..well..mostly just more wrinkles. I wanted a updated picture. However, my remote's batteries are dead and the tripod is in the attic. I've stopped using my DLSR over the past year out of laziness and, because, my new iPhone 6 has a pretty darn good camera. It's convient to have it with me all the time. I decided to give it a go for my updated headshot.

DIY Headshots from an iPhone

Supplies

Camera. I used my iPhone 6, but of course you could use any sort of digital camera.

Natural Light

Diffuser for Natural Light. I used a white curtain already hanging on my window. You can also use a sheet or strip of wax paper. 

Neutral Background 

Optional: Selfie Stick and/or Timer. I also use Photoshop Elements to blur my background.

Directions

1. Get Ready. 

Since you're going through the trouble of doing a headshot, of course you want to get yourself all dolled up. I don't wear make up unless I have somewhere important to be, so I waited until I had a reason to get ready. I work from home so my usual attire is sweats and t shirt. A uniform I'm rocking as I type this. You will want to put on a nice shirt. Simple solid colors work best. You also will want to keep jewelry simple.

2. Find a Location.

Natural light is your friend, so you want to find a location in your house that is getting good light but not overly harsh light. For example, you probably wouldn't want to use a east facing window in the morning, but you may find the same window okay as the day goes on. You will also want to look at the area around the window you choose. The background should be mostly free of distractions. A blank neutral colored wall is best. If you can't find that, you can try to rig something up with a sheet hanging behind you, or if you have Photoshop Elements, you can try to blur the background after the picture is taken. (I ended up doing this with my pictures to moderate success. One looks a bit strange because the blur was so strong, but otherwise it worked pretty good). 

My favorite chair and the white curtain was the perfect set up for me.

3. Diffuse the Light. 

You will want something to diffuse the light. I have an actual light diffuser disc, but it's with the tripod in the attic. I decided to instead pull the white curtains on my South facing window. It worked as a great diffuser for the light. You want to diffuse the light because it creates softer more flattering light. 

 

4. Position Yourself & Shoot...a lot.

 

I decided to sit in my favorite chair for my pictures. When you take pictures, you will want to face your light source. I just extended my arm out and took pictures that way, but if you have a selfie stick, this would be a good time to bust it out. As for what type of poses you chose, that's going to be up to you. I was a old time photographer for a summer (crazy fun summer job, by the way) and I learned quite a bit about flattering poses. As you probably have noticed from the "selfie" craze, pictures taken from above are more flattering. Just don't get crazy with your angles. I also did some research of different headshots to find poses I liked. I wanted something that was more relaxed and not too formal. 

 

Since we're in a digital age, we can afford to take a lot of pictures. So make sure you do! You will want to periodically stop and look as see what is working and what isn't working. Look out for distractions. I have a vase with pheasant feathers on my end table, and I found that at one angle it looked like I had feathers coming out of my head. I also had to be mindful if my hair was sticking up or my jewelry was caught on my shirt. Be detail oriented when reviewing pictures. In my blog picture, I have my hand on my head. I keep looking at it, because in some ways it looks like I have an appendage growing out of my head. I decided I didn't care. :)

 Lamp growing out of my shoulder.

Strange angle and some cra-cra eyes.

Another important tip to follow (and I found it very hard to follow it myself) is to make sure you're looking at the camera. On an iPhone, you probably will find yourself looking at the image on the screen. That means that your eyes are going to be looking slightly down in the picture. The camera is above the image, so make sure you look at the camera not the image on the screen. Also, make sure the screen is focused on your face, not your hair or some object in the background. Otherwise you'll have an out of focus picture. You can pick the location to focus on by tapping on the screen.

 

5. Edit

 

You can use an online program such as Picmonkey to edit your pictures. I have Photoshop Elements, and I love it. I used this tutorial on how to blur the background, and it worked wonderfully. I also have some of the CoffeeShop actions that I use. Finally, I'm a big Scott Kelby fan. I have used his books for years when editing pictures. I try not to go too crazy. Reality is I have some wrinkles, terrible under eye circles and blemishes. I'm just going to have to live with them and it doesn't do anyone out there, including my daughter, a service to pretend that I don't. 

This was a good blurred background. I minimized the heat thermostat in the background and the railing on my stairs.

Err. Not as good. Removing the door way was a bit more tricky and the section under my arm was hard to do.

So, there you have it. How to do a headshot with just your iPhone and different things around your house. Now you can create a professional looking picture without taking your sweats off.

Here's my final images. I tried both with and without my glasses. The glasses one is my "professional" one for my LinkedIn profile and the others are for my blog & social media. I'm set for another 5 years. :)
 

 

 

 

Meet Lila

Hello There!

I am hoping to have a DIY Wednesday this week! Lila has gotten into a better schedule and I've started to figure out this mom thing. We took some pictures of Lila when she was two weeks old (she is four weeks now!). She has gained so much weight...I can barely believe it! The supplementing really helped her get back on track. I took these pictures on a picnic table in my backyard if you can believe it! It was slightly cloudy and which is just perfect for lighting.

Enjoy our little one! I made an announcement with this first picture, so I'll post that once I get it printed and mailed off to the family.





A little giggle...





Big Yawn!





She always has her hands on her face...this was true even in the womb! We never got a picture of her face because she was always touching her face.

PIN Auction

Hi Everyone!

Happy Monday everyone! I wanted to let any fans who read my blog (and I
have no illusions its a large number) know that I have donated a
photography session to the Public Interest Network Silent Auction which
is Thursday, February 4th at 7:00 pm at the Eagles.

The Public Interest Network (PIN) is an organization at the law school.
The organization raises funds in order to give grants to students. These
grants allow students to take public interest internships that would
normally pay nothing. For more information or to donate visit:
http://elizabethburleson.com/PublicInterest.html

If you are the winning bidder, you can choose from the following sessions:




Smile.
This is a portrait session. Think senior pictures, maternity, head
shots, children or boudoir. Just you, me and the camera.



Promise.
This is our engagement session.



Kin.
This is the family session I offer. Two to eight family members. You can also add the dogs.

All sessions will be held outdoors unless some prior arrangement is
made. (This condition is due to the labor of hanging my backdrop. Being
6 months pregnant, I'm trying to avoid lifting the backdrop at all costs.)

All sessions include 7 picture touch-ups, 2 disks with all pictures (both raw and touched-up) and a copyright release for all images.

The session must be redeemed by May 7, 2010 or the winning bidder must
be willing to wait until late June or early July to redeem. I'm due May
21st and I'm guessing I might not want to take pictures right after
childbirth. Weird I know. ;)

These sessions range in price from $60 to $100 normally.

In addition to donating a photography session, I am in the process of making both therapy sacks and coffee cozies to be auctioned off. These are being made under my craft blog.



If you have any questions about the auction, please don't hesitate to
e-mail me at kristambenson@gmail.com. I won't be at the auction since
I'll be out of town starting Thursday through Monday.

DIY Wednesday: Bridal Shower Games

Hi Everyone,

I am spending the next few DIY Wednesdays going through a bridal shower I threw a few weeks ago. I did many DIY projects with the shower that I'm explaining in case you want to try one of them for a shower or even a wedding.

The Games.

As I explained last week, I didn't want to do the traditional games. I often get mixed responses from people when I deviate from the midwest traditions. I remember getting all sorts of comments about not doing a dollar dance or garter auction at my wedding or refusing to sell anything at bars during my Bachelorette Party. I simply do not enjoy those activities and would be miserable doing them. So, here comes the non-traditional bridal shower games.

The Scrapbook Bar.

I did this as a passive sort-of game. Something that everyone could have fun with, but wouldn't be compelled into doing. Also, the bride would have a scrapbook to take home with her.

I started out with creating a scrapbook template for everyone. I got the 12 x 12 scrapbook paper and created a bunch of questions for guests to answer. They were along the lines of, "How do you know the Bride or Groom?" "What is your advice for the Bride and Groom?" "Draw a picture of Bride and Groom on their wedding day" and other goofy stuff.

Then, I went out and bought a ton of bridal shower/wedding scrapbook stickers. I already had a fairly good collection of scrapbook tools (edge hole punchers, scissors, glue, various embellishments). I know people (as well as me) prefer stickers especially if they aren't particularly into scrapbooking (also like me). So, over the past couple of months I gathered these products up.

Then at the shower, we had a table dedicated to the "scrapbook bar." I had a rotating three tier serving dish that I used to put some of the supplies on. I'm currently in the process of putting the scrapbook pages together in a scrapbook for the bride. This is also a good way to do a guest book without actually doing a guest book.





Bridal Shower Bingo.

I created this game after finding some information about it online. The concept is you have your guests fill out the squares with gifts they think the bride might get. The center "free" square is the gift you got the bride. Then, the winner gets a prize. There wasn't all that many people at the shower, but we still got a bingo. This was a way to make that awkward time during gift opening a little bit less awkward. (I know I hated having all the eyes on me during that time. It was weird)

I created these Bingo cards in Photoshop and had them printed when I printed the invites.



Next week I will talk about the menu I created. I made all the food by myself (with my husband's very gracious help). So, I'll have some pictures of how I served it/dressed it up as well as some recipes if you'd like to try any of the food.

The Bridal Shower: Table Settings

Hello There,

Well, it's not Wednesday but I'll be home tomorrow and won't be able to post. Welcome to a HUGE POST especially since I'll be talking about the Bridal Shower over several weeks. Those of you who know me know I have been working on this bridal shower for a year. Yes, an entire flipping year. Was it worth it? To be honest, probably not considering the amount of time and money ratio, but it doesn't matter if it's worth it to me! That's not the point of putting on a shower. The bride and guests are the ones that are suppose to enjoy it!

Many MANY elements of the shower are DIY. I'll first start with a general explanation of the shower. I was going for an elegant yet relaxed theme. I chose the Museum of Visual Materials in Sioux Falls for the local. Not only do they have an beautiful building, they also have an extremely nice kitchen for you to use and are extremely affordable for the beauty of the building.



Building on this "elegant" theme, I decided to dress the tables. So, instead of just doing just tableclothes, I created a place setting for each seat. Each place setting was cost-effective while still (trying) to be elegant and classy. This post will surround the tables I created.



First of all, I started out with a DIY table runner. I bought the fabric from Hobby Lobby (a LOT of fabric) and cut each runner with a rotary cutter (a quilters best friend) and clear ruler. The runner pattern was a lovely purple, ivory and aqua color combination. The rest of the colors of the shower played around this idea. I created a pattern in my head using the measurements of the tables.

I have several vases left over from my own wedding. We are using the heck out of these vases. They have appeared I believe at 3 or 4 other weddings and 2 or 3 other parties. I used these vases on the table with river rock I purchased from Hobby Lobby for this shower exclusively. The flowers were purchased the day of the shower in bouquets and separated among the vases. The flowers were quite fragrant, but not too bad so they overwhelmed the meal. I hope. :)



Second, I marked the individual place setting with a little trick I picked up on Hostess with the Mostess....scrapbook paper instead of a traditional charger. It's more cost effective, and I'm not stuck with tons of chargers. Next, I added the plate. Not just any ordinary plastic plate but a square heavy-duty plate. I wanted the plate to look and feel like a real plate, but not have the same cost and clean-up issues. I feel like this picture doesn't quite capture the place setting, but it works.



After the plates, came the napkins and menus. The napkins were DIY from purple light cotton fabric from Hobby Lobby. They were also cut with the rotary cutter and sewn together by my very helpful mother. :)

The menus were also DIY. I printed them with dark purple ink, using fonts from the invites (talked about in this post) on resume ivory paper. They were then cut with a straight cutter and the corners were rounded with the rounding hole punch. The menu with recipes will be featured on a different post a different day. :)



To finish the place settings off, I had silver-colored plastic silverware. They look and feel like actual silverware. Once again, more cost-effective yet still within the theme.

Instead of plain glasses, I took another hint from Hostess with the Mostess and used mason jars. Instead of plain mason jars, I ordered lids with this daisy cut pattern. I then slipped straws into the hole in the center. Fun but still functional.



Next week, I'll be discussing the "games" I had at the shower. The latest trend in bridal showers is to avoid the traditional, sometimes cheesy, bridal shower games. I took a more passive approach to getting guests involved. There was a mixed response to it since it's not traditional in the midwest to forgo games.

DIY Wednesday: Bridal Shower Invites

Hi Everyone,

It's not quite Wednesday, but since I'll be going home soon and won't have access to Internet, I thought I would post this now. (I got rid of Internet at home and it was a fantastic idea. I'm so much more productive without the Internet to distract me!)

I'm hosting this bridal shower in a few weeks for one of my good girl friends. She was the maid-of-honor at my wedding, and I'm hoping my shower can live up to the one she threw. I have loads of things planned. I'm not going to post anything about the decorations, games or lunch until after the event. (I have to keep something secret! I don't want to ruin the surprise) Here is the invitation that went out on Saturday. I'm quite excited to get to the big party day. I've been planning this shower for a year!

I didn't take a picture of the matching envelopes, but they are simple white with the swirls from this invite on the side. Whereas I got the invites professionally printed, I printed the envelopes myself. They turned out okay but not nearly as neat as the invites themselves.

I've removed some of the personal information, so please excuse the bars over my phone number and such.

Enjoy!