Exposé: the dark truths behind beauty blogging

Monday, May 25, 2009

I just thought I’d take a moment to show you guys what it is I do to photos before posting them – and why it takes over a month from date-of-photo to posting date, most of the time. No it’s not black market trading or under-the-table payoffs from multinationals…

…it’s the dreaded dark image!

Here’s a LORAC It Kit that hasn’t been posted yet. I take photos of the product, swatch it, etc, and upload within about a two-week span. From there, it goes into my “raw” folder. Once it’s been cut down to about 1000 pixels accross (instead of about 2500) it’s named and goes to “theNotice: work”.

The original photo (resized to about 1000 pixels).


From here, it’s brightened, cropped, and resized to 700 pixels… depending on the item, no retouching has to be done, or a lot of work is needed. If I took an EOTD, for instance, and there was a loose eyelash on my cheek? I’m totally OCD, so I’d airbrush that out. Contrast needed? The colours are too yellow? Blue? More fixing.

Once it’s finally done, it goes into the “theNotice: done” folder. That’s where it stays until I write a review, at which point it’s moved into the correct folder – for instance, “Tutorials” or “Product Photos / High-End / LORAC”.

What you guys see


It’s quite the process! I know it could be a lot easier, but I feel obligated to have nice photos for each post – ones that really represent and show the true product. It’s hardest in the winter, when the sun goes down by about 5PM, because I don’t usually have time for doing blog stuff until 9! (Sunlight photos are the easiest to work with: they have the best colour representation, the cleanest lines, and the overall brightest image.)

That’s all =) Have a great Tuesday!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed under: About theNotice, Photoshop and photos

Posted by: Rae Chen at 5:00 am


6 Responses to “Exposé: the dark truths behind beauty blogging”

  1. PeachykeenCheeks, on May 25th, 2009 at 6:32 am said:

    I totally get why you do this. I try to do it myself, apart from the quick update posts. Good photos make all the difference!
    xo

  2. Rae, on May 25th, 2009 at 9:30 am said:

    Victoria: I know!! For me, photos can make or break the blog.

  3. Rae, on May 25th, 2009 at 9:31 am said:

    Meream: Lol!! It's like a horrible addiction. Slightly more addictive than pot, slightly less addictive than heroin =P

  4. Meream, on May 25th, 2009 at 10:58 am said:

    I do the same with my craft blog photos. :D

  5. ' * : . b | u 3, on May 25th, 2009 at 12:12 pm said:

    I know what you mean! It takes so much time to resize and crop (and watermark) photos. I hate winter too, I used to only be able to do swatch photos and looks on weekends. Now at least I can do them when I come home from work.

  6. Rae, on May 25th, 2009 at 1:28 pm said:

    blu: Exactly! Damn Canada doesn't have enough sunlight :P It's lovely in the summer — actually being able to take photos after dinner without knowing I'll have to colour balance them? Heaven!

Write a Comment