On My Blog versus Reality

As a blogger, I crop and edit my photos so I can show you exactly what *I* see, or what I want *you* to see when I look into a camera lens or take a picture of a product. Often that means zooming in on an object to show you the detail… but what does the rest of the shot look like? Or the surrounding area? Here’s a behind the scenes look of what ELSE is going on in the shots I post on my blog!

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Damn. That’s a nice in focus, clean lip shot. This shot was for a post on the ColourPop Ultra Matte liquid lipsticks.

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And here I am wearing a big ole sweat shirt and no other makeup applied to my face. If I’m only taking product shots on my lips, I definitely don’t do the rest of my makeup. On this day it was a bit chilly outside so I pulled on old sweatshirt from high school before heading out onto my balcony to take shots during the day. For the final photo, I tilted the photo so my lips are displayed diagonally as opposed to straight.

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So lovely! So pristine! This was from my The Body Shop Oils of Life review.

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And here’s the wider shot. I’m sitting down on the floor of my concrete balcony with the products out in front of me. And my foot is sticking into the shot. Oops. I’ve also lightened up the shot considerably in Photoshop because the shadows were way too dark.

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Another product shot from my Dermalogica Precleanse review. I really like the contrast between the white bottle and the dark wood.

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But this is what’s actually going on. I’m in my bedroom and the product is sitting inside a cabinet that we’ve hung on the wall. The whole shelf has been cleared so that there’s no other clutter in the shot. As you can see, I keep my sunscreens on the shelf below, and my perfumes are on the shelf above.

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Here’s a post from my most recent guest post on Up The Rollercoaster. It’s a holiday look that focuses on red lips and big eyelashes.

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But here’s what it actually looks like when I’m taking these “glamorous” shots. I throw on a black top because it matches everything in regards to makeup, but I’m still wearing pyjama bottoms. I’m standing out on our balcony trying to hide from the sun lest the glare ruin the shots. We’ve got some plastic chairs stacked up (that we never use) and there’s a dirty towel sitting on top of them. Super glamorous eh? Haha!

How To: Use Duochromes
How To: Use Duochromes

For my recent “How To” post, I focused on demonstrating how to use duochrome pigments. Most of the post involved close up eye shots.

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However, when I post eye shots, this is how close I can actually get to my camera without it losing focus. Pretty far away, aren’t I? Every time I post an eye shot, I choose whichever shot is most in focus and then crop everything else out. In this one, I’m only wearing eye makeup (no brows though) and you can see my kitchen in the background.

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One of my favourite shots of myself this past year. Hooray for St. Patrick’s Day!

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And here’s the full zoomed out shot. I have to stand in front of the huge windows to make sure I got the right amount of light on my face, but my kitchen is behind me and there’s a couple shelves with books on the right. (This was our old apartment, we moved within the same building in May and unfortunately the natural light is not nearly as nice here.) You can see a closet open on the left with a bag of my soccer stuff hanging from the handle.

There you have it. That’s my reality when I’m taking photos for the blog!

42 thoughts on “On My Blog versus Reality

    1. What lens are you using for your close up shots? I’m using the kit lens and it even says for macro you need to 0.8 feet away from the lense. I can’t get any closer without the macro losing/refusing to focus. 🙁 I can’t manually focus either because I can’t even see my own eye in the viewfinder when I take these!

        1. I’ll try getting closer and seeing what happens. It’s been a while since I’ve tried. I found the triggers went red to indicate it refused to focus. But again, it’s been a while.

  1. I loved this behind the scenes peek Chelle! I don’t blog or anything, in fact, I’m rather averse to pictures, so I have no idea about this stuff. It’s fun to see the real life behind your glamorous beauty!

    1. Thanks, I’m glad you liked it! Blogging can be a lot of smoke and mirrors at times, so I like to ground everything in reality every now and again!

    1. Yay! Happy to give you a chuckle! Sometimes I find these kind of photos more insightful than the usual reviews with all put out!

      Hope your day is better than your night. Many hugs!

    1. If I can get away with only showing part of my face, I’ll do it, but the only real thing that works for is eyes. Hard to show blush without putting your whole face in the shot!

      But yes, thank heavens for photo editing. Otherwise everything would look really cluttered!

    1. Oh I forgot about that, I totally do the foundation only around the mouth trick. Particularly if I’m taking multiple lip swatches… because otherwise my lip edges would like red as all hell!

  2. This is so great (and true!). 90% of the time I do makeup photos I’m in some form of PJs – when you’re sitting on a cold floor to get that natural light you do what you gotta do! I also have placemats that look like wood that I use for product photos because I’m always travelling and wanted some consistency in my photos. Plus, that way I can take them with me to find the best light!
    Nadia @ The View Is Beautiful recently posted…Under the Mistletoe | A Holiday Smokey EyeMy Profile

    1. Placemats that look like wood is genius! I love that! And so true… you can move them around to find the best lighting! I have a wooden table… but like hell I’m moving that thing!

    1. Hah! I hadn’t thought of it as being informative, but that’s really cool too! It helps to see how other people shoot things so I’m glad to help out!

  3. I loved this post! Was interesting to see how and where you take such great pics. You look fab in the St. Patrick’s Day pic.

    1. Thanks so much Clarissa! I always thinking it’s funny to see the behind the scenes photos. Everything is so much less classy/professional that way! 😉

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