digital backgrounds - Victoria Ashman Photography

22/03/201823/03/2018

Digital Backdrop Easter Sale

Easter is fast approaching, although as the weather has been so cold it certainly doesn’t feel like Easter. Etsy has its ‘Etsy on Sale’ over the next few days, and I have decided to join them. Therefore between the 22nd of March and the 25th of March my Etsy shop will be having a 20% sale. The sale is for all of my digital backdrops, and all the backdrops are high resolution. Digital backdrops, primarily are for newborn and baby photographers. But I am toying with the idea of offering a service where after receiving an image of a baby I composite them into the backdrop. There are multiple issues with this though, primarily that if you haven’t got studio lights or good natural light then it will be very difficult to make the baby look anything but superimposed. I certainly need to consider this in more depth.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AuraDigitalBackdrops

I had a Christmas sale, which went well, so thought I should try a digital backdrop Easter sale. I have added a few more backdrops since Christmas, although not for the last couple of weeks as I have been working on my stock image portfolio. Both the digital backdrops and stock imagery have enabled me to work on my photoshop skills. This has been very valuable and are skills that can be applied to my outdoor photography portrait shoots.

Hopefully, the weather will start to warm up soon, as I am itching to start updating my outdoor digital backdrops. But for now I just have to keep thinking of new ideas and improving my photoshop skills.

Link to my Etsy Shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AuraDigitalBackdrops

28/02/201828/02/2018

Digital backgrounds/backdrops

Digital backgrounds/backdrops

Spending more time at home over the pass month I have been able to really get to grips with photoshop, using blending modes and gradient maps. Something which I have stayed away from out of fear. But actually, like anything, once you know how to do it, it’s not that difficult. I have also been trying to make sure I create Digital backgrounds/backdrops every day, keeping the Etsy shop active. I have applied the skills learnt and I’m happy with the results. You can see the new work added to my shop here https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AuraDigitalBackdrops

Rocking the greys…

Digital Overlay

Developed this week, an overlay of fairy lights and white wooden floor. At various times in my studio career, I needed an overlay like this. Fairy lights, as most studio photographers will know are difficult to photograph, as studio lights often blow out the fairy lights, (so that they can no longer be seen). Here is an example of the overlay added to this pure white background. This overlay will work particularly well at Christmas and you can change the opacity, so you can change the subtlety of the overlay.

Digital Backdrop, newborn nest with Teddy:

Parents would often bring little teddies to their newborn photo shoot. The teddies often had sentimental value, but also provided a sense of scale. The brown tones of the flooring and the nest match the teddy so well, and the fluffy sheepskin adds to the earthiness of this image.

Here are a few of the other Digital backgrounds/backdrops created in the last couple of weeks. I even had a go at creating an outdoor landscape digital backdrop, which has really highlighted how difficult it is to get the lighting to match the baby.

28/06/2017

Newborn Shoots & (possibly) a model call

Newborn Shoots

So, for the last six months I have mostly been photographing newborn shoots. Luckily for me! as I love photographing newborns. It’s such a precious time for my clients and truly so wonderful to be able to capture this special time. Each year I feel I add to my skills and improve them. Above all it takes patience and calm and following the cues of the baby. This area of my business continues to be strong. I think its because newborn shoots are not about simply clicking the shutter. It takes time. I’ve photographed a fair few photographer’s babies and they tell me that they tried but newborn photography wasn’t in their skill set.

I have been posting far fewer pictures on Facebook though, partly because my clients ask for privacy which I completely respect. If a client asks me to post to social media then of course I am more than happy to oblige. I mainly use Facebook now for news or for offers. For example, every year I offer a model shoot. I am hoping to do a model shoot in August. The pictures I take in model newborn shoots are used to update my website, or to try some poses that I would like to master – but don’t want to do so on my paying clients time.

Digital Backdrops

I am also still adding to my catalogue of digital backdrops. there are twenty or so at the moment. I have added a gallery to my website where you can try some of my backdrops (small images) for free before you buy! If you go this gallery http://victoriaashman.zenfolio.com/p259041982 Click on the picture that has ‘Aura Digital Backdrops’ written on it and then click ‘menu’ by hovering over top left of the picture, you can then click download. If you go back to the gallery the picture next to it is an example of what you can do with the image, and the third image is the high resolution download, which you can download and pay for through my website.

Here is a little video with a few of the backdrops that I have on offer. It includes some instructions on how to use them. I sell them at my etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AuraDigitalBackdrops

16/03/2017

Easter Digital Backdrops

My Etsy Shop – https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/518847367/easter-digital-backdrop-a-digital-prop?ref=shop_home_active_1

Easter Digital Backdrops

Here are a couple of my Easter digital backdrops. I sell my digital backdrops on Etsy in my Etsy shop, and I also use them in my shoots if they are requested by the parents. I’m using my nest again, but I figured I don’t own anything that says Easter like my newborn nest prop! I added some euphorbia flowers, that were taken from my garden and of course I had to use daffodils. The green/yellow combo is particularly nice against the red/browns of the wooden nest.

We photographed the nest on a wooden floor with a damask background. The reddish colours of the wood (in the nest) pops against the wooden floor, I hadn’t really noticed those tones before. I also left a well in the nest so that I could fit a baby inside and it worked beautifully.

I then decided I wanted to do an image that would allow a baby to sit in the nest. I changed the damask background as I didn’t want it to overpower the baby sat in the nest.

I’m looking forward to Easter now, and I have to admit I had some mini eggs yesterday. Photographing digital backgrounds for Easter just made me think of chocolate!

02/11/201606/12/2016

Digital Backdrops, on Etsy.

Digital Backdrops – Link to my etsy shop – https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AuraDigitalBackdrops?ref=hdr_shop_menu

I’ve added more digital backdrops to my Etsy shop. One of my clients wanted a Christmas image with fairy lights. A simple request, but it took me a little while to get right. My studio lights are brighter than the fairy lights and so I couldn’t get the lights to show on camera. The image was so bright, so you couldn’t see the fairy lights at all. I realised, after some thinking that I needed to use my continuous light and a reflector. It worked well. I just had to make sure I was back as far as I could go, zoomed in, on my widest aperture and voila I could see the fairy lights! I’ve had fun thinking of ideas and creating backdrops with the fairy lights. I have also already used the fairy lights backdrop (from the bottom image) as a background on some of my sledge shots.

img_2647-with-baby — Christmas Present digital backdrop.

Christmas Present Backdrop – With baby composited into the shot. The backdrop for sale on etsy, has an overlay (the front of the box) so that you can correctly position baby. The backdrops are ready to buy as an instant download through my etsy shop.

img_2612_ — Digital Backdrop. Fairy lights with red baubles.

22/08/201602/11/2016

Etsy Shop Digital Backdrops

Here are the digital backdrops I’ve created over the last month. I’ve used a few for myself, for my own galleries, and I’m sure I will be using the red sledge Christmas backdrops very soon! (My Christmas Shoots start in September.) I’m updating and adding to my Etsy shop each week, and I’m really enjoying the process.

I started doing the digital backdrops after one of my newborn shoots. My clients desperately wanted a certain setup, which I said was of course no problem. It wasn’t a complicated set up. The first hour of the shoot was a breeze and the newborn slept like a dream. We did the beanbag pictures, which all went smoothly. The beanbag pictures are flow posing the baby on their back, side and tummy and then we did the parent and baby images. For what ever reason, it could have been wind! she woke up and didn’t want to do any more pictures. But I hadn’t done the setup the clients wanted! I knew we’d already got great images in the first half of the session and I didn’t want to upset or distress the baby in any way. So we called it a day. After the shoot I photographed the setup without the baby and then was able to composite an image (from one of the earlier beanbag shots) When the parents saw the setup they bought the picture and were very happy. My brain then started to whirl, if for whatever reason this happened again, I could just composite the baby from the beanbag into a prop shot. It’s been fun creating digital backdrops, and I have many more ideas!

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AuraDigitalBackdrops?ref=hdr_shop_menu

white background and brown long bowl — Digital backdrop, Newborn dark wooden bowl

red sledge 1 — Digital Backdrop, Red sledge, snowy background.

red sledge 1 with baby — Example of what the digital backdrop can look like… composited baby onto the red sledge.

red sledge with teddy and baby — Example of what the digital backdrop can look like… composited baby on the sledge with the teddy behind

27/06/201627/06/2016

Etsy Shop, Digital Backdrops

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AuraDigitalBackdrops?ref=hdr_shop_menu

So digital backgrounds seem to be becoming quite a big thing in the photography world. I have a studio and figured that whilst it isn’t being used for paying shoots I could create some digital backdrops of my own. Both, to use for myself and to sell. I have, over the past five years amassed a collection of backdrops and props. So I have created an etsy site. I only have one backdrop in the shop at the moment! but throughout the coming weeks I am planning to keep adding more and more.

Above is the digital backdrop. An oval basket on a wooden floor with wallpaper backdrop. Below is the image with a baby added. This is really useful, particularly if baby is fussy and doesn’t want to be moved very much. Then, if the parents have their hearts set on a particular set up, we can still achieve it. Victoria x