in: Photography
by: Katie Hellmuth Martin
Original and sexy office photography can now be yours with a few drags of the mouse and clicks on your keyboard. Without ever leaving your desk, you can create pictures of what the desk of your dreams looks like, or what it looks like to work on your computer outside in the grass. Sounds simeple, and it is, but you'll need to have a few things in place first:
PHOTOSHOP FROM ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD
If you've got an old version of PhotoShop kicking around your laptop, or if you've been working from Elements, you're going to want to give into the cloud subscription model over at Adobe Creative Cloud, which gives you monthly access to an update PhotoShop that you don't need to worry about upgrading. Not that you'll be using majorly advanced tricks in PhotoShop, you'll need Layers, and the ability to Duplicate Layers to a new document. Of course you can get fancier...just give into the subscription at Adobe..
DO LAYERS SCARE YOU? TAKE A FRIENDLY CLASS!
Applause for the always growing, always innovative graphic design community! These guys and gals have always been at the forefront of what the Internet can offer. If you block out a few hours in your day, or an hour or two here and there throughout the week, you can start understanding the basics behind PhotoShop, and then you will have liberation. Check out the courses at A Beautiful Mess for a comprehensive approach in an hour or longer class, or drop into Lynda for micro classes that teach you how to do one little thing in two minutes. Oh but don't worry, you can still hire your favorite graphic designer to execute your vision, and they will probably have a ball doing it.
YOU NEED THE PIECES AND PARTS OF THE SCENE
Photographers and designers have done the pretty work for you. They have used beautiful photos of objects, and cut them out. Sometimes referred to as "bundles", you can buy objects in packages and start putting together your photo. Great scenery is at Creative Market, and you will find some at Etsy as well. Etsy was, after all, one of the first places that graphic designers gathered to sell their ideas of packaging graphic design elements for others to use.
FONTS - LOTS OF FONTS
Many looks can be achieved from different fonts. So you'll want to supply yourself or your designer with just the right one. Like a chalk font, to look like you actually wrote on a chalkboard. Or a crisp, modern font that looks like what all of the other kids are using. Creative Market has fonts, as does MyFonts. In fact, there is a nifty tool at MyFonts called "What The Font?" where you can take a picture of wording you like, upload it to "What the Font?", and it can help you figure out which font was used so that you can buy the same one or similar.
TRY TO HAVE SOME SELF-CONTROL
Honestly, this is like shopping for free. So you may want to put everything into a scene because it's new. You may have always wanted that cool yellow table lamp, or the chic black over-hanging lamp. Or the terrariums on the desk because you never knew how to grow them in real life. But hold back, and use whatever objects illustrate your point best.
GO SOCIALIZE!
Now that you have these images, go Pin them! Add them to your Instagram stream! That is, after all, why you're investing time or money in making these photos. If you don't have time to socialize properly, investing in a social media team member will be worth your while.
