How to Make a Camera Bag - DIY

Hello all, today I am going to show you how I made a lovely camera bag out of a nice purse.  I wanted to have something to keep my camera safe, but not look like a big bag that was holding an expensive camera to steal.  Let's get started.

First, I took some foam seat cushions.  I kept toying with the idea of what to use, but it all seemed so expensive.  I got mine at Walmart.

I then measured the bag I had.  I had found this bag at a thrift store, and it was the perfect size. I knew that it would be a custom fit for the foam, so I measured it out.

I then cut the pieces to size and rough fit them in.  It was already coming together so great!  I was able to cut the bottom and the sides the same width, and then the shorter sides to squeeze in there.  So nice.

Then I took to the material.  I had this material laying around doing nothing.  It has odd bears of something on one side, but this super soft fuzziness on the other.  I really wanted none of my stuff to be damaged, so I decided to go against the grain and use the wrong side of the fabric for the outside.  I also cut it into a square with my rolling blade.  They make these for quilting, and I am not a quilter, but have no idea how I ever cut material straight before this.

I then of course sewed it up.  A few short stitches and we were in business.  I like square things....

Making sure it fit with the fabric on it.  It took a little working with it because the material had to be bigger to allow for the bending and the sitting on top of each other and such.  But, since I put the bottom and sides together, it makes it so the stuff doesn't fall outside of the cushioning.

I then took the two shorter sides and covered them, then sewed them on the edges.  You can really be a perfectionist here, or do as I did and leave room for wiggle.  It really makes no difference after you put it in the bag.  I also had a smaller piece for the middle as shown off the the side there.  Thought it would make a nice divider, but it quickly was tossed out because it just took up too much room.

Here it is, all nice and squished in there.  It looked so good once it was done and like nothing could hurt it.

I included a small notepad for keeping notes, a pen, some nylons for special effects for the camera, some extra batteries, my extra SD cards, and some other odds and ends that are always there when I need them.

To top it all off, my camera, in the bag I made for it.  (See instructions here).  It is a very nice bag, and always up for an adventure.

How to make a Camera Bag Case

I am one that is fairly protective of my camera, and want it to live happily safe and sound.  I also do not like to spend money.  However, the biggest problem I run into is that I haven't found a camera case the size I wanted to fit my camera.  So, what is one to do?  Well make one of course!

(I would like to insert a disclaimer.  I love to sew, have been doing it since the age of eight.  I however do not like patterns, or really following the rules persay. I just sort of make them up as I go along.  That being said, none of my work is extremely professionally finished, but it works.  Plus, I enjoy how things are, and that is all that really matter.  So be forewarned, if you think you can do this better, feel free to.)

Step 1: Measure
Now, I think it is the architect in me that wants to have everything at right angles, and nice and rectangular, but I just measure everything.  I measured the back and one side of the camera, added it together, gave myself a bit of a seam allowance, and decided to cut it there.  Did the same the other side as well.

 

Step 2: Cut

I took my measurements, and cut it out.  I like to use a rotary cutter.  Love that tool.  When I finally got it, and paid more than I wanted for it, I was so glad I had.  I use it to cut everything!  Also may be because I cut squares mostly, but man, no idea how I lived before.  If you don't have one, get one, you'll thank me.

Step 3: Make two
Now, I was so pleased with myself, got my piece cut out from my extra fabric, live was wonderful.  Then I realized I needed two pieces because I was going to stuff it.  Silly me.  So, don't be like me, make two to start with.  But if not, I just traced over the cut with my rotary cutter, and I was done.  So easy...

Step 4: Sew the sides
I chose to do my thread in red.  For two reasons really.  One, I like contrast.  The red and the purple went well together.  I liked it.  I also don't really care if it matches, I think those who are obsessed with matching thread are sometimes crazy about it. But, the main reason is it was already on the machine and I wasn't in the mood to change it.  Do whatever color you want.  Dye your thread to match you fabric if you really want.

Step 5: Stuff it
I happened to have a bunch of stuffing laying around.  Left over from a huge pillow project I never finished.  And I took some of it, and shoved it in the hole.  Notice I hadn't sewn the one side, so I had plenty of room to stuff.  I made it just poofy enough to be fluffy, but not over sized.

Step 6: Sew the columns
 Now, I had done this before and was super pleased with the results, so I decided to do it again.  Partly because you want the stuffing to stay, partly for looks, sew columns into it.  I made sure they went the way that I was going to fold it over to make the case, but do it however you want.  I just picked a random width, and tried to stay on it.

Step 7: Sew Shut
I found it very handy that the columns worked out so that the last one was about the size of the last pocket.  I then sewed up that last side, and can I tell you, don't know which is which.  It helps with ease that I didn't want to hide the sewing, so I didn't turn it inside out.  I figured I couldn't hide the columns, do why hid the rest.

Step 8: Sew it together
Then you take it and fold it over, and sew the side and bottom.  I did the side first, just so it wouldn't be hard to hold.  The original plan was to have a top flap.  Once again, I planned wrong, but I loved this when it came out anyways.  There are now like two inches of fluff at the top.  I just shove the camera in, and can fold it over, but it stays nice and protected.

I love my camera case now.  It lives in my camera bag, which hopefully I will show you soon.  Do let me know if you decide to make your own, and show me below!  Thanks for checking this out!

earring display idea

This is a sketch I did of a way to display earrings for when photographing so that you weren't distracted by what it was on.  I haven't used it yet, but I feel as if it would work very well.  I want to know, what do you hang your earrings on when photographing?

Two simple photography tips

White balance.  Ah dear, some good white balance.  Light comes in different colors.  There is cool light, and warm light.  In theater design they use it a lot.  Next time you go to a show, and I mean with real people, not a movie, watch the lights.  If it is a good lighting designer, they will use the different temperate of lights to create different effects on the stage.  A lot of buildings do it as well, the lights going up the side of the building, looking like columns, are sometimes every other color.  Sometimes the person replacing them has no idea, and puts the wrong color in.  We have tons of different types of light, you know that.  Outdoor light, aka: the sun, is one color.  The moon is actually another, which is interesting.  Then incandescent, or florescent also looks different.  All a different temperate, all a different color.  So, what is one to do?  Well, for starters, only use one color.  Whenever I buy new bulbs, I get a pack.  I will confess, I use three different types, but never, ever at the same time.  If you don't have multiples, use white board to reflect the light back.  Mirrors work as well. So then once you have all the same color, set up your camera to see the pure white.  My camera will automatically change, but I always, always like to set it myself just to make sure.  Set a piece of pure white paper, or anything really, in the frame, and set it.  Then that will always be white, and the rest of the colors will fall into place.  Works wonders, even with crappy light.

The macro.  It unfortunately took me a long time to learn this.  I have pictures of things long since gone that if only I had the macro on would have been perfect.  It is a little flower typically, and focuses on tiny things.  It is also a lot of fun to play with the depth of field on your own, focusing on things and blurring out other things.  But typically that is when you really get into photography, and my current camera I don't know how to do that with if it even does.  The one I learned it on was a loaner, it had film... ah, scary, I know.

So, what are your tips for good photography?

Do you want to be featured on my blog with some of these questions?  Go to these interview questions and fill them out, answer as many as you want or do not want to.  I will more than likely edit them down anyways. Then send them to me at thevicagirl, and I will go ahead and post your interview.  I will be intermixing interviews with other posts, so your interview may not appear for a while, do not get upset at this please.

How to take great Etsy photos - Part 3-3 – Photoshop – Clear

Welcome to the How-To Series about how I personally photograph my jewelry. My purpose is not to say that this is how to do all things. It is simply to give you an idea of how I do it so that you can improve your photos with ideas from me. Or, if you find something I do that is completely insane and you know how to do it better, please feel free to share.

Clear items pose a whole different set of problems. How do you take a photo of something clear? And with my process, I have a tendency to white out the clear things. You will notice that in the photo I have actually placed the clear earrings on a clear piece of plastic. Yes. Fun. Make sure you have read about the light source in the accessories post.

Step one: Be careful not to clear too much away. You may not make it along the curve to far. (Same as black post) Levels. In Photoshop it is in the image > adjustments > levels. There will typically be a nice curve with leading and trailing places that are very close to nothing. Take the little slider on the right and drag it toward the curve, and put it where it starts to upswing. This typically takes all of the background from the white box and turns it to a nice clear white.

Step one-two: Be careful here as well. (Same as colored post) Other adjustments. Also there are other adjustments options that can be made. I like to play with the brightness/contrast, and hue/saturation. The thing to watch out for here is that you don’t change the color of your item. Make sure you always know what color it is and don’t change it into something that it is not.

Step two: Make sure the tolerance is a tiny number. (Same as black post) Magic Wand. There are tons of ways to select things in Photoshop, but I find this the easiest. I showed one friend it, after he had used other methods for years, and he was amazed at how much better it was. Do note: you need to have high resolution photos or it can start to select odd things and in that case you are better off using other methods (see last weeks for some). It is easy to use, click on the part that is suppose to be white, chances are your background isn’t even if it looks it. Then, hit the delete key. CTL+D deselects so that you can move onto something else. If you get frustrated with this, you can change the tolerance to include things closer to the color you are selecting, or more variety. When all else fails, just erase it. I would just erase the black line from the edge of the box anyways.

Step two-two: Here is the tricky, yet easy part. Once things have been selected, and because the world hates you (or the clear item is, well, clear) you have selected parts of the earring that shouldn’t be gotten rid of. So, enter Quick Mask Mode (Q). Mine is a box with a circle in it, but Photoshop likes to change it up, so good luck finding it. The fun part is if you double click it, you can change the color of it. Mine is a bright red with 50% occupancy so I can easily see it. Except on red things. Once in it, you paint! The eraser tool adds things from your selection. The paint tool (or pencil) subtracts things. I always forget which is which, so I just play with it. If it does something wrong, CTL+Z (undo). This way I am able to select the background while still keeping the necessary item in the photo.

Step three: (Same as black post) Crop. Now, no matter how white I get the background, the end of the necklace is not leaving. So, I crop. Here is where you can make up for the mistakes of the past. Make the focus of the photo, in this case the charm; come fairly close to filling the frame. Now for the fun part. You will notice that the first photo is vertical and the finished horizontal. I like to keep all my Etsy photos at 1000 wide and 750 tall, for a variety of reasons, one being consistency. So, because I have that pure white background I can change the image size, and canvas size, adding or subtracting background as needed without having to make sure it matches. Perfect.

Step three-two: (Same as colored post) Earring cropping. You will notice that the placement of the earrings in the photos are different, and one is bigger. I like to make sure that the earrings completely fill the frame, but are not always in the center. An off center placement gives a bit of interest. You have heard of the rule of thirds, try that. But, don’t let them get to far away, or when it is in the square view they will be cropped funny. If you want, try cropping it to a square yourself first, then add the extra white space for gallery view.

Come back next week for the next part!

How to take great Etsy photos - Part 3-2 – Photoshop – Colors

Welcome to the How-To Series about how I personally photograph my jewelry. My purpose is not to say that this is how to do all things. It is simply to give you an idea of how I do it so that you can improve your photos with ideas from me. Or, if you find something I do that is completely insane and you know how to do it better, please feel free to share.

Colored items are a little harder. Although the photo has many of the same problems, light reflection, side of the box, the process isn’t always the same.

Step one: (Same as black post) Levels. In Photoshop it is in the image > adjustments > levels. There will typically be a nice curve with leading and trailing places that are very close to nothing. Take the little slider on the right and drag it toward the curve, and put it where it starts to upswing. This typically takes all of the background from the white box and turns it to a nice clear white.

Step one-two: Other adjustments. Also there are other adjustments options that can be made. I like to play with the brightness/contrast, and hue/saturation. The thing to watch out for here is that you don’t change the color of your item. Make sure you always know what color it is and don’t change it into something that it is not.

Step two: (Same as black post) Magic Wand. There are tons of ways to select things in Photoshop, but I find this the easiest. I showed one friend it, after he had used other methods for years, and he was amazed at how much better it was. Do note: you need to have high resolution photos or it can start to select odd things and in that case you are better off using other methods (see next week for some). It is easy to use, click on the part that is suppose to be white, chances are, your background isn’t even if it looks it. Then, hit the delete key. CTL+D deselects so that you can move onto something else. If you get frustrated with this, you can change the tolerance to include things closer to the color you are selecting, or more variety. When all else fails, just erase it. I would just erase the black line from the edge of the box anyways.

Step three: (Same as black post) Crop. Now, no matter how white I get the background, the end of the necklace is not leaving. So, I crop. Here is where you can make up for the mistakes of the past. Make the focus of the photo, in this case the charm, come fairly close to filling the frame. Now for the fun part. You will notice that the first photo is vertical and the finished horizontal. I like to keep all my Etsy photos at 1000 wide and 750 tall, for a variety of reasons, one being consistency. So, because I have that pure white background I can change the image size, and canvas size, adding or subtracting background as needed without having to make sure it matches. Perfect.

Step three-two: Earring cropping. You will notice that the placement of the earrings in the photos are different, and one is bigger. I like to make sure that the earrings completely fill the frame, but are not always in the center. An off center placement gives a bit of interest. You have heard of the rule of thirds, try that. But, don’t let them get to far away, or when it is in the square view they will be cropped funny. If you want, try cropping it to a square yourself first, then add the extra white space for gallery view.

Come back next week for the next part!

How to take great Etsy photos - Part 3-1 – Photoshop – Black

Welcome to the How-To Series about how I personally photograph my jewelry. My purpose is not to say that this is how to do all things. It is simply to give you an idea of how I do it so that you can improve your photos with ideas from me. Or, if you find something I do that is completely insane and you know how to do it better, please feel free to share.

Black items, what a lot of the items in my shop are quite easy. You will see that the photo I took has a lot of issues. A reflection of the light source, the back end of the necklace hanging, the side of the light box edge being seen creating a black spot. All of these can be fixed in a couple easy steps.

Step one: Levels. In Photoshop it is in the image > adjustments > levels. There will typically be a nice curve with leading and trailing places that are very close to nothing. Take the little slider on the right and drag it toward the curve, and put it where it starts to upswing. This typically takes all of the background from the white box and turns it to a nice clear white.

Step two: Magic Wand. There are tons of ways to select things in Photoshop, but I find this the easiest. I showed one friend it, after he had used other methods for years, and he was amazed at how much better it was. Do note: you need to have high resolution photos or it can start to select odd things and in that case you are better off using other methods (see next week for some). It is easy to use, click on the part that is suppose to be white, chances are, your background isn’t even if it looks it. Then, hit the delete key. CTL+D deselects so that you can move onto something else. If you get frustrated with this, you can change the tolerance to include things closer to the color you are selecting, or more variety. When all else fails, just erase it. I would just erase the black line from the edge of the box anyways.

Step three: Crop. Now, no matter how white I get the background, the end of the necklace is not leaving. So, I crop. Here is where you can make up for the mistakes of the past. Make the focus of the photo, in this case the charm, come fairly close to filling the frame. Now for the fun part. You will notice that the first photo is vertical and the finished horizontal. I like to keep all my Etsy photos at 1000 wide and 750 tall, for a variety of reasons, one being consistency. So, because I have that pure white background I can change the image size, and canvas size, adding or subtracting background as needed without having to make sure it matches. Perfect.

Come back next week for the next part!

how to take great etsy photos - part 2 – the white box accessories

Welcome to the How-To Series about how I personally photograph my jewelry. My purpose is not to say that this is how to do all things. It is simply to give you an idea of how I do it so that you can improve your photos with ideas from me. Or, if you find something I do that is completely insane and you know how to do it better, please feel free to share.

Important to the light box are the lights. Here I have one desk lamp, without a shade and the other a shop light that clips to a PVC post I have (sometimes it just clamps to the foamcore or any near surface). I have placed them both near the edge of the box, allowing the light to fill the box. It also helps that they are not hitting the object being photographed directly, but instead have a 45 degree angle toward them. In the photo they are not turned on, but when they are they light up the box and the surrounding room with how bright they are. The bulbs I have used are not anything special; in fact they are the cheapest I have. The key is that I have them both the same type, out of the same box even. That way I can set my cameras white balance to accommodate the color of light they produce.

So, I have a box, and lights, but how do I get the effect that something is hanging? Simple, clear plastic blocks. Being an architecture student I come across the weirdest building materials. I actually found a pair of these in a garbage pile. I stack them up at different heights depending on the length of the object being photographed. I realize that you may not be so lucky, and have actually been able to find some nearly the same at Roberts. They sell them as material for some die-cut objects. But really, any clear material would work. I bet a chuck of glass would work. They key to having them work is to not allow the light to reflect off of it so that you can see it. Also, Photoshop, as the next part will explore. I also have a thin piece of plastic that I hang earrings off of. It has a slight curve so it stands by itself.

For white or clear items I have had a tough time photographing them. So, I decided that to back light them as well would work. It has had some success, but I haven’t perfected the accessory yet. I do have a sandblasted box that has a light in it. The key is to get something clear enough to see the light, but foggy enough to defuse the light. I believe there is a collection of such materials at your local home improvement store in the light fixture area. Think big sheets of it. I then have a light, same as the ones in front, that produce a light behind. The objects are then placed in front of the light source to create a bigger difference in the white of the object and the light source.

Come back next week for the next one!

how to take great etsy photos - part 1 – how to make a white light box

Welcome to the How-To Series about how I personally photograph my jewelry. My purpose is not to say that this is how to do all things. It is simply to give you an idea of how I do it so that you can improve your photos with ideas from me. Or, if you find something I do that is completely insane and you know how to do it better, please feel free to share.

I love foamcore. I do. It has got to be the easiest thing to build things out of. I even have some shelves built out of it. However, it is not the easiest thing to find. In fact, I lost track of how many looks of insanity I have received from asking a store employee if they had it, and that was at craft stores. It is more commonly known as foam board, and you can find that easier. I know Michaels has some, but they are typically one size and colorful. Office Max has some, a lot of the time it is in presentation board format, so don’t get folding ones. I have even seen some at the dollar store, and can I tell you, it was the best. So easy to cut! And a dollar, not three like in other places.

My white box is sort of small, for jewelry, but you can make it whatever size you want. Just keep cutting at 2” tabs around and make sure it fits. I would make sure to draw it all on before you cut. When I did mine I then put an X in which chunk I would cut out so that I got the right one cut. Please, make sure you are sure of what you are cutting before you cut. These are large pieces of foamcore, and I would hate for you to ruin them.

Here are the measurements of my pieces. The cool thing about it is that you can take it apart time and time again to store flat when not in use. Love it. I have mine labeled on the outside so I don’t have to think very hard when putting it back together.

The piece of paper I have in it was just the length of the paper I had. Feel free to make it whatever size you want. Also, try and get the paper as white as possible seeing as how this is what will be seen in the photos. If not pure white, at least foamcore white.

Come back next week for the next part!