After reading Tine of Beautyholics Anonymous‘s behind the scene post last year, it gave me an idea and inspiration to do one as well. But then I have a problem. My behind the scene is not as pretty as Tine’s. Knowing it would definitely be an interesting insight post for my readers I suppose there’s no harm in showing all of you the not-so-glamourous side of me at home when it comes to blogging 😀
Close-up Product Shots
I like to take picture outside the house while the sun is blazing hot. Crazy I know. So I have no choice but to only take pictures of the things I want to feature for the whole of the next following week on the Saturday or Sunday before. Being out in the hot sun means I’d be sweating like a dog so I do it while I’m still in my pyjamas and took a cold bath after that. If you pass by my house you’d see this crazy looking girl in the garden in pyjamas with a blue jeans hairband, hair tied up in a high bun, wearing a slipper. Sometimes it is so hot and glaring that I thought I went blind!
Most of the time I would use a large white board on top of a stool as the background while sitting on a Ikea children’s stool hehe. Although my camera comes with image stabilizer feature I still like to use a tripod as I have shaky hands.
Soooo, that’s where all the product shots came from 🙂
Close-up Face Shots
When it comes to face shot I like to do it in my room for privacy. It would really look odd if I were to pose and keep taking picture of myself in the garden haha! I used to have problem finding the right angle and natural lighting in my room until I read a tips from another beauty blogger. I can’t remember which blogger is that but thanks to her I am able to take clear, bright and sharp picture of myself. I found out that by putting something white at the back as background and face the window, picture would turns out really good. I took her advice since then and never look back. What I do is to stick a huge white board at the border of my Ikea working table, using Ikea HELMER drawer unit as the support.
99% of my clothes are dresses. It would be a little weird to change into a dress just to take a head shot on the weekend plus I’m lazy like that haha so I prefer to wear a baby tee. It doesn’t matter to me since what I wore is not visible in the end anyway. The bottom? Well my pyjamas still! LOL. So not glamourous.
The Gadgets
Sometimes, just sometimes I took some picture with the product on my laptop and post in Instagram. And that sometimes trigger a question – what laptop I’m using. I bought a MacBook Air on February 2012. What brings me to convert from Window to Apple was after my Gmail was hacked more than 5 times in less than a week. Who would have thought retrieving my own Gmail account from Google would need the date when the account was created!!?? Who can remember come on Google! Let me just tell you changing password doesn’t work because my machine was “planted” with a thing called key-logger. In my case I reformat my laptop and I am still phobia about the whole experience. A few months after that the same laptop was infected with a malware that wiped off everything from my laptop. After a painstaking few hours of googling for a solution desperately, I managed to retrieve most of the files. That was it. I went ahead to get a MacBook Air. It was the best investment and I have no regret at all 🙂
As for my camera I’m using a micro 4/3; Olympus E-P3 which I bought together with a friend back in July 2011. Took me quite some time to like the camera. I have no clue how to properly use the features at the beginning so I keep on saying this camera is not as good as what was raved online. Now I love it more than anything else after a few months of trials and error. Yes I finally “get” it. Then my lens had problem extending from 25mm to 42mm. The screen just went blank. The weird thing is I can still use the camera lens from 14mm to 24mm. The bad news is my warranty with Olympus died exactly 2 weeks before that. I had to thank God that I purchased the Extended Warranty package that was offered to me back then. Putting aside my dramatic story with the claim which was dragged for a month, my lens was ready on CNY eve. Again, who would have the time to go to a shopping mall to collect lens on a CNY eve! Anyway all is good now. I’m still trial-ing my lens and crossing fingers that nothing will happen.
Just before the Olympus E-P3 lens was sent in for warranty claim servicing I bought a point and shoot camera; Canon Powershot S110 as the standby camera. I was told the warranty process for E-P3 would take 1-month. After considering and deliberating for a while and the fact that I know I cannot let the blog went on a hiatus for a month…I went ahead and bought it. So now I will use Olympus E-P3 at home for product shooting while I will bring Canon Powershot S110 out to events.
It is definitely not easy to be a beauty blogger especially for me since I have a busy demanding work life. Most of the time I do my product review face shot in the morning right before I leave for work while product shot itself would be done only on the weekend. It was all good until recently I changed my working hours. I left to work a few hours earlier (6.30am) and so face shot is done on the weekend too. Let me just tell you I hate putting on makeup on the weekend LOL.
Most of the pictures you see here was only resized, watermarked, some are sharpen when it’s a lil blur and brighten or darken when necessary. I don’t retouch pictures simply because I have no idea how to use Photoshop. Because of that I took my sweet time with product shoot. Sometimes it may appear nice on the camera preview but it’s not on the computer. Not all the time but sometimes.
I think the whole process has been gelled into my life now that if I have nothing to shoot on the weekend I’d feel awkward and start walking around my room looking for something to shoot. I’m crazily in love with my passion so what does some sweat would harm right? If I can finish all shooting on Saturday I’d happily go for a shopping trip on the Sunday!
Yea that’s still me in a pyjamas =P
Hope you enjoyed reading a little scoop of behind the scene on how I spent most of my weekends. Told ya’ it’s not as glamourous as you think. It’s a sweaty business!
Comments (32)
Wow good job on photos, hehe.. All the hard work!l
Thanks Sherry 🙂
You go girl! Good job on the blog. I know it takes a lot of time, effort and sacrifices. I can see you are happy with your hobby so it is all worth it ^^
Thanks :). Oh yes you bet I’m happy 😉
I really really enjoyed reading this! And it was very inspiring how u put in so much effort in this! keep it up Fiona! Will support u always! And thanks for sharing this with us!
Thank you for the long time support gin! I had fun taking picture for this post actually. All the running between 2 camera was so hilarious. Not bad to have 2 camera eh 🙂
It is good to have two I think.. The smaller canon one although not as high tech, is more compact! But I am a camera noob so what I say may not be accurate haha.. I see girls taking huge camera with them in the mall sometimes lol
I choose Canon S110 because it’s as good as a pro camera. It’s more expensive but worth every cent! But people are judgemental nowadays. When I whipped out Canon S110 at event…I get a stare 😛
Fun read in the morning 🙂 looking forward to more reviews 🙂
Already more than others lol
I love it! That part about taking pictures in your PJs, I definitely relate to that. In fact, most of not all the product images shown on the blog are taken when I’ve just gotten out of bed 😛 It’s not very glamourous but it works! 🙂
Tine I like yours better! Totally agree with you. Most of the weekend I’m like you too – wakes up, have a cup of coffee and off to the garden. As long as it looked glamourous in the blog 🙂
I love your blog! U r so REAL and HONEST, unlike some so-called self-proclaimed beauty “blogger” who only copies and pastes fr the product websites itself and praises EVERY SINGLE product to be “the best”, “very good”, forever harping about “pampering for myself”.
Reading your blog gave me new info abt the various products available and allow me to decide which is suitable for me (oily, open pores, prone to breakouts).
I love your honesty and matter-of-fact style.
Keep it up, girl!
Awwww thank you Carrie. I guess everyone have their own way of writing. I like to tell stories on how I know about the brand, why I bought, stories with the BA etc and then talk a bit about the product claim and then my experience. A little bit lengthy LOL. That’s how I am.
If the product is bad I just will not write at all. If I need to write I’ll focus more on the good side and less on the bad side.
I love this behind the scene post of yours,nice one Fiona and how much did you bought that Canon Powershot S110?? Looks awesome 😉
Thanks Nicole. It’s an ugly scene hahaha
I bought it for RM1,420 if I’m not mistaken. Got it cheaper than retail because I
forceask my photographer to bring me to his friend’s shop.I love this post! I take a lot of photos in my house shorts and yeah, the bottom half is not very glamorous 😉 Most of my face shots are very rushed and usually before heading off to work so I don’t usually take more than 10 shots.
I love your passion and absolutely enjoy reading your blog so keep up the fantastic work!
Me too! Most of my face shot is before rushing to work. You get to take 10 shots. I only do like 3-4 shots. Sometimes when my face is bloating then its 10 lol.
Miss your updates. Come back soon!
Looking hawt in them jammies!!
Matching but absolutely cheap jammies :P. Kamsiah said me and my jammies is never ending story hehe
Awesome post! You look so cute in your pajamas. So much effort and commitment. Truly blogging from heart and passion. Kudos!
Thanks Jen! 🙂 My next project is light box so that I can take picture at night. My room is in pink so its a bit dim. I need a light box!
Awesome post, keep it up Fiona!!
Thank you Eileen :). Will do!
Awesome. I read some bloggers use the ring light when taking close up shot. I am curious about the light box. But yay! Many more beautiful pictures in the days to come 😀
For night time use. My photographer told me to DIY…no need to buy lol
Very very interesting and nice post! I love it! Always love your posts anyways. 🙂
Awww thank you Jojo. You’ve been with the blog since it was young hehe. Thank you for that 🙂
Wow that’s a lot of work! Thank you,thank you for your wonderful efforts,I really have to thank a lot of ‘real’ beauty bloggers especially you for being such a big help to me (and my wallet hihi). *sending virtual hug*
Lots of sweat for me LOL. I’m going to review more budget beauty buys. It’s waller friendly for me and you girls hahahaha *sending virtual hug back*
This post was such a fun read and I love your honesty – pyjamas and all! Lol, I agree, I used to work from home and PJ’s were my favourite outfit to wear to ‘work’. I love your Behind-the-Scenes posts and it was your post about the Mivva girls working so hard behind the scenes that convinced me to get a subscription. I think it takes some guts to let your readers see the other side of the lens. I don’t know when I will be able to be brave enough to do a Behind-the-Scenes post.
Glad that you like it ShopGirl :D. The pyjamas is something that I can’t avoid hehe. I was quite relieved that the girls from MIVVA agreed to do this otherwise I won’t have a content 😛
You should do a behind the scene. It’s quite fun. Nervous at the beginning cause mine is ugly scene haha but once you post it up everything is fine.