houston-based Nibin pixel is known for
beautiful design from wedding
invitations in calligraphy to watercolor
paintings their work is so polished it's
been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings
on Entertainment Tonight and Estonia
magazine in their workshops they teach
regular people like you and me to get in
touch with their artistic side today
owner Dion Christensen is using her
design expertise to teach me how to
style everyday items and create
instagram-worthy
professional looking photos a good
styled image is because that's how
people see you not everyone's gonna see
a face every day but they're gonna see
the images that you put up and you want
the images to represent you as a person
or if you're a business you as a brand
that is an excellent point your
Instagram account is sort of your first
impression for a lot of folks people
gonna look at it see the first few
images and they're gonna judge you based
on this best view image
so harsh but that's the reality so
whether you're a blogger or you run a
small business
having good photos is key correct you
can use your iPhone or else can't just
use at normal camera so even without
fancy equipment your photos can still
look professional
the technique you're teaching us today
is called because everything is laying
down flat and it's basically a
bird's-eye view so you've got the
subject down and then you're on top
taking a picture first choose a
background these are called styling
boards and some people get them painted
in a specific way if you've got cute
floor you can just shoot it on your
floor oh yeah like we've got some nice
wooden floors here so sometimes you can
take a picture on the wooden floor but
if you don't have nice floors in your
house then you can either make something
like this or you can buy them online the
cheapest way to do it is just to make it
yourself how do you how do you make
something like that this way is just
using pasta so they just put plaster on
it and then paint it over the top
whatever it is you don't want it to
stand out too much because it's the base
it shouldn't be more prominent than the
product after finding a good base think
about the focal point of your photo okay
so what I would do is so first of all
we're talking about layers right so the
first thing you need to do is make sure
that when you frame it
nothing is higher then the object you
want highlighted nothing is higher okay
since the Little Blue Book is our main
object in the photo Dion added other
items to complement it not distract from
it and she says pay close attention to
color choice I would use more muted
tones because the book itself is green
and blue like there's no oranges in the
book so I worry that if I put an orange
flower on there this is going to become
the focal point interesting
you want to use colors that don't scream
louder than the actual item that you're
trying to highlight another way that we
can highlight this book to add movement
to it is maybe add some ribbon around it
oh that's cool so that adds some texture
and then it also adds a leading line
because if this is in the picture it's
gonna lead up to the main title so it's
pointing at the main item after adding
more ribbon we needed a little more
greenery to fill in the gaps if you want
and it's like a little filler space that
you don't like like oh that looks too
empty but looks too blank you can just
add some random little pieces in just
gives it a little more personality you
don't want to go overboard because then
it's gonna you're gonna lose the product
you're not going to be looking at your
product anymore you're gonna be looking
at and with that our flat lay was ready
to be photographed with plenty of
natural light we didn't need a filter I
don't think that needed to be filled
Dion says photo filters can be great but
use them carefully do you ever see
photos on Instagram that are just
filtered beyond filters like a painting
it drives me crazy because I have that
as one of my major pet peeves so as a
recap remember these steps want to have
Laius that's the first thing the second
thing is you want colors that actually
match the product and most importantly
you want it to reflect you like have
your personality injected to it and go
easy on the filters they can be great to
add color and contrast but too much is
too much so with your best photo forward
you're ready to face the world
thank you very much yeah this was fine