Behind the scenes with product photoshoots!

So how do these pictures all come to be?  

Where does something like this come from?

Purpose

The very first thing I do when setting up a product shot is to create a purpose for the shot. The easy top-level purpose is to, of course, show a customer or potential customer what a product looks like. But it's more than that. The photographs have to stand in for all the things a customer cannot do. They cannot smell a product, or touch it, or hold it in their hand and gauge the size.

For the Miruvor Long Hair Tea pictures above, the pictures show what the customer can expect. They see the initial package and label, the tea bag, they can see the herbs that are in it, and they can see the color that the rinse brews up. It makes it easy to imagine wrapping your hands around that big glass cuppa and taking a drink.

This helps build confidence, because you, as a customer, then have a sense of security in knowing what you're getting when you click Add to Cart.

Another example of purpose is in showcasing ingredients.  Here are the ingredients for our Selkie Herbal Detangler:

Distilled water, Marshmallow root, slippery elm & fenugreek seed herbal infusion, Aloe vera gel, Apple cider vinegar, Argan Oil, Borage Oil, Camelina Oil, Vitamin E Oil, and the essential oils of Catnip, Cedarwood, Lavender, Lime, Petitgrain, and Sage

But that doesn't really say the same thing as this:

Here you experience these ingredients in a totally different way. You can picture them coming together, imagine the feel and the  aroma of fresh herbs and crisp water. It reaches out in a way that a bulleted list simply cannot.

Setup & Design

 Once the purpose is achieved, setup begins. That Selkie ingredient picture? Took two and a half hours to compose. Filling all those little vials, the droppers, gathering and arranging the herbs, finding good vessels for the water and the fenugreek are all tiny areas of detail that have to come together.  Then it builds into a composition, where visual motion, framing, angle and a bunch of other photographic and artistic principles come together.

So if you take about 5 steps back from this:

The Forest Glade Dark Hair Rinse picture above looks like this:

I'm using a lightbox and color-balanced lighting.  

The Camera

My pictures are all shot with a Cannon G11:

On average, I shoot 15-20 pictures per end photo.  When I reshot the hair rinses and teas, there were over 150 images shot for three products and all their variations.

Photo Editing

Then I load all those pictures onto my computer. I use Photoshop as my image editing program.

Images selected (often from 4 or 5 very similar ones), cropped, color-balanced, and touched up. The goal is to present the product in its most true form, never visually alter it beyond what a customer should expect to see in person (see every fast food burger ad ever).

Now that isn't to say I don't take ANY artistic liberties.

Our honey bees are pretty tame, but they're not QUITE that docile (or cooperative).

Editing images is a very, very time-consuming process. At the end I add the NightBlooming watermark and save the images out.  Then the final images are updated in the store: 

Shooting my products is one of those aspects that lets me flex my photography and visual design skills, and it's a ton of work, but it's actually also a very fun, very creative process.

Salve Survery & Contest Results!

Hair Salve Survey Results

 And the results are in!  I had some help from the statistician at my day job to crunch the numbers, and it took a little doing- hence the delay in results.  The good news is that the winners didn't have to wait, everyone that won salve was contacted a week or two ago and their goodies are on the way.   But here are your results!  This will enable me to make much better customer recommendations for the "which salve should I order" question. ^_^

The results on this one surprised me, although it lines up with my sales so I'm not sure why.  I think I felt that Ostara's was more popular than Freya's.

This just forces me to conclude that hair salve is like the Amortentia potion from Harry Potter, everyone smells something different, but everyone like what they smell.

These results were also very interesting.  Personally, two ounces of salve lasts me over a year, so I fall in the black part of the graph.

The number of people that use salve as a styling aid was unexpected, but also very neat to see.

When I ran the results of this question against the first one (which hair salve works best for you), there were some weak preferences.  Curlies and zig-zaggies tended to prefer Panaceas, wavies Freya's and straight haired people the Ostara's.  But the trends were very, very weak and the results were still very varied across all hair types. 

The main trends here when we ran this against salve preference was that people with fine hair seemed to like Freya's or Ostara's best, and those with thick hair preferred Panacea's.  Generally, though, there were responses for all salve types to all hair thicknesses, with the most variance seen in medium hair strands. 

The most interesting thing about this one was that when I did a cross-compare with those who used henna and which salve they liked, there wasn't much difference from the first question.  Freya's came out ahead by a hair for hennaheads, but I feel that's in the margin of "I use which one I think smells best."  I also found it funny that almost 40% of respondents were henna users.  That's really, really high compared to "normal" people.

I've wanted to do a few limited edition salves for awhile now, and by this I think it's safe to say you'll see one or two in the future :)

So what do we take away from all this?  

• I'll still be recommending the Sample Trinity Pack when people ask which one to try.  The way everything shook out there wasn't a huge majority for any hair type crossing over with any one salve type.  I honestly expected to find that henna users preferred X salve, while curly haired people preferred Y, and those with straight, fine hair preferred Z.  But the results were still all over.  
• Generally, most people get the best results from using salve on damp hair
• Generally, a 1/2 ounce sample of salve will last ~1 month with average use.  Those that had higher rates of salve consumption tended to also be the ones that used it as a deep treatment as well as a leave-in. 
• You'll probably see some limited edition salves in the future.  But unlike Freya's, they won't stay.  Freya's was supposed to be limited edition, but the uproar was so great that I kept it.  The limited edition salves will be re-scents of the current three, so there won't actually be a functional change to the formula. :)

 Thank you to everyone who participated!  These results were amazing!

10,000 Sale Contest Results

 There were two entries for the Art Category, and none for the others.  They were both so wonderful, however, I decided that each of them will get the $20 NightBlooming Certificate as a prize :)  I left the artists anonymous, but they can claim their work if they'd like!  I'll be contacting both our winners directly with their prizes ^_^

 

Freya

Freya, of the Vanir,

Lady of Beltane.

Called upon,

By the womenfolk.

Goddess of fertility,

Goddess of abundance.

Loved and adored,

By rulers and heroes.

Leader of the Valkyrie,

Leader of warriors.

Shapeshifter and sorceress,

Traveller to all nine worlds.

Lady of divination,

Lady of magic.

Adored and cherished,

By all lovers.

Mistress of pleasure,

Mistress of passion.

Freya, the most beautiful,

Freya, the most benign.

                       - Sinead Anja Hering

Hair Salve Name Change: Panacea's, Ostara's, Freya's

Hair Salve Name Change:  Panacea's, Ostara's, Freya's

The first and most important thing I want to make clear about this change is this: the ingredients, formulas and method of preparation for each salve is utterly unchanged.  And the smell.  The smell of each salve is the same.  I'd fear angry hordes if I ever messed with that. 

Everything on the inside of the pots is the same.   Only the stuff on the outside, the name and the icon, has changed.

Panacea's Hair Salve, still Panacea's Hair Salve:

Panacea was a minor goddess in Greek mythology but her name survives today as a term used for a cure-all or remedy for all ills or diseases. Panacea means "heal-all" and the goddess personified healing through herbs. In the Middle Ages, the name was applied to a mythical herb supposed to possess a cure-all quality. Some herbs that have been considered panaceas include mistletoe, yarrow, and valerian.  Panacea's Hair Salve is vegetarian (contains honey), is the most rich of the salves, and smells of incense.

Panacea's Summer Hair Salve is now Ostara's Hair Salve

 

Ostara is the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring. She is associated with the Moon Hare or rabbit, with eggs, Dawn, and the East - all symbolizing her primary qualities of bringing birth, rebirth and renewal to a winter-weary world. Her salve will bring similar renewal to your hair. It is vegan,  contains protein, and has a light citrus and herb scent.

Panacea's Winter Hair Salve is now Freya's Hair Salve

 

In Norse mythology, Freya is a goddess of love and fertility, and the most beautiful and propitious of the goddesses. She is the patron goddess of crops and birth, the symbol of sensuality and was called upon in matters of love. She loves music, spring and flowers, and is particularly fond of the elves (fairies).  Freya's Salve is perfect for men or women, with a clean unisex scent reminiscent of a winter forest draped with newfallen snow. It should be noted that this blend is vegan and protein free!

Why the change?

There were a few big reasons I've wanted to do this for awhile:

• Clunky Naming: When I first started making salve, there was just one, Panacea's.  When someone requested a vegan version, I called it Panacea's Vegan Salve.  Then later people wanted a protein-free version.  So Vegan became Panacea's Summer Salve and the new one became Panacea's Winter Salve.  This meant that people called them Summer, Winter and... traditional? original?  For people unfamiliar with the salves, having three versions call called "Panacea's _____ Salve" was confusing.  Having three distinct names eliminates the clunkiness and confusion. 
• Room for more salves: Because of the clunky naming convention and the fact that there were are only four seasons, there wasn't much room for expansion.  While I don't have current plans for permanent additions to the salve family, I've wanted to do special scented blends for holidays like Samhain and Christmas.  
• Winter & Summer weren't for seasons and everyone thought they were: The naming for Summer and Winter was inspired by their scents and also because for awhile I was only offering them seasonally.  This, understandably, led people to think that Summer was, well, for summer, and Winter was for winter.  Which couldn't have been farther from the truth.  Because of this assumption, people weren't choosing the salve that was best for their hair.  Removing the seasonal designations takes away this misconception and nudges people to better evaluate which salve is best for them based on ingredients and other properties.  Now, people are more likely to look at protein vs no protein, or how much more rich Panacea's Salve is than Freya's Salve or Ostara's Salve.
• Distinct and Updated Branding: We've been slowly updating our branding to be more uniform and consistent across all NightBlooming's products.  Because Panacea's Hair Salve was the very first herbal product, it was the most out of date.  We'll be continuing to update our labeling, but at the moment, don't anticipate any other name changes.

Spread the word!

This is a big change, so if you get the chance to, please let others know!  Feel free to use any of the text and images in this post. 

Also, keep your eye out for an upcoming survey on how you use Panacea and how it works for you.  People that respond will get a discount code for the store and a chance to win 2 ounces of their favorite salve!