So you spent all that time making your kid (or yourself) that awesome Halloween costume, make sure you can preserve it in photographs with noahw's tutorial! The photo above is atozfriendly's disco ball costume from last year.

The Picture Perfect Pumpkin
By Vanessa Coppola

I have nothing against carving a few triangles into a pumpkin but who said that's a Halloween requirement? Get crafty this year and try decoupaging your pumpkin. You can use a real pumpkin, or my pick is a craft pumpkin so it can be on display for years to come. Grab a pumpkin spice latte (optional), some decoupage glue (not optional), and follow these simple steps for the picture perfect pumpkin.

Kristin Boehm has posted a great detailed tutorial on how to make a lightbox out of K'Nex pieces for product photography. She was digging for the perfect materials and stumbled across a box of K'Nex from her childhood, and the rest is history.

Anna writes:

Once again, we're looking for the cutest, funniest, most interesting photo of a Mochimochi Land toy. All you have to do to enter is upload your photo(s) to the Mochimochi Friends group on Flickr by November 16th. Like previous years, winners will receive cute goodies from Japan and gift certificates from Mochimochi Land, PLUS this year they will also get gift certificates from Knit Picks! To be eligible, your photo must contain at least one knitted toy made from a Mochimochi Land pattern. This can either be a pattern from the Mochimochi Shop or one of the free patterns on the Mochimochi Blog.

If you have a question for Ask CRAFT, shoot me an email at becky@craftzine.com, or drop us a note on Twitter! We'd love to answer your crafty questions on any topic: technique, projects, crafty culture, or anything else! Each week the answers are here; include your name, where you're from, and your website or blog if you have one!

Michelle Hiskey writes in asking:

I love the photos on Craftzine. Even if i have no intention of making the craft, i appreciate the photo styling and details. can you supply tips on how these photos are made?

It's true that having great photos will make your project more likely to get attention on our site. Here's my advice.

Know your equipment

You don't have to have an expensive camera to take great photos. A simple point-and-shoot digital camera with at least a 3 megapixel resolution will serve you well for almost all applications. You can really go crazy spending money on cameras, but don't spend a lot before you learn a lot, to make sure you're getting what you want and not just an expensive paperweight. Once you've got your camera, read the manual. Lost it? Look it up on the manufacturer's website. It's imperative that you know how to operate your camera including setting the white balance and any manual exposure settings you camera may have. Oh, and get a tripod, even one of those small desk ones (I recommend the Gorillapod or ModoPocket).

Lighting, lighting, lighting!

Lighting is the absolute most important aspect of photography. Photograph near a bright window, or invest in a few hardware store clamp lights and play with their arrangement around your photo area. You can build your own softbox to diffuse them, even, and a light box, too. Look through your camera's viewfinder at your subject and try to minimize glare and strange shadows by positioning lights above, below, in front, and behind your object.

Setting the scene

Professional photographers often use a seamless backdrop (fabric or paper) draped from the wall out to the floor/table, as it eliminates the line where the horizontal surface of the table/floor meets the wall. You can do this at home with a piece of fabric (iron it, please!) or some solid-color wrapping paper on a roll (Ikea has it for cheap, natch). You may choose to photograph your project in a more natural setting, in which case you should think about props and background scenery. If it's a food project, make sure your kitchen counter is clean! You get the idea, look at your photo as if you're seeing it for the first time, and check for what might catch the viewer's eye (both positively and negatively).

Software touchups

If you're going to learn only one Photoshop technique, let it be Levels. Available under Image > Adjustments > Levels, it's great for making your photo really pop by making the lights lighter and the darks darker. Don't be afraid of the histogram in the window that pops up, it will soon be your best friend. It's showing you the distribution of lights and darks in your image. I like to drag the outer sliders just a bit towards the center of the histogram. Leave the "preview" box checked to see what your modified image will look like. This small tweak can make a good photo great. Avoid cheesy watermarks or other image manipulations. Keep it classy!

Share!

Get your photos out there! Put them on Picasa Web or Flickr, and add them to the CRAFT Flickr pool! Use them on your blog, make an Instructable, go crazy (and have fun)! If you can't get enough photography projects, check out Photojojo. Got photo tips for us? Share them in the comments.

The best email newsletter hands down for photography crafts is Photojojo. Thanks to Amit's review one year, I found my Nikon D40 and have been in love with taking photos ever since. Now Amit and Kelly wow us again with their new book, Photojojo! Insanely Great Photo Projects and DIY Ideas filled with 50 projects so you can do more with all the cool photos you take. It's not just about printing them out and making a photo album. This book shows you how to use your photos to make cool things such as a lampshade or messenger bag (pictured below).The second half of the book is like taking a photography class. You'll learn techniques for taking better photos as well as fun ways you can experiment with different photo techniques. I love the tips on how to do digital color correcting after you've taken your photos. If you love taking photos and want to learn how to do more with them, this book is for you!

Book Giveaway Time!
We are giving away 3 copies of the Photojojo! book.Just leave a comment in this post and tell us why you need this book. Please make sure you include your email address in the comment form field (won't be published). All comments will be closed by Noon PST on Wednesday, September 23rd. The lucky winners will be announced next week on the site. Good luck!

Project: Ginormous Photo Mosaics
Even if you are living in an apartment and can't put holes in your walls, you can still get some great art up. Download the project PDF to make this stunning photo mosaic where you'll be able to see the wonderful memories you have of your friend and family.

(Note: If you are having problems viewing the PDF, please right-click on the link to download the file to your desktop.)

A series of photos by James D. Griffioen, on the Planet Mag website, show the "greening" of Motor City, what used to be one of the country's biggest production centers. In the light of the Moss Graffiti tutorial and the grassy 3D painting piece we saw in the last couple of weeks, this struck me as a stunning (albeit sad in a sense) example of the natural incarnation of the same. I love how the subhead on this post is "Feral Houses in the Motor City." My favorite is this building below. I can't help but to wonder what it will look like in a couple of months.

I like to give (and receive!) photos as gifts, but I get bored with the usual 5X7 framed variety. This tutorial from Photojojo might just fuel my next few gift giving sprees. They show how to create a double-sided set of puzzle blocks that lend a bit of interaction to enjoying the pictures. This could be a fun gift between kids or grownups looking for a bit of a conversation starter.

In this CRAFT Video, learn to make and use a pinhole camera from materials you probably already have around the house. This is a great project to do with your kids over the summer, or just to learn something new on your own. When you make one, post up your photos and cameras in the CRAFT Flickr pool!

Subscribe to CRAFT in iTunes or download the m4v video.

Supplies and tools:

• container for camera (oatmeal, tea tin, etc.)
• black electrical tape
• black spray paint
• small piece of aluminum foil, brass shim stock, or aluminum can
• fine sewing needle
• utility knife, scissors, or drill
• RC photo paper (I used Ilford 5x7)
• Kodak Dektol paper developer
• fixer
• stop bath
• plastic photo chemical jugs
• developer trays (3 or 4)
• darkroom safelight
• funnel (not for food use after)
• food thermometer
• water
• photo tongs (optional)
• vinyl apron (optional)
• paper towels

To make your camera, cut a small hole in your container, about one inch square after spray painting the interior black. Using a piece of aluminum foil, brass shim stock, or aluminum can that's slightly bigger than the hole on your container, poke a very small hole in the center with a needle. Only the point of the needle should pass through the material, not the upper (widest) part of the shaft. If you're using brass shim or a tin can, sand the hole on both sides with some fine sandpaper to get rid of the material pushed in by the needle (but you can't sand aluminum foil). Hold the piece up to the light to see that it's a nice round circular hole. Tape the piece over the hole in your container so that the pinhole is in the center. Use black electrical tape to prevent light leaks.

Read on for more info on loading your camera, exposing your paper, and developing your photo!

With summer vacations, trips, and occasions either being planned or in full force as we speak, you're sure to end up with an external hard drive's worth of images from your adventures. There are certainly no shortage of crafty ways to display and showcase those money shots, and one super fun way is by making your own custom coloring book with a batch of images. This week's flashback feature comes from CRAFT Volume 06, the Play issue. "Color Your World" by Summer Block Kumar shows you how to make coloring books with your images in 7 easy steps. All you need is a computer (I know you have that one!), Adobe Photoshop software, digital photos of your choosing, a color printer, acid-free heavy-stock paper, a binding machine (or check out the plethora of binding DIYs online), and crayons or colored pencils. And besides the coolness factor, they make great souvenir gifts.

Check out the full tutorial here in our Digital Edition and start sifting through your pics.

You can also still get the feel of a back issue of Volume 06 in your hands by heading to the Maker Shed. Our 30 fun-packed projects include mix and match monsters, a flashy LED hula hoop, super cute Japanese "otedama" juggling toys, a thumb piano from found objects, a reversible wrap-around skirt, solar jewelry, fig wine, a tablecloth skirt, and cardboard chairs … and that's not even the half of it!

Sunday, April 26 is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, and Corbis Readymech Cameras has this downloadable camera shell that you can print and fold into a cool pinhole camera (along with all the technical instructions on making it work.) For more information abut Worldwide Pinhole Camera Day and loads of links to DIY pinhole cameras, check out Photojojo.

I just discovered The Photographic Dictionary site through the COLOURlovers blog, and it's a great source of visual inspiration. The image above (by Federico Ciamei) is for the definition of Stripe, but the words range from the very concrete (Airport, or Green) to the abstract (Ephemeral, or Senescent). I love the way it makes me think about both the word and the photograph in new ways. It's by no means complete (some letters have only a few words defined; some, like S, have a lot), but it's a cool way to reframe the images and objects around us.