Meet My Model, or, The Pleasures of Photographing Product

The Lovely, if  Lopsided, Miss Fiberworks

As my human model wasn’t available today, I had to improvise. I do have a few head forms, as well as a dress form that I use in a pinch, but I don’t have a head to use with my dress form, and I wanted to photograph a hat and its matching scarf.

When you have an Etsy shop, you get used to eyeing everything in your house with photo props in mind. At least, I do.  So out came a folding slide projector table whose accompanying projector is long since deceased, a wooden stool, a head form, a blouse and a cardigan. And so, Miss Fiberworks was born.

I stacked the stool on top of the table, and clothed it with the blouse and cardigan. This looked like a stool with clothes draped over it; so I went looking for some towels to pad the shoulders, so that the form would at least somewhat resemble a human body. I placed a folded towel on the stool, to raise the head level a bit, as the head seemed oddly short when placed on top of the stool. I rolled the other towel, and curved it around the back of the head and out to the sides to create shoulders.

Head and Shoulders Ready for Clothes

It was necessary to thread my arm up through the sleeves of the garments, to pull the “shoulders” into the correct position, and even then they looked slightly askew.  She looked very odd from the side (Sorry, Miss F.!) but fortunately I didn’t plan to photograph the scarf from the side or back, so that was okay.

One nice thing about Miss F. is that she is very patient while I fiddle around with the product. Not a single fidget or complaint—I was very proud of her. Her expression can be a bit stiff at times, though.

Doesn’t she look jaunty? As long as I keep her legs out of the picture, I think she’ll work out okay.

If you want to see the finished result, check out these listings in my shop:

Indian Corn Striped Knitted Cap
Indian Corn Striped Knitted Scarf