I can't believe it's December!

My, the time has flown right by. It's hard to believe it is already December, especially since it's in the 70's today! I had the doors open and felt very warm putting the ornaments on the tree.....only in the Midwest!

For the past few days I have been working on new pictures. I have a 6 year old camera, but sadly, I don't think I can blame the age on the pictures. I have a light box downstairs (that I made out of a cardboard box) that I use sometimes, but I prefer the light from my sliding glass doors.

Here is what they looked like before I edited the picture. You can see how bright the sun was by the upper left hand corner. I used a piece of white paper to cover the light coming in.

 I often get a blue cast around my picture.

Here they are after editing.  The colors are pretty accurate, but the pink is more vibrant than what is showing in the picture.

Another problem I have is bright colors. I can make the background light, but it makes the object too washed out.

 Here is the picture right after I took it.

This is right after editing. It is so bright, that you can't really see the details.

This is my new Koi soap.

Any suggestion on how to solve this problem?