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What you should do . Make sure the fabric background covers the entire background past the edge of the quilt.Make sure your quilt is lying flat and also make sure there’s no cat hairs lint etc. on it. Use a good lint brush to clean the quilt top before photographing your work. You would be surprised how the smallest piece of lint stands out on your work in the photo. It is best to photograph your quilt hanging in an upright position.Good lighting is important. Don't photograph unless you have good lighting. It can be hard to get good lighting indoors without investing in other equipment. That doesn't mean you can’t take a good photo.Take your pictures outside where you can use natural daylight for good lighting. The best time of day to photograph your quilt is in the late afternoon. You need a well lit but not sunny part of your yard, deck, etc.. You don’t want shadows cast across your work as you take a picture. It is important to keep yourself steady as you snap the picture. You can do this by bracing your elbow against your body to be steadier. It is also helpful to take a deep breath and hold it just as you snap the picture. I purchased a one leg stand from a camera store, a cheap one (less than 25.00), nothing fancy, but I can attach my digital camera to it and adjust the height. It also gives me something to steady the camera on.Be sure and snap several shots of the whole quilt and several close-ups. Now you can review them and choose the best one. If you use a digital camera it is easy to take several photos and review them right away. You can also take standard pictures or digitals and have them turned into slides for show submissions. Turning digitals into slides http://www.domainvanhorn.com/van/digital_to_slide.html Sometimes I find I have to take an image or two without the flash, it depends on the colors in my quilt. I always try one or two shots without the flash just in case.If you don’t have camera equipment or just aren’t very good at taking good photos, perhaps there is a friend or other artist nearby with whom you could work together to get good images taken. And be sure when submitting your slides make sure that you label them according to the venues instructions and then buy a sheet of slide protectors to put the slides in.This will protect them from damage while mailing. These can be purchased easily online or at a nearby camera store and are relatively inexpensive.Use a neutral piece of fabric for a background. A medium grey is usually sufficient enough to photograph most works against. It's a small investment, go out and purchase a piece of grey fabric; I got mine 60" wide so it would be useful for my larger quilts. I don’t do really big quilts so that is fine for me. You will need to buy fabric the size that suits the average size quilts you make. I purchased a piece of home insulation board about 1" thick (about 10 - 12 dollars in home depot kind of store) and covered it with the grey fabric. You can also cut the board easily if it’s too big. I cut it in half and use it as a design wall when not photographing work. |
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