Taking Photos Of Quilts Part 2

Last week, I told you how I solved the problem of getting all of my quilt photos in focus. Now, I’ll tell you how I solved the problem of getting my camera to read the correct colors of my quilts. For some of my quilts, the camera didn’t seem to have any problem at all. The colors in the photo matched perfectly the colors of the quilt. But, for some reason, the camera has a problem reading teals and other blues.

     To counteract that, I always used to set the camera into its “program” mode instead of auto mode. And then I set the white balance by aiming the lens at a white surface like a white piece of paper or the white design wall and setting the white balance. Then I took the photo. The photo came out ok, but not great. The other thing I did to counteract the problem was to try to adjust the color after I took the photo using Photoshop Elements. Sometimes, I could get the photo to get very close to the actual colors of the quilt. But every now and then, I just could not get it right. It was very frustrating. Taking the photo outside when the sun was out, but not in the direct sunlight worked the best, but that meant that I had to wait for a good weather day and I had to have a spot with no shadows that would fall on the quilt. 

     Then I found this link Shoot That Quilt! from Holly Knott (By the way, she also designs websites) and it made a world of a difference!  The key is to use the lights that she recommends.  The lights are inexpensive. They are so much like daylight and so economical that I installed one in a lamp on my craft table and one in an overhead light hanging from a ceiling fan in my studio. The only problem I have with the set up in the description from the link, is that the clamps on the reflectors that I bought had a tendency to slip off of the 2x4’s and one fell onto the floor and broke one of the lights. So to solve that, I tied a strip of fabric to the reflector and put a push-pin for extra security. Here is a photo that shows how I secure the light to the 2x4.

Secured with fabric and push-pin into 2x4

So now I can take photos no matter what the weather is outside. I set up the lights (side by side) just as Holly describes in her article in the link. When they aren't being used, I keep the lights (screwed into the reflectors attached to the fabric strips) stored in a drawer. And I keep the 2x4 stands against a wall in the studio.  It is very quick to set them up and get the camera on the tripod. I can get it all ready to shoot in about 15 minutes.

     Here is a photo of an art quilt I made called “Water Cycles” that I had a great deal of trouble getting accurate colors on the photo until I used these lights. It has a lot of teal and other blues in it. (I don't know why that particular hue is so difficult to photograph on my quilts.) When I used the lights Holly Knott recommended, the photo was perfect without any adjustments.

Water Cycles Art Quilt

     The other thing I discovered about lighting is that for quilts that have a sheen, foil, or have a glossy fabric, it helps to move the lights as far back as possible to reduce glare.
     I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can see other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let them know you visited.

Posting photos on the Internet

In several discussion groups the issue of how or whether to post photos of our art online. Personally, I don't mind if people copy and paste my work as long as I get credit for it and those viewing it can find me to see more of my work if they like it. One way to do this is to put a watermark on all the photos that you post. You'll see my watermark on my last entry's photos. (I only learned how to do this yesterday and found out it is easy if you have Photoshop Elements or a similar program).  So I'll try to give you step-by-step instructions. You can also see some demos on YouTube that show different ways to put on your watermark.
Here is a photo of one of my art quilts called Water Cycles. You see my watermark is my website address.

Water Cycles

1. Open your photo in your software (I used Photoshop Elements 10)
2. Create a new layer.
3. Make sure your new layer is highlighted so that you are adding the text to the new layer.
4. Click on the text tool. In PSE it's a "T" on the toolbar on the left side.
5. Set the font, size, and color from the toolbar at the top.
6. Click on the photo where you want the text to be and drag to create a text box. You'll see that it has little squares on its corners.
7. Type your text. Highlight your text. Go to the Move tool on the left toolbar and click on it. Click on your text. A box appears around your text.
8. Click near one of the corners and a curved arrow will appear and then you can rotate your text if you want it to be at an angle. You can also grab the corners and drag to stretch out your text.
9. Go to Layer menu at the top. Scroll down to Layer Styles. Choose Style Settings. (If Style Settings is grayed out, then you have to click outside your text box on the photo to close it first.)
10. I chose Bevel, 30 degrees, 3px. Click OK
11. Set the opacity you want on your text layer.
12. Save your file.

That's the first time I've written directions for PSE. I hope it is clear. If you have questions or comments, please write.