Friday, July 17, 2015

I'm A Quilter--Not a Photographer

Before I started blogging I usually put 0% thought into taking pictures of my finished projects.  I would just snap a picture and post it on Facebook to share with my friends and famil.  After I started blogging and reading blogs I realized that these finished projects really are huge accomplishments since time is something that is precious.  We only get a finite number of days to live and how we choose to spend them is important.  When I can squeak the time to create something, I should savor the moments creating it.  And when you give a quilt away, you never know what type of life it will lead.  I read a great blog post on the BadAdd Quilter Society's page called You Can Have Sex On My Quilt.  It's a great read and so true.

I decided that I would like to add a gallery page to my blog (still under construction) so anyone who is interested can check out the quilts that I have made.  But I quickly realized most of my pictures...well...honestly are awful.  So I decided to put the brakes on and try my hand at photographing them.  And lets just state for the record I am not a photographer and I have no idea what I'm doing.

Since I have no idea what I'm doing I turned to Craftsy, that seemed logical.  I have downloaded several quilting classes and thought maybe, just maybe there would be a class to help with this.  What I found was a class called Shoot It! A Product Photography Primer by Caro Sheridan.  This class is specifically about trying to obtain that perfect product shot.  Maybe for a pattern cover or just to sell a product, like a finished scarf.  She gives tips about lighting, working with models and playing around with photo editing.  There is even an extra bonus on taking self portraits.

So after taking some notes and commandeering my brother's Nikon camera, I waited for a day with decent lighting (and no rain) and tried my hand at photographing inanimate objects.

**Note: Please do not be horrified by the quality of the before pictures.  I'm a little embarrassed that I'm sharing them.  Growth through pain.

This is a before picture of my pink and green sampler.


 Isn't my husband's little piggies just the cutest? I'm rolling my eyes over here.  And the pile of yard sale junk...what was I thinking?  Hopefully, the new pictures will redeem me.



Yes, I actually forced my brother and his wife to snuggle under the quilt...he he he.

Next, is a before picture of a mini quilt called Don't Break Bread Into Your Soup.


Not really the best lighting and I just laid it across the chair to grab a quick picture.



Hopefully the scenery in these two pictures make it more interesting and help the colors to pop.


Next up is another mini quilt called Decoy and it is probably one of my favorite things that I've quilted.


Lovely mauve carpet background and kind of blurry.  The detail of my quilting is visible, but I wouldn't say great.  Now for the newer and hopefully improved pictures.



The first picture is crisper and shows the detail in the quilting better.  The second one could still be improved, but I think it's kind of fun and shows the colors of the whole quilt.

And lastly, is a quilt that we keep in our living room.  I made it so long ago I forget what the pattern was called.


Yup, another very blurry picture and don't you just love the blanket under it??  If anyone would like to borrow it to show case a project on just let me know.  I will let you borrow it for free :)  And now the newer improved picture.


This has to be better than the first one, right?

I am glad that I took the leap and purchased the class.  I still have things I need to work on, but it gave me a starting place for sure.  Do you have a process or tip for taking pictures of your quilts?  Do you maybe keep and album of the projects you have completed?  Does anyone still do that?

Today I created a page with pictures of the Aurifil mini quilts I have finished to date.  You can check them out by clicking the tab at the top of the page or you can click here.  Hopefully, I will have my gallery page up soon and you will stop back over to check it out.  I may still have some pictures that are kind of, ehhh, but that is because those quilts have moved on to new homes.  And to those that have some of those quilts, you may have sex on my quilt, I hope you make many memories with them however you choose to.




I'm linking up with:




15 comments:

Unknown said...

Tish, you have inspired me to get outside and photograph better, more interesting photos. You should be very proud of your progress.

Eleanor said...

Oh, these are so much better! Really shows off your lovely work and quilting well. It's something I've realised as well recently, and while I haven't gone back to re-photograph things, I'm trying to make sure my future photos aren't just of quilts being held up by someone inside, but instead take advantage of good countryside etc. As I've been driving about recently I've been scouting out spots!

Gina said...

Great pics. I try and take decent photos of the finished quilt but it never works out that way. I'll have to rethink. I do have a online photo album of most of my finished quilts. I have them as a slide show on my blog and its for a record for me

Stitchin At Home said...

Your new pictures are so much better. The colours are crisper and shows off your lovely quilting better.

Unknown said...

Your pictures are so much better. You convinced me. I bought yesterday a book about photography and I am going to se it!! Thanks.

Sarah Goer Quilts said...

You did a great job with your photos. Great detail and beautiful color!

Joy said...

Oh, so much better!

Thistle Thicket Studio said...

Greta job Tish! Your quilts are beautiful. I think photographing quilts is kind of tricky and I'm always struggling to get good photos. FYI, you showed up as a no-reply blogger when you comments on my blog.

lelandavestudios said...

Holy smokes, what an amazing difference! The color on your quilts plus the detail of the quilting really stands out now! Well done!

Julie said...

You give a great demonstration of before and after. Quite a testimonial to the class on Craftsy. You work IS beautiful, and we should be taking the time to take good photos. What gets tough is weeks of rain, poor outside lighting, and the urge to get that blog post up and live. I'm just as guilty of you with my early photos. I think one of the tricks is finding somewhere inside your house that you consistantly get good photos, lighting, etc., and set up that area as easy to stage. Then if outisde conditions are poor, at least we can get something up until it can be replace with a better picture.

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Arian Rahman said...

I am also an outdoor nature photographer. You have captured some nice pictures. The photos look awsome. The color corrections were great!

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Best Car Photo Editing Service said...

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