Photographing quilts

I have just finished a wonderful course with Quilt university on Photographing quilts.  With a few simple tips my quality of photographs have really improved.  Because the course was copyrighted I can't give away any of her 'trade secrets' but I can tell you some useful pointers I picked up myself during the course.

1. Practice, practice, practice. I can't emphasise this enough.  The only way to get better at taking photos is to practice.  
2. Record all the information about each photo you take.  This is so important.  So many times we get interrupted or run out of time or want to go back to something we have done before and we don't have enough information to go on.  It is so much easier if the information is at our finger tips.
3. Be aware of all the straight edges of your artwork and make sure these line up with your camera. 
4. Always take the best photo you can.  there is only so much software can help you with.
5. Be relaxed about the whole process.  Come back later to it if you aren't getting the results you are after and you are starting to get frustrated.
6. Get someone else to check your photos to see if the are a good colour next to the original quilt.  I found it hard after looking at the quilt and photo for so long see see the differences.  Sometimes it's good to have a fresh eye.

These are my before and after photos. 

Before 

 After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

Aftere

Before

After