Photographing art quilts:Part one

How to photograph art quilts:Part one

Equipment

• Camera
• Tripod
• Camera manual
• A wall (Make sure you can stand far enough back to photograph your biggest quilt)
• 2 lamps with no shades on them
• White paper (optional)
• Stools/chairs to lift lamps up off the floor
• A piece of fabric larger than your biggest quilt to hang the quilts on
• Pins

Set-up

1. Set up the camera on the tripod.  Make sure that it is attached firmly. It is really important that there is no movement at all to have no blurry shots.  If you don't have a tripod put the camera on a stable surface
2. Place 2 lamps on either side of the wall were your quilts will hang.  Don't put shades on them.  The shades will cast a different colour light or cast shadows on the quilt.
3. Put the lamps on a chair/ stools etc to lift the light up closer to the quilt.  The aim is to light the quilt with out any shadows or bright spots.
4. Hang fabric on the wall to attach the quilts too.  I use a large felt square (recycled packaging from farming supplies)  That hangs from a piece of hooked side Velcro. Felt is great to use as the quilt naturally clings to it.
5. Place the art quilt onto the fabric with a few pins.  This keeps the quilt square and also stops it from falling off half way through a photo shoot.

These following photos show how I set up for a photography session

* In part 2 we will look at how to take the photographs*

Thanks to Benjamin Parkinson, My 10 year old son for these fantastic photos.