How to Photograph Quilts

Many quilters have faced difficulties when it comes to photographing quilts for quilt shows, websites, and personal documentation. The colors don’t come out right, the design gets distorted from perspective, or you can’t see the fine details due to slight blur. If you’ve had difficulties photographing your quilts in the past, here is some advice to help you take betting quilt photos and show off your handiwork!

Camera – Many quilters frustrated with the poor quality of their quilt pictures assume that the camera is to blame. However, with a few simple tricks, you can probably take great pictures of your quilt with the digital camera you already have. The advantage of digital cameras is that you can immediately see what the photo will look like. Digital images can also be altered to adjust brightness, contrast, and other settings.

Tripod – A tripod is an essential tool for photographing quilts. It can help you ensure that your photos are centered, balanced, and as sharp as possible. The tripod doesn’t have to be anything fancy – just enough to support your camera. If you have a basic, lightweight digital camera, a tripod shouldn’t cost you more that $20 or $30.

Lighting – Lighting is the most important part of photographing quilts, as it makes all the difference on how the quilt looks in the photo. While it’s sometimes possible to find great outdoor lighting to shoot quilt photos, you can’t ever control the way the sun looks on a certain day. The best way to ensure that your quilt photos have great lighting is to take photos inside. Don’t worry – you can easily set up effective lighting without spending lots of money on professional equipment.

 You’ll need to get a two daylight-balanced compact fluorescent bulbs at a high brightness such as 30W 5000K. These produce light that’s more natural than traditional incandescent bulbs and that brings out the colors in your quilt. These high-power bulbs aren’t found in many stores, but you can easily order them online. You might want to get a few extras so that you’re always prepared. You’ll need to put the bulbs in two reflector lamps, which can be found at almost any hardware store for $5-$10. These usually come with clamps that you can attach to doors or chairs, but you may want to consider getting basic lamp stands as well.

When you set up your lighting, place the lamps at the same height as your camera on the tripod, but a few feet to each side of it. Angle them in towards the quilt so that the rays from the lamps intersect and the quilt is fully illuminated.

Plain Display Wall – When you photograph your quilt, it needs to be hung on a plain wall so that nothing in the background of the photo takes away from the quilt. Many quilters use their design walls as their photography walls as well, but this only works if you have enough space in front of the wall for your tripod and lighting equipment. Another option is to use a big piece of insulation foam covered in white or black fabric. You can pin the quilt to the foam and store the board under a bed when you’re not using it. If you make quilts with hanging sleeves, you could also attach a hanging device to the wall and hang a quilt from it for photographs.

Additional Settings – There are a few more settings on your camera that you may want to adjust to get the best picture. Make sure your camera’s white balance setting is set to daylight. You might also want to “bracket” your exposures. This means that you take one picture that’s underexposed, one that’s right, and one that’s overexposed by varying shutter speeds. When it comes to quilts with light and dark areas, different exposure settings may bring out the colors in different ways. Finally, use the self-timer on you camera when taking photos, to ensure that the camera doesn’t move when it takes a shot.

This article was written by Madeline Barbour. She is an experienced photographer who owns the site How to Become a Photographer.