Another test pattern quilt

[AlwaysOnAuto]

This took some McGyvering to figure out how to hang it, it's so big. In front of the garage door worked well.



Indirect sun so the colors should be fairly reliable, the breeze was the biggest factor but this turned out pretty good.

C&C welcome.

[Ziggy]

Beautiful quilt. Is it homemade?

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Thank you.
Yes, my wife made it.

[Ziggy]

Thank you.
Yes, my wife made it.

Very talented lady.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

She does like to sew, that's for sure.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Alan,

Gorgeous piece as always.

Assuming the quilt is on white I’m seeing a blue cast on it. This can happen even in sunlight and it will affect the colors. It is a white balance issue.

If the shot were mine I’d not only correct the color balance but also a little straightening on it in post, or better yet get a better/tighter hang. Lose the clamps showing, and try for a crop that eliminates as much of the garage door as possible.

Looks pretty good aspect-wise but remember you want the quilt dead level vertical, the camera dead level and parallel, and the lens PoV dead center to avoid any distortion. Even lighting.

A quickie illustration…



Your wife has got some game with these quilts!

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Terry - I appreciate all the suggestions. I tried to hit all of them in my set up. It was a little hard to do with the breeze that was blowing though.
The reason for the blue cast is probably from the blue sky as it was very sunny and I was hurrying to get the shot in before the sun came around too far loosing my shade. Admittedly the set up could have been hung a little better as far as square goes. It was pretty vertical too as I used bungees and my old tool box and a gallon of water to hold the corners out at the bottom.
Here's a shot of the overall set up.
My software isn't sophisticated enough to do the straightening you've done.



The garage door is fairly white white, but the quilt is whiter.

[Loose Canon]

Cool Alan!

I can certainly appreciate your set-up and the difficulties of shooting these quilts. Thank you for posting it. Gives a little insight. Just the size alone starts the shoot with some difficulties from the git-go!

I’d say you are right on the $$ with your assessment of the color cast.

As regards the lighting Alan, it looks to me that the bottom part of the quilt is going into shadow as compared to the top. After seeing your set-up I’d have to say that the top part of the quilt is getting some sunlight reflection from the driveway that is outside of the small shady area in front of the quilt. The 3 feet or so of shade is causing the shadow in the lower area of the quilt. It isn’t horrible, but it is there and will have an effect.

Maybe a white shower curtain or something of that nature (white sheet, etc.) placed on the drive in front of the quilt just to the end of the shadow line might help lift that lower shadow and even up your lighting. Be worth a try anyway!

If I were going to be shooting a lot of Wife’s beautiful quilts I believe I might consider building a (collapsible) frame to mount them on for shooting and hang that. Maybe something that you could clamp the corners and then pin the edges straight to get more in square. Might be easier to get it reasonably straight on the ground and then just hang the whole shooting match like you would hang a picture. Just a theory (and my imagination running amok!).

These quilts are certainly worth any effort to get beautiful photos of them for sure!

[purplehaze]

I would echo Terry's last line, Alan, and add that I wouldn't mind seeing some close-ups as well. Not necessarily straight on, either; could be at an angle, with shallow DOF; whatever the pattern, colours, and stitchery suggest. I am a fibre arts fanatic and a regular attendee at quilt shows and so I know that there is a lot of artistry that can only be appreciated close up.

[tao2]

Terry - I appreciate all the suggestions. I tried to hit all of them in my set up. It was a little hard to do with the breeze that was blowing though.
The reason for the blue cast is probably from the blue sky as it was very sunny and I was hurrying to get the shot in before the sun came around too far loosing my shade. Admittedly the set up could have been hung a little better as far as square goes. It was pretty vertical too as I used bungees and my old tool box and a gallon of water to hold the corners out at the bottom.
Here's a shot of the overall set up.
My software isn't sophisticated enough to do the straightening you've done.



The garage door is fairly white white, but the quilt is whiter.

Hi Alan,

Ah'd disagree that the blue cast is because of the blue sky. IMO, it's because the quilt is in the shade. A result of what used tae be called "open shade" but now referred tae as "ambient light", which causes the blue cast. AWB can be thrown by this and will often be inaccurate, bettter tae check the AWB every time, before shooting, or use a setting which eliminates the cast. Ah think many DSLRs have an "open shade" type setting.

Ah suppose, indirectly, the blue sky is responsible since most of the ambient light has that cast. Our eyes compensate but the camera often doesn't or can't.

[Shadowman]

Nicely presented.

[rpcrowe]

I recently shot a quilt in just about the same fashion as you, except that I clamped it to the top of a chain link fence. The image was for a friend to post on eBay, so I didn't save the image.

I used my WhiBal G7 white balance target to ensure that I had correct color balance. In actuality, the auto color balance of my 7D camera did a very close job in selecting the correct color balance.

[IzzieK]

Your wife if very creative...does she have a machine to do this? Irene (ied) is a good quilter...I wish she will also show her colourfui artwork here...

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I appreciate all the comments from everyone. Most times the quilts get photo'd in the house as we put up a piece of one by in the living room to use as a holder we can put push pins in. This one was way too big though since it's for a double bed. After photo'ing them they get folded and put on the shelf. We're running out of shelf space.
We thought about a frame, but this one and other large ones are so heavy the frame would need to be 2x4 sized wood to hold them. Gravity works well in this case.
Janis, I will try to capture the artistry you speak of, as I've been to enough quilt shows myself to know of what you speak. And yes, these do have that quality about them. What amazes me most is how she's able to get the points so exact as all these pieces are sewn together individually, even the white parts.
Izzy, she has four main sewing machines she uses in the creation of these quilts. Two are computer driven, two are purely mechanical. One of the mechanical machines resides in a frame that is computer driven so she can actually program the pattern of the quilting. That 'frame' has a room in the house dedicated just to it.



This is her Halloween quilt.

[Rebel]

These are great Alan, very colourful.