Photography Fixes for Blogging Quilters

A few weeks ago Angie (who blogs at A Quilting Reader's Garden) asked me to share how I get my blog photos so bright and sharp.  To be honest, I've never considered my quilting photos for the blog all that wonderful. In part because there's not a lot of staging with my photos. It's pretty much lay out the blocks or the quilt and shoot. My sewing and blogging time is pretty limited these days and I'd so much rather sew.  But I do try hard to ensure that any posted photos are sharp, bright and color balanced. You'll have to be the judge of how successful I am at that. But I promised Angie I would share my tips and tricks, so here's my general process for creating most of the photos that show up on the blog.  I'm not a professional, this is what works for me, I hope it helps you get better photos for your blog.  

Basic Equipment:
     Camera
     Light
     Photoshop Elements

The camera:

 Yes I have a very nice DSLR, which sees a lot of use. But most of my sewing room photos are taken using this Sony Cyper Shot DSC-HX9V.  This point and shoot camera will be 8 years old in December. It's been dropped so many times that the lens doesn't telescope very quickly, but thankfully quilt blocks don't move very fast. My point being, you don't need a fancy, expensive camera to get good blog photos. High resolution isn't important for blog posting, but advanced shooting modes can be really helpful in producing a sharp photo. Low light and macro modes are two I use a lot. Low light mode helps reduce camera shake and macro mode allows the camera to focus at very close range, helpful when you want detail shots. 

The lighting: 

My sewing room has a very small window set back from the rest of the sewing room, so I have to make do with artificial lighting for most of my sewing photos.  Over the years I've accumulated two Slimline Floor lamps to improve the lighting over my sewing machine and my cutting table.

  
These aren't meant for photography, but they work really well. Both lights contain LEDs that produce light with the characteristics of natural sunlight (that's the important part as far as the photography goes).  You can get sunlight spectrum LED lights for other lamps, but they tend to be rather harsh and industrial looking when used inside, so most the interior lighting uses the softer yellow/pink/peach colored. Shooting under those lights gives the photos the same yellow/pink/peach tint. A flash will counteract most of that tinting, but at close range my point and shoot flash just over exposes the photo resulting in a washed out image. So I don't normally use the flash. 

The photo above shows my typical set up for taking pictures of large quilts in progress on the design wall.  I position the lights to get even illumination across the entire design wall.  

For things like quilt blocks, I use my sewing table and a single floor lamp.

I do use my cutting table, colored cutting mat and a floor lamp occasionally. I really like the white background in my photos, they just look cleaner to my eye. 

Here's the difference lighting can make. 

Light source is the four bulbs in the overhead ceiling fan. 

Light source is the natural daylight LEDs in the Slimline Floor Lamps

The natural daylight shot isn't as yellow, so the blocks look brighter and the colors in the photo are "truer".   My last step in the photography process is post processing, meaning I'm not posting a photo directly from the camera, but using software to further manipulate the image. 

Post Processing: Photoshop Elements

There are other tools out there you can use for post processing, but I'm going to stick with what I use and know.  As we do a fair amount of photography, Photoshop Elements makes sense for us.  It's not cheap software, but it's not outrageously expensive either.  For my blog photos, there are two post processing steps I do routinely: cropping and adjusting levels.

Cropping is pretty straight forward, typically I cut off anything that shows my messy sewing room. The second photo of the four patches was cropped from this image.  

Uncropped block photo

There's a lot of white space, and I did't get as close with this shot as I did the one lit with the ceiling lights. So I cropped to get the images to look similar and to shave off that corner sliver of black in the upper left.  

I use the Auto Levels function in Photoshop Elements frequently. That function adjusts the brightness, contrast and tonal range using the black, complete white and midtones of the photo.  

Auto Levels used to adjust brightness and tonal range

This photo is brighter than the LED image, both the white background and the fabrics. I can manually adjust the levels and tone if I'm not happy with the auto function, but that's another tutorial.  

Depending on the image, there are a few other things I might do. My sewing room lighting and camera combo does weird things to purple. If there's a lot of purple, I'll use the adjust hue/saturation function to adjust how that color shows up in the photo.  I might also straighten an image while cropping it, if I didn't get the shot lined up well. One other feature that sees some use in my blog photos is the clone stamp. That function can be used to remove stray threads from a close up or the reflection of the overhead lamp in the clear plastic part of my sewing table.

   
 You'll notice that circled reflection in this photo is missing from the one above.  

That's pretty much my set of blogging photo tips and tricks. There's a lot you can do with a DSLR. If you get the settings right you rarely need post processing.  But as quilting is a hobby and I'm bad enough about remembering to get in process shots, setting up a perfect DSLR shot just isn't in me most of the time and I've gotten good enough with Photoshop Elements that post processing usually takes just a few minutes (though color adjustment and removing unwanted parts of the image can take a bit of time). 

Life In Pieces: The Best of 2018

Hard to believe Christmas is over and the end of the year is less than a week away.  It's the time of year for reflection.  Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs makes reflection fun by hosting her "Best of 2018" Linky Party.

What constitutes "best" is up to the blogger.  So here's my top 5 from 2018.

1. Largest Number of Views (427), A Little of This and That. That post highlighted the first assembled blocks from Bonnie Hunter's 2017 mystery, On Ringo Lake.

2. Most Comments (28), Stars and Stars.  The post showed the finished Red, White and Blue Star blocks that is currently my oldest UFO.

3.  My favorite quilt finished in 2018, Chain Reaction.  This quilt was made for the Scientist in Training to use in her dorm room. She loves it and I really loved making it.  

4. My favorite quilt started in 2018, The Christmas Mystery Quilt.  This quilt was the second mystery quilt along offered by the local quilt shop.  This one was so much fun and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Now it just needs a backing so I can maybe get it finished to enjoy next Christmas. 

5.  Most requested tutorial, How to Make Quilt Labels.  The most common question that shows up in comments on the blog is how do I make my quilt labels.  So I put together a tutorial on the basic process. 

That's my top 5 for 2018.  Now I'm off to check out more top 5s over at Meadow Mist Designs.  

Quilt Labels from Digital Media: A Tutorial

There have been a couple of requests for a tutorial on how I make my quilt labels.  I've contemplated doing that.  The dilemma has been what would the tutorial include?  I use a commercially available digital scrap booking program to create my labels, but I don't think you want to see how the program works.  So I'm going to take the approach of showing you my thought process in putting together my quilt labels.  Along the way, I'll try to explain the digital elements available, where you can get them, and how to use them in your own programs.  

I use My Memory Suite software to create my labels.  (This is not an affiliate link, I'm just sharing the link as this is the software I use).  

  
But you can use other programs.  I published a tutorial last year about creating printable panels and labels using Microsoft Word.  When I first started making labels, I used Microsoft Publisher as it has more tools for working with photographs than Word had at the time.  Photoshop Elements is another place you can create labels, but I'm not very well versed on that part of the program. For this tutorial, I'm going to stick with My Memories Suite and Microsoft Publisher. 

I've created a My Memory Suites file that I use as a template for my labels, mainly as it is already set up to the right size (4" X 5").  So I open the program, then open that file. Here's the starting screen:

So now I have a blank canvas.  Where to next?

Step 1:  Concept/Color

Since I haven't started on a label for this month's UFO, the Red, White and Blue Stars, that's going to be my example.  This is definitely a patriotic quilt, so I'm sticking with red, white and blue as my color palette.  Now that I have a rough theme and color scheme, what next? 

Step 2:  Select a background

I search the program library for the backgrounds I've purchased. Lighter colors usually work best, so I searched my digital paper files to find something white and came up this:

You can check Pinterest or Google for places that offer free downloadable digital papers used for digital scrap booking. Or you can find sites that sell digital scrap booking kits, that have background papers and digital elements to play with. My Memory Suite has a large number of these kits.  Prices can range from less than a dollar for a set of backgrounds to $20 for a kit by a well known digital element artist.  You do not have to have the program to use these items, you can download them as .jpg or .png files, then use them like photos in any program that supports graphics.  Or you can create your own backgrounds and elements by scanning/photographing wrapping papers, magazine papers, etc.  If I download the background papers from the My Memory Suite kit used above, this is what it looks like in File Explorer. The file was downloaded as "General".  

Step 3:  Add the text  

Once I've  decided on a background, I add the text boxes, decide on a font, and add the text.

I'll come back later and play with the font, text size and color once I've selected the other digital elements.   

Step 4.  Add the digital elements.

This is the fun part of the process.  I add and subtract elements until I like what I've got.  Very often, I'll search my element library and add all the elements I can find.  Then I'll duplicate the page then start removing and rearranging the elements.  

All the different pages created are shown along the bottom of the screen.  The first page has all the digital elements, the following pages were duplicates where I got rid of all but the elements I wanted to play with.  Here's what some of those elements look like in my File Explorer after being downloaded from My Memory Suite using the "General" file format. 

So with the backgrounds from above and these elements, I can create a label in Microsoft Publisher that looks like one from the program.  

Here's the My Memory Suite version.

The difference between the two is the red and blue stars "overlay". It wasn't an element in the kit I downloaded.  Had it been, I could have created the exact same label in Publisher.  If you don't have Publisher, Microsoft Power Point has decent graphic tools as well.  I'm not sure how well this would work in Word.  You could definitely add the background and the text.  Adding in additional elements probably wouldn't work very well.  Though I've not tried that.  If you give Word a go, please share your experience in the comments.  

That's how I create my quilt labels.  I like My Memory Suite, it has some very nice functions that speed up the creation process.  But Publisher was my go to program for many years. Over the years, I've acquired a number of photo scrap booking kits, so I have lots of purchased backgrounds and elements to play with.  I've also created labels using elements created from my own photographs. That takes more time, but it can be worthwhile if I'm after something very specific. Creating your own elements is definitely another tutorial.  

Tips and Tricks for Working on Multiple Quilt Projects

For some reason, I've never been a quilter who works on just one project at a time.  If there's a deadline for a project, I can make myself work on one quilt at a time.  Well mostly, because there has to be a leaders and enders project going at the same time.  But my sweet spot is working on about 4 quilts at a time.  Usually all in various stages of completion.  The maximum I've ever tried at one time has been six or seven.  That was too many, I didn't feel like any one project was getting anywhere.  Organization is key when trying to handle multiple projects at once.  I'm still learning how to improve work flow, but maybe some of what I've learned will help speed up your work flow. 

Work Area Set Up:

I have two design walls, a large and a small one.

This picture is from 2013, so it's older, but it illustrates the point.  There are four projects in progress.  If the blocks are small they will stay up on the design wall, if the blocks are larger, just the ones I'm working on go up on the wall.  That helps me see where I'm at in the construction process on multiple projects. 

Projects in Progress Organization:

Having a place for the projects in progress and the fabric in use makes it easy to find exactly what part I'm looking for.  

All of my projects are in project boxes.  The blocks and or block pieces for a project are either up on a design wall or in a project box.  It keeps my sewing space uncluttered and I can usually find exactly what I'm looking for.  The other trick that's been a life saver is how my fabrics are folded and stored.  The third shelf down are all the fabrics that are being used for the projects in the boxes.  I fold my fabrics much like they are on a bolt. I can unfold part of the yardage, give it a touch up press and then cut whatever pieces I need.  Since cutting isn't my favorite step, I tend to cut as I go, so there are less loose pieces for me to keep up with.  

Assembly Line Construction:

I learned about chain piecing in my first quilt class.  Not sure I can sew any other way now.  The big challenge has been where to store all the different block pieces for different projects so I can easily get to them as I'm lining up the various pieces to sew.   A recent addition to the sewing room seems to have solved that. 

I ordered this 5 drawer unit from Pottery Barn Teen when it was on sale earlier this year.  Each drawer has parts and pieces for the various projects in the work.  The top drawer as the pieces for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, the next has pieces for En Provence, the current leaders and enders project.  Another drawer have the pieces for the Christmas Angels quilt which is my current third project.  

When I sit down to sew, I start lining up the blocks.  

From left to right is the binding for the Meadow Mist Mystery quilt, the RSC block, HSTs for the Angel quilt, sashing for En Provence and then En Provence block that I'm using as my lender and ender at the moment.  Yes, I could have done more than 2 of the HSTs for the Angel quilt, but I tend to make those in small sets so I'm not at the cutting table cutting them all at once.  That's one of the cutting chores I really dread.  Sprinkling those dreaded HSTs in with a set of other blocks keeps me moving that project along.  Is it fast?  No.  But I'm able to keep the project moving and it doesn't end up forever on the UFO list because of a step that is hard for me to power through.  

Method to the Madness:

When I started making quilts again, I had a two year old at home and a full time job that involved a lot of over time.  My sewing time was really, really limited.  Very often 15 minutes of sewing time was all I could eek out on a regular basis.  But I found a process that allowed me to make the most of that time. This is my work process:

1.  Cut whatever pieces are needed
2.  Pin the pieces at the sewing machine
3.  Chain sew what's sitting at the machine
4.  Press all the seams
5.  Repeat

With my 15 minutes one night, I'll cut what's needed for the next step.  The following night I'll use the time to pin all the pieces and maybe sew a few together.  The next night finishing stitching and press.  It's not a lot at any one sitting, but if I manage 15 minutes every night, there's a good deal of progress in a week.  

Recently I've learned that picking one project as the focus for the time period really helps with getting to a finish.  The One Monthly Goal has really helped with that.  So if it's just 15 minutes, that's the project where the time gets spent.  

Progress for the year using this approach:

4  Finishes
1  Binding in progress
1  Ready to send for quilting
1  UFO moved from pieces to finished blocks
1  Steady progress on En Provence 

We are all different in how we work best, this seems to fit the rhythm of my life.  What works or doesn't work in yours?     

Printing Quilt Labels and Fabric Panels with the Software You Have

Quilting is probably my favorite pass time, but photography is a close second.  My Guy and Drama Teen share the photography bug, we have a lot of fun after outings comparing photographs.  I occasionally even take some nice shots and it's always seemed a waste to just print them up and stick them in albums.  Early on, it just seemed to be a natural step to start using some of those photos on labels.  

I first used photos in a quilt when I needed a design fix for a quilt for DT.  I didn't have enough in one of the fat quarters to get 4 tigers for the diagonal, so I took pictures of her favorite stuffed versions and used those.  

That was a big hit.

When The First Amendment became the theme of one of DT's commissioned graduation quilts my first thought was to embroider a panel.  I wanted the center panel to be good sized, definitely larger than 8.5 by 11.5. But as the months wore on, time became short.  I can't sew and embroider at the same time, so I thought about printing that center panel on fabric.  Turns out Electric Quilt produces printable fabric sheets in 13" x 19".  They are not cheap, but I only needed one, so a package of six was a reasonable purchase.

  

From that I can easily get a 12.5 X 18.5 panel that's large enough to be the center.  Not all printers can feed something that large.  Since we do so much photography (and science fair projects etc), I bought a printer that could handle the bigger paper sizes. 

There's just regular sized paper in there now, but the 13" fabric sheets will fit into the feeder.   Places that do lots of business printing, like Staples can print on fabric.  I've never used those services, so I'd talk with the staff and be willing to sacrifice a dry run piece (maybe in a much smaller size) to be sure you can get what you want before you commit to a bigger piece.    

There are lots of software programs that will let you play with pictures.  I use Photoshop Elements for photo editing and My Memory Suites for digital photo scrap booking.  Those two are my go to programs for any fabric printing project.  But it's amazing what you can do in Microsoft Word these days.  Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Power Point are also programs that allow for manipulation of photos and then printing in over sized formats. I'm sure there are others, but these are the most common I have routine access to.  

To begin any photo on fabric project you need to decide what the final size is going to be.  For labels I've been using 4" x 5". The First Amendment Panel was 12.5" x 18.5".  When you open the file, you'll need to go to the page layout menu is and select the page size you want to finish with.  That's important so you have the proportions right when it comes time for printing. 

This is the option from My Memory Suite, but it's similar to most of the other programs.  There is usually a drop down box with the different page sizes that you can select from.  Some programs, like Photoshop Elements and My Memory Suite, that will let you set custom page sizes.  

From there I usually select a background, for quilt labels, it's usually just a solid background.  For the First Amendment panel, I used a background from one of the kits I'd purchased for digital scrap booking.  Then I faded the background so the words would show up more clearly.  In Word, you can use the Design Menu and color the page.  I've not played much with this feature, so I'm not sure what all you can do.  But it's a great start.  

Photoshop Elements will also let you do things like this, but I'm a lot less proficient with that part of that software than I am with the photo editing part.  In Word you can then add a photo and text using the Insert Menu for the photo and the Format Text Effects shown above.  Word has lots of fonts and you can resize those as needed. 

A trick to working with photos in Word is to click on that little white (yellow in my graphic) box. That's the Layout Options Icon.  It takes you to a menu that will allow you to adjust how your photo interacts with any text and frees you to move it around by dragging and dropping.  You can also add borders to the page and color those. 

Once you have what you want, test print on paper.  It will save you a lot of grief and lost fabric sheets.  Before printing make sure that printer properties are set to the proper paper size and the type of print you want. This can usually be done from the print preview page in most programs. 

I usually use a draft print mode when printing on paper to check image alignment and how well the image fills the page.  Once that passes muster I use "best photo" printer mode and matte paper settings on my printer when printing on fabric sheets. You may have to play a bit with your printer settings to get best results. 

 Once you've got the final print, it usually needs to be soaked and rinsed to get rid of any extra ink.  I've used HP and Epson printers for labels and other photos on fabric, I've not had any problems with excess ink or bleeding on any of the labels.  Once it's dry, press and use. 

One final comment about using photographs in labels or fabric panels.  For a small quilt label the quality of the photo isn't so critical.  You can probably get by with a with 0.8 megapixel photo (so something taken by a cell phone would probably work).  For a large fabric panel like the First Amendment, you need a much better quality photo or you'll end up with a bunch of dots printed on the fabric.  There you'll need at least 6 megapixel, but 12 would be better (from a higher end point and shoot or good DSLR).  Fading will help a little bit, but if you want a clear image, you'll need a very high quality photo.     

I hope this post shows that you can do a lot of with photos and quilting without the fancy programs.  The specialty programs make a lot of manipulation and adding effects easier, but that doesn't mean you can't make some stunning stuff using what you have. It may mean learning about the extra features you don't use when typing a document.  Most of what I know about using photos in Word was gained from a quick training session with Drama Teen that I begged for when putting a calendar design for one of My Guy's organization into the commercial printer's template.  She's taken a number of computer classes in high school.  So by all means engage the teenagers or computer nerds in your life.  Of course Microsoft has lots of excellent tutorials out there for all of their products and there are lots of "how to" videos from other sources on You Tube. 

If there is enough interest, I'll do more tutorials with using clip art, scrap booking kits, and other photo to fabric topics.

Linking up with Late Night Quilter Tips and Tutorial Tuesday.