Quilt Photography

I have had to spent some time re-visiting my new Camera manual. I have a smallish Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ90. While you can just point and shoot, I have become increasingly confused about all the features that this camera has to offer. In addition, I have little knowledge about photography and what is involved. Reading about it is like learning a new language which is made complicated (being a migrant) as I do not have the English words for some of what they are talking about. I very rarely use the dictionary and rely on picking up the meaning of words by association.  This is a process which takes a bit of time and patience. Of late I have been watching some FB videos by a photographer who offers a video master class (Mark Hemmings - Take your Digital Camera Off Auto). Really like this guy as he speaks in plain English that I can understand. Also like it that he is posting these little videos for free on FB which has been really interesting to watch. Very generous indeed. At some point I might consider doing that master class as I am sure that you learn a lot about your camera judging from the tips and hints I already picked up from those free videos.

It also helps that my husband is a keen photographer, so I can ask lots of questions...however if you don't understand the subject matter it is very hard to work out what to ask. Embarrasingly, I only just worked out that you can adjust the viewfinder to make it more clear. When looking through the viewfinder of this little camera, I thought...gee, my eyes are getting bad...can't see properly, hence I used the screen. Then I discovered the diopter adjustment dial and I said to my husband...why did you not tell me about this?... which of course was funny as he assumed I knew this very basic thing.

Anyway, I took some pictures this weekend and want to see how they look on the blog as I adjusted some settings to pull them over as well. Hopefully this is not too boring.

My camera does nice little 'point and shoot' photos

This is outside, so lots of light...(easy to do on automatic setting). Quilt photography is different though. Often done inside with lower light, tilting the screen to get shots from above...different altogether and in my case, the room I work in is slighter darker than anywhere else in the house. 

So, now I have been bitten with the photography bug, I wanted to put my new knowledge to the test, wanting to achieve a blurred background

Fail...another discussion with my husband about the f-stop again and what this does to photos, so tried again

Nice, nailed it!

Then went inside in my sewing room and tried to shoot photos using the Manual mode and how I understood that to work

Not too bad but difficult to photograph. I am photographing this on the extension table of the Q20 which is sitting beside the window, so I am getting the light sideways.

Another blurry background

Could be sharper, but in principle not too bad..lost some quality in putting this on the blog.

More quilting shots

This is pretty much what the room looks like in the afternoon without the light switched on. Taking this picture in Manual and adjusting for the lack of light gives me a much more realistic shot. Texture is really nice to see, but the colours become very stark. As you can see I have pressed ahead with my 'Year of Stars' quilt.

With the light switched on

Got my shadow in the way now and the texture is much harder to see.

...and a shot of my sewing table in the corner where I used a filter to overcome the yellowish light (now I am just playing with the many different options of the camera).

All done in Manual...pretty impressed with myself. Also spent more time reading the Manual with the camera in my hand to work out some of the functions. Drives me crazy when I cannot work out what all those little symbols mean on the touch screen. Assigned some action to the empty function button (preview...did not even know I had this!) and worked out what some of the others mean and how I can operate this little thing quicker by using the touch screen. There is just so much in this camera and I will have to go over this a number of times to retain the information, I think.  Actually quite surprising and almost a bit too much, but we will press on with the learning.

But back to quilting now...just discovered from one of the photos that I sewed one of the leaves together wrongly.

Karin

A Finish

Finished my little quilt with a jazzy striped binding.

Father Christmas brought me a new camera, so I am trialing taking photos at the moment. I so struggle with this, as I was used to my old camera. For the last 6 months I have been taking pictures with either my Iphone or the Ipad as my trusted Nikon gave up its ghost...I know that lots of people do this, but I struggled with that big time, so decided to go for a new camera. Was looking for something fairly basic but with the popularity of the Iphones as cameras there was a fairly limited range. Got a smallish point and shoot camera (Panasonic) and have spent the afternoon going through the manual and trying different things. Must say they packed a lot of features into this small thing and in terms of function it is definitely much more than just point and shoot! My photos are a bit rough as I was shooting in lower light and trying all sorts of weird and wonderful things. There is so much to explore and I have little knowledge of photographic concepts. Have gone straight back to my preferred Nikon setting which is taking photos in the Aperture mode...at least I am used to that!

Anyway, here is the completed quilt.

Using a different spot in the house for taking my shot (working on getting better quilt photos for my ETSY shop). The above is nice but won't do...I need it sharper and lighter than that I reckon.

Camera has a fairly wide zoom and I played around with this a fair bit

Finally worked out how to get a good representation of the colours...who knew that pressing a few buttons could do that.

Close up of the stitching looks brilliant, done on the Bernina Q20 in stitch regulation.

Also did heaps of stylized shots as I am working on making a decent banner (again for the ETSY shop). Put my trial photo as a banner for my blog for the moment...not too bad at all! Well, with that the whole afternoon is gone and all I have done is exploring this little gadget and adults kids are coming around the corner asking what is for dinner!

Karin