Ever wonder how I figured out how to take pictures of scarves like these?

Edit: This was a guest post for a blog that is defunct, so now I’m re-publishing it here!

For the larger items I need to photograph, like bags & scarves, I had been setting up in front of the new white curtains in my studio, or draping white felt on my working wall (For a quick tour of my studio all nice & tidy, go here.)

In these shots I have the overhead lights in my studio on, but the flash turned off (except for the live model – she can’t stand still!) These are okay, but the colors need more adjusting then I would like.  Also, I like to shoot most of my items on a table of some sort, so what I originally did for the bulk of my photography was to use only the trumpet top bulbs set on each side of the item I was shooting, set up my camera on the tripod, turn off the flash, set my white balance and go (similar to this setup). But I would get something like the top picture, and then, I’d do a lot of work in Photoshop and end up with the bottom picture:

Color matching was pretty easy, but I had to do a lot of fiddly work to select all the background, and then wash the background out completely to eliminate the shadows. So, my husband & I built a larger light tent to help diffuse the light.

Build a Light Tent

It’s made from ¾” pvc pipe (used for sprinkler systems), which is quite easy to cut with pvc cutters. Most of the joints have been glued with PVC glue, but we didn’t glue the center cross pieces so the whole thing breaks down for storage:

Here are pictures of the frame, with measurements included:

This is how we made it

1. (4) 24” legs were cut and elbow connectors were glued to one end of each one.  (A)
2. Small scraps of the PVC tubing were used to glue T connectors right next to the elbows (A detail)
3. Two  22” pieces of tube were used to connect the legs to make 2 sides (B)
4. Once the 2 sides were constructed, I join them with (2) 32” long pieces of PVC tubing, but I keep these UNGLUED so it all breaks down. ( C)
5. We originally made it about two feet tall, but then added a bit more height to the bottom using these connectors (I kept these unglued in case I end up not needing the height) ( E and E detail).

We originally just clipped the lights to the frame, but they were very precarious, and at 15$ a pop, I really don’t want these bulbs to break, so my husband made these little pieces of wood and screwed them onto the frame where I clip the lights:

The background is white polyester fleece, I sewed a tube at the top center part, slide the center pole in, assemble the frame and then use pins and clips to fasten the fleece to the sides. Notice that the fleece runs down the back, across the top and then down the front of my table – this makes for a seamless white background.

A yard of 110” white sheer curtain material is draped across the top and covering both sides. I clip the lights on after putting the sheer on, and then use more clips to keep the sheer neat & tidy. Here are some photos to show my setup (I took my camera off the tripod and used it instead of my cell phone camera this time!)

Here’s a picture of one of my bags taken with my new setup:

And these pictures show an unedited scarf picture and then after a quick crop and some very minor levels tweaking to whiten up the background just a bit.

Total cost of this light tent:

4 clip lights:                               $28

1 yard curtain sheer:             $8

2 Yards Fleece:                        $8-10

4 trumpet top bulbs:            $60

PVC pipe:                                  minimal, we just used scraps.

PVC cutting tool:                    ?5$

Total                                            $110

The major expense here was the bulbs, you could start by using the best locally available bulbs and see if they worked before buying these…then your cost would be $50. With the minimal amount of editing I had to do, I’m sure a cheap or free digital processing program would work well, and if you don’t have a tripod, another table with a pile of books would do in a pinch. I’ve used these bulbs for 2 years, both in my photography sessions and as lights in my booth for about 8 days of shows and they are still going strong (knock on wood!).

When I finally got this all working 2 years ago, I published a bunch of pictures on my blog and asked for feedback, and I got lots of really positive comments. Re-reading them as I write this fills me with joy all over again, I feel that I have really been able to correctly show people my beautiful scarves.  And 2 years later, this is still exactly how I take pictures of my scarves! I still stress about photos, and I’m always learning more about how to operate my camera and Photoshop, but this light tent is still the most consistent way to photography my scarves. I have learned so much from this blog-o-sphere, I want to return the favor, and showing what I do to the best of my ability is part of that. I now can stop worrying about my picture taking skills and Make More Art!

This is an older post that was a guest post for a blog that is defunct, so now I’m re-publishing it here!

My art is visual, I need  great pictures, so people can see what I do. And if people are going to spend their hard earned money on something I created, I want them  see exactly what I’ve made, and not be surprised when they open the package. I am NOT a professional photographer, and would rather spend time making my textile art, and not taking 7 zillion pictures in hopes of a good one. I spent some time online reading all sorts of articles on how to take great photos, and came up with a list of what  I needed for my photos to be successful:

1. Decent digital camera – I bought Nikon’s entry level DSLR, a D40, and I love it!
2. High resolution pictures – I use the highest quality setting on my D40
3. Tripod – easily purchased, pretty inexpensive
4. Decent Photo processing software – I recently upgraded from a really old version (7? years) of Photoshop Elements to Photoshop CS4 – totally worth it, they’ve improved lots of features.
5. Lots of diffuse light, so you can avoid using the flash (which gives harsh shadows) and have detail and great color .

Ugh! #5 is not so easily achieved! My research showed that many people use natural light, but it’s hard to find that when you’re working in the evenings, because the daytime is filled with kids and the dayjob. So, more research online turned up many mentions of a “light box” or a “light tent”, with many different ways to make them. I’ve successfully made 2 of them, a small one (for objects under 12” square) and a larger one (for objects up to 24” tall and 36” wide).

This is a tutorial for a small light box, click here for a tutorial on constructing a larger light tent.

Build a  Light Box

One of the things I make are Journal covers. Here are some natural light pictures of them:

These are the best shots of the bunch, but because all the light came from the window, thus one direction, I had a really hard time getting details in the shadowy areas. Oh, if you’d like to see where I’m taking the photos, the journals are lying on my new chaise, with a slipcover dyed by me! (To see my frenetic redecorating efforts this month see here, here, and here)…oh and the blinds were all the way open when I was taking these pix):

So, my fancy small light box is a big Rubbermaid type plastic box (18” x 22” X 17”), with a long piece of white paper draped inside the top, back & bottom (I happen to have really long photographers paper given to me, but you could use white posterboard as well – the curving up from the bottom to the back wall is what you want.) Then there are 2 clip lamps perched precariously shining through the sides of the box…I diffused this light a bit by putting a piece of tissue paper between the light and the box. The lights are huge, “trumpet top” daylight CFLs (# 5000k # Lumens 2100 # CRI >84). I purchased them here. These 2 were the only lights used.

I then turned off the flash, set my white balance and started clicking. I was much happier with my shots. I still had to tweak a little in Photoshop, but much less than I had before. After cropping, I played with the levels to get the whites whiter. Kathy Mack has some awesome tips about tweaking digital photos on her blog, this is the one that talks about levels, but they all are worth a read, and written by a sewist, not a photographer, in language we quilters can understand!!!!!

The one problem with this setup is that it’s not that big, here’s a shot of an uncropped pile of journals:

To get interior photos I had to prop them open on the back wall, then rotate the photo – I think these look weird…is it just me?

That led me to building a larger light tent, the tutorial for building a larger light tent is right here.

2 years later, this is still one of my most favorite pictures…I don’t know why, but it is! And I still use this very same setup for smaller items, so it definitely works.

I’ve got another Ask Candy post up on Alamode stuff blog today – this one is about making photo collages! GO take a look!

I’ve talked about photography here before – and if you’re a blogger (or not!) you know how hard it is to take a good photograph to accurately show people you’re talking to through the computer what exactly you want to show them! But I really wanted to get more of my scarves up in my Etsy shop, so I’ve been plugging away at how to photograph them!

Back in June I did a guest post on Simply Robin’s Blog about my very simple light box I rigged up to take photos of my Going Green Journals. Well, I needed something larger for my scarves, so my hubby had time to rig up something for my from PVC (Bill Huber has a nice tutorial here, we did something quite similar). So here’s my setup (note: the good camera is in the shot, so this is my cell phone!)

It’s a frame made from PVC. Draped down the back, across the table and then down the table front is a large piece of white polyester fleece for a smooth, white backdrop.  A piece of white, quit weight white fabric is draped up the sides and over the top, this diffuses the light. I’ve got 4 clamp on lights – 2 are huge, “trumpet top” CFLs. I learned about them here: (this is a GREAT resource about photographing quilts!) I needed more light so I added 2 more regular CFL’s, 2 more of the trumpet tops are on their way to me as we speak! This creates a white glowing box with very little shadow.

I then turned off the flash, set my white balance and started clicking. I still had to tweak a little in Photoshop, but much less than I had before. Mostly I just played with the levels to get the whites whiter. Kathy Mack has some awesome tips about tweaking digital photos on her blog, this is the one that talks about levels, but they all are worth a read, and written by a sewist, not a photographer, in language we quilters can understand!!!!!

Now that I’m happy with my picture taking process, I can start doing a better job of trying to sell my scarves online. One issue there is that I sell so many scarves locally, I would sell a scarf listed in Etsy. BUT I’ve now changed my listing to read:

Each scarf is uniquely hand-dyed, using a specific set of mixed colors. Description of the particular palette here.  Although I may have one in stock, I also may need to dye one just for you, so it may take as long as 7 days for me to ship it. Patterns & distribution of colors varies from scarf to scarf, convo me if you’d like a picture of your exact scarf or the exact timing on your own piece of “Candied Fabric”.

I’ve also started creating palette shots (inspired by Vickie Welsh and Daisy Janie) to help me describe the colors in the scarves.

Daffodil Sky is a combination of a yellow-gold, 2 shades of blue and teeny bits of a leafy green.

Wild Rice is a delicate mix of gray, tan, light pink with a hint of gold. Earth, Wind & Fire combines an earthy brown, with an ethereal blue and a vibrant red & gold.

So, what do you think? Is this a good way for me to showcase my scarves online?