# How to photograph your fibers, yarn, and finished projects



## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

I did a search on Google for, "How to photograph your knitting" and got loads of hits. I'll post a few here. Jared Flood, in my opinion, is probably one of the best photographers of fibers, knitting and textures there is. He is also a wonderful designer. Here is a link to his blog. Brooklyn Tweed A few years ago he posted about photographing his work. I can't find that post but he talks about his work a lot. I'm sure there is a group on Ravelry too, I haven't looked.

Some of us are better than other at photographing our work. So lets practice here and learn from each other and learn from each other. What kind of camera do you use? What tricks do you have?

Links:
Photo Tips Â« The Walker Treasury Project
Ten Ways to Improve Your Fiber Art Photography Now
http://www.conradhoffman.com/photographing_your_knitting.pdf
Photographing your work &#8211; part 1 : It's a Stitch Up
Photographing your work &#8211; part 2 : It's a Stitch Up
Photography for Knitters


----------



## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Thanks for posting!


----------



## Lythrum (Dec 19, 2005)

I have learned quite a few of the things mentioned in the articles over the last few years. I started out writing a garden blog and most of the pictures were okay. But after I took a graphics design class for my web development degree they really improved. 

My camera is a plain point-and-shoot Fuji, but it works pretty good for me. 

I think the number one thing is to take lots of pictures, from a lot of different angles, because one may grab you. Also, the more you use the camera the more you get to know it.

Being conscious of the background is really important too. You want something that will contrast or enhance your project. I tend not to like stark white, although it is useful to provide contrast at times. 

Natural daylight is best, though there are still times where I finish a project at night and MUST take pictures immediately. Artificial light tends to change the colors of your fibers.

I learned how to use Photoshop in the class, and got a student discount on the software package, so I use Photoshop to retouch and correct the pictures too. I found a combination of adjustments to make for pretty much all of the pictures that I take from my camera. First is adjusting the levels of light, which takes a light haze that my camera seems to add. Second is adjusting the color saturation, which emphasizes colors that look faded. Finally adjusting the brightness/contrast sharpens the whole picture.

Sometimes the tweaks are very noticeable:


Sometimes they are more subtle:


----------



## emilyrayne (Jun 16, 2008)

I use an Olympus and I am absolutely addicted to my Photoshop. I admit, I am new to this taking pictures of all of your work thing. So, Im really not that good at it. Also, the wording and describing of you works; that is very difficult to me. I look at other peoples listings on etsy and they blow me away. I could never be that good.


----------

