Gallery of Wrongs

The right way

Here's a quilt photographed with the camera centered on the artwork and the lens zoomed to a point where barrel distortion isn't a problem. (You can see a larger photo of "Purple Coneflowers in August" on Holly's website.)

Keystoning

Problem: Here's a quilt that should look rectangular, but doesn't. Why? It's been photographed from a low angle, so perspective made the vertical lines converge toward the top.

Solution: Make sure the quilt is mounted vertically (as on a wall). Then measure from the floor to the center of the piece. That's how high your camera's lens should be to eliminate keystoning.

Barrel distortion

Problem: Lines that ought to be straight are bulging outward, making the quilt look a little bit as if it's been wrapped around a barrel. This optical defect is quite common when your camera's zoom lens is on its wide angle setting (or with "zoom-less" cameras, which usually have a fixed wide-angle lens).

Solution: If you can shoot from further away, set your zoom lens to the middle of its range or even a little bit toward the telephoto end. If you're in a small room and backing up isn't an option, then you can correct the barrel distortion in Photoshop (version CS2 or later) using the Filter > Distort > Lens Correction command.

The right way

Here's a quilt photographed with good lighting. (You can see a larger photo of "New Hope, PA, Reflections 1" on Holly's website.)

Wrong white balance

Problem: The telltale sickly yellow color of this photo signifies a lighting faux pas: the photographer used incandescent bulbs as a light source, but forgot to set the camera's white balance to match.

Solution: Double-check your white balance setting before you start to shoot. If you're using incandescent lights, choose the little light-bulb icon ; if shooting outdoors, choose the sun icon .

Mixed lighting

Problem: Two different color casts make this photo look as if it can't make up its mind. The cause: the quilt was photographed near a window, with an incandescent light on the right. The light from the window is colder (bluer), while the light from the bulb is warmer (redder). In this situation, no matter what white balance you (or the camera) choose, it's going to be wrong for half of the art!

Solution: Make sure all the light falling on your artwork is from the same type of light source: all sunlight or all incandescent light, but not a mixture.

Hotspots

Problem: Here the two light sources are matched in color, but the lighting is noticeably uneven—bright splashes at the edges and a darker area in the middle.

Solution: Move the lamps further away from the artwork, and add more lamps if necessary, so that the light has a chance to spread out more evenly. Bear in mind that the camera is much more sensitive to uneven lighting than your eyes are, so be extra careful to get your lighting nice and even across the whole piece.

Built-in flash

Problem: The picture is too cool (bluish) in color and has a lighter hotspot in the middle, because the photo was taken with the camera's built-in flash.

Solution: Use at least two lamps to light the quilt evenly.

Motion blur

Problem: The picture's out of focus ... but notice how the horizontal lines are much more blurred than the verticals? That tells us this isn't a case of bad lens focus; rather, the camera was jiggling vertically at the moment the shutter clicked.

Solution: Use a tripod!

Dingy whites

Problem: This quilt depicts songbirds on a snowy-white background, but the photo came out tattletale gray, and no amount of miracle detergent will improve it. This often happens when a camera's auto-exposure system is fooled by a large expanse of light or dark in the artwork.

Solution: Experiment with exposure compensation. Try a shot at the recommended exposure, then increase exposure in .3 EV steps (that's a third of a stop) and shoot again ... and again. Or ... try correcting it in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, using the Auto Levels command (in Photoshop, that's Image > Adjustment > Auto Levels).

The right way

Here's how the quilt looks when photographed with +1.3 EV of exposure compensation, turning the dirty gray snow clean and white. (See Holly's website for a larger photo of "Songbirds of Winter.")