If anyone is interested in the set up that I use to take quilt photos, here are links to where I got mine. I’ve had mine for about 6 years now. I bought the rest of my photo stuff from B&H photo in NYC and a few things like my ambient light meter via ebay. I think I’ve mentioned how much I love my light meter LOL.
Background stand: They start around $100 for one that can be used up to 10 ft wide.
Very handy for all sorts of things – design wall, photography, display etc.
Lighting: I use something like these light stands, but I’m now replacing the tungsten lights with daylight Compact Fluorescent Bulbs.
Most of the time I only use two light stands and the third lives near my design wall for extra lighting.
Backgrounds: I made a couple backgrounds to use behind the quilt. Both are two sided, white on one side and black on the other. The bigger one is knit fabric and just a big tube so the color is easy to switch around. The knit is easy to stuff in a bag and doesn’t wrinkle. I throw it in the dryer to de-fur/lint it and unwrinkle it.
The smaller one is white and black duck just seamed at the top and bottom with an extra row of stitching to make a “sleeve”.
I use a couple weird shower hooks over the top of the background stand, with a couple loops of nylon monofilament line, to hang the bar that is through the quilt’s sleeve. A small level is helpful to get the quilt hanging level although it’s probably easier to adjust the camera to be level with the quilt.
I often put a piece of masking tape in the literal center of the quilt so I can put it into the center of the frame, making it easier to make sure everything is square and parallel. If your camera has a grid setting in the display, that’s the perfect thing to use for taking these photos. You can line edges and lines up in the photo and know it’s good. (Don’t forget to remove the masking tape.)
I’m not a big fan of trying to take photos outside. My quilts are usually pretty big and trying to find a place to work and a still enough day that everything isn’t flapping around is hard.
