Photographing large quilts
 

Hi everyone!
I would like your thoughts and ideas on the best way to hang/display quilts for photographs. My intent is to take nice photos of customer quilts (both from a long arm service standpoint, and from a commission quilts standpoint), to build a "portfolio" of my work.
I have a regular little Kodak camera, plus of course my smartphone.
And I have nice beds to show the quilts off from a "bedding" perspective.
But, I'd also like to be able to hang/hoist the quilt in a manner where you could see the entire quilt. My bedrooms do not have the best lighting to create nice pics.

I'm open to ANY suggestions!!
Thanks in advance!!

I like to hang mine on the cloths line with a beautiful background if you have one. A little more professionalthan mine but I think quilts look great in a breeze.

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peace

For effective LA quilting shots, lighting is everything. You need to have the light coming from one side to adequately show the quilting and you can't take a picture with a flash. This leads to many blurry shots unless you have a tripod to mount the camara. I take most of my best quilting closeup pictures while the quilt is still on the rack. Then I lay it out somewhere you can see the whole quilt, but like you, most places in my home aren't big enough to display the whole quilt. That is when I take a sheet and lay it out on the lawn with a quilt on it. Ideally, I would love to hang them up but I have yet to find an area on my property for that.

i often get volunteers to hold it up while i take the pictures

I love ube's idea. I may have to get a clothesline hung. I usually lay the quilt on the floor and stand on my sofa. But I don't recommend that. It creates, funny warped looking quilts.

Here's a great site for how to 'shoot' quilts. It's recommended by many quilt shows in their submission instructions.
http://www.hollyknott.com/stq/

I had an original design quilt custom longarmed by someone I had never used before. She did a beautiful job, I was very happy with it, and it was my plan to stay with her for a long time...until the day I visited her website. She posted photos of customer quilts, mine included, without asking the maker's permission, without mentioning the maker's name, without separating her own quilts from her customer's quilts. The implication was that they were all hers. Had I been asked, I would have gladly said 'sure' since it would be a plug for my design work along with her quilting, but she never bothered to ask. I never went back and I've obviously never forgotten why.

Please, ask permission before you use other people's quilts in promotional material for your business. It may not be 'legally required', but it's certainly the decent thing to do and it may just keep customers coming back to you. It can be as simple as putting a release on the contract/agreement you both sign when the quilt is brought in.

I know several of our LQS's owners. I find if I call them to know when the classrooms are empty they will let me in to put up my quilts for pictures. The lighting there is much better than I could do at home. Also, no hands or heads are in the pictures.

I have double doors to the master bedroom and I hang my quilts from the door frame. I also wait until the best natural light is in the room. I have a two story balcony in the foyer that I can also photograph from. If you have a deck off the ground you could also photograph there. I would use whatever camera gives you the best picture and that you can manipulate using a "photo shop" or "paint" program.

I have a curtain rod high up on a wall with rings and clips on it. The rings are on the rod with the clips hanging from them. I clip the quilt on the binding and it hangs nice and straight for pictures. I leave one up most of the time as decor, changing it with the seasons.