Mar 25: Climate Change

In winter, I shoot mostly skiing. (Maybe you've noticed?)

In a change of pace (and climate), I'm photographing quilts this weekend.

I'm using the same planning and precision that I use in my ski images to create a repeatable and consistent set of quilt images.

Here's the set, (with a quilt's backside serving as a model):

I've found that laying the quilts on the ground and photographing from above is much easier than hanging the quilts on a wall.

It's a bit tricky getting the camera stabilized, but a sturdy tripod and some heavy A clamps are doing a good job.

I've tried balancing the lighting with multiple strobes, but it is actually quite clean and nice to photograph the quilts with just one speedlite, when placed in the correct orientation. In this case, the light is placed 12' above the ground and 10' away from the quilt's corner. It's feathered towards the far corner. The result resembles a Rembrandt light, without the nose shadows. There's a 1 stop difference b/w the closest corner and the farthest corner, which gives a nice feel.

Here's a different angle on the geometry.

We've shot 7 quilts so far. ~20 more to go.