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Help with Filling Out the Forms

Click this link if you are having problems filling out the form to submit your artwork. It shows a step-by-step tutorial.

Resizing Photos Using Photoshop Courtesy of Gloria Hansen:

 

"I made this video for artists to better understand how to re-size their images so that when it comes time to enter a show that requires a digital entry, you’ll understand exactly how to do it.

In this video, I explain how to re-size your image by changing the number of pixels in the document. This is also known as resampling. In a future video, I’m going to explain how to re-size images specifically for print. In the process, you’ll also learn why saying a web image needs to be 72 dpi or 72 ppi no longer makes any sense (and why it did some 15 years ago)."

Visit Gloria's Blog and website.

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Photographing Your Own Quilt Courtesy of Maria Elkins

I am not a professional photographer, but I am convinced that just about anyone can take decent pictures of their own quilts; certainly good enough for documenting your quilts. In most cases, you can take pictures good enough to enter quilt competitions. Personally, I've actually only hired a local professional photographer once, and I was disappointed with his results. That said, I have sent a couple of my quilts to quilt magazines for publication and their photographer did an absolutely fabulous job, one I would never be able to reproduce. So, there is certainly a time and place for the professional, but today I'd like to share a few tips you can use in your own home to take reasonably good photos of your own quilts.

• Find a good place to hang your quilt so there are no distractions. Most of my quilts are fairly small, so I use my portable design wall as a photo backdrop. My design wall is simply a piece of 4 ft by 8 ft by 1″ thick foam insulation board purchased from my local big-box building supply store. I pinned a piece of black fabric to one side and a piece of white fabric to the other. I drag this design wall all over the house, wherever I need it at the moment. It works great for photography! I can prop it up against a wall inside or out. When a quilt is too large for my design wall, then we move some furniture so I have a blank wall to use as a backdrop. If most of the quilts you make are large, you might consider having two design walls that you can place side by side.

• Pin your quilt carefully. I use pins with very small heads and I place them along seams so they don’t show. I take time to carefully pin my quilt so all the edges are straight and the quilt is square. I can lay my design wall flat on the floor to make this easier. Once I have the corners pinned, I can measure from the top left corner to the lower right corner and make note of that measurement. Then I measure from the bottom left corner to the top right corner and compare that measurement with the first. If I’ve pinned my quilt so it is square, those two measurements will be the same. Then I’ll lay a yardstick along the sides of my quilt and pull them until all the edges are nice and straight.


• Use a tripod. One of the best tips I can give you is to always use a tripod! This will help ensure a nice, crisp photo. This last time, I even used the 2 second time delay feature on my camera so it would be absolutely still when the shutter clicked.

• Position your camera correctly. To minimize distortions, adjust your tripod so your camera lens is pointed at the middle of your quilt. If you need to, use a tape measure. Check the distance from the middle of your quilt to the floor and then move your camera so the center of the lens is at the same height. Next, adjust your camera so it is parallel to the design wall. When your camera is not parallel, you get wonky photos. I take quite a bit of time looking at the view screen of my digital camera to see if the edges of my quilt are parallel with the edges of the view screen.