Featherstone Quiltworks

Today we are going to cover a photography basic as well as a setting that is on most (if not all) cameras nowadays.  Remember, I’m assuming you bought your camera, tossed the book in a drawer, and have been pointing and shooting with reckless abandon!  If you’re comfortable with your camera,  just come back tomorrow and hopefully there will be something of more interest.

Focusing:  Cameras aim their focus in the center of the view finder or display.  You will usually see a little box (or some other marking) in the center, and that’s where your camera will be focusing.  Let’s say you’re taking a picture of crab apples.

If this is what I saw in the view finder and just took the picture, the apples wouldn’t be in focus because the odds of the focusing beam hitting that nearby stem are pretty slim; something in the background would be in focus and the apples would be blurry.  

To get around this problem, go ahead and center your subject in the middle so it’s behind that box in the center (in this case, one of the apples lined up with the box), and press the shutter half-way down and hold it there.  You can then re-frame your shot, placing your subject where ever you want, and your camera will hold your subject in focus.  In the photo above, I basically pre-focused on one of the crab apples, readjusted the shot the way I wanted it, and the crab apples are in focus. 

So your finger has the button pressed half-way down and you’re ready to take the picture.  Finish pressing down gently — don’t punch the button with your finger.  A smooth pressing will help eliminate blurring.  Actually, pre-focusing helps prevent blurring as well, so it’s a good practice for all your pictures.

Tulip:  Look at your camera and see if you can find a tulip on a dial or button somewhere. 

The tulip (at least that’s what it looks like to me) allows you to bring the camera much closer to the object you’re photographing and still be in focus.  And I mean close!  You should be able to see in your view finder when you are in focus and when you are too close or too far away.  In your manual, look in the index for “macro” to find more specific information on your camera. 

On one of my cameras (the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS) you press the dial on the tulip icon, select the tulip (up close) versus the mountain (for distance).  My other camera (Lumix DMC-FZ20) I turn a dial to the tulip.   (The photo above was taken with the Lumix on cold winter day.  The photos below were taken with the Canon.)

Why use the macro close-up feature rather than zooming in on something close?  Any time you zoom, you lose light; any time you zoom digitally (as opposed to optically), you lose picture quality.  Don’t get me wrong — I LOVE my zoom!  If you’re taking a picture of something near you that you want to close in on, zoom isn’t the tool you want.  (We’ll talk more about zoom another Friday.)  So if you’re taking a picture of a flower, a bug, a diamond ring to sell on e-Bay, or anything else you’d like a high-quality close-up of, try using the macro (tulip) button. 

Here’s a wild flower from our walk today.  First I was just standing normally, looking down and taking a photo (really, it’s there in the middle of the picture):

And here is a close-up photo of the same flower with the camera in macro (tulip) mode:

It’s so much fun to use the macro feature and get picture quality you couldn’t get before.  Try it on your quilts:

And I’m sure most of you have taken dozens of quilt photos.  I’ve found that I get the best light on my living room floor in the morning.  I get the WORST pictures at night with artificial light.  The side lighting in the morning seems to work best.  (And I don’t like using flash on my quilts — it washes away the shadows so you can’t see the quilting as well.)  Here is a photo with the camera in the macro setting:

If you’d like to play along and do a little homework, practice pre-focusing and play around with the macro feature.  And I’d love it if you posted some pictures in our album on Flickr.  Flickr will prompt you to set up a free Yahoo account if you don’t have one, then you can join the Flickr photo group. 

If you want to e-mail me, you can go to the “Contact Me” button at the top of my blog and send me a note with any questions or problems you might have.

Take lots of pictures!!!  That’s the wonder of digital cameras.  This afternoon on our walk I took 75 pictures, came home and deleted all but about 15! 

Have fun — it’s a holiday weekend!

Sue