Now that you’ve finished your intricate lace scarf, you want to take pictures to show off the beautiful stitch detail to the world. If you try to take a close up shot without making a few adjustments, then you could end up with a blurry photograph that doesn’t capture the true beauty of the scarf or in this case a garter stitch swatch:
What we’re rather end up with is this:
Taking good close up photographs of your knitted work is very easy if you just know the tricks. I’ve summarized the tricks that I’ve found work well for me. More detail can be found in the wiki article: How to Take Detailed Photos of your Knitting.
You do not need a professional camera or a studio to take great macro pictures. Just a few simple items, you may have on hand or can get inexpensively, and a little elbow grease.
Supplies
- Digital Camera (Mine is a Canon S400)
- Homemade Light box
- Tripod
- Light source
You don’t need a fancy digital camera, a mid-range point and shoot digital camera will work just fine. It does need to have a macro mode and a manual settings mode. Most mid-range cameras have both of these features. Check your manual or the manufacturers website to see if your camera has these features.
A homemade light box will allow you to diffuse the light and give you better results. Professional photographers use much fancier umbrellas and screens, but this homemade light box will work for our purposes. Instructions on how to build the light box are located at the wiki.
A tripod is a requirement for this type of photography. Humans just can’t hold the camera still enough to get a good photograph. If you don’t have a tripod, you should get one. If it’s not in your budget, then you can use a stack of books or a table top instead. However, you will lose a lot of control when you try to shoot the photos.
There are 4 important camera settings that you will need to familiarize yourself with.
1. Turn off the auto flash. The goal is to have all the light diffused by the light box and using the auto flash defeats the purpose of the light box.
2. Turn Macro mode on. This will allow the camera to focus correctly when you are very close to the subject. On my camera this is represented by a Flower symbol.
3. Change the light source to tungsten. The camera doesn’t do a good job picking the correct lighting settings when using a light box. Therefore, the color of your yarn is going to look wrong. This can be fixed by placing the camera in manual mode and changing the light sources setting from Auto to Tungsten. The symbol for Tungsten on my camera is a light bulb.
4. Turn on the timer. This will allow the camera to settle and stop moving after you press the trigger.
Here is the macro setup used to take the photo at the beginning of post.
These tips should allow you to take good close up photographs of your knitting. For more detailed information and examples of the effect of each setting and instructions for building light box, visit the related wiki article.
