Snapshots from the Studio | Using the Camera as a Value Finder

I’ve been working on a set of nesting baskets like these for a patient client. We had chosen some blues and purples from my stash to use in the scrappy stripe. As I was laying them out, I thought I’d snap a pix for a “Snapshots from the Studio” post. Looking at the picture in the LCD in the back of the camera, I thought to myself that I’d like to check the values of the fabrics by converting the color picture to black and white, which I would normally do in PhotoShop, but I didn’t want to stop and download the photos to edit. Then I remembered that my camera has some conversion capabilities in it! 3 seconds later, I had a B&W photo and I saw that indeed there was a lot of differing values in the stripes! Easy Peasy!

I saw that I had lots of changes of value, and moved on! Soon, I had a strip of “sketchy stripes”:

I’ve got a video of how I improvisationally piece these as an “online extra” for the projects I had in Quilting Arts 101 Patchwork Projects, it’s located here (you’ll have to become a member of their site to see it).

I got as far as piecing them into the sides:

I would LOVE to finish these up tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, I’ll be closing my giveaway late Tuesday night, make sure to enter if you haven’t already!

 

 

7 Responses

  1. I love using my camera to “see” my projects better. I hadn’t thought about the black and white option though. I will have to give that a try next time. Good tip.

  2. I have gleaned so much help in my jewelry design and painting projects with the help of photos. Seeing it a new way can help your eyes “see” what is good to go or what need some work. Using values on your camera is genius! And soo much faster then downloading and editing in PSD. Nice tip Candy!