Colour Matters
“Nothing comes close to the textile industry for the sheer range and inventiveness of its colour use,” says Pete. “Glancing through Miriam’s yarn stash throws up some interesting colour combinations. You can’t deny this shot has impact!”
Getting the colour right
- Light is crucial here. Try to shoot in natural light, if possible.
- If your camera has a light setting, use it. It will make shooting indoors a lot easier.
- Take several shots in different lights – indoors, outdoors, lights on, lights off and see which one matches your yarn best.
- Diffuse the light from a desk lamp by covering it with tracing or baking paper. Just make sure it doesn’t get too hot and start to burn!
- Turn the flash off, it can make the yarn look strangely shiny and rather like all your luxury yarns are a nastier sort of acrylic!
- Go macro and make the colour the main focus of your shot.
Monochrome
Even we struggle to get excited about grey, but nothing brings out texture like stripping the colour away. “This piece of a cable knit almost looks like volcanic rock,” says Pete.
Many cameras will shoot in black and white and most photo editing software will let you turn a shot into monochrome. Try it both ways and see which one you prefer.
There’s a Black & White category for your monochrome shots, or if you’ve shot stunning colours, why not submit them to the Creative & Vision category? You could be the Photographer of the Year 2008!
