Portable Photography Wall
It’s taken all morning but I’ve got the digital photograph of the quilt for my postcard. Now I just need to design the card and place the order by midnight. While I had the photo wall set up I also took pictures of 15 other quilts in the Structures series that I needed digitals. In a month or 2 these should all be appearing on my main website.
I do all my quilt photography outside for my final images. I tried setting up lights indoors but I could never get it right so I decided outside with even natural light was my best option. I have to hope for good weather and light cloud cover to get exactly what I’m after and today I was lucky. We had perfect weather for quilt photography. It was a bit windy but I managed to get all 16 quilts photographed in between the gusts.
As my quilts can be rather large I had to build a large, 8′ x 8′, portable wall to photograph my quilts on. After a few tries with the design, with input from a good friend and my son, this is what I came up with.
This is the PVC pipe frame for the wall. It’s just tall enough to slide out of my garage and into the driveway without having to tip it over. It’s not perfect because PVC glue is nasty stuff that dries too quickly but it works. Okay, honestly, it’s pretty bad, you’ll note in the front center of this picture the pipe is cut, because that was the only way to get the darn thing together. It’s not flat or straight or any of those other desirable properties and someday I’ll rebuild the base, but for now it works.
This is the back side of the frame with two 8′ x 4′ Styrofoam sheets attached. The sheets are 2″ thick so they are quite sturdy (for Styrofoam). There are holes drilled in the PVC pipe and corresponding holes in the Styrofoam and I put bolts through to hold the sheets to the frame.
This is the front side. I cover the entire thing with a sheet of white or black polar fleece to do the photography. You can see the 4 bolts for each the sheets that hold them in place. I just pin the polar fleece to the foam. Generally the quilts don’t have to be pinned because the polar fleece provides plenty of friction but some of the larger ones I will pin just to get them positioned.
This is a picture of the backside of one of the bolts (big bolts!) that hold the sheet to the wall.
The front of the bolt – I put a washer on to keep it from ripping the Styrofoam. The polar fleece covers the lump and it’s not noticeable in the pictures.
Posted by Lisa in: Making Abstract Contemporary Textile Art
Hi Lisa,
I have just discovered you over the holiday season. Wooooweeee, love your work! One thing – of many – I have discovered that we have in common, is a love of the southwest. God, I love the dessert. It’s a place where I feel so in touch with myself. It’s ageless, beautiful in colour, powerful in architecture, uncluttered. It’s a bottomline kinda place. I travelled through there – Arizona (my favourite), Texas, New Mexico. I also want to say, I just love how you reach out and share you life with the world and a fine life it is to boot. I mean how many people are going to share a picture of a bolt with you. I like that in a person.
Most ingenious, Lisa–thanks so much for posting this photography stand. I have been going to a professional photographer for years, and though he is wonderful, he is very spendy, and since he switched to digital, I don’t quite trust his instincts as much as I used to. So your stand here is something I will be able to use. Again, thanks!
Can I bribe you to come and build one of these for me? Well, never mind – I have no place to store such a huge thing. And my driveway is not flat. Sigh…
Another fantastic idea I’ve gleaned from your weblog! I take most of my photos outside as well. Indoor photography NEVER does the colors justice. Great idea. Thanks!
Thanks so much for the link to your portable photography wall! That is pretty ingenious. My Father in law always wants a project when he comes to visit, now I now what we can build together! I will have to make do for the one I’m currently making…though instead of painting, I am going to cover styrofoam board with polar fleece. It will be easier to contruct and transport.