I’m jealous of them. People who take gorgeous photos of your knitted things (those who can take great self-protraits get my envy, too – that’s another post). I manage about a 5% success rate using my camera (and 20% using Matt’s Digital Rebel). Most of my photos are overexposed, distort color, or have far too much going on in the background.

My camera’s a cheap point-and-shoot and, although far better than my old camera, doesn’t exactly offer me the ability to add a decent macro lense. Yes, Canon sells lenses but, common, it’s a 300 dollar camera. Matt’s camera is amazing. I steal it from the kitchen (its new home since he started food blogging), lay what I want to photo on the desk, and shoot. I use full auto mode as none of the adjustable SLR magic means anything to me. For you photo geeks, the lens I use is an  50mm f/1.8 lens.

I’ve found lots of tutorials online about how to take better knitting photos. Most tell you to make some sort of a light box, something I’ve often considered doing. One of the best tutorials that doesn’t require permanantly giving up floor space (nor any fancy lights) is here. You tape the top of a piece of white posterboard to a chair or wall. This hides your messy house/apartment and provides a nice, even background color. Just what I need! Our place is usually in some state of messiness and, other than the little hallway between the bedrooms and bathroom, there’s little space with available white background.

Let’s just say I’m thinking of buying some posterboard when Heather and I inevitably run to Target this evening. Then not only will I take photos of what I bought last Sunday but also of just about anything else fiber-related in my house. Several dollars to pretty photos.