Friday, November 14, 2008

Cocoa Pebbles Socks


Cocoa Pebbles
Originally uploaded by JLW in PA
You have not yet seen a photo of my current office sock-in-progress because I usually photograph knitting at home, outside, in natural light, which means during the daylight hours. In mid-November in Pennsylvania, the daylight hours are waning quickly. It is DARK by the time I get home from work in the evening. So how did I get this photo, which I think is kind of decent and actually shows you the true color of the sock and its stitch definition?

Well, it's all thanks to the ALA (that's American Library Association). Because I am a member, they send me a weekly email full of all kinds of random (but relevant) information. Today a post about how to take better conference photos caught my eye. I read it. Then I started thinking that I could use the same techniques to take better photos of library events. I usually use the flash (auto-everything) because if you don't, the photos are blurry and dark. This bit I read prompted me to mess with some settings. And look what I got!

For this, I set the ISO on "hi," which means the shutter should open and close very quickly, thus reducing blur. I made sure to brace my camera arm on a piece of furniture. I turned off the flash. I set the mode to "macro." There was very little natural light in my office at 4:15 pm, but the overhead florescent was on, as well as a floor lamp with an incandescent bulb under a shade (hmm, guess Facilities hasn't replaced that with a CFL yet). I put the sock on my Sigg bottle in front of my knitting bag on my office chair, and, presto!

What do you think? (I know Steven is going to be into this stuff.)

Now that I know this, you are more likely to see shots of office knitting. We have the same office camera as we have at home, so my settings should translate.

About the sock - size 0 needles (2 mm) and the stitch pattern is my old favorite, "uneven rib" (from one of the Charlene Schurch books). I just started the heel flap, which you can see curling toward you in the photo.

3 comments:

  1. I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Pebbles! (oops -- I think I mixed my chocolately cereal metaphors there).

    (Stephen Colbert says he only eats fruit two ways -- in Pebble or Loop form!)

    Cool new on the camera! I am excited about that. I have the same issue. I've only recently started realizing I could mess with the ISO settings (for a guy who was a photographer on his high school yearbook, I've totally devolved into point-and-shoot mode).

    This is promising! And I need to get to posting on my blog. Thanks so much for sharing this!

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  2. I LOVE this yarn! Oh, and thanks for the return call, but I was at the Mannings at the time. And I figured out my toe up crisis (yes, I am giving it another try). Hugs!

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  3. These socks look fabulous. The indoor photography is fantastic.

    Kristina

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