Contest For a Best Photo Forward Webinar Ticket

[JenFW]

Hi, Everyone.

I'm de-lurking to host a contest here.

I've been a member of Stitchin' Fingers for ages. Since Sharon started it, I think. I come here to look at photos and be inspired. Really-really. I click the "Photos" link, sit back with my chai, and let the colors, designs, and creativity fill me up. I am grateful to active members for enabling me to do this.

I don't need to tell anyone here that photographing needlework isn't easy. I've been struggling with it for years, waiting for a good weather in Alaska so I can photograph my work outside in natural light. Even then, it's rarely, if ever, perfect.

Best Photo Forward Webinar

I finally decided to ask for help, and the result is a webinar: Best Photo Forward: Refining Photos of Fine Embroidery with Photoshop Elements.

Melissa Shanhun, a leading digital scrapbook teacher in Australia (and a needleworker to boot---woo-hoo!), and I have teamed up to create and present this workshop specifically for needleworkers. We will learn the following:

• What Photoshop Elements is and why we should use it
• How to convey more accurate colors
• How to stretch and square warped or crooked images
• How to resize images for the Web
• How to frame a piece digitally

This is a live event, taking place on

March 20, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. EST (That's 8 p.m. on the east coast of the US.)

Participants receive the following:

• Access to the live workshop
• Handouts and resources used in the event
• Ongoing access to the workshop recordings
• Sample files so that you can see follow along with the demonstrations
• BONUS Photo Fixes for Real People – a jump start on using Photoshop Elements to improve your photos (Valued at $20). In this, Melissa teaches us how to digitally turn overcast skies blue, clean food from a baby's face, create a great group shot with everyone smiling, and remove red eye.
• BONUS Jen's Top 10 Ways to Use Images of Our Embroidery 

So even if you can't attend live, you can still take advantage of the workshop, watching the recordings over and over, as many times as needed to master the techniques.

You can learn more about the webinar on the Funk & Weber World blog.

How Webinars Work

A "webinar" is a seminar on the Web. It's a real-time event, like a live chat, and will be held at AnyMeeting.com. If you live on the east coast of the US, the time will be 8:00 p.m. on March 20th. If you'll be in Hawaii in the US, the time will be 3:00 p.m. on March 20th. If you're in Oslo, Norway, the time will be 1:00 a.m. on March 21.

You can use a time converter to determine your time for the live event. But, as I said, you don't have to attend live, though I hope you will.

All it takes to attend the live event is a link to the webinar site which you will receive when you register. You'll click that link just before the meeting time. Make sure the sound on your computer is turned on because we'll watch Melissa's computer screen as she works and hear her explain what she's doing.

If you watch and listen to videos on your computer, you should be fine.

We'll be able to type questions we have into a chat box, and Melissa and I will answer as many as we can. We'll follow up with written or recorded answers to any questions we can't answer in real time.

The Contest

Because I so enjoy and get such benefit from the photos on Stitchin' Fingers, I want to give someone here a ticket to this webinar, and so we're having a contest. To enter, simply reply to this discussion, and tell me what your biggest problem is with images of your embroidery. Though we're not covering photography in this webinar---just image editing---your biggest problem can be about anything.

You have until midnight, Alaska time, on March 16th to leave your reply. A winner will be chosen at random and posted here on March 17th.

If you have questions, please ask. I'll separate contest entries from general questions. Again, I'm posting more about this on my blog.

Thank you, all, for sharing your needlework, your creativity, and yourselves here.

[Pippa Price]

I have problems with getting the close up of the image sharp and the colours are sometimes not true.

[Sue Markham]

My images are poorly light, the colors are yellowed and I have difficulty getting the details sized and not fuzzy,

[Jeni Ann]

My biggest problem is with getting true color. I have tried indoors and out. Flash and no flash. Often I get either a blue cast or a yellow one.

[Sandy N]

I live in Western Australia.  With the time difference I will miss the live webinar and am more than happy for someone else to win.  :)  Go for it girls!  However I will share a problem I encounter when attempting to photograph my stumpwork embroidery.  Well any embroidery for that matter.  The flash reflects back from shiny fabrics such as satin and from metallic or shiny threads.  Resulting in poor quality pictures of my work.  Does anyone else encounter this?

I have even tried taking photos in daylight without the flash mode on the digital camera.  Any tips will be much appreciated.  Thanks.  Have a lovely week.

Love

Sandy, Kalgoorlie

In the goldfields

[Nicki Lee]

My biggest problem is one I constantly struggle with - getting a sharp, crisp looking picture of close ups.

Thank you!

 

Nicki Lee

[Connie Eyberg]

Like Deb, I seem to have difficulty with lighting as well (among a million other things).  Probably my biggest challenge, however, has been to photograph beads, sequins, metallic threads and other shiny/sparkly elements to do them justice.

[Cynthia Green]

My biggest issue in photographing needlework is color and light.  I know that's two issues, but they seem to be related.  When I can bring something outside and photograph it in natural light, it seems fine.  But indoors is a real challenge.

 

Cynthia Green

[e-mail]

[Tahlia]

I run into problems when I try to photograph odd sizes and shapes. I am currently working on a crazy quilt built of wedge shapes (fifteen degree wedge) that are 18 inches long, but only about 6 inches wide ate the wide end. Placing the camera far enough away from the wedge to get the full wedge in frame places it too far away from the wedge to show much detail. I feel like I need to take several images and stitch them together in photo editing, but am concerned about variations in color or lighting from one frame to the next.

I also run into challenges when trying to photograph surfaces that are shimmery or reflective such as metallic threads or shisha mirrors. Without a flash, the shimmer dies. With a flash, the shimmer takes over. I have tried using a flash + diffuser film with limited success.

[Heba Barazi]

The hardest part is getting natural light so that the color would appear correctly.

[vijayalakshmi]

This is my general question.

After finishing one embroidary project, it does looks so nice in original, But when I took photo the originality, the colours of thread, base cloths colour are varing this is my problem. How to solve this?

Thanks in advance.

viji

[Heather Grover]

My biggest problem is that the color tends to be washed out. My  New Years resolution

is to use the computer  more and not be afraid of technology . I studied some photograpy in

college but that was before digitial cameras. learning to do editing would be great. I hate to keep

bugging my husband to help me.

[Miri Agassi]

My biggest problem is shooting photos of pieces with crystals. The crystals are hardly noticeable .