Aw, thank you all so much for your birthday wishes! I took the day off from work and did mostly nothing. It was wonderful.
I can’t say that I did absolutely nothing, as I finished two notebook covers for gifts. Last week, I mentioned that I thought the Jitterbug I received from Jane would be perfect, but after swatching, I changed my mind. Instead, I picked up some Malabrigo (color Intenso), which worked perfectly. I’m contemplating felting these a little, particularly the larger one, to help them fit more snugly.
“No stripes. Boring!” -Mayhem, stretchily
A few weeks ago, I purchased a small collapsible light tent. I like the initial photos, but I definitely need to pull a brighter light source out of the closet. And maybe attempt to steam the tent smooth?! Anyway, the following picture was taken in the light tent, with a plain old 60-watt incandescent light outside the tent but sans flash (versus the flash picture above). What do you think?
Ask me how many times I’ve used my light tent
After a couple of times of dragging it out, looking for lamps and incandescent light bulbs, changing the light bulbs, I gave up! But, the colour in the second pic is lovely and seems to match its name.
Gorgeous
Can you give us/me more info on the light tent? I’m looking for one and here in Lux I can’t find any 
Cheers, Eva
I like the warmer tone of the second photograph. It doesn’t have the stark nature of the flash shot.
Nice work! The change is good and I love the artistic shot.
The light tent one seems more natural – none of that whitish bright spots that flash causes.
How did you keep the kitties OUT of the light tent?
Yeah, that’s what I want to know too – how did you keep them out?! It would have been taken over by now if it were at my house…
fwiw, I like the extreme close-up of the second but I like the lighting (and feline garnish) of the first. The light tent is perfect for close-ups. The light that works best with mine is a 400W halogen clamp-on work light purchased on sale at Menard’s for $4. With that I get photos with neutral coloring, i.e., no yellowish tint, versus the ones I get using my high intensity desk lamp from Ikea. iPhoto allows me to adjust the color temperature in the image, but the results are never as good as if the original photo had neutral lighting to begin with.
In the winter days of short daylight it can’t be beat. Mine is a 16″ cube with interchangeable white, blue, red, and black swoops; $20 on eBay. Eventually I will probably buy a bigger one, especially when Smokey finally starts selling his toy trains on eBay.
It was a challenge! Fortunately, after you put your photo subject into the tent, you can velcro it closed, then insert the camera through a slit to take pictures.
Glad to hear you enjoyed your birthday! Hmmm… I like the second picture, but can you fit a cat into a light tent so that we get all the cute tail/paw FO shots?
I like the light in the second shot. It’s much softer and I think it highlights the subject(s) – it gives the photo almost a glowing feel.
I won’t tell you how long it took me to figure out you weren’t talking about a camping tent.
happy belated birthday!
The colors do look better in the light tent. I’m sure the cats will love it.
Sounds like a fab birthday!
Love the little notebook covers!
And I do like the light in the second shot; when I take yarn pictures I struggle to get just the right amount of light and wonder if a light tent is something I need.
love the reds in that, like mamatulip, i was dumbfounded why any one would knit a camping tent, very poor material to keep the bugs and rain out.
Chris- The kitties say “no flash” because it gets in their eyes.
I think we should all celebrate birthdays more often.
The colors definitely look better with the light tent — but, gosh, that seems like a lot of work for knitting pictures. I have enough trouble getting pictures taken at all. But the colors do look much better….
I like it! And the Malabrigo, too.
I need more lights, too. I’ve heard that just regular natural (full spectrum?) light bulbs can work really well.
I like the light tent picture. It seems like that’s more the true color?
Ooh, a book cover? Cute!
What KMKat said. It’s hard to compare though because the composition of the photos is so vastly different. Wow, that’s probably the most intelligent comment I’ve ever left here.
Can you get the cats into the box? How do you feel about the color representation in the second photo? Red is so hard to photo….
I like the light tent. Depending upon how accurate the colors look, I wonder if you will have to choose a different light source setting on your camera. Flash tends to negate that need. Kitties and light tents sounds like an interesting combination (for them perhaps more than you).
I agree, I like the tent’s effects. And Happy Belated Birthday!
Pretty picture! Does your photo editing software have a tool called ‘white balance’ or something similar? I recently discovered it and it helps to clean up the white background if it turns out not-so-white…. Some cameras have this too, so yours might.
oooh–i *love* the light tent photo!
i made a light box using these directions:
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent/
it worked pretty well although getting the light right was challenging. i found that putting it next to a window (for natural light) during the day and then using a clip-on plant light on one side and a flourescent music lamp on the other seemed to sort of balance out the light.
if you take a lot of photos of your knitting or small items (for etsy or ebay, say) it’s definitely worth it.
I also thought you were talking about a camping tent and wondered if you were mad buying that kind of tent when it is starting to get very cold!!!
Happy Belate Birthday!!! I like the light tent picture better.
Only one problem with it…no kitties
Love that color!
Oh, and sorry I missed your BD yesterday – I hope it was a happy one, and that you’ll have a great BD week!
I like the second one, with the light tent. The colors in the flash photo look a little harsh to me. The light tent photo looks softer and more natural.
I’ve thought about making or buying a light tent. There are the instructions that obsidiankitten mentioned and somewhere there was one made with PVC and sheets. But then I figured I would be picking cat and ferret hair out of it all the time.
I still might make one some day.
I like the colors in the yarn!
Love the light tent photo. It warms up the yarn color. But, sigh, miss the cat tails.
I love the way light tents look, for professional photos. But on the other hand, (for myself) I make no attempt to pretend I’m taking professional photos. I’d rather go with the easy way of snapping a photo wherever. And if that means the color is a bit off, it also means I’ll sometimes get a kitty in the shot with whatever I’m photographing…