Low-rent photography studio

After a week or two of messing around with far less adequate improvisations, I've now got my roommate's camera atop a nice old tripod from craigslist, with the whole set-up conveniently adjacent to my comfy crocheting chair, and blazingly illuminated, when necessary, by the therapy light I use for my seasonal mood slump (this is the Pacific Northwest, where it starts raining in October, and doesn't stop until May).

Here we have my crochet/photography studio, modeled by Miss Thunderhead (she blames the sedating influence of the heated throw behind her for her somnolence throughout this major photo op.)

For some reason I don't trip over the tripod when I get up.

The therapy light turned aside to illuminate my mini-studio

A satin shawl I hadn't unfolded in ten years...

It was necessary for me to use the camera's manual settings to get decent stitch definition and 3-dimensional-looking thread contours. Here's how I understand how I set it up, in case someone else wants to try something similar.

Shooting (motionless) crochet using a (motionless) tripod allows one to slow the shutter speed way down, giving the camera's sensors or film time to absorb more light. Additional light gives one leeway to shrink the aperture, creating greater depth of field. A shallow focal range is a big problem in close-up photography (unless you can convince the viewer that this is some sort of moody special effect, as attempted in in certain Patricia Kristofferson doily pattern booklets. Augh!! If I'm going to spend a week or more crocheting the danged thing, I'd really like to know what it looks like in its entirety!! But I digress...). Additional light also lets one lower the ISO speed, which generates a less noisy image -- you can imagine how random pixel noise might confuse detailed close-up shots. 

For anyone interested in more in-depth understanding, try browsing through this guide to Using your Digital Camera. I found it very clear when I needed to review these concepts (that college 35mm photography class was a long time ago).

But I'm no digital photography expert, and if you know more than I do, and feel yourself brimming over with good advice for me and other aspiring photographers of thread, please do leave a comment.