As I was reminded when I was testing my Sparks pattern over a year ago, contrast between colours is not necessarily the same as contrast between values. I'll show you why it matters, then one method to check value with a phone camera.
Why it Value Matters
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Colour versus Value
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You can definitely see four distinct colours in the photo on the left. There is contrast between all the colours.
The picture on the right is the same picture viewed through a grayscale filter to show value instead of colour. It looks almost like there are only three different fabrics rather than four. The yellow and tan both appear light in value, while the orange and red are medium dark and dark. There is much less contrast between the two fabrics on the left.
Why does this matter? Despite seeing the colors clearly, when these fabrics are used together there will be much less contrast between the yellow and tan than between the red or orange and the tan. This is not inherently a problem. If you don't need the same strength of contrast, it's fine. However if you need the contrast between the yellow and tan to have the same strength as the contrast between the tan and the other fabrics, this will be a disappointing collection.
You can see how the difference in the strength of the contrast affects the design. While the block design is clear in the orange and red, it fades away in the yellow because there isn't enough contrast between the yellow and the tan background.
I rearranged the fabrics to balance areas of high contrast and lower contrast to rescue most of the blocks in this quilt.
How to check value using a phone camera
I'll demonstrate using my new fabric selection for the Colour Value Mystery Quilt-Along (QAL). You can read my
previous post about how I had to tweak my original selection because of two fabrics being more similar than I had thought.
The pictures here are screenshots of the camera app on my Pixel phone. Your phone may be different, but hopefully you can figure out the equivalent steps for your phone app. If you're lucky, you might even be able to adjust a setting on your phone to just view everything in grayscale from the start. My old phone had this feature and I miss it! If you have Pixel phone and know how to turn that on, please let me know!
Step 1. Take a photo of the fabric, arranged from lightest to darkest. (Note the black strip at the top of these images is the top of the phone screen, not one of the fabrics!)
Step 2: Click on the thumbnail image of the photo, circled in red above, which will take you to the screen below.
Step 3: Click on the
Edit button, circled in red above. That will take you to the screen below. The area circled in red has various tool options to choose from. Swipe left until you find the
Filter option. When that option is highlighted you'll see smal versions of your photo with various filters, right above the toolbar.
Step 4: Swipe left through the versions of the photo until you find the Onyx filter.
Step 5: Click on Onyx. You'll see the photo with the grayscale filter applied.
Step 6: You can click on Save a copy if you'd like to save the grayscale version to review the results later.
Here's my fabric selection, from lightest at the top to darkest at the bottom.
I hope you find this useful!
Happy fabric pulling!
Joanne
PS: There's still time to join the free Colour Value Quilt-Along! Click
here to go register.
