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Photographing artwork
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Message
Posted
Does anyone have any tips they have found when photographing artwork? The subject was covered in The Artist some time ago, but never really resolved the issue for me of a greyness in the reproduction. While it is possible to brighten images with photo manipulating software, this often results in over exposing the lighter tones as a trade-off. Scanning can also result in harsh tones.
Posted
I did watch the short video on photographing artwork from Saachi Online some time ago. This did help somewhat, as in camera settings, lighting, tripods and so on.
You do need a decent camera with a quality lens if, like me, you are trying to achieve an accurate colour representation. Ipad cameras are fine for photographing stuff for eBay! but that's about all - nobody will convince me otherwise!
It does help if you have a good photo editing programme. Photoshop is the industry standard, and with some tweaking I am able (usually), to achieve something very acceptable. There is a free version available, CS2 possibly as I recall, but you will need to learn the basics.
Other than this standard information Frank, it's a matter of making sure that you have the basics in place, the rest will or should fall into place. I do try and take my photos outside when possible, an overcast day is ideal, never in sunlight.
Posted
The Royal Academy has some basic tips on their Summer Exhibition FAQs page see https://summer.royalacademy.org.uk/Home/FAQ. In the past this has been pdf rather than video. There is a lot of other information on the web though in general I tend to set a low speed (100 ISO) and take a fair number of shots using different apertures and speeds, with an appropriate white light setting. The variation you get is somewhat surprising. If I am feeling patient (rarely) I will also change the white light setting. Even so, choosing the best rendition doesn't always give a good representation. If I have to, I pick the closest rendition and resort to photomanipulation in GIMP (free open source package), though I tend to feel that is cheating, so I limit myself to tweaking only brightness and contrast. After all that, I am not always that thrilled with the result, but without a photostudio it's the best I can do.
Posted
My tip is - get someone else to do it! I have two rather elderly compact cameras, which produce a decent-enough representation; but I was seriously surprised when a young friend of mine, putting my new website together, photographed my paintings with his much more modern camera (he told me, by the way, that one o' they Ipad thingies would take better pictures than my ancient compacts: but I can't afford them - I mean, look: choice between cigars and cameras... what are you going to do?).
The new pictures pick up my brush-strokes in a way that my old cameras couldn't .... I've realized I really don't see too well, and was too easily satisfied with my old photos; naturally, this caused me some concern - could I still see well enough to paint? Well, I think I can; yes. Because pin-sharp vision isn't the point, really. I'd have to give up if it was. But if you want to make the best of your work, get someone with modern equipment, and better eyesight than you've got: which in my case isn't any kind of hard work.
Posted
I always try to make sure the artwork fills the image. A proper DSLR with a viewfinder will do the job nicely; even scubby little iPhones can zoom in on a subject before you press the button.
However, there is a reason professional photographers don't take wedding/ royal baby/ FA Cup winning goal photos using phones. Like your brushes and paints, get the best camera you can afford.
Edited
by alang23
Posted
The cigar picture was taken by the camera I normally use; not adjusted, zoomed in, or anything like that; and generally, I can't see much problem with the clarity - but had it been taken by my friendly web-builder on his camera, I know there would be. So - while I don't think I'm going for one of those cameras at the Oval, somehow - perhaps the time has come for an upgrade.....
Anyone got any ideas, that won't deprive me of my cigars and still leave me with a little for the gin and tonic? :unsure:
Edited
by RobertJones
Posted
Hopefully not too late to reply. A good digital camera is the first thing. Then you either want to photograph outside on an overcast day (even flat lighting) or if you happen to have a conservatory these often make for good rooms to photograph your work. A decent camera should be able to capture the colours accurately so that you don't need to mess around with post processing. Depending on your camera experiment with the modes as they have things like daylight, fluorescent, sunset etc which will have a big impact on the colours of the jpeg your camera saves. Sometimes you can set the white balance manually, using a Kelvin rating. Basically it's trial and error with the camera until you get a location and camera settings that you can rely on.
Professional or serious hobby photographers will shoot in RAW mode rather than jpeg and then edit the colour in post processing. I'm guessing most painters though have little interest in getting too geeky with photography.
Good luck.
Posted
You will always have difficulty photographing artwork with an iPad or iPhone (other similar devices are available), because the very short focal length of the lens makes it very difficult to get things straight and parallel. Daylight is the best idea to avoid uneven lighting conditions which can also affect the colour balance unevenly.
Try this link to my blog posts (there are four because there can be only one image per blog post (which is not really a blog in my view)).
blog post
Posted
I agree with the view expressed about the need for some editing. I've yet to take a photo that needed no editing. Usually it's minimal to try to get it as close to the painting as possible. The professionals don't always get it right. Often, if you only know a painting from a reproduction it can be quite an eye-opener when you see the original. Not an easy thing.
Posted
Does anyone have any tips they have found when photographing artwork? The subject was covered in The Artist some time ago, but never really resolved the issue for me of a greyness in the reproduction. While it is possible to brighten images with photo manipulating software, this often results in over exposing the lighter tones as a trade-off. Scanning can also result in harsh tones.Hi, I have just joined POL Community ,and am particularly interested in this question, as I am about to go down the line of photographing/printing my artwork. I have been using my phone camera just to send images to friends and family, but I know that will need something better to start trying to sell my work. I would really appreciate any pointers you can all give me, many thanks. Oh one other thing, I am also about to invest in a good quality laptop (really struggling to decide between a Windows laptop, or Mac Book Pro), and printer, so I would really appreciate any tips to be aware of before making my purchases. Thanks in advance.
Edited
by Melanie Wilson
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