Photographing Your Artwork – Part 2: Lighting / Set Up

In our first posting on the topic of photographing your artwork we talked about the importance of learning how to take quality pictures of your original art to ensure that people viewing your oil, acrylic, pastel, or watercolor paintings are able to see the full range of the colors, textures and tones of the original viewed in person.  Whether you are publishing your photos to a website like TheArtGallerist.com, submitting your artwork to competitions, preparing a portfolio of your work for galleries to review, or simply trying to create a historical archive of your work, taking a few important steps can ensure quality images every time.

Now that you know the basic equipment necessary to capture a good image of your original fine art, next I would like to look at two other factors that will influence the quality of your photographs.

Lighting

To keep things simple, it is always preferable if you can take photographs of your unframed artwork in natural light.  While the best light may not always be available, it is still preferable as it does not require any special equipment or tools.  Natural light also requires very little modification since it is so soft and even.

The best choice for lighting is from a northern exposure, preferably on a bright but overcast day.  Some artists have had good luck using natural light outside in the shade.  Direct sunlight can cause glare from the paint.  If you are photographing your work indoors, open all available doors and curtains to admit as much diffused light as possible.  Be aware of light that may be reflecting from  strongly colored objects as your artwork may pick up that color, which may in turn, affect the color of the image in your photo.

Do not use the camera’s flash.  If your camera is telling you that a flash is required, you obviously are trying to take the picture without enough natural light.

Set Up

Start by hanging the artwork on a wall or easel that is not in direct sunlight and that does not directly face a window.  Smaller pieces may be best laid flat on the ground so they can be photographed with the camera pointing straight down from above.

Set up the camera on a tripod or something solid like a box.  Make sure the camera is directly in front of the center of the painting, both horizontally and vertically, to eliminate foreshortening of one edge. Look through the viewfinder to confirm this. In the proper position all four edges of the painting are parallel to the viewfinder’s edges. 

Move the camera towards the painting, keeping the painting centered in the viewfinder, until the painting’s edge meets at the top/bottom or at the sides of your view finder. Alternatively, with a zoom lens the tripod can be kept stationary while the zoom is adjusted so the picture fills the frame. Generally you will not be able to exactly fit the painting into the photograph, so get either the width or height to fill the frame; the other dimension will contain extraneous content that can be removed or masked later.  Because the edges of what is visible through the eyepiece will not always exactly match what ends up on the captured image, take some initial exploratory pictures to determine exactly what is recorded.

In our third and final article, we will discuss color balance, taking the photo, and finally what to do with your digital images.