Easy And Professional Ways To Start Photographing Artwork
Simple Photo Hacks That Improve The Look Of Your Art
Heads up: This post may contain affiliate links. Learn more.
There are many occasions when an artist will start photographing artwork; from updating their portfolio to applying for a residency. Whatever the situation – it’s important that the image quality doesn’t negatively affect the appearance of your work. That’s why we’ve set out these 5 straight-forward tips that will transform the outcome of your art photos.
How to photograph artwork for websites and portfolios
1. The set up
The environment in which you take your photo is almost just as important as the art. Consider what will be in the background of your image. Ideally, you do not want anything distracting to be going on.
The best background for photographing artwork is a plain, neutral coloured wall with a smooth texture. Hang the work parallel to the camera, hiding any fittings or fixtures for a more polished and professional look. Make sure it’s vertically straight by using a level across the top of the canvas. And lastly, remove any objects that are poking into the photo frame or casting shadows over the art.
Sometimes, there may be exceptions to this general rule. If the work is public, then of course your photo setup will be different. Essentially, you want to photograph your work in the situation that it’s intended to be seen in. So if that is a painting, it might be on an indoor wall, or for a public sculpture, it may be outside.
However, photographing artwork for social media allows you to be more creative, as it’s not a professional portfolio – therefore you could have a bit more fun with your setup. Either way, it’s down to you as the artist.
2. Condition of the art
No matter how well you take the picture, a scruffy piece of art is going to appear that way in its photo. Before you start shooting, make sure the work is in a presentable state. Gently dust and clean the surface of your work so that the camera wont pick up any dirt. This is good practice for when you’re storing your artwork as well.
If you’re getting multiple angles of your art, ensure that the work is in good condition from all sides. For example, if you’re photographing a painting – you might want to make sure your canvas edges are painted.
3. The lighting
Something that you can’t ignore when photographing art is the lighting. There are a number of different methods that artists use to get the perfect shot – it will all just depend on what is available to you.
Photographing artwork in natural light
The ideal weather to photograph artwork isn’t a bright sunny day as you would expect. In fact, artists usually wait for overcast weather before taking pictures of work. The cloud cover diffuses the direct sunlight, providing a nice even covering of light.
When taking photos indoors, you’ll need large windows, preferably from above as well. A good photo requires the natural light to come from all angles to avoid shadows and dark spots, therefore, side window light might not be enough on its own.
In some cases, artists find it better to take the work outside, that way they have uninterrupted access to the natural daylight. Just make sure you’re setting the work up in a non-distracting environment and that your work won’t get damaged.
Photographing artwork in artificial light
If the weather isn’t cooperating (or you’re simply up against a tight deadline in the evening), then your other option is using artificial light. Some established artists and photographers will have a lot of expensive kit to do this – but luckily, anyone can achieve professional effects with a few simple tips.
The best and standard practice for photographing artwork uses two of the same lights, both positioned at a 45° angle on either side of the work. The lights you use is up to you, soft box lights work great – but you can also use a ring light for photographing artwork if it’s cheaper and more accessible.
Don’t mix the type of light source. This will create problems with uneven lighting and off colours. If you’re using artificial light during the day, then you might want to block windows and natural light sources, even if the light isn’t very strong.
4. The camera settings
To get the best professional picture of your art, you may need to do some tweaking in your camera settings. If you’re a beginner and are really unsure, you could stick with the automatic settings but to take your art photography to the next level, look at doing the following:
White Balance and colour settings
Use a colour checker or grey card alongside your camera’s white balance feature to get an accurate, calibrated representation of the arts colour and tone. This can usually be altered in editing later, but it’s better to get it right the first time.
ISO settings
The ISO setting on your camera refers to its sensitivity to light and your camera will automatically adjust itself depending on light exposure. However, for a crisp and clean photo – turn off the Auto ISO setting and select a low ISO option. A high ISO is great for darker occasions but in the case of art photography, you’re usually going to have a lot of light anyway. Avoid image noise and stay in the low settings.
Aperture settings
When photographing art, you want to capture as much detail as possible, so it’s best to go with a narrow aperture such as f/16. Having a shallow depth of field with a wide aperture isn’t necessarily a problem with art photography – but to ensure the sharpest detail, aim high.
Flash settings
On most occasions, flash isn’t going to be needed when photographing your artwork. Ideally, you want to avoid glare and reflections, so increase your environment lighting instead of using flash if you feel it’s too dark.
5. The editing process
Even once the photos are all taken, the job is not finished. A lot of what makes a photograph appear professional is the post – production process. In photo editing software like Photoshop, you can make a multitude of changes that enhance the look of your work. You’re likely to want to crop your artwork photo, making sure to leave an equal amount of space around the piece of work. Be careful to not over edit and make common editing mistakes though, as this will end up ruining an original photo that now doesn’t look realistic or accurate.
Photographing artwork for prints
Photographing artwork to make prints is slightly different from the methods we’ve just covered. In this case, you’re capturing the original artwork with the intention of creating a new piece. It’s more about replicating the work rather than simply documenting it.
Using a scanner
If your work is small enough to fit into art scanners (usually A4 or A3), then your process is fairly straight-forward. Scanning work allows any external factors like shadows or lighting to affect the quality of the image. All the elements are controlled for you, resulting in a high quality, detailed photo of your art. You may want to crop around the edges and use an editing program afterwards to make sure everything looks good for print production.
Using a camera
Using a camera to take art print photos requires a bit more attention to detail. The idea is to capture a flat, accurate image of the artwork surface without the use of a scanner.
With a camera, it’s significantly harder to control external elements. You’ll need to make sure your lighting is set up appropriately, blocking off any windows if you’re opting for an artificial light method. You can situate your camera quite close to the work, as a print doesn’t require any background to be showing. In fact, this is something you’ll need to edit once that image is taken.
Using a professional photo studio can really help with digitising your larger artwork for prints, as they’re equipped with the ability to control lighting, colours and more. This isn’t to say it’s not possible at home – it will just require a bit more care and planning.
Common art photographing mistakes
We all have to start somewhere, but avoiding these common mistakes could help you develop better and faster.
Using a phone camera
If you have access to a digital camera, it’s highly recommended that you use it when photographing artwork. Although using your phone is arguably easier and quicker – the difference in quality is definitely telling. This isn’t so much of a problem if you’re only posting art online, as phone camera’s are a lot more advanced than they used to be. However, a camera grants you more control and options that will make the editing process easier for professional bodies of work.
For those who don’t have their own camera, you may be able to rent one for a day. To make the most out of your money, take photos of all your work whilst you have the camera at hand.
Glare
Glare isn’t just an issue exclusive to framed work – it also affects any surface that is glossy or even semi-glossy. This means that acrylic and oil paintings can suffer from glare issues when being photographed. To prevent this, ensure your flash is turned off and manoeuvre/diffuse your lights where necessary. Instead of directing a light source straight at the work, try bouncing the light off white foam core boards to soften the intensity.
Distorted perspectives and angles
Angles and perspectives that are slightly off can throw the whole image into chaos, and this happens more often than you’d think. To eliminate these issues, try using a tripod to keep the camera steady. Your camera may also have a ‘grid’ guide setting that can help align the edges of your work and form an equal composition.
Standing too close or cropping right to the edge
When documenting your work for a website, application or portfolio – it’s helpful to see the art in context. When you stand too close to the work or crop right to the painting’s edge, we aren’t able to see its true form. Seeing the wall behind the work provides a reference to how large the work is, what it’s made of, how it’s mounted and its material. It’s good to let the artwork have space around it to breathe.
An exception to this would be in the making of art prints. When the image is becoming the piece of work in itself, we ideally want to eliminate excess space around the edge of the work.
Colour cast
Photos suffer from colour cast a lot when using natural light. As the time of day changes, so does the colour temperature, which can produce either a cool or warm filter over all the colours in an image. A way to work around this could be switching to artificial light, paying special attention to the temperature of the bulbs.
Artists can also include a grey card as a reference in their photos, to adjust the white balance in editing. Most cameras will have a built in white balance tool, so use that to guide you. Once completed, simply crop the grey card out.
Summary
What initially appears as a straightforward task, can actually be more confusing than you originally thought. The last thing you want to do after spending so much time on a piece of art, is do it a disservice by photographing it badly. Even by using just some of these tips, your art photos should improve drastically. Play around with different techniques, and find out what methods suit you and your practice specifically.
HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHING ARTWORK? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.
Don’t forget you can always share your art with us! Submit to one of our open calls or tag us on Instagram @darkyellowdot.
Thank you for reading and if you found this article useful, share it around, that makes us happy. To receive more posts like this and updates, join our mailing list, everyone is welcome.
NEED MORE ADVICE?
SITES TO HELP:
ARTICLES TO HELP:
10 Common Photo Editing Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
7 Patreon Ideas For Artists Looking To Earn Extra Money In 2023
How To Make An Outstanding Portfolio
COURSES TO HELP:
iPhone Photography: Create Better Photos Of Your Art To Share With Natural Light & Creative Styling
Product Photography: How To Shoot And Retouch Photos Like A Pro
Featured Image Source: Pexels.com
