Photographing Your Art
© by Carl (CAKUart); all rights reserved 

Photographing your art successfully is important to ensure that your work is presented well and appears visually exciting online as it does offline.

However, regardless of your skills in photography, nothing can replicate the effect a piece of art has on us when we are physically standing in front of it. But you can successfully provide great pictures to ensure it is interpreted well digitally online.  

For best results, use a tripod if you have access to one. If not, then rest the camera on something that is going to keep it stable.

Tilt your artwork towards the sun and ensure the camera is on the same corresponding angle to the artwork so your photographs end up straight.

The Best Light For Photographing Artwork

Mother nature provides the best light source for you when it comes to photographing your art – the sun

You will capture great shots if you use direct sunlight. If your art has a lot of texture, I have a little tip that I use quite well to bring out the 3D effect in my work, by giving the texture a tinge of shadow.

Place your artwork so the suns light in entering from the side and slightly above your art to ensure you get a little shadow on your texture - see diagram below.

Take your photos at either; dawn or at dusk. You can make better use of the direction of the light at these times of the day because the sun is lower, as apposed to it being directly above around midday. Also, the light is redder in the early morning and late afternoon/early evening so you'll get better contrast and true colour.

One problem you may encounter with photographing your art in direct sunlight, is lens flare and high contrast in your pictures. 

So to fix this problem, simply move your art to a more shaded area. Or better still; create your own shade like say an umbrella or a big canvas.

Photographing Your Art Without The Bowed Sides

No artist likes to see their artwork looking stretched. The "bowed sides" appearance in a photograph usually happens because the shot has been taken on a bad angle and is not in focus. 

So what I suggest you try is to extend your camera lens all the way out to focus as best as you can. Then provide a bit more distance between the camera and the artwork. This will ultimately help to fix the bowed sides look and make it easier for editing in Photoshop. 

If you are not too cluey when it comes to using Photoshop, you can learn to master the basics with online tutorials.

Photographing Your Art Indoors

If you don’t have the benefit of using the sun and have to photograph your art indoors, here are few tips.

• Block out any excess "daylight" that may be coming through a window. This "loose" light can reflect on your art.
  
  
• Try to make sure that you photograph your art in a predominantly white environment as coloured walls and ceilings can create colour imbalances in your artwork on a photograph. You can use black as a backdrop behind your artwork.
  
  
• If you have the functionality to use your white balance setting on your camera, set it to accommodate your light indoors.

Its a good idea to take numerous shots of one piece. I quite often take up to ten shots of one piece to ensure that I get the right one.

Try a few shots overexposed and underexposed. Try some close-up and then some standing further back. Also try very minor angle differences as this can often enhance the light coming in on the painting. 

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Now that you have great shots of your art, you may want to do some reading in regards to how to go about hosting your images on the internet for everyone to see.

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