Art Link Swap
Photographing your art
A short photo tutorial

Whether the work you perform when taking pictures of your art is amateurish or not means nothing if the result is sufficient.

What is "sufficient" differs depending on what you should use your photos for. When photographing art it is always important that the colours are as similar to the original as possible and that the images are sharp.
When publishing pictures on the net it is very hard to make the images look good on all monitors which will be used to view them. Not all use millions of colours - true colour - and people turn the brightness of their screens up and down to suit their eyes. To solve this in a simple way there is one thing you can check to be sure that your images will look OK on most screens: Check that the darkest details of the painting are visible and check that the brightest parts are not faded out into whiteness.

When publishing your art on the Internet you should not give away pictures with too high resolution. Never publish a picture of your painting which is larger than 600 X 600 pixels - you do not want to give away printable copyrighted material for free do you?
What happened to me a few years ago was that I discovered postcards of one of my paintings, printed from my homepage.
One other common copyright infringement is that if you create art which becomes popular some people will not hesitate to take images from your site and order prints or painted copies from some not so caring oil painting reproduction-site.

Java Scripts and programs designed to prevent visitors from using the right-click menu stop only those with limited knowledge of computers and is usually just a nuisance for people right-clicking with legitimate reasons on your pages.
It's better to make small copyright-marked images which will act as advertisements for you if they are taken from your site.

A 400 X 400 pixels image of a painting gives in most cases the viewers of your art a fair enough understanding of the piece in question. If the artwork is very detailed you should make close-ups of important details available. You should mark your Internet-images with discreet but easily spotted copyright information - not all over your picture though, that will create the same atmosphere as if you would put iron bars over the painting in a gallery.

This will make most people reach for their browser's "Back"-button.

This is OK. If someone hotlinks your image for use in a forum or something similar, this "theft" is actually good for you if you mark your pictures this way - you get a free ad.

When using a digital camera for taking pictures for the Internet and small prints you do actually not need a camera with a capacity over 2 megapixels. The images you publish on the net seldom takes up more than 1/4 of a megapixel: 400 X 400 = 160 000 pixels, which is equal to only 0.16 megapixel. One single megapixel is in printing terms very close to the same as a 10 x 10 cm large picture in 300 dpi (Dots Per Inch, one inch is equal to 2.54 cm), usually 150 dpi is enough for most prints. But forget all about dpi when makng images for the net - pixels are all that counts there.
The only occasions when you need more megapixels are when you are about to make giclée prints, large reproductions and posters.
More megapixels are of course very useful when cutting and editing an image, so it is still a good idea to get a camera with as many megapixels as possible - it gives you more creative options.

More important than the number of megapixels is the camera's ability to make the colours of your art justice. If you want an easy to use "tourist camera" I would recommend a camera fitted with Zeiss or Nikon optics. When it comes to more advanced cameras such as ESR cameras on which you can change optics and such, almost any will do, it is more a matter of taste, what feels right for you and your wallet, since it's hard to find a bad camera these days.

Do not digitally manipulate your picture too much, if the picture is a lost case then do not try to save it with Photoshop, take a new photo instead.
A touch of sharpness is often a necessity, but do not sharpen the image too much:

Correctly sharpened.

Too much sharpness. This image was rather soft in the edges from the beginning, so it's best to keep some of that softness instead of distorting it into something quite different from the original.

JPEG compression is the most common way to make image-files small enough to fit on the net. JPEG compression does destroy the images every time you save them though, since JPEG compression works by removing colours from the image data. Therefore it's a good idea to keep a TIF-file as a master copy of your image, which you then save JPEG-images from. Only save a JPEG-file once.
That is one reason why it is a good idea to use JPEG-images on the net - if someone steals it and starts to work on the picture then it is bound to end up with lower quality than the original.
When saving a JPEG/JPG-file you are sometimes asked what degree of compression you want. JPEG-compression is measured on a scale from 0 - 100. The lower the number the smaller the file, but the image will also be more damaged. Select a value between 70-80 for your art pictures, closer to 80 if you have large faded surfaces in your work and closer to 70 if it's a very detailed piece of art.

This image is saved in JPEG compression 80. As a TIF-file it takes up 104 KB, now the file size is just 16 kb. No problem to use this one, JPEG compressed images are also often used when printing stuff, even when making high quality giclée prints.

This image is saved with JPEG compression 5, the file size is now down to almost only 2 KB. Notice the square shaped patterns which is a telltale mark of excessive JPEG-compression

You could also save your images as PNG files, PNG compression does not damage the image but the files become larger than JPG files and are not compatible with all browsers. Using PNG compression also makes it easier for people who want to steal your work to obtain better images of it.

GIF images are limited to 256 colours per image and should only be used for monochrome art or works with few and clean colours.

Normally you should cut out the frame when you publish pictures of your paintings.

If you think that it is necessary to keep the frame in the image then you should see to that the frame does not look skew. Some deliberate shade adds depth to the frame.

Having trouble getting the edges of your paintings straight? You might stand too close, try to back away a few steps from the painting and zoom in on it instead. You might have a wide-angle (fisheye) lens mounted on your camera, if you are able to change objectives then swap to a whatever-200 mm objective or similar instead.

If possible, always remove eventual protective glass from the painting before taking pictures of it. If you have to use a flash, use a indirect flash, which means, do not point the flashlight straight at the painting but reflect it into a reflector umbrella or some other white surface.

Throw away, throw away!

A direct flash is useless in most cases, but if you have no choice but to use the camera's built in flash then put your finger over its centre to minimize reflections such as those in the photo on the left.

If you have no access to proper flashes you will actually get the best result by photographing your work out in the sun. Wait for a cloud free day, when the sun shines bright, and if you are using a classic camera use daylight film ISO/ASA 100. Watch out for shadows from trees, clouds and such. If you use a one-coloured background you will easily spot diffuse shadows disturbing your motif.

When photographing small paintings you get pretty good results if you take your pictures leaning over the painting. Free-hand techniques like this one is best suited for digital cameras with which you can see the results and correct mistakes instantly.

If you are taking pictures of sculptures in the sunlight you might need a reflector, basically a white surface with which you can reflect the sunlight onto the shaded side of the sculpture in order to soften up sharp shadows. It is a good idea to have an assistant helping you to hold the reflector, otherwise you might risk spending too much energy swearing at the wind.

It is recommended that you use a stand for your camera. If you prefer sunlight instead of flashes then make sure that the sun hits the painting from an angle close to the angle you see it from, but a little higher, and that the frame does not cast shadows into the painting.

Place rectangular paintings horizontally instead of tilting the camera, that will make things a lot easier for you, especially if you are about to photograph several paintings with different shapes.

Make sure that the painting and the camera are on the exact same parallel planes.

The camera should usually be placed at the same height as, and aimed exactly at the centre of the painting.

When taking pictures for more demanding tasks such as giclée prints, books and posters it is not always sufficient with 135-film 35 mm cameras or common digital ones, it is advisable that you step up to middle or large format cameras.

This is a 6 X 6 (56 X 56 mm) 120-film (you use the same 120-film for most middle size formats such as 6 X 6, 6 X 4.5 [645 format] etc.) compared to an ordinary 24 X 36 mm 135-film, both are dia-positive, which means that the colours on them are the same as on the motif from the beginning - much appreciated in most print shops.

With a middle format film such as the 120-film you will be able to preserve much more details of your motif on the film. The 135-film and the 120-film above are the same kind of film, the only thing differing them is the size.

Compared to a digital camera, a perfect shot taken with a 120-film, 50 ISO/ASA, can be seen as equal to an 100 megapixel (!) digital image. You can easily make a 150 X 150 cm large giclée print in 200 dpi from such a photo.

The example above also shows how NOT to use a 120-film, you should try to fill up the whole area of the film, all the way to the edge, in order to take full advantage of it - as is done with the painting visible at the smaller 135-film. The way too out-zoomed painting on the 120-film is not much bigger than what would have stuck on an 135-film.

Film grain and light sensitivity are measured with the ISO/ASA number, the lower the number the less sensitive to light the film is and usually the finer its grain. The finer the grain the better the film is fitted to capture fine details. For art, a dia positive film with an ISO/ASA value of 50-100 is sufficient.

There are many different middle format cameras, some you are likely to come across are cameras from the Hasselblad 500 series. The Hasselblad is the Rolls Royce of cameras (and costs thereafter). Since digital cameras have made many studio cameras obsolete there are probably no trouble for you to find used ones that even you, the poor artist, can afford.
Cameras from the Hasselblad 500 series were the official cameras used during the lunar landings, and three cameras were actually left on the Moon, and if you want one for free all you have to do is go and get it.

You need at least two flashes with reflector umbrellas in order to take good studio shots of a painting. When placed as seen in these examples you will get an even spread of light which will not create reflexes or shadows in the picture, adjust such matters using the flashes's lead lights. Measure the light so that you get the same value (8/250 or 8/125 is sufficient) at least at the three red spots indicated in the photo above.

The flashes, the camera and the painting are all placed on the same horizontal line. The painting is placed horizontally in order to make the best use of the spreading of the light.

If you are taking pictures of sculptures you can use basically the same setting, but since you probably do want some shadows in order to bring forth the forms and shapes of the sculpture, then you can experiment more with the placement of the flashes. You can also either turn down one of the flashes or replace it with a reflector in order to create smooth and not too sharp shadows.

© Max Magnus Norman 2005