Photograph your artwork at home
Even before Covid and the paradigm shift to digital, photographing artwork was an important element of professional practice for artists; for websites; for PR and advertising; for grants; for talks and presentations; for online submissions, opportunities, open calls and awards...among many other things.
Knowing how to properly photograph your artwork can make the difference between being accepted, selling or winning an award and not.
I frequently see artists with incredible artwork, but all too often I also receive images that are badly shot and do not give an accurate (or even something close to) impression of the original artwork!
After spending hours, days, weeks or even months in some cases creating beautiful and considered artwork, why do artists neglect this critical element of their professional practice?
In my experience, it is quite often due to lack of awareness, knowledge and/or understanding of the significance and possible impact.
This blog post highlights some of the key things artists need to be aware of when photographing their artwork at home, as described by Pure photographer of choice Caitlin Lock in a recent Pure Digital Clubhouse members event. It goes without saying - if you can afford it and have time - the best solution is always to employ a professional!
Video: Caitlin Lock, How to Photograph Your Artwork at Home
KEY POINTS
Location
Photograph 2D artwork hanging on a wall or laid flat on a surface. Hang your work on a wall at a height where the middle of the artwork is parallel to where your camera will be—with your camera either on a tripod or resting on a table or other stable surface. If the artwork is laid flat on a surface - photograph from above ideally using a tripod to minimise hand shake.
Consider all the colour accents in the space you are using, including the wall colour, surrounding items in the room and even your own clothing. All will have an impact on the image colour saturation and tone, as they will be creating their own colour cast. If possible, choose neutral for all elements (white, black, grey), and remove or cover bright coloured items.
To ensure the image you create can be managed post production for all third party specifications/requirements, ensure you photograph your artwork with a wide border or sufficient background, to accommodate any size/shape cropping required.
When photographing 3D artwork, remove all unneeded items from the shooting environment, including any distracting superfluous background clutter, unless context is relevant to your practice.
Angles and Reflections
DO NOT lean your 2D artwork against anything as this will create a distortion and facilitate reflection. Hang it on a wall or lay flat.
Be aware of the impact of angle of reflection when photographing any artwork that has a reflective surface or is behind glass: Useful article to read
Lighting
Artificial lighting has a colour, so you need to be aware of this when photographing indoors. Tungsten bulbs are the most prevalent type of incandescent bulb in home interiors and cast a yellow/orange glow for example.
If possible, photograph your artwork in a room with plenty of windows and natural light, and choose a spot with no direct light, in order to achieve an even spread of light across your artwork.
Be aware of shadows and use white of black foam board or card to manage and manipulate the light and shadows.
If necessary, when all else fails, use a basic studio light: Something like this
You could also create your own light box using foam and card. This is a good solution when photographing small 3D works.
Camera Settings & Lenses
Understanding and managing depth of field is an essential skill to master when photographing artwork. Read this article to learn more
When photographing 2D or 3D artwork in an open context - maybe within an exhibition setting - you want a large, wide open aperture size/smaller f-stop number (e.g. f/2.8), to achieve a shallow depth of field and blurred background, focusing in just on your artwork. You can also use this approach when focusing in on a small detail within your artwork.
When you want to achieve clarity across an entire 2D artwork you need to select a smaller aperture size/larger f-stop number (e.g. f/16), to produce images with large depth of field.
You can use the portrait setting within an iPhone camera to manage depth of field. Read this article to learn more
You can also use camera lenses such as macro, wide angle and fish eye, but be aware of image bend if you use very wide angle.
PNG v JPEG
JPEG relies on DCT compression where as PNG uses LZW compression— the same as used by GIF and TIFF formats. ... The biggest advantage therefore of PNG over JPEG is that the compression is lossless, meaning there is no loss in quality each time it is opened and saved again. PNG also handles detailed, high-contrast images well which is useful for artists.
Resolution
Print: For images to be used in print, for clarity of reproduction you will need to create the image at minimum 300dpi (dots per inch), which will be around 3-4 MB resolution.
If the JPEG is less than 250kb, it will only be suitable for use on screen.
250kb-500kb might be usable as a small thumbnail
500kb-1mb usable up to A7 – one eighth of an A4 sheet (74 x 105 mm or 2⅞” x 4⅛”)
1mb-1.5mb up to A6 – one quarter of A4 (105 x 148 mm or 4 ⅛” x 5⅞”)
1.5mb – 2mb up to A5 – half A4 (148 x 210 mm or 5⅞” x 8¼”)
3.5mb up to A4 (210 x 297 mm or 8¼” x 11¾”)
6mb+ A3 or over (297 x 420 mm or 11¾” x 16½” or more)
Digital: As highlighted above, images to be used in digital output can be lower resolution. Images formatted for screen use are normally 72 - 150 dpi and have an RGB colour setting. This is to ensure website load speeds are not affected and digital newsletters do not bounce due to mailbox file size limits being exceeded.
It is always safest to create at the highest resolution possible and manage output for each situation, as you cannot create a hi res image from a low res file!
