Getting a good digital image of your artwork is very important if you want people to get maximum impact from your artwork. You should have good quality digital images of your artwork for online galleries, public relations materials, exhibitions, and galleries. Your digital images are your online artwork, so they should resemble the original artwork as closely as possible. You want to make a good first impression, right? If you have a great piece of art and it looks dull, dark and gray on the computer screen, it will automatically turn the viewer off and viewers won’t want to look at it, they won’t be interested.
Equipment –
1. Camera: I use an Olympus 4.0 megapixel digital camera, which is a decent camera, but any good quality digital camera will do. Read your camera’s instruction guide to find all the options for taking good quality pictures. Always take high-resolution .tiff photos because you can always decrease the image quality and file size of a digital photo, but you can’t start with a low-resolution image and make it a high-resolution one.
2. Lighting – You don’t need to have an expensive photo lighting system or a really expensive camera, what I use are those clamp-on metal reflectors you can buy at the hardware store and I use 500 watt photo light bulbs from the grocery store. cameras. in the clamp of the metal reflectors. I use four of these at a time.
3. Tripod – A tripod is also very useful, but you can do without it if you have to. Use a sturdy tripod with tilt and swivel. If you don’t have a tripod, make sure your shutter speed is at least 1/60 and hold the camera steady and pull the trigger lightly.
4. Photo Editing Software – The final component is computer software to adjust the images on the computer, I use Adobe Photoshop software which is amazing. There are many other photo editing programs available and basically you just need to be able to crop the image and adjust the colors and lightness and darkness of your digital images.
Procedures –
1. Shoot indoors with at least two 500-watt (3200K) photographic flood lamps mounted on reflectors. If your artwork is 22″ x 30″ or larger, you should probably use four lights.
2. Place the artwork on a matte black board as the background. Attach the art to the black board with double-stick tape, thumbtacks, or use a black mat. Place on the wall or on an easel or on the floor. The art should be parallel to the camera lens, the center of the lens pointing to the center of the art. Use a spirit level to make sure the camera and art are level. Paste a color/gray scale next to the art so you have a reference for adjusting the color of your digital image.
3. The lamps should be 4-5 feet from the artwork, place the lights at a 30 degree angle to the surface of the artwork and aim each of the four lights at a corner separated from the artwork so that the light evenly illuminates the entire surface of the artwork. Check for any hot spots, shadows, or highlights reflecting off the art. The room should be completely dark when you shoot. Cover the windows and turn off the lights. For textured work like collage, try to concentrate the light, using only a side light and adjusting the exposure accordingly.
4. Fill the viewfinder or LCD (digital) with the IMAGE ONLY, centered and absolutely square on the sides, top and bottom. Move the camera or zoom, not the art. Focus carefully on the center of the art.
5. The best combination is a slow speed setting (1/8, 1/15, 1/30 sec.) with a high f/stop (f11 or f16) for color saturation and sharp image. If you don’t have a tripod, you’ll need to use at least a 1/60th shutter speed. The best setting to balance the light is “tungsten” (which is the type of bulb you will use). Tungsten is under “white balance” in the camera settings. Change your white balance setting to tungsten, if your camera has that option.
6. Always take the highest resolution .tiff image possible (for print applications), you can always save it as a .jpg or .gif or .png for use on the web. For the web, a .gif file with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch is good for most web applications because it has a small file size and loads quickly.
7. Edit your digital image, in your photo editing software, to match the appearance of your artwork.
8. Organize your digital artwork files on your computer into folders so you can easily search and upload them to online galleries.
Miscellaneous-
Group your artwork by size and shoot the same sizes in sequence, so you don’t have to adjust your camera or easel as much. If your pieces are a standard size, tape the floor to mark the position of the camera, lights, and easel or art stand and also the location of the art. It will save you time when you reshoot.