A Guide to Documenting Artwork The Do’s and Don’t’s when photographing your work
As an artist in this day and age, it’s essential to have your work photographed especially if you’re in a situation unable to show the physical piece. Whether you want to propose your pieces for an upcoming exhibition, put it up on your website, or sell your work on Artsy, it’s important to have the most accurate and best representation of your artwork. For the best results possible, we suggest hiring a photographer. It’s important to have the best representation of your artwork because the apperance of these images are everything. Poor representation can really misguide a viewer and it’s not fair to you to have your work misjudged just because of a bad photograph. This is a list of photographers to contact. Paul Takeuchi Photography 925 Bergen St., Suite 406 Brooklyn, NY 11238 917-674-7542 Adam Reich Photography areich2@nyc.rr.com (917) 859-0709 Jean Vong Photography, Inc. 32 Union Square East, #814 New York, New York 10003 (212) 260–3232 jean@jeanvong.com Mary Heintjes (CBG artist) mary.heintjes16@gmail.com *for smaller work, in a 13” square. We understand that hiring a photographer for each one of your projects can turn rather expensive after a while. We suggest using that resource when you feel it is most necessary. However, the following pages in this guide should act as another resource that will help you understand the Do’s and Don’t’s when it comes to photographing your own work. This will explain what qualifies as a “good” image and a “bad” image, and list out some suggestions to help you achieve the best representation of your artwork on your own.
When Photographing...
Here are a couple things to keep in mind.
USE A TRIPOD
It’s important to use a tripod because this will help you photograph the image at the correct level. The camera must be directly in the center, horizontally and vertically, of your art piece.
If the tripod and the camera are not at the correct level, it will result in the following distortions...
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When Photographing...
Here are a couple things to keep in mind.
FIX THE LIGHTING
One of the best source of lighting is ‘indirect natural sunlight.’ However, if natural lighting isn’t available or isn’t suffice, artifical lighting works just as well. These images are bird’s eye view of light sources set up in relation to the camera and the artwork on the wall (top). Avoid setting the light sources too close to the camera because it can cause too much light to reflect off the piece and create a glare.
X Set light source farther away from the camera, ideally at a 45 degree angle from the artwork. The light will be reflected outward, avoiding glares or hot spots.
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When Photographing...
Here are a couple things to keep in mind.
FINAL TIPS - A quality camera Older cameras may not provide the quality needed when it comes to photographing your work, and iPhone photos look good on your phone but don’t register enough information once it gets uploaded. Here are some camera suggestions that range in cost. - Canon Powershot SX400 IS - Sony DSC WX350 - Canon EOS Rebel SL1 - Nikon D3300 DSLR - Nikon D5300 DSLR - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 IV - Make sure your memory card has enough space
Nikon D3200 Digital SLR Camer
- Set the ISO to a medium setting of around 200. ISO determines how graining your image ends up looking. The higher the ISO, the grainier it looks. This doesn’t end up looking like the best image, but if the ISO is too low, the image may not have sharp edges. - Set your camera to save as RAW or JPG. If your camera allows a RAW setting, this is the best option because it processes a lot of information when taking a picture, therefore producing a high quality image. However, most cameras just allow JPG, which is also a strong and preferred choice. - Take multiple images of your pieces It’s best to take a lot of pictures and eventually pick the best one out of the bunch, than having to settle for the only picture you ended up taking. When taking a lot of pictures, feel free to play around with the lighting, ISO, zoom, etc., to see what looks best. - Always clean your lens - Make sure your image is in focus
When Uploading...
Here are a couple things to look out for.
Generally... A “good” quality image is AT LEAST - 2MB (2,000 KB) - 1700 x 1300 pixels - 300 dpi ‘Bigger is always better’ in this case. Depending on the type of camera, you may or may not see these details easily on the camera screen. However, the following images are screenshots of what your computer screen may look like once you have downloaded the images from your camera to your computer. *If you have a PC skip to page 9.
Mac
Open up Finder on your Mac and go to whatever folder your images may be in. Depending o what view setting you have your finder on, it may look like one of the following options.
When Uploading...
Here are a couple things to look out for.
No matter what view setting your Finder may be in, Right-Click the image you’re working on. A drop down menu should appear (Above), select the option Get Info. When you press Get Info, a pop up screen will appear (Right). The image size is circled in red and the pixel dimensions is in green. If you click and open up your image it will open up on the application Preview. The top navigation bar will look like this
This navigation bar will be on the top of your screen. Click Tools to open up a menu bar like the one shown on the left. From here select “Adjust Size...”
When Uploading...
Here are a couple things to look out for. When you click “Adjust Size...” this screen will appear. The resolution is circled in blue.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Just because this gives you the option to “Adjust” the size of your image, doesn’t mean you should. DO NOT change the numbers. While changing the number may may technically satisfy the requirements. The actually quality of the image will not improve. In fact it may even look worse. Making the image bigger through your computer is forcing your computer to make up information about the image that isn’t actually there. This can result in images from looking like... This to This
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When Uploading...
Here are a couple things to look out for.
PC
Open up Windows on your PC and go to where you have your images. The screen should look something like the picture below.
Once you find your image, Right-Click on it and a menu (left) will appear Select the option “Properties� at the bottom of the menu This will open a new window.
When Uploading...
Here are a couple things to look out for. A window like the one shown on the left should pop up when you click “Properties” It will first appear in “General” In this first page you will find the size of the image, circled in red.
Next, click on the Details tab at the top. The dimensions and the resolution of the image are squared in blue.
From these technical numbers you will be able to determine whether your images are of high enough quality.
Identifying Quality...
What is a good image supposed to look like This is an example of a piece of work. By just looking at it, it seems very clear and crisp and overall very good quality. However, it’s not good enough to just look at an image at normal size to see if it’s of good quality. The real test comes when you ZOOM in and see if your camera registered enough detail to look clear and crisp close up. Below is what the image should look like if you were to zoom in a significant amount.
This image is clear even when zoomed in. Obviously at some point clarity of an image will become poor, but it’s important to make sure you’re able to zoom in a fair amount because viewers will want to see details like texture. The following are examples of what your images shouldn’t look like and possible solutions on how to fix these certain scenarios... too pixelated need a better camera or more light
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too grainy ISO may be too high
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too blurry camera may have not been in focus.
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Final Notes... Documenting your work can be tricky. You may spend hours, maybe even days on an art piece to get it just right. For this reason, it’s a real shame when it’s not represented accurately and to the best quality it can be in an image for a website, Artsy or other forms of representation. Just like your artwork took time, photographing your images can take some time as well. As mentioned before, hiring a photographer is the easiest way to get the best images of your pieces. But, if you wish to photograph your own pieces you’re more than welcome to do so, as long as it’s done right. It’s crucial to have quality images because it may be viewer’s first impression of your artwork, and if it’s not of acceptable quality, it may be their only impression of it. Photographing your own work may not be completely inexpensive because it can require some investments, such as a tripod and a good camera. Average camera’s from 4+ years ago may not be good enough anymore. Technology has advanced so quickly throughout the last couple of years, while your camera may feel relatively new, it may not be producing high enough quality images. Yet, an average (costing) camera nowadays is a lot more capable of producing high quality images than an average camera a couple years ago.This is not to say that all cameras over 4 years old don’t produce good enough images, it may take a couple of trials to figure out whether your old camera is still good. Frankly, while iPhone images may look great on your phone screen, the quality can be quite poor once it’s uploaded to your computer. A tripod and a new camera are definitely a worthy investment when it comes to photographing your work. Overall, being able to take quality photographs of your work may take some practice, but it’s worth the time to get the best images of your artwork!