More Tips for Taking Pictures of Art from the Experts Read these advanced tips for taking pictures of art as told by professional artists to help you get the best photo possible for your artwork.
Karen Kesteloot
Last week, we published an article filled with great tips and advice for students about how to take pictures of artwork for their art portfolio. This time, we’re featuring advanced tips for taking pictures of art from several artists with tons of experience in photography from the Art Marketing group at LinkedIn. This post should further help art students refine the photos to be included in their portfolio. More importantly, the tips for taking pictures featured here will teach people the best practices in photography that could open the door for them to take up this discipline more seriously, if not turn it into a professional career. Dave Rheaume Toronto-based Dave Rheaume has been working as a television director and editor for the past 28 years. However, his passion for the arts allowed him to create paintings, some of which have been sold to private collectors and included in exhibits such as the Juried Ottawa Art Expo and the Autumn Art Sale at the McMichael Gallery. I take my paintings outside and set them up on an easel or against a wall. The best days are slightly overcast ones because it puts pretty even light on the canvas. It’s important not to be right up close to the piece because the wider the camera lens the more ‘keystoning’ or bending you get at the corners. So I step back a few feet and then zoom in a bit until I more or less have the image square in the viewfinder. I brace against a solid object (a tripod would be best) while I take the picture to avoid camera shake. The strong light means the iris of the camera will clamp down and there’ll be less noise. Then I take the picture into Photoshop, add a warming filter (because daylight is somewhat blue compared to incandescent light), and adjust the constrast/brightness/saturation ratios until I’ve got it where I want it.
Photoshop also has a ‘sharpen’ filter so I do that once too. I’m leery of doing it too many times because it starts to ‘invent’ information after a while, but one round of sharpening seems to clean up all the lines nicely. I’m pretty happy with the results. I’ve made some pretty large prints from them. To view the complete article, visit http://bit.ly/takingpicturesofart.