Photographing artwork, equipment?

[RLCarpe1]

I need to start photorgraphing oil, acrylic, charcoal, ink, and pastel works. Does anyone have any suggestions about what affordable equipment I can purchase?

[brush49]

The first question is why? If just for your own pleasure, many cell phones can do a great job. For publication you will need much better equipment. For insurance purposes a fairly basic digital with macro focus (close up) would work. The size of your originals also makes a difference.

Your familiarity with and use of lighting is far more important than which camera you decide to use.

[Freesail]

No idea why you would need a macro setting to photograph art work unless it is really, really small. Adjustable white balance in your camera and a strong and steady tripod would be the two must important things you need. I also use a timer when taking pictures so the camera doesn't shake.

As far as lighting, photograph your art outside in the shade on a sunny day. I use the side of a shed that is mostly in the shade. Once again make sure you adjust the white balance on your camera.

[manfrommerriam]

This is a complex issue as the differing media require different solutions. Oils are glossy and will have high lights on the texture peaks. Watercolors are transparent and the reflected light passes through layers of pigment which may be in spots more translucent or even opaque resulting in dark areas.
For quick, good weather results that are generally usable try the suggestion of Freesail above and place the art next to something like a white garage door in shade. This will give you lots of diffuse light to start with. For better results and shooting indoors consult one of the several books out on photographing art.
Have fun, Dave

[frodron]

This question has been asked on several occasions on this site in one way or another & there have been various answers.
My suggestion is to Google "How to photograph Artwork".
I have already done this & found several interesting answers.

[knottbill]

I googled how to photograph artwork and got nothing but confused . . . I have an online art site from which I sell (have sold already about 20 or so) paintings . . . up to now I've done only smaller-size things (9x12 inches at most) and have used a scanner to make jpegs to upload to show potential buyers . . . but now I want to work larger, and the scanner won't do anymore! I hate cameras and have never owned one. Please please is there someone here who does use a digital camera to photograph their art, who could please give me a suggestion as to which hopefully not too expensive camera would best work. Please. And please don't use photographic technical terms, just please give me practical suggestions for brands and model makes of cameras. I know you're experts and I'm not, so sneer at me if you must but please give me some help.

[knottbill]

can I please add this to my above note:

—Help please! I have a blog site from which I sell original artworks (http://billknottartforsale.blogspot.com/ ) . . . I don't do prints, only original mixed media paintings which until now have been limited in size (9x12 inches mostly) but I want to do larger works on canvas and post them for sale also— I've used a scanner to make jpegs of my small pieces, but the scanner won't work for larger, so I need to buy a digital camera to get jpegs of these larger paintings onto the site to sell. But I hate cameras and have never owned one. Please please could someone recommend specific name model make digital cameras that would work for what I want to do. I think I can figure out through blunder trial and error how to do it, but I have no idea where to start and what to start with, and the "how-tos" I've googled have been general in nature. If you were me and needed to photograph your paintings to get jpegs of them online in order to sell them, which camera would you buy, specifically? Needless to say, the less expensive the better, but if I have to I will shell out for one that will work in spite of my not knowing what the heck I'm doing— I would appreciate any suggestions your expertise could offer——

[frodron]

Any good quality point & shoot camera should do you (Canon,Nikon,Olympus, etc.) Probably go for one showing that it has a 10 megapixel or greater sensor
The only other thing I can suggest is that you find your nearest camera club or photographic society and ask them for their help.
Alternatively,it is possible that someone in your local art society has the answer.

[Freesail]

Originally Posted by frodron

Any good quality point & shoot camera should do you (Canon,Nikon,Olympus, etc.) Probably go for one showing that it has a 10 megapixel or greater sensor
The only other thing I can suggest is that you find your nearest camera club or photographic society and ask them for their help.
Alternatively,it is possible that someone in your local art society has the answer.

I don't fully agree with this, unless that camera has some way to adjust the white balance. The color of the paintings will be off. I know ...

[frodron]

you can reduce the White Balance on most good quality point & shoot cameras.
Although most people tend to leave the setting on Auto.

[pa-paw]

Getting an accurate digital reproduction of your paintings might require you to invest in more equipment than you are comfortable with. I'm going to assume that you are talking about paintings that are larger than 17” x 11”, as there is a good consumer scanner that scans that size. You may get away with using one of the P&S digital cameras, but a DSLR witha good lens would be preferable because of the pixel count. Your color accuracy would be really important, so a good imaging software is necessary. I'm speaking from past experience, as I do these things, myself. I limit my watercolor paintings to that 17” x 11”size and scan them on a Mustek 2400 flatbed scanner. After editing them in Gimp (free software) I just take them on a flash card to a photo place. Good luck...J

[Sonoran]

Photographing Artwork

I also am in the middle of photographing my artwork. I have digitized many of the smaller works. The smallest of my pieces are 4” x 5” colored pencil, and ink drawings, 8" x 10" - largely graphite finished drawings. I used an Epson 4490 Photo scanner, 9" x 12" bed. And, edited with Adobe CS4 - Photoshop. Photoshop Elements came with the new scanner. The Espon Scanner is also designed to scan film, (positive & negative) all sizes.

Although, the largest paintings I have are 48" x 36" - oils & acrylics. Most of the oils are 16" x 22" & 18" x 24", watercolors 18" x 24" and 12" x 18". These won't fit on the scanner. So, I have tried an auto digital camera, e.g. Samsung SL605 12.2-megapixels. I experienced serious problems with parallax, focus and lighting. I was using a tripod to eliminate vibration, which is also an issue. But, the camera lens must be perfectly parallel to the painting. Otherwise there is serious distortion from parallax. Also, the auto focus function of the Samsung camera did not give clear images. And there were many areas of reflected light and some shadows. The digital results were trash.

I am planning next to purchase an inexpensive diffused lighting system from B & H Photo for a couple of hundred dollars. This will cure glare, reflections, shadows and color issues. I happen to own a 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 Optica SLR view camera. Used on a tripod, in theory this will help to cure parallax and focus issues. I work in the realistic genre so focus on detail is important. I will use a slow, color 120 ‘positive’ film which I will be able to scan with my Epson scanner to create quality digital images.

The current artwork I have to be digitized in the above fashion are (26) oils as large as 48” x 36”, (12) watercolors, (2) acrylics, (2) Prismacolors, and (4) large graphite drawings. That’s 46 artworks to be digitized.

I would appreciate any and all criticisms, suggestions and comments.

Thanks
Sonoran Bob

[pa-paw]

Bob, photographing the oils can be a tough assignment, but it's doable. Like you mentioned, distortion because of camera angle can be a problem. The other problem, and it is a big one, is the reflected light off of the oil paint if you use a flash. I haven painted with oils in years, but I remember how difficult they were to photograph. You should be able to photograph the oils inside a building without a flash If you have a fast lens (2.8) for the SLR. Photographing the paintings using available light on the outside is another option.

[Sonoran]

Hi Pa-Paw;
Thanks. Right, reflections have been a killer. The solution, besides trying to use indirect daylight outside, and man it's hot right now in Arizona. Probably the same in Texas. The two solutions I came up with were buying a professional lighting setup with an umbrella reflector from B & H Photo for $200.00 and using a polarizing lens filter. I am just wondering if a polarizing filter will change the color of my artworks? I don't think they cost very much.

What do you think?

Sonoran Bob

[pa-paw]

For shooting indoors I personally would avoid a polarizing filter. I'm not sure what the results would be, but it would probably make the camera record the painting's colors differently. A photography light tent or any defused lighting setup should offer a better result. Why not try and shoot through an umbrella or even bounce a flash off a ceiling or wall.