How to Photograph Your 3D Artwork An Introduction 1
Why do Artists Photograph Their Artwork? Artists generally want photograph their work for some or all of the following - Digital Submission, Presentations, Promotional Purposes. Record Keeping - of progress or process. Portfolio Development. 2
Getting Started 3
Tips for Success Try to avoid Confusing or busy backgrounds that create a distraction. Cutting off/cropping out significant parts of the artwork. Losing the artwork within a larger scene creating confusion. 4
The Light Photograph your art outside when it s overcast. Indirect light will show your art better and it s free. Avoid light that is being coloured by surrounding surfaces such as brightly coloured walls or light that is being transferred through tinted pergola sheeting as this can have an impact on the colour of the light and make the task more difficult. 5
The Setup Place a table up against a wall and attach a neutral gray paper or fabric to the wall above the table, allowing it to sweep down covering the table creating an arc between the wall and the table. See diagram on the next slide If the artwork is producing a lot of glare, the light may be diffused holding sheets of tracing paper or vellum in between the light and the subject. This will soften the light and prevent blown out highlights. Set your camera on its tripod and adjust the height so it s at a lowenough angle to permit a direct view to the front, sides, and back of the work. You may need to experiment with this during the photographic process or take a series of photographs from slightly different view points. 6
A Simple Tabletop Setup
The Setup Camera Position Your camera s distance to the artwork should be determined once you have placed your artwork into the set. Your aim should be to create a nicely balanced scene with some of background visible, not have excessive amounts of background and not be able to see beyond the background material that you have set up. Tip: Sometimes it s easier to explore the best camera position in terms of height and distance from the object to be photographed before putting the camera onto the tripod. Set your camera to its highest resolution setting and to its lowest ISO rating for the highest quality images possible.
Choosing Your Weapon There are plenty of camera choices that you can make and ultimately you need to use the one that is right for you. However in my opinion there are some devices that perhaps should not be your first choice. Phone Cameras and ipad type cameras will probably work but why would one of these be your first choice? A compact camera is a good place to start and most will take good photographs. A better choice is the DSLR. 9
The Background White, Black or Grey are the most desirable options here. My suggestion is to start with a mid grey as this will suit most artworks quite well and will not significantly have an impact on your camera should you be shooting in Auto mode Your chosen surface should have a matte finish to ensure that it does not create it s own set of problems for you. If you choose a fabric make sure that you do your best to smooth out wrinkles and fold lines. These can be rather distracting. Actually they just look really bad. 10
Composition Fill the frame with your art - get close enough so the art nearly fills the viewfinder. Having large amounts of anything unnecessary going on in the background is going to be a distraction, even if it s a plain colour. Remember it s the art that we want to see, not the studio, the garden or the furniture. 11
Tripod Use a tripod to hold the camera steady. People often underestimate the true value of a tripod. You cannot do this type of photography well without one. If you need to acquire one make sure that it is sturdy. It needs to support your camera and not move about in the breeze. Remember that cheap and cheerful is great until your tripod falls over and your camera smashes on the ground. 12
Turn the Camera Flash Off The aim is to use the diffused natural light If your work has any sort of gloss to it the flash is only going to show this up and spoil the result. 13
Camera Settings - Which one to use? Now it gets a bit technical. In addition to turning off the camera flash there are a few other basic functions that need to be considered. It can all become quite overwhelming if you re not a camera buff and/or familiar with your camera. So at some point you may have to refer back to the manual. Keeping it all fairly simple we are going to look at three main camera functions. 14
Camera Settings - continued White Balance ISO Camera Mode Each of the above settings needs to be given some consideration, so lets briefly look at each one. 15
White Balance Setting the White Balance correctly for the lighting environment that you re working in, is important and will ensure that the colours in your artwork are recorded accurately.
White Balance This image helps to illustrate the impact that white balance settings can have upon the final photograph. The AWB, Sunlight and Overcast settings all produced acceptable and quite pleasing results. Using the Sunlight setting seemed to be the most accurate for me on this occasion.
White Balance Luckily the camera has some options that you can use/experiment with. AWB (auto white balance) is a good place to start but be prepared to try other settings until you achieve an acceptable outcome. It s also possible to create a custom white balance. This is a more advanced option.
Camera ISO This setting changes the sensitivity of the image sensor. Sometimes the camera is setup to do this automatically and the setting changes depending on how bright the lighting is. You can change it for yourself however. Generally you will want to use an ISO in the 100 to 400 range for the this type of work. 19
Camera Mode The camera mode dial controls the camera s shutter speed and camera settings. The very best option is to use M - Manual mode but this will then require you to set shutter speed and aperture manually. It s more complicated. If you wish to keep it simple, I would suggest that you use A - Aperture Priority or P - Program Mode. If you use Aperture Priority set the aperture to about f8.
Wow!! That seems complicated OK!! So that all sounded very confusing and complicated. Don t panic!! You now have a few terms and a bit of knowledge, so you re equipped to do more research. The internet and youtube have plenty of sources for information should you get stuck.
What The!!! So if you re not technically minded but want to take photographs of your artwork. To get started follow the steps on the next page. It s not going to be a perfect solution but it will help you to get started. 22
A Simple Place to Start 1. Setup your artwork as explained. (even lighting) 2. Make sure that you re using a plain background. 3. Use a tripod. 4. Arrange the camera so that it presents to the artwork squarely. 5. Turn off the Camera Flash. This is important 6. Set the camera up in auto everything. 7. Remember to fill the frame. 8. Take your photographs. 9. Cross your fingers.
Additional References Below are a couple of YouTube references that you may find useful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jnbvdnkabo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siyb1tmtoc8
How to Photograph Your 3D Artwork in a Studio When photographing in a studio you are likely to use artificial lighting or studio flashes. The initial setup is exactly the same as for taking photographs outdoors but the variation comes when setting up the lighting. Almost any light type can be used such as tungsten, fluro, LED etc. However it will be necessary to create and/or experiment with white balance. (see slide 17 above)
Typical Studio Setup A typical setup for photographing 3D objects indoors looks like this.
Advantages and Disadvantages A studio setup has some advantages in that it can afford you the opportunity to be creative and really have much more control over the way that the light will bring out the detail and dimension of your artwork. However it comes with strings attached as well, in that there is expense involved in purchasing the equipment, the need for higher levels of understanding about lighting, the need for space to set up the equipment and space to store it all when you re done.
Today s Power Point You can access this power point from my website. www.finephotos.com.au You will find it behind the menu titled Links.
Thank you Next the workshop