Photographing your art work isn’t hard and the digital world makes it easier. 

This is part one of two, on shooting your art work: the set-up.

Take notes of what works for future reference.  

There are three basic problems: reflections (that nasty flash, or how did I get in the picture?), distortion (my art work isn’t square anymore), and exposure (in real life it isn’t that dark, really). 

Reflections: (the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection), so shooting head on with a flash means that if there is reflection your camera is perfectly positioned to see it.  If the light comes in from one side, it should reflect off the other side—and if the camera is in the middle it won’t see the reflection.

Distortion: if the lens plane is parallel to the image plane the image should look square. 

Exposure: if you use your camera’s measuring system you should be okay.  Check your white point, test your set-up, be consistent.  Start by trusting your camera. 

Each of these problems is solved by controlling the setup, which means first and foremost, use a tripod. 

If you don’t want to spend lots of time correcting your shots in your photo-editing software, develop a process that you know works and can be easily set up. 

There are two approaches, shoot horizontally (set your picture against the wall, step back three paces, aim and shoot), or shoot vertically (put your picture on the floor, stand over it without stepping on it, aim down and shoot). 

Indoors vs outdoors: It is surprising how often this question comes up.  Outdoors has lots of free light and space—as well as bugs, wind, clouds, weather.  As most photographers know, light out doors is always changing from minute to minute.  So while the quality of light and the accident of shadows might enhance something you shoot today, next time it might be all different.  For consistent photographs, an indoor set up that is the same today, tomorrow, and next month should be the ideal.

Shooting through glass: (!!#$%&!(X! . . . enough said.  But sometimes we have to, or at least we try.  If you see yourself or the camera in the glass, try a long lens so the camera is farther from the image or try using lights that rake in from the sides, possibly at a low angle, perhaps 20°.  Try shooting with the camera at an angle to the image—that is, way off center—then square the image in your photo-editing software.  If you have a digital SLR, you might try a polarizing filter. The best advice, don’t do it if you don’t have to.

If you need slides or transparencies, use the vertical method—there is little doubt that it is superior (read how below.)  If you’re shooting digitally, the horizontal method is better especially if you will be working on the image in a photo-editing program where it is easy to make the corrections that otherwise plague the process.

As you work out a process, take advantage of your digital camera’s monitor.  Even if you can’t see all the detail, you can see if the image is basically centered with the reasonably correct exposure and color. 

How ever you shoot, the goal is to have the image be parallel to the lens/sensor/film planes.

Both vertically and horizontally: A (the art work/image plane) is parallel to B (camera/lens plane). The center of the lens is in line with the center of the image, C.

The better the process, the more consistent it is, the less work you’ll have to do later.

Horizontal:

• Mount the camera on a tripod with the center of the lens in line with the center of the image. 
• You want the lens plane—the metal ring around the lens defines the lens plane—to be parallel to the image plane. 
• Put a level on the lens to check it’s verticality.  You can’t measure if the horizontal aspect is parallel but you can make a good guess by looking at the image in the camera monitor.
• If you use an easel, match the angle of the lens plane to the angle of the image plane.
• Follow the general instructions below.

Pros: Quick to set up
         Does not require an uncluttered area (as long as the camera doesn’t see the clutter)
         You don’t have to crawl around on the floor
Con: With the image vertical on the wall, you can make the lens vertical.  You have to guess if the lens plane and the image plane are horizontally parallel.  Therefore, you are more likely to have to do some perspective corrections in your photo-editing software.

Two views of shooting horizontally, with the art on a wall.  The second view shows the use of photoflood lights. 

Two views of shooting horizontally, with the art on an easel.  The second view shows the use of photoflood lights.

Vertical

• Most good tripods let you remove the center column and install it upside down: tripod head at the bottom between the legs.  Some tripods have an outrigger that extends the head horizontally away from the tripod itself. 
• For best results place a square of plywood, or other hard, flat surface, beneath the camera as a platform for your art work.
• Use a level to make sure the platform is level in all directions.
• Center the platform so that you can easily set your art work in place by using its edges as a guide. 
• Use a level to adjust the lens plane to be parallel to the art: level in all directions.
• Follow the general instructions below.

Pros:   You can make the image plane and the lens plane parallel, therefore you have the least distortion.
Cons:  Harder to set up
           You probably have to crawl around on the floor
           You need an uncluttered area 

The tripod with the camera at the bottom of the column is directly over the art work.

General

If you're using a simple point-and-shoot digital camera, our first suggestion is to set up your camera and tripod, as described above, put an image on the wall, and shoot.  Without fussing you may get successful results--that's the whole idea of point-and-shoot.  If you don't get the results you need, consider the following:     

• Most digital cameras let you select a white point.  Follow your camera’s instructions.  Basically you’ll shoot a piece of white paper where the image you intend to shoot will be—same light, same distances.  From this, you can adjust your camera to shoot without a color cast.  Incandescent lights tend to be yellow; fluorescent lights lean towards a green-blue; natural light is cool in the morning, warm in the late afternoon.  All light will be effected by the ambient colors of the room you are shooting in.  Remember, what you see and what the camera sees can be startlingly different. 
• Use the camera’s timer or a cable release to reduce camera movement.
• If you use photo-lights or multiple flash units, adjust them to be around 45° to the lens plane, vertically centered, and equal distance from the art.  . 
• Some cameras let you set the speed, just like film speed.  Because you’re using a tripod, you can use slower ISO settings for less noise (100 has less noise than 800).
• Some cameras let you  set the aperture.  Use a large aperture because you don’t need to worry about depth of field. However: test your camera’s apertures.  Many lenses are sharper as you stop down (make the aperture smaller).  The trade off is exposure time. 
• If your images have lens distortions, for example, barreling (they look like they have been inflated) or pincushioning (they look like they are deflating), try using a smaller aperture.  There are also software programs and filters that can compensate for lens aberrations. 
• If your camera lets you make the adjustments, it never hurts to bracket—that is increase and decrease the exposure so you “bracket” the exposure settings your camera or light meter choose.
• We use two flashes for light.  The quality of light remains constant where most photoflood bulbs vary, usually getting warmer and often less intense.  Flashes  overpower most ambient light—shoot in the day or shoot at night.  Requires two additional stands or tripods, a PC connector (camera to off-camera flash) and a slave. 

 

With your digital camera you can test easily and quickly, without having to have film processed.  We can’t give dimensions or specifics because what we shoot with probably won’t be what you have.  Keep a record of what works for you.  

Arte Elegante sells prints.  

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