By Sylvia
White
Sylvia White
is founder and director of Contemporary
Artists' Services, one of the few management
consulting firms specializing in the career
development of visual artists. Recognized as
a pioneer in the field, she has been
advising artists on all matters related to
business, exhibitions, and marketing since
1979.
www.artadvice.com
- A Last Resort -
Learning how to document your own artwork
can be time consuming and expensive. Having
good quality slides of your work, however,
is an absolutely essential first step in
seeing yourself as a professional artist.
Nine times out of ten you will not have the
opportunity to show your original work.
Remember that the purpose of sending slides
is to generate interest in seeing the actual
work. Your slides must adequately reflect
the color, detail, texture, and size. Hiring
a professional fine arts photographer is the
best way to accomplish this. Get referrals
from other artists or galleries. Always ask
to see examples of the photographer's work
before you hire someone. It's also a good
idea to discuss their policies regarding
copyright, pricing and dissatisfaction
before the work begins.
If hiring a professional photographer is out
of the question for you, then this set of
guidelines should assist you in achieving
the best possible results.
FILMS
Remember that in photography the most
important element contributing to the
success of your results is matching the film
to your light source. If you are using a
daylight film, you must shoot the work
outdoors, tungsten film must be shot with
tungsten lights, indoors, removing all
sources of natural light.
Because of the inconsistency of outdoor
light, I recommend the Kodak Ektachrome (EPY)
50 ISO. This is a slow speed film,
preferable to a faster speed because, in
general, the faster the ISO, the more
unstable the color, and the greater the
noise (grain) will be visible. You may have
slides that started to change color after
six months. This is usually due the faster
ASA films that are being used so frequently.
Ektachrome film is temperature matched to be
used with 3200 Kelvin bulbs. You will have
to buy two of these (500 watts each) at a
photo store. It's also nice to have light
stands, but you can use inexpensive clip-on
hoods and clip them to a chair or other
nearby objects. Also, there must not be any
other light source in the room. Turn off any
other lights; and, if daylight is coming in,
curtain it off.
SET UP
Set your artwork up on a plain white wall.
Set your 35mm camera up on a tripod. Be sure
to fill the frame, no extraneous
information. 35mm is not very much space.
You want to use every millimeter to
represent the artwork only. Try to always
shoot your work prior to framing in order to
avoid problems with glare and hot spots.
If you using a camera with
zoom, or better yet, an SLR, use a lens (or
lens equivalent) of 50mm or larger to avoid
barrel distortion. With shorter lenses, the
edges of your art work may appear stretched
or otherwise evidence unintended lens
abortions. To accomplish this, either change
the lens on your SLR to one over 50mm (if
you own one), or use your camera's built in
optical zoom feature (not digital zoom).
Double check to be certain there are no
shadows appearing through the viewfinder.
Also check for reflections, focus, etc. Now
you are ready to set up your lights so that
the work appears fully illuminated. Use your
light meter (either hand-held or in the
camera) to scan the piece for even lighting.
Then use a Grey card (available in photo
stores) to get an accurate reading.
You will probably have to
shoot at a very slow shutter speed, which is
fine, as long as your camera is on a tripod
and you use a shutter release cord. I have
found the sharpest focus to be two stops
from the widest aperture opening. On an SLR
camera, this could be an aperture from f5.6
to f11. On a Point-and-shoot, these options
are generally not available.
AFTER THE SHOOT
Your first roll of film should be considered
an experiment. Get out a pencil and pad and
write down how you shoot each frame (shutter
speed and f-stop). Bracketing means to shoot
one or two f-stops up and down from the
meter reading. This allows you to get a
range of variations so you can pick the best
exposure before you make a lot of dupes.
When you take this first roll
in to be processed, ask for it unmounted so
you can roll it out and compare it with your
notes to select the best possible slides. Be
sure to use a good, professional photo lab.
Once you have selected the best slides at
the best exposure, you can shoot your work
consistently and know what you're getting.
Remember that in-camera originals are far
superior to duplicates; so, as long as your
camera is set up, take advantage of it and
shoot six to ten of each piece. Good luck!!
WORKING WITH DIGITAL
Working with a digital camera has marked
benefits and shortcomings depending on your
intent for the photographs you take.
Especially if you eventually plan on
emailing the photographs of your artwork,
digital captures of your work streamline the
process significantly. The shortcomings of
digital appear when you must have your
artwork on slide. While it isn't impossible
to transfer a digital image onto slide, the
cost is more prohibitive and the processes
rather circuitous as compared with using a
35mm camera with slide film. If digital
still appears appropriate for your work and
intentions, the following are tips and
suggestions to make the most professional
captures:
FILESIZE
If you're emailing your photos, it is often
suggested that you limit the size of the
entire email to under a megabyte. This
ceiling is recommended to keep download time
minimal for broadband connections, and keep
download time reasonable for those with dial
up.
MEGAPIXELS
Megapixels refers to the image sensor of
your digital camera -- specifically, the
number of effective pixels it can capture.
Consumer cameras range as high as 12mp, and
professional cameras as high as 36mp+. If
you're intending on photographing your
artwork simply for onscreen viewing and
review, a 2mp camera can be as effective as
a 10mp. However, if you plan to print your
image after photographing it, especially if
this print is over 8" x 10", more megapixels
are needed to accurately replicate your
work.
COLOR CALIBRATION AND WHITE BALANCE
Cameras vary in their capacity to acclimate
to different lighting conditions. More
expensive digital cameras sometimes have the
capability to set the white point based on a
photograph you take of something that should
be white. For more information on in camera
white balance, refer to your manual.
POST PROCESSING
After you take your digital photographs, it
is often customary to edit them on a
computer to remove extraneous information
(cropping) and do after-the-fact color
correction. With your digital camera you may
have received photo editing software such as
Adobe PhotoDeluxe, or Adobe Photoshop. While
it would be impossible to effectively cover
all the features of either of these
programs, a few operations are worth
discussing:
Cropping
The first operation on your photo that you
should do it to crop. Cropping is to remove
the space around your art in the photograph.
The tighter the crop when you originally
took the photograph the better, but removing
extraneous information in post-processing is
a must. To crop in most programs, you want
to select the part of the photograph you
wish to keep using a marquee tool, then
select the crop command from a menu such as
image. Most programs included with your
digital camera will have a crop tool which
allows you to draw a box around what you
want to keep. Make your crop tight but be
sure not to crop out any of your artwork.
Color Correction
The process involved in correcting colors
varies dramatically between programs, and
indeed, the process itself is an art form on
which entire books have been written. For
the present job of correcting your
photograph, using your photo editing
program's auto color correction is likely
your best bet. This command executes an
algorithm designed to determine the extents
of the colors captured in your photo, then
tweaks the boundaries to make sure the white
and black point are correctly set. The
process isn't without its flaws, but often
the result is good. You are the expert on
your art, so if the color looks wrong, undo
the operation.
Resizing
The final operation necessary before you
email or otherwise deliver your digital
photo is to resize it appropriately. This
operation depends on the final intent of the
image. If you plan on showing your work on
the computer screen, and don't plan on
printing it out larger than 3" x 5", a
resolution around 800x800@ 150dpi will
accurately display your work while keeping
file size low. If you want, you can reduce
these dimensions even more, but you run the
risk of losing so much quality that the
image appears distorted and fuzzy. If you
plan on printing your photograph however, it
is best to leave the image at its native
resolution.
To resize your photograph, find the image
size command in your photo editing software.
This command is often under the image menu
if your program has one. If you're given the
option of setting the resolution and DPI,
using the numbers listed previously
depending on your use, enter in for either
the width or height the size you want it to
be. You need only enter one of the two
dimensions, as the other dimension should
change based on the original ratio. Make
sure that "constrain proportions" is enabled
(if the option is given), as you only wish
to scale your photograph, not distort the
ratio of height to width.
Saving
Once you have made all the changes to your
photograph, you must save your file. It is
good practice to save your edited file as
something different than the original so
that your keep the original intact,
especially if you're sizing down your
photograph or making substantial edits. You
may have the option of which filetype you
wish to save as -- jpeg generally provides
good quality with a small size; exactly what
you want if you're emailing this photo. If
you're unconcerned with file size and want
the best quality, TIFF files are the best
choice.
EMAILING
Now that you're ready to email your photo(s),
open a new message using the email program
of your choice, and attach the files that
you have edited. Finding the attach files
command varies between programs, but once
you find and click it, you will be given a
file dialog box allowing you to select which
files are to be attached. Find the files you
edited, and click okay. Compose a message
for this email, and send away.
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