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Xadrea — Art Tutorial: How to Photograph Artwork
Published: 2012-08-22 21:28:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 7587; Favourites: 185; Downloads: 87
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Description
I've been meaning to make this tutorial for YEARS, and here it is!
Most of us can't afford to buy all the equipment or pay a professional to document our work, so I learned these methods in art school 
This tutorial can be completed with as little as a cell phone camera (however, if your phone's camera is under 3 megapixels, your image may not have enough resolution to print) Let me know if you have any questions!
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Comments: 47
Hello, I just wanted to let you know that your helpful resource has been FEATURED
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Good tutorial!
I have like 2 years or more taking pics of my art [since my scanner dammaged], sometimes looks good, others .. not that good xD! And now I found this.. and is amazing! Has very good tips
Thanks a lot <3
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When I was in high school we photographed our work outside, in the shade if it was sunny, or anywhere if it was overcast. We had a set up of a wooden board covered in a black fabric, and there was a bar that went up and turned to be directly over the board. We attached the camera to the tripod attachment so that the camera was directly over the piece (set on the board). Then we could look at the screen and center the image as much as possible (because rotating them is super hard without cutting off some of the piece). Then we snapped a few shots. If I could recreate the set up, I would. I really recommend it!
These days I take it outside and photograph it in natural light.
My pictures always come out badly when I take them indoors, I'm definitely going to use your tips!
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Outdoors is really the most beneficial way of shooting artwork 
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This is great for those who don't have a scanner.
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i agree 
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Plus when I think of it this can help me as well, I'm getting ready to try watercolor for the first time and the paper seems a bit bigger than the scanner, so this helps in many ways.
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Thank you so much! I'm a beginner acrylic artist and I've had absolutely awful trouble trying to photograph my paintings. I read one tutorial that said to take photos outside, but the pictures still seem to come out crappy.
One question, I have a desk lamp, but I don't know if it's white light, does it have to be?
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You're welcome! And yes, a desk lamp will certainly work
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Thanks so much for even more tips. Hopefully I'll be able to improve the photographs of my paintings from now on!
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you're welcome! i hope that your photos look great
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nice tutorial
will have to give it a try
On smaller paintings I use a scanner
I've never tried it, but I might try using a daylight bulb (its like a normal incandescent light bulb but blue and there are energy saving versions as well
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a daylight bulb will work just fine 
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Ah I can use this. Seeing as I'm taking up watercolor and acrylic painting again, and some canvases won't fit on the average-sized puny scanner I have...
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Cool beans! Hope you have good results!
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Photographing in a bathroom is a BRILLIANT idea! Thank you!!
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Yeah, it's super bright in most bathrooms and the tub is great for small works too
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Another helpful tip: most digital cameras have a "White balance" function (you should look at your manual and/or fiddle a bit beforehand with this function before going to take the actual picture). Grab a blank white sheet of printer paper, and under the same lighting conditions that you will be photographing the artwork, use that as reference for what your camera should consider as "white". The camera will then try to adjust its colour settings as best as it can. It is not always perfect, but it helps to get the colours looking closer to what they are in real life.
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Yes! I forgot to mention that! Digital cameras try too hard to balance color sometimes lol and things can turn out orange or blue really easy if you aren't carful lol!
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I'll be happy to try this out - this is something I ALWAYS struggle with! Thank you for sharing!
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Awesome! I hope u get great results!
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Another tip I found works well (mostly for outdoors or if you're wanting to get details from a picture like you have done), is to not zoom in on the camera (understanding that background can alter what colours the camera sees, so discretion is needed) and take the picture. When editing, you can zoom in and get great detail!
I do this when taking pictures of things outdoors as the camera keeps most of the detail! Hope this helps.
(The tutorial is great, by the way, and something I have added for future reference! ^_^~x)
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i love the tutorial! I used to have to take slides the same way, but had to use an open window with bright light shining on the object instead.
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you're welcome! glad to help you out!
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