Taking Successful Photos of your Artwork for your Website Gallery

I recommend a good quality digital camera, which in the last few years have become very affordable. You could use a traditional film camera just as well but you get faster results with digital and can see immediately if you need to tweak your setup.

If your work is small you should make sure your camera has a macro setting (usually indicated by a flower symbol).

Second to a camera the most important tool you need is a tripod. No matter how steady your hand is it still will shake a little bit so to get a good crisp photo you need a tripod or at the minimum something to set the camera on to steady it like a cardboard box or table. I can't overstate how important it is to be able to stabilize your camera.

Natural Light: The most beautiful lighting you will ever find is going to be from the sun, however the weather doesn't always cooperate. Try to avoid early morning, and evening sunlight as it's a bit reddish, and while it's very pretty it warps the colors of your work and you really want to try to capture it's true colors. Strong direct sunlight will also wash out the colors. Best is more diffuse light such as through a southern exposure window or on a slightly overcast day.

Creating your own lighting: Since Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate (and living in New England like I do that's frequent) you are going to have to create your own lighting sometimes. The best way to do this is to use a light tent. You can buy one or use one of the following links to find plans to build your own (don't worry it's easy).

There's really just one basic rule of creating a good backdrop for your artwork: it shouldn't distract the eye from your work.

The simplest backdrop you can use is often the best, a piece of matboard or fabric. Keep it simple, it should be a solid color that doesn't distract the eye. Neutrals are great, black, white, beige, are never going to detract from artwork. If you must have more color don't go really bright, you want your art to pop not the background so keep the background less vibrant in color than the artwork. Bedsheets work well so long as they are ironed well. My personal favorite is to use either bleached (white) or unbleached (creamy tan with darker flecks) muslin fabric which is typically only a couple dollars a yard and since it's a staple of sewing can be found at any fabric store. Another great alternative however a bit pricey is to use black velvet, it is just about the blackest fabric you can get and absorbs light well so you don't get the areas of light and dark in the background that you get with other fabrics.

This is the simplest part. Set up the tripod in front of your work, position it and your artwork to the angle you like best. For a digital camera you should be taking photos at a high resolution even though you will be scaling them down for use on a website. Most digital cameras do a good job of automatically adjusting for the lighting but if you are using a film camera you may need to make camera adjustments for the lighting. If you are shooting from less than 3 feet away turn the macro setting on and take your picture.

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