PATRICK HOWE, ARTIST, AUTHOR, EDUCATOR
  • HOME
  • Oil painting classes
    • LIVE CLASSES SEATTLE
    • OIL PAINTING SUPPLIES
    • ENDORSEMENTS
    • ABOUT CLASSES/ REVIEWS
    • OPEN STUDIO
    • GUARANTEE & TERMS
  • PORTFOLIOS
  • RESUME
  • STORE
  • FOR STUDENTS
    • RESOUCE CENTER
    • STUDENT SAMPLES
    • Free Pear Painting Exercise
    • Buying the Right Easel
  • BLOG
  • Contact / Sign up
  • MUSIC
  • BOOKS
  • Tuesday Art Things
    • Introduction Video
    • TAT 10/24/23
  • Thank you

Photographing Your Artwork Part 1

7/13/2023

0 Comments

 
Here I have simplified some of the issues relating to photographing your artwork with a camera phone. With these common sense suggestions you’ll be able to produce good-quality photos of your paintings.

For the highest possible quality—if you intend to make prints, you will need to go to a professional art photographing service that specializes in  photographing art. But a good phone camera can produce excellent images of your artwork for most digital representation. Here are some important tips to follow.

​
Set you camera to the highest resolution. This will make the file larger, but you want a larger file for recording your paintings for display, reproduction, and posterity. On an iPhone you would select High Efficiency for the highest resolution. (Settings > Camera > Format > High Efficiency).
Picture
Avoid crooked image: When photographing your artwork, make sure you position your camera so that the painting is perfectly square on the screen.
​
Picture
Avoid image distortion: Make sure your camera is perfectly parallel to your painting.
​
Picture
Correct orientation of your phone to your artwork.
​
Picture
Camera orientation. We are used to holding our phone cameras vertically. But to get the largest possible image, and highest resolution. Always orient you camera so you are shooting the longest side of the screen with the longest side of the painting. You can rotate the image later with your camera's editing feature.

Picture
Phone cameras focus automatically. But sometimes, because a painting is flat, and not three-dimensional like the real world, the camera has difficulty focusing. Check to make sure your image is in focus.
​
Picture
Avoid glare: Whether shooting your artwork indoor or outdoor, make sure you are not getting glare from any light source.


Picture
Uniform Lighting: Make sure the light is uniform on your artwork. No glare and no shadows.

Picture
No flash! Turn the camera’s flash off. It will cause a glaring ‘hot’ spot in the middle of your painting.
​
Picture
No shadows. Make sure no shadow are anywhere on the painting from the surrounding environment.
​
Picture
Shoot your painting on a neutral colored background. Don’t use white or any bright color. The reason is that if you have white all around your painting, the camera will ‘think’ the white is part of the painting and will include it in its overall color and value adjustment. Whereas a neutral color will tend to be “ignored”.
​
Picture
Don’t shoot from far away. You want the image as large as possible in the picture frame without cropping any part of the image.
​
Picture
Don’t shoot too close. You always want a little of the surrounding background to show on the screen. That way you will know for sure your haven’t cropped out any of your painting. Then you can do a more precise crop with the camera's photo editing tools.
​
Picture
White Balance: Most cameras adjust White Balance automatically. When the camera sees white, it will automatically adjust all other colors to their proper color temperature. Temperature relates to an image's either cool cast or warm cast. White Balance is a perfect balance between cool and warm. But sometimes the camera doesn’t correct White Balance perfectly. I alway include a small piece of white paper next to my painting so I can check the White Balance after taking the photo. If the white is not perfectly white, then I can adjust it on my camera after taking the photo.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Patrick Howe

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    October 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    August 2020
    July 2020

    Categories

    All
    Abstract Vs Realism
    Art Galleries
    Art History
    Artist Patrick Howe
    Charcoal Drawing
    Color Mixing
    Composition
    Copyright Law
    Creative Blocks
    Easels
    Faces And Portraits
    Famous Artist Quotes
    FedEx Office And Print
    Floater Frame
    Hang And Display Art
    Hilma Af Klint
    History And Theory
    How To Study Paintings
    Impressionism
    Interesting Art
    John Singer Sargent
    Luminism
    Making A Wall Label
    Mickey Culver
    Mount Canvas To Board
    Oil Paint On Gold Leaf
    Painting Cats
    Painting Techniques
    Painting Water
    Photographing Artwork
    Picture Frames
    Plein Air Painting
    Portrait Painting
    Preparing To Paint
    Print Reference Photo
    Quirky And Beautiful Paintings
    Recent Paintings
    Sfiumato
    Stretching Canvas
    Surrealism
    Tonalism
    Weekly Art Beat

    RSS Feed

Picture
Copyright © 2025, by Patrick Howe, all rights reserved.
Patrick Howe, Artist, Author and Educator
Seattle, WA.
Contact: [email protected]
  • HOME
  • Oil painting classes
    • LIVE CLASSES SEATTLE
    • OIL PAINTING SUPPLIES
    • ENDORSEMENTS
    • ABOUT CLASSES/ REVIEWS
    • OPEN STUDIO
    • GUARANTEE & TERMS
  • PORTFOLIOS
  • RESUME
  • STORE
  • FOR STUDENTS
    • RESOUCE CENTER
    • STUDENT SAMPLES
    • Free Pear Painting Exercise
    • Buying the Right Easel
  • BLOG
  • Contact / Sign up
  • MUSIC
  • BOOKS
  • Tuesday Art Things
    • Introduction Video
    • TAT 10/24/23
  • Thank you