 Vic Vicini |
Taking Digital Images of Artwork I am a artist (painter) who sells art on ebay. I have struggled with taking good quality digital images for years for the web. Recently, I decided to buy a new camera: Canon PowerShot SX100 IS. So far I am disappointed in what I see. I can't seem to good a clear image bright image. It seems some of the cheaper camera's work just as good. Can you suggest what type of camera is good for taking indoor digital pictures of artwork. Also, can you provide any opinion on this Canon camera.
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W. |
Hi Vic, please describe exactly what you do when you make one of those photos, and what settings you use, and post one that is typical of your plight.
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Alan N. Marcus |
Hi Vic V. Making reproductions of art work is one of the most difficult tasks a photographer might undertake. Others on this site may disagree. Consider that an artist creates, and to them, superiority is a cross mix of color and line. While the goal of photo engineers is high fidelity, no one has ever realized this aspiration with film or chip. The best we can do, for now, is to concentrate on memory colors like skin tone or the like. Stated another way consider lowering your expectations a tad. The camera is not the issue be it film or digital. For art copy work you need a copy stand or reasonable replica. The camera is to be sturdily mounted and squared up (centered) over the art work. Squaring up is paramount otherwise the results will an image that gives an impression of a parallelogram, not the rectangular image you expected. The artwork is lighted with two mounted lamps set carefully at a 45° angle on each side of the camera. The idea is even illumination. Use reflector floods. The light from any lighting fixture falls off severely with tiny changes in distance thus the likelihood of uneven illumination is high. Your defense is to place the lamps more distant than you would think necessary, distant lamp to subject placement avoids light falloff at the edges of the work. Invest in a polarizing screen. Artwork is devastated by reflections from the illumining lamps. A polarizing screen (filter) mounted on the camera lens is your best defense. Commercial copy set-ups often have large sheets of polarizing filters mounted over the lamps also. All polarizing screen filters must be rotated for best performance. Make sure your set-up’s filter holders allow rotation of the polarizing screens. Exposure is super critical. Artwork is all about tones and ranges of tones. If the exposure is not dead-on, the delicacy of the tone changes will be lost. You need a gray card. This is a exposure target (placard) middle gray in color with an 18% reflectivity. You can buy one on line. Use a hand-held exposure meter. Substitute the gray card for the artwork. Take a meter reading and set your camera exactly as directed by the meter, remove the gray card to take the picture. In absents of a gray card substitute white construction paper. Take a reflected reading of the white paper however reset the meter’s ISO setting to a revised value obtained by dividing the ISO by 5. Hope this helps (too complicated, nobody said it’s easy besides I dispense marginal technical advice). Alan Marcus
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Vic Vicini |
I am using a Canon PowerShot SD1000 Digital camera for photographing my paintings for the web. I was wondering would a SLR make that much of a difference for images on the web? If so, what do you suggest?
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W. |
Since Alan's excellent advice doesn't seem to register with you, I suggest you let someone else do it, Vic.
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Vic Vicini |
He never suggest a camera. He mentions "The camera is not the issue be it film or digital" so I assume any $160.00 digital camera will do. Why then are so many suggesting SLR's and other expensive camera's if it doesn't matter?
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W. |
Because many people think you can solve a problem if you just throw enough money at it, Tom. Not so. To solve a problem you need to first UNDERSTAND WHAT THE PROBLEM IS! You don't yet understand what the problem is. So YOUR problem is NOT the camera, but the photographer. A good SLR system will set you back a couple thousand, but it won't solve your problem if you don't understand the underlying concepts.
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Vic Vicini |
I guess I will use my camera from Kmart and take classes on lighting and photography and save myself some money. I appreciate your useful information. I will make sure to inform all my artist that they should just invest in lighting and approach (which I have) and forget about the quality of the camera.
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W. |
They should not "just invest in lighting and approach [...] and forget about the quality of the camera", Vic. They, and you, should FIRST invest time and effort in learning about, understanding and handling the problem(s). That includes careful editing! Use existing cameras and equipment to gain practical experience. THEN, when they/you understand the principles and concepts, and have demonstrated that to yourselves by making headway with the photos, you/they may consider 'better' equipment. Appropriate to the task. And you/they might THEN know how to put it to good use. Good luck!
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
And you/we might then be happy in Who-ville.
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