How I photograph a painting outdoors
 

Right now, I send my paintings to a pro to photograph as I don't have the time or inclination to fuss with it myself. However, here's how I used to (successfully) photograph my paintings out of doors (see blackboard below).

I'd nail some black non reflective cloth on the north side of the house, garage, barn, whatever.

Then I would hang the painting at eye level over the black cloth so that the cloth was blocking out the background. Having the painting hang vertically and the camera lens aimed dead center on it will eliminate any distortion.

I would stand in the shadow cast by the building (so that no sun would be directed at the camera lens) and photograph the painting using a tripod to avoid any blur. With the north light, there would be no glare. If the sky was slightly overcast, that would be OK too.

I hope this helps somebody.

Karin,

This is exactly the same way I was taught at the Art Institute many moons ago and it's always worked for me quite well.

Its great advice
 

It's great and simple advice, and a great simple method to explain the art of photography for my portraits.

Cheers,
Sampada Pathak

Sampada,

That's a lovely self portrait. I would love to see a larger version.

Karin,
You mentioned due to time restraints, you send your finished paintings out to be professionally photographed. Can you elaborate on that? Photo lab, or photographer, reasonably priced?

Mike,
You mentioned that you sent yours to a photo lab and got great results. I've called around different photo labs here in Las Vegas, and they say they only process negatives. I've been checking into scanning, but no one here has any scanners that big. One lab said he'd photograph the painting for like $100, then send that to be scanned. That defeats the purpose anyway.

Here is an article on scanning oversize paintings I found interesting. I may try it. http://www.artcafe.net/artcenter/digital/feat7s.htm

Hey Marta,

The lab I use (KC Color, for those in the Tulsa area) uses studio type lighting and takes a slide picture of the painting. From that slide I can go to any number of other processors and get prints for scanning on my own scanner or have them create an image on disk or CD.

Maybe we're just lucky. I do know of at least one more locally that will do the same thing. First slide $7.50 second $3.50, then the cost of prints.

Maybe you could call a studio photographer. Bring them some good low speed slide film. Kind of a professional courtesy thing. At the same time do a pitch about your portraits. It's always good to have a good studio photographer that you can call for different reasons.

Yes Great advice.

Knowing that you also live in New England, Karin, I am sure you would agree that this is a technique much more pleasant to perform at a different time of year then now. It is was about 12

Sunlight
 

Many of us shoot the work in direct sunlight-on an angle of about 30 degrees to the light source. Once you figure out how to avoid glare it provides great rich images.

Tim, I agree. The only way I can get faithful color reproduction for my paintings is to shoot in sunlight. About ten in the morning or two in the afternoon seems to produce light at a good angle and intensity for me. I have a variety of locations around my place where I can shoot, depending on time of year and angle of the sun. During the winter when the angle is quite low and most of my tried and true locations have shadows, I haul the painting out to the dock and have my husband there making sure it doesn't fall into the water!

I once asked a professional to take a picture of a special painting and found that his color rendition wasn't nearly as good as mine. I don't think he had the proper setup. The one time I had a commercial "print" made from a painting and needed a 4x6 positive I took it to a special photographer who did have an excellent setup with appropriate lights. Those results were excellent but he charged $65 and his studio was almost an hour away from mine.

Costs
 

Every painting I have shot by a pro averages $100.00 (4X5's plus some pro slides) these are very good but wow! not cheap.

A high-end Seattle "pre-press" color lab shoots 4x5 positive transparencies of my paintings for me for $30 each. If I ask they will put color bars and a grey scale on these "copy trans" photos for no charge.

I can also get them to do an 80 MB digital scan for $80. These scans would be used to make a full size (say, 24 x 36") giclee on canvas if I ever wanted my own copy of a painting for a show. Making the giclee from the scan costs a bunch more, though, but at least I have the scan before the painting goes out of state or out of the country to the commissioning client!

I am picking up a giclee(?) tomorrow. A local photo lab is putting one of my paintings on canvas. I brought them a slide of my painting and I can get it reproduced on canvas for about $35 - 9x12 up to poster size for around $60.

If I have reproduced my painting onto a canvas have I got a giclee?

Mike, I would love to know the quality of reproduction you get from enlarging a 35mm slide.

I have never had a print made from a slide because my photo store guru insists that the quality would be compromised. However...it would certainly make life easier if this could be done successfully.

I would be interested in any experience that you - or anyone has on this subject.

Mike:

A Giclee is a term for any fine art print that is printed using archivally treated pigmented inks. I print my giclees on watercolor paper and have done one or two on canvas paper as well. The surface is not really what makes it a giclee - it's the inks.

Karen,

I have achieved my best results from slides.

I should say that all my experience has been with film cameras. I do nothing digitally.

I may be luckier than most, I have a photo processor in Tulsa (KC Color) that will take my physical painting, photograph it to pro slide film using a studio lighting setup (which I continue to resist), and then produce a print from that slide.

I am charged $7.50 for the first slide(mounted and silver taped) and $3.50 for each additional mounted slide. These prices include the cost of the photographing of the painting! At the same time I have them produce my prints from this slide (additional cost per print per usual). Typically I will have printed an 8x10 (which I will use for my scan and then it goes to my display portfolio) and two 5x7 (one to send to my mother and one to send to the Vatican commission committee).

These prints are far superior to any that I have ever produced on my own. I think It is a combination of the studio lighting, and the quality of their digital printer. Also the larger the painting the more difficult it is to keep squared up. These folks seem to do this very well.

I'm no technical wizard but I don't think your guru is right. If you are talking about the difference between a print from a negative and a print from a slide. A print from a slide (first generation, positive image) would be the second generation image. When you view a print from a film negative the print would actually be the third generation image. Maybe someone else can clear this up.

For me this procedure gets me the best image I can create for viewing on the monitor. You scan this big 8x10 print image with at least a 200 dpi. You then do any cropping from this large file image (for example a face detail). You then reduce these relatively large files down to a more manageable size. For me this has been the best by far. I now keep three slide images for each painting. One for myself as a backup to create prints from and two to send for any competitions.

Thanks all of you!
A story about Madame Mao, Jiang Qin, she tried to photograph a moon scene, after exausting experiments, all failed, she consulted with a top expert, foud the trick.
Her biography was writen by an American writer, titled "Comrade Jiang Qing".

UPDATE:

Now I photograph my work in my studio because it is so easy with a digital camera.

I put the digital camera on a tripod and shoot at the highest res I can with the f-stop at the highest number I can get away with (the result is a sharper image).

I shoot with color-corrected fluorescent lights and only during the daytime. I want a fully illuminated room.

I keep the painting away from direct sunlight and if there is any glare, I slightly angle the painting down on my easel.

I correct any distortion in Photoshop.

Viola! And the best pictures I've ever taken.