Photographing your painting

[Mike McCarty]

There's a lot of good info on this site regarding the photographing of your art work. I've tried to incorporate as much of these good ideas as I can into my technique.

I don't use artificial light so I have to rely on sunlight. I think the best sunlight for this purpose is outside under an awning of some sort, away from any strong influencing colors (this can be a challenge). In the shoot below I used window light. I have a set of large windows which give good light in the morning when the sun is on the other side of the building. Even though there is a lot of light coming into the room the light is directional and will tend to pass over the canvas in varying degrees, much like it would while photographing your subjects. Even though, I can get pretty good results indoors.

One of the hardest things to accomplish is to get accurate color reproduction. To this end I have been using a gray card (you can see the card resting above the painting). Following the instructions for my Nikon D70, I capture the precise reflected light by using this 18% gray card. You can pick these cards up at a photography store for not much money. I have convinced myself that the difference between this white balance and any other preset WB settings is well worth the small effort. And it is a small effort. I can capture the setting in a matter of seconds.

Also, as you can see below, I have surrounded the canvas with some cheap black cloth. I just get a bigger canvas and drape the cloth over it then set the painting in front of it on the easel.

I think these two things, gray card white balance setting, and surrounding the painting with black, have given me the best shot at getting good color rendition. Of course there are other considerations like positioning yourself such that you omit glare and trying to stay plumb with the canvas.

I wouldn't argue against using a studio lighting setup for doing this work. I think a good artificial setup is probably best for this purpose, but for those like me who resist the artificials you might try this method.