PHOTOGRAPHY
ABOUT art by deb PHOTOGRAPHY
When art by deb creates paintings for our clients, we use professional high definition cameras and camcorders to take the photographs that are needed to create the paintings. In addition, we use professional lighting equipment for special effects. This is all part of the package that goes into creating original paintings for our clients. We use the same equipment when photographing the paintings before they are uploaded into our computers and go online. If you have difficulty getting good pictures of your paintings, maybe we can help.
Before you include your art work in any online gallery, you should have a good picture of it. After paintings are uploaded into our computers, their formats are changed to JPEG, a compressed format. In addition, we reduce the pixels by more than 50%. This protects the paintings from being reproduced to a good enough quality for potential theft. We also include a copyright watermark on each image that appears if the image is printed out.
It's important to start out with an excellent photo especially since it is going to be altered from it's original quality. The most important thing is lighting. If your painting is an oil or acrylic it can pick up a lot of glare from natural light. We use fluorescent umbrella lights on both sides of the painting. If you have no special lighting equipment, try propping the painting up on a table against an outside porch wall in the shade. Place the camera on a tripod directly in front of the subject and move the camera left to right until there is as little glare as possible. Most cameras have a touchscreen viewfinder, so take several shots and then select the best one. Make sure the picture is level and straight. Make sure the camera is level on the tripod as well. It's impossible to crop a square frame that is crooked. Take close up shots as well. Most of our paintings in our galleries have the frames cropped out because it is very difficult to get the paintings perfectly straight.
When photographing paintings behind glass, as most framed water color paintings are, it's important to block out any reflection. Don't worry about the flash, it probably won't ever show, but any reflection will. We use a black out screen behind the camera and move around until we can see there is no reflection.
Look at the pictures below. The one on the left was taken with a fluorescent light source, and was perfectly straight. The one on the right was taken with natural light and was not straight.
It's important to start out with an excellent photo especially since it is going to be altered from it's original quality. The most important thing is lighting. If your painting is an oil or acrylic it can pick up a lot of glare from natural light. We use fluorescent umbrella lights on both sides of the painting. If you have no special lighting equipment, try propping the painting up on a table against an outside porch wall in the shade. Place the camera on a tripod directly in front of the subject and move the camera left to right until there is as little glare as possible. Most cameras have a touchscreen viewfinder, so take several shots and then select the best one. Make sure the picture is level and straight. Make sure the camera is level on the tripod as well. It's impossible to crop a square frame that is crooked. Take close up shots as well. Most of our paintings in our galleries have the frames cropped out because it is very difficult to get the paintings perfectly straight.
When photographing paintings behind glass, as most framed water color paintings are, it's important to block out any reflection. Don't worry about the flash, it probably won't ever show, but any reflection will. We use a black out screen behind the camera and move around until we can see there is no reflection.
Look at the pictures below. The one on the left was taken with a fluorescent light source, and was perfectly straight. The one on the right was taken with natural light and was not straight.
