How to Photograph Art in Natural Light

I photograph my artworks for fine art prints myself. Then, I have a boutique fine art printer print them. In this blog post, I will outline how I do this and how this differs from a professional photographing art. I do it myself because of the extra costs and because I do no live near someone who photographs art anyway.

So how does a professional photograph fine art?

A professional photographer who photographs fine art will typically have a very expensive, large format camera on a tripod in a studio with studio lighting. The artwork is typically displayed vertically. The studio lighting is typically at least two diffused lightsources at around a 45 degree angle to the artwork (positioned to avoid any glare).

The professional photographer will usually use a prime lens. A prime lens is fixed for a certain focal length (typically 50mm or 85mm), for high optical performance. The studio lighting is consistent, allowing for photographing of larger artworks (which may need to have multiple photos taken of different parts of the artwork (to avoid distortion). The photographer will likely choose a low ISO setting and test the light balance.

A digital file (usually a RAW file) is then processed with editing software for print. Photographs of larger artworks may need to be digitially stitched together. Finally, the digital file is formatted for print. The giclee fine art printing process uses a wider colour range than commerical CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, key/black). With much higher detail production and colour matching than home printing or typical commercial printing.

A fee is charged for every stage of this process, which could be get very expensive. 
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Photographing art myself

I photograph my paintings and prepare them for print myself. Here's how I do it. This is suitable for small to medium size paintings (up to approximately 50cm or 20 inches on the longest side).

Photograph the painting BEFORE varnishing it or before putting it behind glass. This is to avoid extra reflections.

I have tested indoor and outdoor light and I think the best way is to use natural light. There is no decent natural light in the house I live in, so that means heading outdoors (and risking more dust). I've test photos indoors and outdoors, with and without a tripod. I find it easier without a tripod and just adjust my camera to take multiple shots when I press the shutter.

The quality of the light matters though - if there are harsh shadows and/or glare, there will be harsh shadows and/or glare on your art (even on the texture of the canvas). I find the early morning light, before harsh shadows develop to be best. Light cloud can imitate diffused lighting in a studio. Middle of day light on a bright sunny day can cast shadows plus have too much glare. Lighting can be too cool (make colours have a cool cast). Late afternoon and evening light can be too warm (make the colours look more orange). Heavy, grey cloud will make colours look greyish.

The white balance settings on the camera can be adjusted to suit different lighting conditions but I think it's best to try get soft, diffused lighting in the first place, to bring out the colours and to avoid glare and shadows. I usually use auto white balance but I think it's good to get to know the camera and to try out some of the default settings. If you have a blue cast on your photos, then you might want to try the 'cloudy' default setting.

I avoid taking photos in the shade. If I have no option but to take a photo indoors, I try to use indirect neutral LED light (LED light can come in warm, cool or neutral variations). I find LED lamps to be a better lightsource than lightbulbs, which can leave stripes.

A DSLR or a mirrorless camera will usually take higher quality photos for print than a smartphone, especially at larger print sizes. Doesn't need to be the most expensive camera on the market - my camera is an entry-level mirrorless with two lenses. It takes sharper photos than my bridge camera, which takes better photos (usually) than my lower spec smartphone.

A DSLR has moving internal parts, which can create a bit of shudder. The mirrorless doesn't have this issue.

I use a focal length (the mm) of over 50mm. It's better to stand back more than a metre or two from the art and zoom in if needed to avoid distortion (bowing of the straight edges of the painting). 

My camera settings - I use aperture priority set to around f11 to f13 (range with cameras may be f8 to f16 for artworks). With good lighting, the ISO will be low (100-200). The shutter speed will adjust to the correct setting automatically. If unsure, just use auto. One does not want a long shutter speed, as that could risk blur from movement (which would need a tripod or similar). 

I also have the camera set to photograph both JPEG and RAW in the largest file size. I usually just photograph in JPEG. I don't have software to edit RAW files but I like to have them in case I want to enter a photo into a competition or something. JPEG has been fine for high quality print reproductions. RAW files do have an advantage in that the light balance doesn't matter. Although RAW files have the disadvantage that the files need a lot of editing, take up more digital storage space and need more expense software to edit them.

I always have the histogram showing in the view-finder, which is another check I have the correct exposure. The lines of the histogram shouldn't be touching the left or the right edges. If the lighting is good but not to bright, this shouldn't be an issue.

I have been finding it best to place the artwork on a low surface which is on the ground. I used a miniature tabletop ironing board which has an off-white with black pattern. Very soft shadows are fine but avoid casting any shadows onto the artwork.

Make sure there is no dust on the artwork. Point the camera down. Line up the electronic display so that the sides of the painting are parallel to the sides of the display Hold the camera steady. Depress the button to take multiple shots. Nearly every shot I take is in focus. 

If the artwork is larger, I might lean it on an angle against a wall. I will still line up the sides to be parallel, top and sides. The excess will be cropped later.

Waiting for the right lighting is the trickiest part. The rest just takes me 5 minutes to get lots of photos. I cull any bad ones, then choose a few to scrutinize closer.

Then, I do minimal editing with software before sending the digital file to the printer. My printer doesn't actually see the original artwork.

Editing the file for print

The photo that comes out of the camera is not suited to be printed. It will need to be tidied up. You can pay someone to do this for you, or you can learn to do it yourself. I do it myself (I learned skills when I worked as an assistant in the publishing industry).

It is best to calibrate your computer monitor, to try get accurate colours and tones. I used the built-in calibration settings. It's also a good idea to request sample packs of the papers you have to choose from (with printed samples). 

There are various photo editors. I use Adobe® Photoshop Elements®, which is a trimmed-down and less expensive version of Photoshop® (used by graphic designers etc). I can only make an RGB (red, green, blue) file, not CMYK file with Photoshop Elements, which is fine, as my printer wants the file in RGB, not converted to CMYK anyway. Also, I cannot process RAW files but this does not matter. I get great results with JPEG format.

This is an outline of what I do:

• Choose one of the 'best' images (sharp when I preview zoom in, no dust, no shadows, no blown highlights, reasonably square to the camera)
• Open the image file and double check the image is suitable by zooming in to details
• Add an 'adjustment layer' of 'levels'. This brings up a histogram. I adjust so that the left and right edge of the curve just touches the right and left sides. This is correcting the light exposure.
• Apply a grid and use 'transform' to tweak the edges so they are perfectly square. 
• Crop the image using the crop tool, also including in the crop a few mm from each edge. (It's a good ideal not to sign close to the edge of the painting). 
• Use further adjustment layers if I feel it needs it, to represent as close as I can what I think the original looks like (it will look different in different lighting). Both the brightness/contrast and hue/saturation. I don't alter any setting by more than 3 units. (I see a lot of people tend to go overboard with the saturation on their photos and I think it looks awful.) I don't apply corrections just to some areas - I apply to the entire artwork, so that it's all relative and harmonous.
• If there are tiny flaws such as canvas texture too prominent(ironically, this can be from the camera being 'too' sharp), I have two options. I can apply a guassian blur of less than 2 pixels. Some definition will be lost. Or I can use the spot healing tool to reduce any bright pixels etc (may be the odd flecks of dust). If I didn't want any canvas texture, then it would be best to paint on a smoother surface in the first place (such as cradled gesso board).
• After all adjustments are made, flatten the image. This gets rid of all the layers, leaving just one.
• Set the resolution to 300ppi (pixels per inch) under image size. In reality, I don't resize the file as I leave it to the original file size (in megapixels, MP). 300ppi is what the my printer requires. My printer wants the largest file size, which they can print at different sizes. If a printer wanted a specific size, I would resize it under image size, to the exact pixels or measurements (usually in millimeters).
• Name the file something appropriate. This is the file that gets sent digitally to the printer.
• I create a low-resolution version of the file. Here are two ways I know of doing this. One is to change the image file to 72ppi and label the file LR for 'low resolution'. Another is to just change the pixels to say 1000 pixels on the longest edge. The image will need to be resampled to reduce the overall file size (Megapixels). Reason for doing this, is to have a version that can be used on the web, that hopefully not much can be done with if anyone steals it (yes, unfortunately some steal others efforts and try to make money from it).
• Order a test print from the printer to check out the colours etc came out. I now know which settings I prefer, so I won't have to do this every time now.

An overview of photographing the artwork and preparing for print

A summary of the above, in a 4-minute video, below: