Problem photographing art!

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adrian grainger

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Hi,

I wonder if anyone could help!

I have a 350d cannon and i use a range of lenses - cannon 70-300 and a 18-55 IS lens.

My sole purpose for using my camera is to take photos of my artwork but every time I take a picture and go to crop the photo, the picture is never square - the picture always arcs around the edge!

Can anyone shine some light please on the way i can get nice square shots of my work?!

Regards
Adrian
 
The closer you are the more perspective distortion you will get, so get as far back as you can with the long lens to minimise distortion.

Make sure you shoot as direct on to the centre as you can, height as well. Then after that there should be minimal correction required.


Don't feel you need to use 300mm though ;) the 70-300 at any focal length will give better results than the short zoom.
 
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You need to be absolutely square to the painting and central, imagine a line from each corner of your painting and then line up the central focus point on that feature. using a wide angle lens will also distort, so a longer focal length will give a better result., leave a little bit of space in the frame so you can crop, I assume painting aren't always 3:2 ratio. Always worked for my paintings.

http://www.artyman.co.uk
 
Thanks for the response - very kind to share your thoughts both!

I'll set up the art square to my tripod, allow a decent bit of distance, use the longer lens and allow some space around the Art to allow for croping and see what i get - cheers again.

Hopefully the photos will be a bit better standard too, as I have just purchased a Canon 750d as my 350 died in the rain in ireland a couple of weeks ago!! Didn't realise how little rain/moisture upset these things!!

regards
Adrian
 
adrian grainger said:
Thanks for the response - very kind to share your thoughts both!

I'll set up the art square to my tripod, allow a decent bit of distance, use the longer lens and allow some space around the Art to allow for croping and see what i get - cheers again.

Hopefully the photos will be a bit better standard too, as I have just purchased a Canon 750d as my 350 died in the rain in ireland a couple of weeks ago!! Didn't realise how little rain/moisture upset these things!!

regards
Adrian
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Get yourself a S/H 50mm or 60mm Macro lens, they have a flatter field than other lenses, don’t cost a fortune either. Frankly your artwork deserves a better reproduction than kit quality zooms too.
 
Phil V said:
Get yourself a S/H 50mm or 60mm Macro lens, they have a flatter field than other lenses, don’t cost a fortune either. Frankly your artwork deserves a better reproduction than kit quality zooms too.
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Thanks Phil,

I'll read up and take a look at the lenses your pointing too... It is important for me to get the best quality as possible.

Regards
Adrian
 
adrian grainger said:
Thanks Phil,

I'll read up and take a look at the lenses your pointing too... It is important for me to get the best quality as possible.

Regards
Adrian
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Not really, like modern cameras, really s*** lenses are exceedingly rare, there’s no need to buy a £1000 lens for what you want to achieve.

I think the 60mm EF-S Macro or an older Sigma 50mm Macro should be less than £200
 
Phil V said:
Not really, like modern cameras, really s*** lenses are exceedingly rare, there’s no need to buy a £1000 lens for what you want to achieve.

I think the 60mm EF-S Macro or an older Sigma 50mm Macro should be less than £200
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Yes, sorry Phil - when i said "It is important for me to get the best quality as possible.", I meant image as opposed to lens quality!

I appreciate you sharing your opinions and knowledge here - I'll give one of these lenses ago - Thanks again
 
adrian grainger said:
Yes, sorry Phil - when i said "It is important for me to get the best quality as possible.", I meant image as opposed to lens quality!

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It depends what you’re photographing it for. :thinking:

If it’s simply for your own records, not so much, if you’re building a proper catalogue then it’s worth some effort, if you’re selling reproductions, then it’s absolutely critical.
 
Phil V said:
It depends what you’re photographing it for. :thinking:

If it’s simply for your own records, not so much, if you’re building a proper catalogue then it’s worth some effort, if you’re selling reproductions, then it’s absolutely critical.
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The images will be used on my website to show potential customers whats available. So image quality is important, but not to the point where the images will be used for printing.
 
adrian grainger said:
The images will be used on my website to show potential customers whats available. So image quality is important, but not to the point where the images will be used for printing.
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Just to add a ‘reality check’; from your point of view, it’s just to have a visual representation of your products for the website. The potential customer however will want an accurate view of exactly what the product looks like at the very least. The aim should be to create an aspirational product through your marketing, which is less easy.
 
I'd just like to add the Canon 50mm f2.5 macro to the list of possible lenses to look at.

It's not a true 1:1 macro unless you get the life size adapter but that shouldn't matter for this use and subject and apart from not being 1:1 it's a nice lens and a quick google showed they're available used for under £150.
 
Even if you are not taking the photo for reproduction usage you IMO will need to show it accurately.

By that I mean you take the photo at the highest quality you can as if you intend to reproduce, this means you make the web sized image in post processing........not relying on the camera settings!

Though not mentioned above (unless I missed it), you should consider how you light the picture to be photographed? As far as I understand it, if shooting a watercolour this may/would be lit differently to say an oil or acrylic ~ the of course to accurately show the colours as well the textural elements if if that is part of what "makes the artwork".

Various guides online as to how that handle these variables.
 
The artwork that ill be photographing is around 100cm x 30cm and the artwork is acrylic on deep edge box canvas. I will be taking multiple shots to highlight the actual texture of the paint as its applied by pallet knife in some areas, so capturing the undulations and embossed surface is very important.

I tend to take 3 shots for the website images -
1 straight on
1 side shot to highlight the surface texture and also to highlight the box canvas that its painted on - 37mm box canvas
1 shot of a close up part of the painting - again to highlight the undulating surface and shadows thats created from the depth of paint.

I set the artwork up outside on bright days to do my photgraphy and use a tripod for my camera
 
adrian grainger said:
The artwork that ill be photographing is around 100cm x 30cm and the artwork is acrylic on deep edge box canvas. I will be taking multiple shots to highlight the actual texture of the paint as its applied by pallet knife in some areas, so capturing the undulations and embossed surface is very important.

I tend to take 3 shots for the website images -
1 straight on
1 side shot to highlight the surface texture and also to highlight the box canvas that its painted on - 37mm box canvas
1 shot of a close up part of the painting - again to highlight the undulating surface and shadows thats created from the depth of paint.

I set the artwork up outside on bright days to do my photgraphy and use a tripod for my camera
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Can I state the IMO blindingly obvious ;) both art and photography are all about the light!

Firstly, do you paint outside on bright days only, is that where your customers will 'hang' them, do you control the light outside with reflectiors.........et al.

In other words, you need to control how they are lit to truly represent what they look like in a consistent manner. Is doing it outside on a bright today going to be same bright day next month. With a setup inside (even if with north window daylight coming in ) you have more control to make each and every painting look "good enough to hang on my wall.......".

Afteral when you sell them you no doubt wish that the same customers will buy more from you :)
 
Box Brownie said:
Can I state the IMO blindingly obvious ;) both art and photography are all about the light!

Firstly, do you paint outside on bright days only, is that where your customers will 'hang' them, do you control the light outside with reflectiors.........et al.

In other words, you need to control how they are lit to truly represent what they look like in a consistent manner. Is doing it outside on a bright today going to be same bright day next month. With a setup inside (even if with north window daylight coming in ) you have more control to make each and every painting look "good enough to hang on my wall.......".

Afteral when you sell them you no doubt wish that the same customers will buy more from you :)
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My artwork is all painted indoors and not really light relative, as I don't paint landscapes/portraits to replicate the light, etc. My work is illustration/contemporary/naive/abstract.

...As the light goes though with regard to photographing consistently - I take your point that consistent light for all pieces is probably an important factor, as the images on the website will be sitting side by side!!

What would you recommend to get consistency with all shots?
 
Thanks to all who have contributed to this subject.

I've just taken a look at the threads and its given me a bit of direction to help achieve my goals

kind regards
Adrian
 
adrian grainger said:
Hi,

I wonder if anyone could help!

I have a 350d cannon and i use a range of lenses - cannon 70-300 and a 18-55 IS lens.

My sole purpose for using my camera is to take photos of my artwork but every time I take a picture and go to crop the photo, the picture is never square - the picture always arcs around the edge!

Can anyone shine some light please on the way i can get nice square shots of my work?!

Regards
Adrian
Click to expand...

The 'arcs around the edge' sound like barrel distortion in the lens (very common). You can correct it in post-processing or some newer cameras will do it in-camera. But if you take your 18-55 lens (probably the most suitable for the size of artwork) and line up something straight close to the edge of the viewfinder, like square to a wall/ceiling, you'll probably find the barreling disappears towards the 55mm setting.

This will help and may even be quite good, but googling your really excellent artwork suggests to me that it actually needs to be perfect to do yourself justice. Give that a try, set everything up carefully square on the tripod (a bit of distance makes this much easier) and set the lens aperture to f/8. See what you think.

But I agree with others that you should really be striving for excellence here, which means a macro lens and some proper flash lighting (the more usual problem) plus a colour-check reference card to ensure both colour accuracy and consistency, plus careful post-processing using Canon's free software. None of this is particularly difficult but requires a few hundred quid investment (lens, flash, stands etc) and some careful experiment. Once that's done, you should be set up for easy repetition.
 
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