Today’s question comes from Robert and he asks:
“I am trying to find help in taking high quality digital photographs of my paintings, particularly watercolours. I have looked in many books and found nothing covering this subject.”
Do you have any information that might help Robert?
I have a Digital SLR that I use to take photos of my paintings. I take the painting outside in the sunshine. I usually put them on the ground and then kneel over the painting and take the photo. I then upload the photos to my computer and do any adjusting they might need in a photo editing program. Usually they just need to be sharpened a tiny bit and sometimes lightened. My digital SLR is several years old at this point so isn’t a high mega pixel. I think its about a 6 mega pixel camera and it takes great photos that I am then able to make 11×14 prints out of. Hope this helps you.
Hi Robert. It took me quite a while to work this one out too; here’s what I do.
First turn off the flash, then take your painintg outside into natural light. Place it on the floor and stand astride it so that you and the camera are viewing it from above. Then centre your shot and zoom in as close as you want it.
I find the best time to take photos is early morning before the sun gets too high. I never place my picture in direct sunlight, always in a shade area. I have a Canon digital and since using this method have never had to mess around with camera settings.
At the computer I load the photos into ‘Picasa’ (free from Google) where I straighten and crop, then very occasionaly if needed I’ll click the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button.
Sometimes we get caught up in technology and make things far too dificult for ourselves! I hope this helps you to get better results.
depending on the size of the art, a high resolution scan of the watercolor can be done on a home scanner or Kinkos. the advantage of this is completely flat lighting and absolutely no distortion caused by an off perpendicular lens if you use a camera without plumb bobbing the lens etc.
it is the most accurate copy you can make. After you download it onto your computer, you can use photoshop or another editor to color correct the art any way you like.
Go to Nita Lelands website. I am pretty sure she has an article on this subject. Phyllis
I wanted to chime in, as I have had a lot of success using natural light to take good photos of paintings my aunt has sent me in the past. You don’t necessarily have to be outside either, but if you have a glass door and it is a sunny day, that could work as well as long as the light gets through unimpeded!
Thanks for the replies which were helpful
Bob Peterson