Documentation

Photograph and document your work.

You are pleased with the paintings you've made and would like to photograph them. Artists take, slide transparencies of their work for several reasons: Documentation of works sold and works on hand, reproduction to CD or disk, a web page, and as slide documentation for grants, and venue proposals. Whatever the reason, it's good to know how to document your work through photography. I shoot my own work, but on occasion I use professional photographers and judge my own photos against their's to ensure the quality of my images.

you'll need:
Either a 35mm single lense reflex (SLR) camera or a digital camera of at least 3.2 megapixels. Either should have a good lense . The 35 mm camera I used to use was all manual. I didn't used to trust auto-focus lenses but the digital camera I use is accurate, its auto exposure is accurate as well. I used to prefer setting exposures manually and I would bracket the exposures. Now days my Canon digital elph works fine. I still set the ASA to 200 and use the white balance setting.

A tripod. You don't need the best, but it should be easily adjustable and stable.

A 12 inch cable release . The self-timer on the camera will work, but it's slower and less convenient. The digital camera I use doesn't support a camera release and is less convenient.

A polarizing filter. Reduces glare. Necessary if your work is already glazed. Be aware that a poarizing filter may slightly alter the color balance of your images. Again, your digital camera may not take filters.

Light source. Natural daylight or color corrected photoflood lamps for indoor studio shooting. I use 2 Wiko® 250W, 120V, 1700 Kelvin photofloods and bounce them off my ceiling which is white. Be sure to set your digital camera on white balance.

2 or more Light fixtures. Utility lights, those with an 8-1/2 in. polished aluminum reflector and squeeze clamp. Can be purchased at a local hardware store. These work very well. Caution, don't leave these light fixtures on for long periods of time or unattended while on. These fixtures are not rated for the Tungsten T lamps.

A pair of stands or supports to clamp the light fixtures to. Photo stands, high backed chairs, ladders, etc. A wooden 6 foot closet rod buried in plaster or cement within a 1 gallon milk jug works well and doesn't cost much.

One or more extension cords.

I used to use slide film. I prefered Kodak® Ektachrome T Tungsten 35mm slide film . Available in 64 and 160 ISO, and 20 or 36 exposures. I prefer the 160 ISO for wider exposure range.

A wall, easel, even a step ladder to hang or rest the work upon while shooting.

A black or medium to dark grey back drop. I use a 4 foot by 4 foot piece of grey foamboard.

A measuring tape. For measuring lense and painting height as well as distance from camera lense to painting.

A computer is necessary when taking pictures using a digital camera. I prefer Apple Macintosh computers as do many graphic art and fine art professionals. Imaging software is necessary. Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard and most likely the best, but it is expensive. Adobe also sells a downgraded version which is much more affordable. A personal favorite which is a very affordable shareware program is Graphic Converter. Adobe products are cross platform whereas Graphic Converter is Macintosh only. Gimp.app is an alternative freeware graphic application for Mac, but requires Apple's X11 or Darwin.

Most venues today prefer viewing digital images on compact disks. Fewer venues still prefer reviewing slides. A CD burner is a must to burn your images and an external hard drive is important to store your digital images.

I often have postcards made of my work for shows and invitations. The printing house prefers receiving image files via compact disk or broadband.

Home How to Watercolor