Improving Your Art Show Booth Slide, Improving your art show booth image

Working with artists
I've worked with many artists to improve their booth image for jurying. I have them set their display up in their driveway or backyard and e-mail me the pictures while the booth is still set up. I'll make suggestions on camera angle and placement of the art within the booth, have them reshoot and send me the images again. For this to work properly, I need to know in advance when you will be setting up the booth to photograph and for you to call me when the first image is ready to be emailed. And you need to be using a tripod so I can suggest changing the camera position.

No Photoshop booths
A term used in the a few applications. What they mean is that they do not want to see booths "created" in Photoshop. Understandable since at each open jury I've attended I've seen booth images that didn't look right, maybe they were floating in mid air or the artwork floating on the booth walls with no shadows. If it looks wrong it wastes valuable time that the jurors spend looking at your images, trying to figure out why it looks wrong.

Some suggestions to get started on photographing your booth to send me the images. Also read my article on how to set your camera to photograph art

	Set up your canopy with the roof on
	All three sides of your canopy need to be used so there is nothing distracting showing through the booth.
	Overcast or cloudy day is best so there are no streaks of sunlight hitting the booth or canopy.
	A tripod is mandatory and will compensate for the longer exposure needed
	Do not hang any signs, especially signs that identify you. The jury process is supposed to be blind and having a name in the booth will get you a lower jury score.
	If you do 3D, hang pictures of your work if you have them
	Look at the display through the camera (on a tripod). Items shouldn't be overlapping or blocking each other from the camera angle.
	Shoot wider than the canopy and include the top. Let me crop and square the image. Most consumer digital cameras will cause the edges of the image to curve and I can correct it in post processing.
	Some shows prefer to see all three walls of the booth in the picture. In the past, shooting into a corner showing two ten foot walls was sufficient, but I no longer recommend that. I now recommend angling the camera so you can see that there is something on the third wall, though you may not be able to see it in the same detail as the other two walls. If you don't understand, I'll have you make the adjustment in camera position after seeing the first images.
	If you want the work on all three walls to be seen clearly, make the back wall approximately eight to nine feet wide inside the canopy angling the slide walls out slightly toward the front corners.
	All fabric table clothes need to be wrinkle free. Have safety pins, duct tape and spring clips handy when setting the booth up.

Digital Jury Resources

Hire me to Prepare your Digital Jury Images