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tips on
photographing Your own art |
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my
digital jury image services |
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Basic Lighting Diagram to Photograph
Flat Art or 3D Objects |
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| This is just a guideline or starting point
for those of you who want to photograph your own artwork. Two lights positioned at 45 degree angles
to the object or painting gives even light over the entire
subject. This also works with shooting flat art on the floor and using a
right angle arm on a tripod to shoot straight down. The light source
should be soft. Bounced into large white umbrellas as an example, and set
up to give an even spread over the entire subject. I use 48 inch white umbrellas
to photograph objects as small as an inch or two in size. Digital
advantage over shooting film are immediate feedback and access to the
images. You should be able to see hot spots on the object and then move
the lights to correct for it. The best images are done in camera with as
little post processing as possible. It's best to leave a little room
around the image and do the straightening and cropping afterwards in
Photoshop when the image is color corrected. |
| Backgrounds should be neutral and
have no color for jury images. Black, white, gray or a graduated
background with a combination of those same neutral tones works best. |
| Optional would be to use a white reflector
under and in front to bounce fill light onto the bottom of a 3D object.
Additionally sometimes an additional light or reflector positioned above
and slightly behind the object will give it rim lighting which will help
separate it from the background. |
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Basic Lighting Diagram to Show Texture and Dimension
on Flat Art or 2D Mixed Media |
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| Position of lights can be reversed if
necessary. The light closest to the subject causes shadows in the texture
which gives the object a three dimensional feel when the image is viewed.
As in the above description, be careful of hot spots and reposition the
lights while shooting if necessary. |
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An example of monolights (self contained
lights and power supply) bounced into
white umbrellas. A popular brand of these flash units is
Alien Bees. |
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Tips on Photographing Your Own Art |
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How to
set your digital camera to photograph art |
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Lighting products that make it easy to do
your own digital photography |
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Hire me
to Prepare your Digital Jury Images |
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Digital Jury Resources |
