What's The Best Way To Take Pictures Of My Art Work

Blaine,the first two should do the job,lol

With a camera.

In the dark! KIDDING!

SCANNER mentioned it already.

no phones.
pointless to buy a camera to shoot flat work
lights on is a good idea.

get a scanner, seriously, because even if you had the camera, you would need to be at a perfect angle with perfect lighting and its very hard to do. and considering you seem to be having issues with rotation, i would get a scanner.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Mike, that sounds like a great idea! I will try a scanner next time :)

This is getting a wee bit ridiculous. Anyone else feel like we are being played?

Sooner or later, I thought someone would think the same thing, Valerie!

Yea, this has to be a joke.

i do yet, it may help others. and i'll play along.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

is that a serious question?

perhaps its another social experiment?


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

It all seems familiar

i remember a long time ago some guy used this place as his thesis. making up art as he went along and then basically called all art fake or something like that. mostly because it was easy for him to make it, so therefore he proved something in his thesis, made a video and everything.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I just bought a mac book pro, so that should help when I get photo editing set up. I'm going to try taking pictures outside thanks r! My grammar and spelling is gonna take awhile! Drawing is easy its everything else that is hard. Im glad I have thick skin because the negitve criticism would have stopped me along time ago.Im not trying to play anyone I'm just trying to learn!

i'm kind of curious what you've been typing on up till this point. a thick skin is good, but don't let it get in the way to improve work.

anyway rotate the images, your driving JC batty.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

My iPhone its all I got right now you know. I'm doing the best I can, and I just spent 1600.00 on my first computer.

sounds high. should have gone with a PC, for probably half the price.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Here are some tips for you that we give people photographing their work. However, even if you scan, some will help

First off, all artwork should be photographed following these simple steps:

1. Use at least a 10-12 MP camera, with a manual focus lens not an auto focus. The higher the MP the camera, the larger the file we have to print from. If you want to offer large prints, you need to use a high MP camera.

2. Mount the camera to a tripod. If you don't have a tripod, use a stack of books, a table, anything. You just have to have the camera sitting on something, not hand held.

3. Shoot outdoors in natural light. Make sure you white balance your camera too, or the colors won't be right.

4. Preview the image to make sure there are no blurry areas, flash problems, etc.

5. Export at the highest possible file size while staying under our less than 25 MB limit.

To preview an image in photo editing software simply use the zoom icon to zoom in on the image until it's viewed at 100% print size. What you will find is that viewing it at 100% you will be able to see if there are any problem areas.

Look all around the image at 100%, the edges included. If the image has no problems, blurry areas, uncropped edges, or areas where there is flash reflecting off the image, then you're on your way to a great image.

Second, you have to determine how large you want your image printed to. Go to the image menu, and click "Resize Image". DO NOT RESIZE THE IMAGE TO BLOW IT UP LARGER IN THIS MENU. That will only result in a blurry, pixelated, problematic image.

We need 100 pixels/inch in order to have a nice image for printing. That makes the math easy as well. Your image menu can be viewed as a pixels/inch ratio, and you can see how many inches wide by tall your image is. You can shrink down the inches in this menu if the image is blurry. THis is shrinking the image to make it a little smaller. You can shrink the image down and it will help the quality of the image, just never blow it up in this menu.

If your image is 1400 pixels by 1000 pixels then the image can be printed up to 14x10. etc.etc.

That's all you need to preview your image. Doing that will help inform you how large your image can be printed to, and whether it's print ready when zooming in at 100% to see it's quality of focus and to see if there are any problem areas.

If You really think about using Your i-phone this site may not be the right for You. It's a bit like fishing with a shoelace.

I know how to rotate, I won't drive JC batty anymore. Working on rest thanks!

Lady do you have a recommendation on a camera?

i still recommend the scanner. you'll need more than the camera, and that takes a lot of skill right there. get the scanner, if your work is flat, it's the way to go.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Most of my drawings are big 30x22, are there scanners that go that big? I just cropped and changed my existing pics. Im sure they still won't be printable, but there getting better!

Yeah I too wonder at the social experiment.
--Mary Ellen anderson

scan them in pieces, stitch later. ideally it's better to draw small and scan large

the lighting is a little uneven in spots, but i think they will print like that.


this one is fuzzy and the white balance is set to incandescent. the other one i think will be ok, though it seems warpy in spots.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

ok i read you! the only thing i worry about is my pastels smearing on the glass

pastels shouldn't be an issue. if they were craypas or something greasy it might. but there is usually an air gap there that may prevent it from sticking down on it. and if does, you can clean the glass off pretty well, just don't spray on the glass itself. it shouldn't hurt the art at all. you can always experiment first. generally though if your worried about smearing, it will do that if you ship it, hang it etc. the work should be sealed with a spray fixer.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I have scanned pastels. Make sure to tap the back of the artwork (best done outside or over a trash can) to dislodge the loose particles first and then just carefully place the artwork gently onto the glass and not slide it around while it's laying face down.

i'll try that thanks!

You can spray the pastels with a fixative. That can dull the colors so do it when almost done with the pastel and don't spray the final touches. Less likely to smear then.