WOYWW: How to photograph your artwork!

Hello Wowwers! Today my main craft desk is filled to the brim with stuff to package up for the craft fair I am doing in a week and a half {holy smokes! I am just now realizing it is less than 2 weeks away!?!} so instead of showing you the same old crap I’ve been making I thought I’d share another hard-used work area…my photography area!

That’s pretty sophisticated huh? Well, maybe not but the proof is in the pudding…or the photos so to speak so I thought I film a quick video blog today demonstrating my photography techniques and offering tips that you can try if you are unhappy with the way the photos of your crafts turn out.

Quick Tip Review:

1. Hold your camera steady, tuck your elbows in at your sides, hold your camera in both hands close to your body, press the shutter halfway down to focus, exhale, press the shutter the rest of the way. Viola! Alternately you can use a tripod and a remote clicker to eliminate shake.
2. Use the macro feature fore really small stuff like jewelry or details on a card or scrapbook page. This allows you to get physically close to the object and keep it in focus. It blurs the rest of the image for a professional ethereal look. I will often take a photo in regular mode too in case I don’t like the effect when I am editing. On most cameras there is a button on the back with a flower on it, push that to turn on the macro feature.
3. KISS: Keep it Simple Stupid, I photograph my art in my white box against a white background with white props. It keeps the attention on my artwork. It also reflects and maximizes the light. Sometimes I will scatter buttons, or add a branch or flowers to a plain project to make the photo more interesting or place some scrapbook paper or fabric as a backdrop but in most cases regarding the use of props and backgrounds I have this mantra: “When in doubt, leave it out!” Ironically when it comes to creating the art my mantra is “The more the merrier!”
4. Don’t use the flash, man! While the flash is great in a lot of circumstances it kills the detail and contrast in your still life photography, really what you are doing when you shoot your crafts is still-life. You should have plenty of light with your homemade light box so ditch the flash. To disable the flash look for a button with a lighting bolt on in and press it until you see an icon on the lighting bolt with a “not-allowed sign” around it.
5. Adjust levels in image editing software such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or the free program GIMP.

 

I save white pottery, boxes and dishes to use and photo props.

This is the simple easel I made to lean my scrapbook pages and small paintings against when I photograph them:

Uh, disregard the 2″x11″ notation, the base is 2″x8″. 😛 Here it is in use, there is enough support for the paper that is does not slide down or bow back at the corners.

A tip when shooting larger items like scrapbook pages and paintings is to use the “perspective adjustment” tool in your photo editing software. It had an icon that looks like a crop tool but you set each corner at the corner of your project and it straitens out any parallax.  Try to shoot it as level as you can so the adjustment has to only be minor. Then crop your photo, I like to leave a border of the white backdrop around my scrapbook page or card but that is personal preference.

After you have these well shot photos you might want to enhance them a bit more. Your camera is tricky, give it too much white and it might want to make it grey, give it too much black and it wants to make it gray but you know your background is white so you can go in your trusty photo editing software and give that photo what-for! I like to use the curves/levels tool for this. In Paint Shop Pro I choose Curves (from the Adjust menu) then click levels. That usually dose the trick but if it still does not look like the original I slide the curve a bit until it really represents the artwork.

I hope this helps answer some of your artwork photography questions without being to overwhelming. Really, holding the camera still, not using flash and shooting your artwork in a simple white box is pretty much all you need to know…huh, I could have just typed that to begin with and save you from listening to me gab for 5+ minutes and reading all of this..oh well;) I hope you learned something new anyway 🙂 If you want to see what is happening on craftier desks head over to Julia’s blog for more What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday fun! Til next time happy crafting!

Make a Photography box!

A gal from Oriental Stamp Art asked me how I photograph my cards and artwork, she was curious about the handmade setup I had. Well I thought I would share it with everyone here on my blog. To kill a couple of birds with one stone I decided to use the card I made with this weeks sketch at OSA as an example {I’m proud to say that they picked my sketch to feature this week} Here is my card photographed in my photobox:

Stamps: About Art Accents, Paper: K&Co, Other: Assorted clipart and vintage efemera, hand crochted butterfly

I use a Canon Powershot point and shoot camera, nothing fancy 🙂 The pretty stamp I used in this card is from About Art Accents. I crochted a butterfly with white cotton and chalked it to match my card. To photgraph the detail I used the macro mode button on my camera and got close to the card:

here is a close up of the stamped image and croched butterfly

Here is the box, it is made by taping 3 different sized rectangles of foamcore  together. I have a hook on one of the sides so I can photograph hanging projects like ornaments or necklaces. I just turn the box however best fits my project.

this is made from foamcore and tape

I used plain ol’ masking tape to put it together. I made this box about 3 years ago and I use it daily so as you can see it is sturdy (it’s also a bit grimy so I’ll need to make a new one soon 🙂 } it is also cheap to make, all you need is a sheet or two of white foam core and you can get that at the dollar store or wal-mart on the cheap! Other than that you need a utility or craft knife, a metal straight edge (ruler) and a roll of masking tape. cut 3 rectangles of foam core and tape them together on the back to make a 3 walled box, easy peasy!

I work in my basement so I need good constant lighting, here is my set up:

the daylight CFLs shine at a 45 degree angle towards my photobox and the shop light provides an all over light.

It was lucky for me that we have a pool table under the flourescent light, I simply put a large plastic storage tote on the table and my photobox on top of that to get it close to the light. I like to shoot my work on white most of the time but if I decide to use a background cloth I make sure I have part of the white box showing (I will crop it off later) so I can white balance it if I need to when editing. I don’t use the camera flash. usually I open my photo in Paint Shop Pro, click adjust then curves and select either levels or contrast. If it still doesn’t look right I balance it by clicking on the white eyedropper icon, then on a white spot on the photo, and black if need be.

Here is the same project shot on white:

Here is the same project shot on white. Have fun experimenting with your artwork!

I hope this helps anyone interested in taking good photos of their cards and artwork. Thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!