How to take photos of art
Lighting is the most important aspect of photography. I always shoot with natural light and I suggest you do the same. If I can find light even in the most moody day here in Finland, you can find it too.
Have good lighting, without light there is no way you can take good photos.
Make a place where you take photos clean, tidy and photo friendly. No junk laying around! If you just shoot only 1 painting, you don't need that. But if it's a painting in an interior, it has to be tidy and with good looking background.
Composition is very important in photography. Fortunately, as artists, it’s so much easier for you than for people who's not familiar with rules of composition.
If you want to learn more about art photography I offer 1:1 content creation coaching HERE
find new angles to shoot from
Composition is a key to success, it's the main reason I choose certain reference photos, if the composition is bad the painting just won't work out. So when you take photos of art make sure that composition looks great.
I don't use any rules when it comes to choosing composition. But if you don't know what a good composition is, there are plenty of resources about it on the internet.
When shooting:
• make sure that the object is not too exposed, there has to be enough light, but not too much (no direct sunlight)
• I always shoot raw, and you should too if you use a dslr or a mirrorless camera (this will ensure that your editing won’t ruin the quality of photos)
• light reflectors. You can buy fancy ones but I just use a white canvas for this. Position the canvas against a source of light (aka window), light will reflect and make the other side of the object less shadowy, this is one of my secret tips
• there has to be a certain colour theme. Personally, I try to stick to white colour theme and stay away from other colours in my interiors. My art is colourful enough, so I like to keep it simple. You can choose your own color theme and work with it every time you take photos of art
how to take pictures of art
THIS WAY THE LIGHTING IS EVEN IN ALL CORNERS OF THE PIECE
Perfect for close-ups
MANUAL MODE
• 90% of photos where you see me I shot myself, for this type of pics I use tripod and connect to my phone feature in my camera
• most of the time I use Auto mode, it's just more quick and easy, but sometimes I'll shoot Manual. For example when I need to create blurry background or shoot some details. These look more beautiful in manual mode (if you haven't tried the manual mode before it can be difficult at first)
I hope you’ve found this blog post helpful and your photography skills will improve after reading this. It is a skill which you’ll get better at with practice. Now go and shoot some photos today;)
Read more about 1:1 content creation coaching HERE