Photograph your works for your portfolio!

Since we did not have the chance to talk about photograph for design works, this post will give you some hints to take photos by yourself.

When you finish your models or printing works, how you usually document them? You scan or photograph? For the art works that can be hardly scanned, I think it is much better to photograph them into digital pictures and then you are able to edit them into your portfolio. However, the skills of taking photos will influence the quality of your pictures as well as your portfolio. Therefore, in the following article are the tactics that you may need to know for the photographs.

Every artist needs to keep visual records of their work—and whether you plan on selling your art right away or keeping it for years, you should always have up-to-date images ready to share.

In this tutorial I’ll explain exactly how to take great photos of your artwork, and cover a few VERY basic steps in Photoshop that will get your images ready for print or uploading onto the internet. (And by the way, if you don’t have an online portfolio yet, check out foliotwist, a company that I helped co-found.)

For those of you looking to make traditional 35mm slides out of your digital photos, I’ve included a link at the end of the article for that.

All right, lets get started. . .

After the paint is completely dry, take your painting outside on a sunny day. The natural outdoor light is much, MUCH better than anything indoors.

Find a wall, or any place really, where you can prop up your painting so that it stands almost perfectly upright.

I’d suggest using a tripod with your digital camera to make sure that you’re taking perfectly steady shots.

No tripod? Don’t sweat it, a box works just as well.

When you take the photo, remember to tilt the camera slightly down to match the angle that the artwork is leaning – this will help minimize distortion of the original image.

If it’s extremely bright, find somewhere that gives little shade, otherwise put the painting in direct sunlight.

Later on I’ve included a photograph which was taken on a really bright summer day in Idaho. I had to tone the sun’s intensity down just a bit so I placed my painting in a shadow.

Normally this won’t be the case, however.

Many people have trouble with their artwork looking like it swelled up. That’s an issue with the camera lens, but it’s easily fixable.

The solution is to use the “zoom” on your camera, and then back farther away from your art. This will create a more natural amount of depth to the photo and keep those edges from bulging outward.

Be sure to fill the viewfinder of the camera as much as possible and then check to see that all the edges of your work are parallel with the edges of the viewfinder. You’ll want to especially avoid these types of photographs:

Both of those distortions come from the camera not being dead center to the artwork.

Take several pictures because it won’t always be as easy to tell on the viewfinder whether or not there’s any distortion. Once your images are up on your computer, you’ll be able to see for sure which photo is best.

For more information for this article please visit the link:http://emptyeasel.com/2007/01/19/how-to-photograph-your-artwork-for-a-portfolio-or-the-internet/

Besides the skills for the angle and lighting of your shooting, what details of your works you want to show is also important. In the following are some examples to illustrate how I usually photograph for my art works and how they might work for your portfolio.

Before we go into the details, I would suggest firstly that to create your own photograph studio. The steps are pretty easy.  To get a translucent box like the picture shown below or buy four form boards and attach them to become the structure of three boards on three sides and one on the bottom. It is also suggested to take picture during the day time and within your porch rather than taking picture at night. Photograph during the daytime will make sure that colors expressed in the photos are naturally authentic. Also, brings the photograph studio into the porch (not in the open space) is to avoid  your photos are over exposure. If you do need to take photo at night, be sure to put two lamps on both sides of the studio (maybe on more on the top) to enhance sufficiently indoor lighting like the person did in his picture.

DIY Photograph Studio. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/cypherone  /2074577620/

After knowing how to make your own photography studio, I would like to suggest some skills you may use for photograph. Firstly, it is important to think about the story you are trying to express from your work. For example, this is an art book made by hand and designed by a special binding technique. Therefore, photo that focuses on the handmade details is helpful to tell the story of picture to your readers.

                                                              (author’s own picture)

Secondly, try to avoid the entire part of your work and chose partial area that is interesting, unless it is necessary to show the overall work to keep information completed. Below is an example of photo for wedding invitation that only shows the texture and patterns on the cover rather than expresses the content inside of the wedding invitation.

                                                                (author’s own picture)

Lastly, if you are going to take picture for entire work, make sure that to align your work  parallel with the frame. Try to take it from an angle rather than take photo from front side. This skill can emphasize the depth of work but also bring interesting proportion to your picture.

                                                                (author’s own picture)

The following website is a tutorial that will give you more information about how to photograph your works. I hope you will enjoy it and good luck for your portfolio.

How to photograph your work: A tutorial  
http://psu.gd/how-to-photograph-your-work-a-pdf-tutorial/