Education and Inspiration

The steps outlined here are not intended to produce results equal to those of a professional photographer; however, if you are the do-it-yourself type or have had trouble in the past, then these four key steps will get you on the right track.

1. LIGHTING THE ARTWORK

The key to lighting your artwork is to have uniform lighting across the surface and to avoid shooting in any type of low light situation. In the studio, professionals use two lamps, one on the left and one on the right, aimed at 45 degrees toward the artboard. That provides optimal lighting, but requires lamps and special stands. Alternatively, you can get good results by shooting outdoors in natural light. Digital cameras don't typically do well in low light, but natural light, even bright shade, is many times brighter than regular indoor light. A strong, diffuse light is always best. Avoid direct sunlight. Overcast or semi-overcast days are often ideal, as they provide steady, indirect light. Be wary of too much shade (or very low light) which will not give the camera enough light to record your colors accurately.

2. ALIGNING THE CAMERA / FRAMING THE ARTWORK

If you've tried shooting artwork before, you know that the results are sometimes shaped like a trapezoid. This is because the artwork is not "squared up" correctly in the viewfinder. The plane of the camera must be parallel to the plane of the the painting. If the camera is even a few inches higher or lower, or to the left or right, the picture will have some distortion, i.e., trapezoid.

It's worth taking extra care in positioning the camera to ensure "square" results, especially if you won't be correcting any errors in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. A tripod really helps! An inexpensive one can be had for less than $25. It also ensures against blurry photos.

Check the squareness of the alignment by looking through the camera's viewscreen or viewfinder. Don't attempt to fill the viewfinder with the artwork; you might clip off some of it. Instead, leave a little space around the artwork. Your goal is to keep adjusting the height and angle of the camera until the spaces between the edge of the artwork and the edge of the viewfinder are as parallel as possible. If you're off, you'll see that the extra space or "frame" around the image will not look straight.

Artwork incorrectly aligned in viewfinder. Red lines show that the extra space or "frame" around the image is not parallel with the sides of the viewfinder.

Artwork correctly aligned in viewfinder. The height and angle of the camera have been adjusted until the spaces between the edge of the artwork and the edge of the viewfinder are as even as possible.

If, despite your best efforts, you still get distortion, you can "bend" the image back into shape in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements using Edit > Transform > Distort (or Skew).

3. EXPOSURE SETTINGS

This part is easy — the camera does it all for you. Some digital cameras give you manual controls over the exposure with shutter speed and aperture. Don't attempt this unless you really know what you're doing. The camera's auto exposure should work fine. Never take photos of your artwork with the flash. Always disable the flash function.

Digital cameras also have ISO or light sensitivity settings of 80, 100, 200, 400 and higher. Higher numbers mean higher sensitivity and permit you to shoot in low light situations; however, the higher the number the more "noise" is introduced in the final image. Noise looks like fine mottling or specs, especially in the darker areas. That's very undesirable, especially for artwork, so always shoot in the brightest light possible with the lowest sensitivity setting (80 or 100). Check your manual and make sure you know how to set this.

Digital cameras also have a white balance control. This tunes the color of the photo to the color of the ambient light to achieve the most accurate color. Cameras typically have presets such as Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, and Tungsten; however, they may not be as accurate as taking a custom white balalnce reading. Take a moment to learn where this setting is on your camera.

4. POST PRODUCTION. For optimal results, just about every photograph will still need some tweaking in an image editing program.* If your exposure and white balance were set correctly, there are really only two edits you'll need to make.

1. Cropping, to eliminate the background and make sure the image is perfectly square.

2. Adjusting Levels. Even in the best lighting situation, digital cameras often expose darker than they should; the range between the darks and the lights is narrowed and, as a result, colors can appear dim. A simple adjustment in Levels revives the contrast and colors. The adjustment makes sure that your darks are fully dark and that your whites are truly white. As you might imagine, this adjustment is very important for artwork. In fact, it is the single most powerful adjustment you can do to any digital image to improve it's overall quality.

In Photoshop: Image > Adjustment > Levels

The dialog box that pops up may look intimidating, but it's really just a bar chart (called a histogram) showing the range of values in the image. The left side corresponds to the darks (note the little black triangle). The right side corresponds to the lights (note the little white triangle). And the gray triangle in the middle corresponds to the middle tones.

What's important to note are the flat, empty spaces on either side of the histogram (indicated by the red brackets). Not all histograms have these flat areas, but those that do tell you that the photograph doesn't have a full range of values. The darks are not as dark as they should be and the lights are not as light as they should be. That's why the painting before Levels adjustment (below, left) appears dim and washed out as compared to the painting after Levels adjustment (right).

Left, image before adjustment. Right, image after adjustment.

To adjust Levels, simply pull the left and right sliders in closer to the center. You'll immediately see the contrast increase and colors brighten. Dragging the left slider punches up the darks, while dragging the left slider lightens the lights. What you are essentially doing by adjusting the black and white sliders is remapping the value range in the photo.

Of course, every piece of artwork is different and will have a different histogram. Experiment with several photos, play with the sliders, and become familiar with how dramatically they can improve the image that comes out of your camera. When it comes to correcting photos, the Levels adjustment is your best friend.

*I strongly urge any artist working with a digital camera to obtain and learn how to use an image editing program. Adobe Photoshop is the de facto standard for both professionals and amateurs, but it is quite expensive. Adobe also offers a slightly less sophisticated version called Photoshop Elements which costs about $60.