An important part of making artwork is documenting the piece once it is finished. Usually, this is so a portfolio can be created to show galleries or other customers. If nothing else, however, it is nice to have a picture of something you’ve made since you’ll probably never see it again if it’s sold, or given away. The best results are most likely achievable by hiring a professional to do the work for you. For myself, however, this is too expensive, so I had to find a way to take my own pictures that would look reasonably professional, and this article is about what I’ve learned so far to help you take good pictures of your work.

It seems to be commonplace now to use digital photos of artwork for submission to contests, or to galleries. Even good-quality prints can be made if a hard copy is needed. So, the following directions are for digital cameras. If you only have a photographic camera, the techniques are basically the same. The digital camera does not need to be a particularly fancy model. Most point-and shoot cameras will take photos just fine if you know a few tricks.

To get started, I recommend taking the pictures outdoors. You can do it indoors, but you need so much light, it becomes very time consuming or expensive to locate those. So, outdoors is best in indirect light. Overcast days are best, but if there is no other choice but to shoot on a sunny day, pick a shaded area, such as the shaded side of a house early or late in the day.

You’ll need a background. I usually go with either white or black, depending on the piece I am photographing and what kind of contrast I want. With the right color (and large enough) sheet or fabric, I use a staple gun to attach the fabric to a fence, or the side of a shed, or some surface I don’t mind putting staples into. If it’s a sunny day, and you’re putting up white fabric a fence, light might shine through the slats of the fence and create an unwanted pattern. Try putting cardboard or some other opaque material behind the fabric first. Start by stapling the corners of the fabric, then move in to the middle, pulling the fabric tight every time. Keep pulling and stapling until all the wrinkles in the fabric are pulled tight.

With the fabric up, I put a nail through the fabric into the fence or wall to hang the artwork on. Then, I hang my first piece and get my camera. It’s not necessary, but it can be very helpful to use a tripod to take the pictures. It insures that more of the pictures you take won’t end up out of focus or fuzzy from small movements. If you don’t have a tripod, try supporting the camera on something solid like the end of a broomstick for support. You want the lens to be at the same level from the ground as the middle of the piece you are photographing.

If you’re photographing a free-standing sculpture, use paper instead of cloth, set the paper (the heavier the better) on a table and bend it up to rest against a wall or fence. You can tape it to keep it in place. Then, set the sculpture on the paper and take pictures.

Because the difference in the zoom of the camera actually affects how distorted the image can be, I recommend taking pictures from different distances away from the piece. If you only use the widest zoom and get as close as you can, this is usually a wide-angle lens shot, and if you’re photographing a square frame, it will look a little distorted (bulged out). So try some where you back up and zoom in.

The most important trick to photographing with a point-and-shoot camera is to bracket exposures. This means to take as many photos with different exposure readings as possible. Especially with a white background, the light meter on a camera will usually underexpose an image. On most cameras, exposure is not manually controllable, so you’ll have to “trick” the camera. Point the camera off to the side, or down at the ground until you see the camera try to compensate for the change in light level (it will “lighten” or “darken” the image). Next, press the camera button down halfway (gently), and with most cameras this “freezes” the exposure setting (on some cameras, this also freezes the focus, so try to do this on a part of the wall or ground that is a similar distance as the piece is). Now, holding the button down that way, move back to the piece you are photographing and push the button the rest of the way to take the picture. By experimenting with this process, and taking many different shots, you should be able to get a range of exposures. Later, when you look at them on the computer, you’ll be able to see which ones look best. Sometimes, what looks overexposed on the camera’s viewfinder ends up looking good on the computer screen. So don’t try to judge too much, just take a lot of shots.

Good luck! With a little practice, you’ll be able to produce good looking pictures for your website, portfolio, or to print!