<p>Do most people do their own photographs? My D has no experience with photography. The internet has tips, but I think D feels a little shaky on this.</p>
<p>D's art teacher says that it can be done professionally, but it seems like a good skill to have.</p>
<p>Portfolio preparation is a skill they will teach in college.
If they are in h.s. then I’d recommend having someone do it and/or ask the teacher for advice on that. The Teacher should have several resources for that.
I know mostly photographers who make their own photography portfolios.</p>
<p>Oh…you could ask your local art store, they might know of good and affordable places or do it themselves. :)</p>
<p>I forget which internet sites we used but actually they were pretty helpful. You do, however, need a really good camera. Two of our local art schools offered a Saturday class on the how to and sometimes there are local art organizations that may be able to put you in touch with a photographer.</p>
<p>Photographing art for a portfolio isn’t really that different to photographing art in general.</p>
<p>The idea with paintings is that you want really flat, non directional light and as little glare as possible.</p>
<p>The traditional studio set up for photographing paintings consists of two strobes (flashes) fitted with softboxes or umbrellas. Each light is usually positioned at roughly 45 degrees to the painting’s vertical axis and at about more or less the same height (or a little higher) as the paintings horizontal axis. They usually try to get a good few feet of distance between the strobes and painting (i would say at least 12 feet) as this helps even out the light. Though the distance you chose ultimately depends on the size of the work, the strength of the lights and how much space you have. Large paintings may require an additional overhead softbox (in the middle) and a reflector on the floor. A tripod and a good camera are necessities. Its advisable to use a 50 or 70mm lens and an aperture no larger than f11. Using other lenses will put you at risk of having distorted images while using larger apertures may screw with the sharpness of your image.</p>
<p>If you don’t have easy access to this kind of equipment (as many of us don’t) the best solution is to find yourself a good DSLR camera, a tripod, a uniformly lit white wall and a polarizing filter for your lens. Shooting work on the floor is never advisable.</p>
<p>In the instance of a portfolio, you should try to use similar settings for each painting. While, of course that may not be entirely possible since some paintings will need more exposure than others, it makes your life a lot easier if all of the photographs have similar brightnesses and and color balances. </p>
<p>I recently shot some paintings for a friend of mine and I made the mistake of using very different exposures for each painting. I didn’t think it made that much of a difference while I was editing them but it became very evident when i saw all the images together.</p>
<p>Photographing sculpture and 3d work is a lot more involved and there is hardly any preset way of shooting as so much depends on which features of an objects form the artist wants emphasized.</p>
<p>Very helpful, kaelyn! I’ve been wondering about this myself and have been waiting for a detailed reply to this post. Thank you!</p>
<p>How many people out there photograph their own portfolios vs have it done professionally?
My D is a painter. she has no experience with photography really. And we don’t have the equipment. Though I realize that this is a good thing to know.</p>
<p>My daughter didn’t have any teachers to ask about this. We had to sort of do it by trial and error. As it turns out, my partner is very meticulous about photos and was very helpful; he ended up doing her portfolio photos. We had a part of the living room where we set up the canvases. (We actually created a sort of ledge on a build-in shelf, so that canvases were sitting on the narrow ledge, not hanging on a nail.) He put his camera (8 or 10 megapixel, digital, Canon, don’t know details) on a tripod so that the lens was level with the middle of the painting and at a 90 degree angle, about 6-8 feet away from the painting. Then we would open up the blinds, giving us diffused natural light on the canvases. He took pictures with and without flash. </p>
<p>The good thing was that because we did this for everything, all of those shots were with the same lighting and situation. We did them in the mid-morning – about 9-10 AM. I know there are professional services that do this, but there was no way we could afford that. </p>
<p>After he took the photos, he would crop them so the image was just the edges, and then would change them if needed to meet digital portfolio limits. Some places have maximums for the size of the file, or want it to be a particular measurement when printed, stuff like that.</p>
<p>Kaelyn is right on the money (big surprise right? 
)</p>
<p>Here are some links if you want to really get into this:</p>
<p>[How</a> to Photograph Art](<a href=“http://www.dallasartsrevue.com/resources/How-to-Photo-Art.shtml]How”>http://www.dallasartsrevue.com/resources/How-to-Photo-Art.shtml)</p>
<p>(Notice the lighting setup and use of the color chart in the link below)
[How</a> to photograph art pieces - Photo.net Lighting Equipment and Techniques Forum](<a href=“http://photo.net/photography-lighting-equipment-techniques-forum/00F5l7]How”>http://photo.net/photography-lighting-equipment-techniques-forum/00F5l7)</p>
<p>[Photographing</a> Paintings and Similar Works of Art](<a href=“http://hubpages.com/hub/Rona]Photographing”>http://hubpages.com/hub/Rona)</p>
<p>I’ve been a photographer for about 35 years so I was able to help my daughter with some of this.</p>
<p>You could substitute 2 synced SLR flash units for the pro strobes shown in the links above BUT be sure to diffuse the light. As mentioned, you want smooth even light at 45 degrees from both sides for flat artwork.</p>
<p>Best,
Wheaty</p>
<p>PS. If you get stuck send me a PM. And if you hate the whole idea then take your artwork to a pro studio - most would be relatively inexpensive and happy to help.</p>
<p>Me and D have been photographing her work for awhile. We use her “pretty good” camera or my “better” one and sometimes her art teacher takes shots for us. Paintings are pretty easy. We prop them up, aim for even lighting and shoot a LOT of frames. We use natural light if we can. We’ve never used a tripod, but that’s only because we don’t own one. If we shoot 30 or so, and none are acceptable, we’ve always had better luck the second time around, experimenting with different lighting. It’s fun sometimes to zoom in and photograph just a detail of the painting. It may not end up in the official portfolio, but it’s always interesting to view the work that way as well. </p>
<p>The hard thing would be to photograph line drawings, especially graphite since it reflects light. We’ve had her uncle, who is a pro, help us with that, but some drawings with tricky dimensions (24" wide, 72’" tall) are really difficult to light evenly. Sometimes, we photograph them sideways if the light is easier to use that way. But your typical 24 x36 painting is pretty easy once you get used to it. Soooooo much better than the old days!</p>