How to Photograph a Painting or other Artwork

For when you can't have your artworks professionally-photographed, here are some tips for getting better results from your phone or digital camera.

While some common issues - such as poor focus - can be easy to spot, others may go unnoticed yet be having a significant detrimental effect. Even if these imperfections seem minor, together they can be the difference between your images looking home-made and appearing professional.

Image of painting with multiple photography flaws

Avoid this

Image of painting with photography flaws corrected

Aim for this

Note: For the most part, these tips assume a two-dimensional artwork is being photographed, such as a painting, drawing, or print.

Have some existing images that need improving? Have it done for you.

Lighting

Uneven Lighting

A correctly-lit painting

A correctly-lit painting

Left side is darker than right side

Left side is darker than right side

Left side is dark and warm

Left side is dark and warm

Corners are dark due to vignetting

Corners are dark due to vignetting

Your hung artworks may be unevenly-lit, especially if you are not lucky enough to have a large, bright gallery. This may not be noticeable when viewing the artwork in person, but may have a negative impact when captured in a photograph.

Uneven lighting may manifest itself as one side of the image being darker than another. Even worse is if one side also has a different hue to another, for example when lit by a window on one side, and by incandescent light on the other.

Uneven lighting negatively affects certain types of artwork more than others:

  • Paintings may sometimes not be significantly affected, unless the unevenness is extreme.
  • On the other hand, pencil/charcoal on paper will tend to show up even the most minor unevenness, in a typically-unpleasant way.

Consider:

  • Taking the artwork outdoors, and photographing it there. This can be a great solution as the artwork will be lit by a bright, diffuse, and even light source. An overcast day is ideal.
  • Moving the artwork close to a window, so that it is lit as evenly as possible.
  • Moving the artwork to a more evenly-lit room.
  • If lit by a spotlight, turning it off and relying on ambient light instead.

Additionally:

  • If necessary, try rotating and tilting the artwork until it is lit as evenly as possible.
  • Ensure there are no shadows cast across the artwork's surface.
  • Try to avoid reflections on the artwork's surface, particularly if it is covered with a pane of glass, which you could consider removing.
  • Note that if all four sides of the artwork appear dark, this may be due to the camera lens vignetting. To avoid this, try standing back a little so that the artwork is smaller in the frame, thus avoiding the dark edges. Additionally, if you are using a zoom lens (optical zoom, not digital zoom), a different point in the zoom range may have less vignetting.

Geometry

Camera Positioning

A correctly-positioned camera

A correctly-positioned camera

Camera left

Camera left

Camera low

Camera low

Camera left and low

Camera left and low

If the artwork you are photographing is - for example - square, you want to ensure that it comes out square, not rhomboid or any other shape.

Consider:

  • Ensuring that the camera is placed in perfect alignment with the centre of the artwork, not above or below, nor to the left or right.
  • Ensuring that the camera is pointed exactly at the centre of the artwork.
  • When positioned correctly, the camera will not be tilted on any of its three axes. Additionally, the width of the empty space to the left of the image should match the space to the right. Similarly, the top space should match the bottom space.
  • While not strictly necessary, a tripod will help greatly in positioning the camera. One may be of particular benefit if regularly photographing framed artworks.
  • While an image with an incorrect shape can fixed by cropping, this inevitably involves losing some of the artwork. Alternatively the image can be stretched back into shape, but this is a more-involved process, especially if a good result is wanted.

Barrel/Pincushion Distortion

Barrel distortion

Barrel distortion

Pincushion distortion

Pincushion distortion

The camera lens may cause the edges of the artwork to appear curved, either bowed outward at the centre (barrel) or inward (pincushion).

Consider:

  • For most unframed artworks, after taking the photograph simply cropping away the image's extreme edges will hide this issue.
  • If the camera has a zoom lens (optical zoom, not digital zoom), try different points on the zoom (you will need to move the camera forward/backward to compensate). Often the wide end of the zoom will exhibit barrel distortion, and the long end pincushion, so there may be a neutral, undistorted point somewhere in the middle of the range.
  • Leaving more (or less) empty space around the edges of the artwork may reduce the amount of noticeable distortion. If there is to be some distortion, it's normally better to have it within the middle of the artwork than at the edges, particularly if the artwork is framed.

Cropping

A well-photographed painting, allowing for easy cropping

A well-photographed painting, allowing for easy cropping

Crop preserving entire frame

Crop preserving entire frame

Crop removing all of the background

Crop removing all of the background

Stretching corners to make outside of frame square before cropping

Stretching corners to make outside of frame square before cropping

Consider:

  • When photographing the artwork, leave space around all four sides.
  • If you bear in mind the Geometry section above, then cropping your photographs of unframed artworks should be straightforward. Zoom in on the image to ensure that you aren't leaving any unwanted pixels around the edge.
  • Framed artworks are much more demanding, as even the slightest geometric error in your image will result in a non-square frame.
    • Typically you might "square" the frame while cropping, but this will result in the loss of some of the outer part of the frame. Additionally, while the outside of the frame will now be square, the inside will not be and the contrast will be evident.
    • Better might be to use image editing software to drag the corners of the image until the outside of the frame is square. However this may leave the inside of the frame unsquare.
    • Better yet could be to get the camera in as perfect a position as possible before taking the photograph, and then cropping and possibly stretching as necessary to perfect things.

Should you choose to crop away the frame of an artwork entirely, crop aggressively to ensure that no frame shadows remain.

A well cropped image, leaving no frame shadows

A well cropped image, leaving no frame shadows

Shadows present

Shadows present

Exposure

Underexposed

Underexposed

A well exposed image

A well exposed image

Overexposed

Overexposed

You may find that your photograph is darker than you would like. This is particularly common with pencil/charcoal on paper.

Consider:

  • Increasing the camera's exposure compensation value, from the default of zero to +1 or so.
  • If the artwork is a pencil/charcoal on paper, try higher values such as +2 or +3.
  • If the exposure compensation is set too high, the lightest areas in the image will become blown out, and detail in those areas will be lost

Colour

Colour Casts

A cool colour cast

A cool colour cast

Neutral color

Neutral color

A warm colour cast

A warm colour cast

Sometimes a photograph may have a colour cast, such as magenta, orange, cyan, or green.

Consider:

  • Changing your camera's white balance setting from the default of Automatic. E.g. if the image has an orange colour cast, changing the white balance to Indoors may help.
  • If the photograph was taken outside and it has a warm colour cast, it may be that the white balance setting needs to be returned to the default of Automatic (or changed to Outdoors).

Muted Colours

You may find the colours in your image are less vivid than the artwork itself.

Consider:

  • Moving the image to a brighter place before photographing it.
  • Increasing the camera's exposure compensation - a brighter exposure may result in a more-colourful image.
  • Fixing a white balance issue (as above) may also result in more vivid colours.

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