Equipment needed:

• Digital Camera
• Cable release (optional)
• 8x10” gray card
• Background (flat, neutral value such as white, black or grey)
• Tripod
• Lights with adjustable stands and reflectors (two minimum)

Camera
Use a digital camera that you are capable of changing the settings on. Make sure you have the camera set to the most pixels you are capable of. Use a larger memory card to accommodate the larger file sizes.

Cable Release
A cable release is not a necessity, but it can be helpful. A cable release prevents any movement, or shaking, of the camera that could occur when you depress the shutter release button.

Gray Card
Within your artwork, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional, the average of all the values (lights and darks) in theory is an 18% gray value. This gray value, when used in conjunction with the lights, is used to adjust the aperture on the camera. A gray card is a card that has been painted the 18% gray value. This is used as a reference point when you take light readings.

Background
Two-dimensional artwork must either lay flat directly under a camera, or the more likely scenario, hang on the wall. Most two-dimensional work is too large to be placed under a copy stand. Since the work will be hanging on a wall, you will have to have some sort of neutral background behind the work. A wall painted a neutral value, fabric, or photography backdrop paper will work.

If you choose to use a white wall, make sure that all stray marks are gone from it. Push pin holes, scrapes, smudges and any other surface marring should be cleaned up before the artwork is hung on the wall. If you use fabric, black velvet is the best because it tends to intensify the colors of the artwork. It absorbs light and is easy to clean with a lint roller. Iron the fabric to remove any fold lines. If you use a gray fabric, be aware that some grays tend to look green and some look blue. Use a gray card to find the right gray fabric. The best route is to purchase middle gray backdrop paper from a photography supplier. The paper comes in rolls in both 4.5ft. and 9ft. widths. Paper can be cut from the roll and either pinned or taped to a wall.

Tripod
A tripod is needed to steady the camera when you are taking slides. Most of the time you will be shooting slides at 1/60th of a second and it is extremely difficulty to keep a steady hand while holding the camera. An added bonus is that when you are shooting multiple works that are the same size, you rarely have to reposition the camera.

Lights
The type of lights you use does not really matter with a digital camera. The one thing you need to be aware of thought is that there are different light settings on a digital camera. Use the daylight setting if you are using daylight or daylight bulbs. Use the tungsten setting if you are using tungsten bulbs. Try not to use the flash on you digital camera.

»  Download Digitally Photographing Two-Dimensional Artwork with Artificial Light  [pdf]

»  Download Digitally Photographing Two-Dimensional Artwork with Natural Light  [pdf]

»  Download Digitally Photographing Three-Dimensional Artwork with Artificial Light  [pdf]

»  Download Digitally Photographing Three-Dimensional Artwork with Natural Light  [pdf]

Basic Tips to Remember

• Never touch a light bulb for photographing your artwork with your bare fingers, especially if it’s hot!! Use clean gloves or a tissue for installing and removing bulbs.
• Tungsten lights have an optimum life of about 3 hours. After this, although the light still seems bright enough to use, don’t! After about 3 hours of use, the light temperature changes gradually which will cause problems with the outcome of the film’s color.
• Turn off photo lights in between shots. You do not want to waste 10 minutes of a bulb’s life while you break down and set up another piece, especially in the case of photographing three-dimensional work. When photographing two-dimensional work, if the set-up is the same for multiple pieces and quick, you can leave the lights on.
• Always take several images of one piece. In addition, take detail images of important portions of your artwork. For instance, in a three-dimensional piece, the only way to show the texture or detail of a piece is by a close-up shot. Be sure to check and adjust lights as necessary for detail shots.
• The camera always shoots a little outside of the viewfinder. If you cannot see the edge of your backdrop through the viewfinder, that doesn’t mean that the camera won’t catch the image of the background in your slide. If this happens, don’t fear. You can digitally crop your images in a program like Photoshop.