How to Document Your Artwork
We are pulling together the online directory for Living Artists Collective members (it’s not too late to apply), and I thought it would be useful to discuss professional artwork documentation. You don’t need a fancy camera and expensive lighting setup to properly capture your pieces: simply willingness to get a little weird and technical.
Good artwork documentation is important!
It may be viewed far more than your actual piece, especially if you showcase the work online and apply for shows, grants, etc. via the internet. If the documentation is bad, it can make your great piece look bad. For our purposes here, I'll explain the basics and link to more in-depth articles and videos you can use to investigate further.
You'll document physical artworks, flat and 3D, by photographing or making a video of them. I'm talking mediums like drawing, painting, installation, performance, and sculpture. Digital mediums are, of course, already digitally documented, and then you just need to be concerned with file format and size for the platform you're using or submitting to.
You need the right tools.
And they don't have to be fancy.
Camera: your smartphone is fine.
A neutral backdrop.
An editing program like Photoshop or GIMP (free!).
Bonus if you’ve got a DSLR camera, tripod, artificial lighting, or scanner.
Image: DSLR camera on a tripod pointed centrally towards a framed piece of art.
Before you start.
Get acquainted with your camera. On a DSLR, use the lowest possible ISO to reduce noise; this is where a tripod will come in handy to keep the camera steady while taking a longer exposure. Also, set the camera to the highest quality, most memory-eating settings possible; shoot in RAW if you can. More on settings here. No matter what, choose a spot with diffuse, natural lighting. Ideally on a cloudy day so you don't have to contend with direct light and harsh shadows.
For flat pieces all you need is correct lighting in a spot where the piece will stay still. For three-dimensional un-moving pieces you'll need a neutral backdrop, ideally without a crease. Be sure the backdrop is big enough that your piece doesn't stick out the sides of its frame. I've photographed a piece entirely before only to realize my messy studio wall was in every image, and had to edit that busyness out or re-shoot. This video has a good breakdown of setting up and shooting a 3D object with a smartphone.
Image: Screengrab from “Photographing your 3D Art with an iPhone/Smartphone”
Minimize the amount of shadows you get from your light source(s), and be sure no parts are cast in darkness. Have some white sheets of paper on hand to reflect more brightness onto the piece. Try out different lighting scenarios; you may need to move to different spots and drag your equipment around with you. No one's judging, and you'll thank yourself when you see the images!
Kinetic (moving) sculptures, performances, and installations may benefit from video documentation. Use the same set-up principles as stationary work: neutral backdrop, and get as close as possible. Document your piece through at least one movement cycle from multiple different angles. Use a tripod or set your camera on something if you don't have special stabilizing equipment; camera shake is the worst when viewing a video.
Instagram post from Casey Curran: his gorgeous kinetic sculptures are captured via a simple video that highlights the piece and explains visually how it works.
Keep your viewer in mind through the whole process; you're telling the story of your art by reproducing how they'd interact with the piece in person. This might mean you need to display more than one image to show context, or you might need a good write-up or video to walk through it. You may even end up learning more about the piece you created by documenting it in different ways.
Setting up.
Get as close to the piece as possible. Zooming is never as good as coming right up to it, and you want all the detail. However, don't crop out any edges, even if you want the final image to be background-less. You can do that when you edit later. Have the camera looking at the middle of the work, not looking down, up, or sideways at it.
Get perpendicular to the work, with the camera lens flat to the art as if it were a piece of glass covering it. If it's on the floor, you'll want to be directly on top of it: straddle it, or use a long stick stretched across two stools as a prop to rest the camera on.
Image: Standing directly over your piece while photographing it allows the correct viewing plane and gets you close enough to capture detail. You’ll probably have to adjust lights to be sure your shadow doesn’t fall on the artwork.
Check for glare, especially if the piece is varnished or has a shiny surface of any kind. Also check for fuzzies! Dust off the work, use a canned air cleaner, or blow on it (just don't spit!). Then inspect it closely.
Check for shadows and reflections from your own body and other objects. A bright yellow table is going to reflect yellow onto the piece, even if the art has a matte finish. If the camera is reflected at all in the artwork, try pulling back to widen the field of vision and stand off-center. It's super hard documenting work that's already framed, but this may do the trick. Of course, only widen the frame if necessary, since you want to stay as close as possible for all that sweet detail.
Taking the photos.
Look through the viewfinder of your camera regularly while adjusting your setup. Take test photos along the way with different variables: put a white piece of paper next to it to reflect brighter light onto a side of the piece cast in shadow, add an artificial lighting source, change the settings, shift the camera position just slightly, etc. Then zoom in on each of these photos to inspect for dust particles, blown-out whites, out of focus shots, etc.
If your piece is 3D, you'll want to photograph it from many angles to get the full sense of it. Move the piece in the same light, not the camera. If you move the camera around the piece, you're creating many different light and background scenarios (unless you have an all-sided light box) that won't be cohesive. If images are coming out blurry because you're holding the camera, find a tripod or set your camera on something and use the timer function.
Take detail shots. They can be close-ups from the same angle, or different angles with only certain sections in focus. Even consider a context photo with a person or other object in the frame. Keep thinking about the story you wish to tell with your work!
Finally, pick the best lighting scenarios from your test shots. Re-align everything, check again for hair and dust, and take many photos for safety. As long as you have the memory space, more is better!
Scanning.
If your work is one dimensional, small enough, and the medium you used won't be too messy and come off on the scanner, you could use this method instead of photographing. In my experience you'll have to mess with the scanner settings and do quite a few tests to get it right, but the lighting and color uniformity may be worth it. Especially if scanning many works that you want to all have the same exact tone.
“Untitled Nudes” were scanned then edited to maintain uniformity.
Editing.
It might be as easy as throwing the image into editing software, cropping, and hitting "Auto" on contrast, color, and tone adjustment settings. If your lighting and framing was good in the first place, the auto functions won't change things much.
No matter what program you're using, edit with your mobile or desktop screen on full brightness. The general rules of thumb are to make the image as bright as possible without blowing out any highlights, then enhance the darks for contrast, just not enough to lose detail. General rules are, of course, generally bullshit; if you're editing the image to most accurately represent what exists in real life, you're golden. You'll most likely achieve that by editing as little as possible. Be careful, because as soon as you add something "extra" to an edited image, like color saturation or cropping, you're being dishonest about what the real piece is.
There's many tricks to editing a batch of photos in the exact same way. A quick search on Youtube can get you some great walk-through examples if that applies to you. I usually only edit a few at a time, so I apply the same settings then check them side by side on the same screen before finalizing.
For more visual learners, this person talks you through the details of documenting and editing in a straight-forward and thorough way.
Cropping.
For one-dimensional pieces, crop the image so you don’t see the edges of your canvas, sheet of paper, etc. Unless you want it for size context, blank space around the work isn’t necessary. If you do take an image with other objects in it for size context, also get one that’s close-cropped. These images will exist as a stand-in for the artwork, and the device it’s viewed in will be the frame.
Image: On the left, a flat artwork by Chelain Stocker photographed hanging on a neutral-colored wall. Cropped and color-corrected version on the right.
File formatting.
When saving your work, keep in mind you'll probably want to share it multiple places. Keep the large, editable file saved as something you'll be able to find easily: I always use "worktitle_editing.psd". Export the edited image as a jpg (best for web), and size it according to how it will be used. If it’s for the web, you should keep it 400k or below, with pixel size around 1500x1500. This size loads quickly with almost any internet connection speed, but doesn’t reduce the quality. This size should still be fine if you want it to be zoomed in on, but test it out on whatever platform you’re using. I’ve simply found that images around 500k+ are too big to load quickly with slower or spotty connections, and people aren’t going to wait around on your website for photos to load.
Instagram resizes your file for you. If editing specifically for Instagram, I make the files 2048x2048 (technically the max size). It doesn’t have to be that big, though; if the quality is good enough I don’t worry about it.
When submitting work to galleries, shows, and other opportunities, always refer to the guidelines in the call for art. Professional galleries (and art collectives!!) will ask for your submissions in specific formats, and ignoring those rules will get you thrown out of the running immediately. This is part of why you keep the editable file so you can create a new export without re-saving a former file and risk losing data (and quality).
Image: I documented my embroidery pieces next to a window for natural, indirect bright light, and used a contrasting background with interest to echo the busyness of the thread.
Play around with your documentation style: try different object combinations and lighting arrangements. It is an extension of the creative process, and you can use little decisions to represent a piece's creative narrative. Though it may seem intimidating at first, you’ve already done the hard part of making the art! Now take the next step to presenting your work professionally.
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This blog was written by Alaina from the Living Artists Collective.