Photographing Art: Conclusions

Last week I was searching for a solution to having too much texture and glare in the photos I had been taking of my paintings. I have a small studio and the lights need to be rather close to the work. A gentleman at the camera store suggested I put cheesecloth in front of the lights to help soften the lights. Here are results from some experiments I did with lighting my images while taking photos.

Each set of images was taken once under similar conditions except one with cheesecloth in front of the light, one without cheesecloth. The lights were tungsten lamps. I retouched each image in Photoshop by only increasing the contrast the same amount for each image:+27.


The first two images are with the lights at about 60 degrees in front of the painting. The first is with cheesecloth in front of the lights, the second is without cheesecloth. Although it is hard to tell from these web-images, I feel the one with cheesecloth is slightly more accurate with color. But there still are highlights and glare on the texture of the canvas.


With this second set of images, I moved the lights more to the side of the painting - about 45 degrees to the sides. This removed much of the glare. Again, I found that the image on the left, with the cheesecloth in front of the lights produced a more accurate color and tone to the painting. It is hard to tell in these web images, but the one on the left has more grey in the whites. The one on the right has a little more yellow in the whites and the background is too reddish.



This third set of images shows what happens when I move in more closely to shoot my images. The one on the left is with cheesecloth in front of the lights. The right without cheesecloth. As I move in closer, even with the lights at 45 degrees. more glare happens. I also have to add more contrast as they are more washed out than the shots from farther away. Again, the one with cheesecloth provides slightly more accurate color and contrast.



These last two images are of close-ups taken with a x2 magnifying lens. Again, the left is with cheesecloth in front of the lights, the right without. Again color is better, but there is still some glare as I get closer to the painting to shoot.

So, in conclusion, I found that adding the cheesecloth in front of the lights created more accurate color and warmth/coolness to the images. I found that making sure the lights are at 45 degrees from the painting instead of more in front of the painting cuts down on glare dramatically. I also found that the images look the best when taken from a medium distance (3 feet) instead of taking extreme close-up shots from a few inches away. The most accurate image of all of these is the third image on the page. I will be shooting images of my paintings with that configuration from now on.

Photographs: Water II

These are four more photos that are in the Project Art for Nature exhibit at the University of Minnesota at Morris starting at the end of this month. This first image is of tree reflections in the water on a sunny day. This is the first colorful water image I have taken and think that I will be exploring the richness of color in reflections in the future. I enjoy the fact that the water is in focus, but in places the reflections are not. This is a very fun piece.

This second photo is of reflections on a rather calm surface of water. If it were not for the dark reflections of pine trees, the ripples would not be visible. The black and white shapes in the water start to express a sense of yin/yang, but the eye is taken out of this by the two yellow sticks floating in the foreground. I also like the little bubbles and detris floating in the foreground. The contrast in the water was so high as evening was approaching, that the debris and bubbles look like a bunch of little dots. I also like that this photo is framed with a white mat. From a short distance the white of the photo starts to bleed into the mat.

These final two photos are of water lily pads on Rainy Lake. People living on Rainy Lake are starting to have problems with ecoli in the water. Every home on the lake pumps its drinking water from the lake. Residents are finding that they have to keep upgrading their filter systems as more development is happening. The evidence of problems is not just in the drinking water but in the lack of blooms on the lilypads. Each year it seems there are fewer and fewer blooms. This photo was taken in mid-to-late August and yet no blooms.
There are such things as indicator species - certain animals that are the first to be affected by pollution. Canaries were used in coal mines to indicate gas leaks. If the canary died, the humans had better leave the cave quickly. Frogs are considered an indicator species. Frogs will become malformed and die sooner than humans in an environment becoming hostile to life. I believe beauty is an indicator species when it comes to the human soul. Beauty will wilt and die in an environment becoming hostile to the human soul. I am serious when I ask "What is beautiful in your life?" I do want to know the answer. I also want to do what I can to create a healthy environment for our souls.

What's beautiful in your life?

Photographs: Water

I have been taking photographs of the Mississippi River as part of Project Art for Nature for the last year and a half. These photos have been resources for my paintings of the Mississippi, but I have come to enjoy the photos so much that I am framing them and hanging them in the PAN exhibit at the University of Minnesota at Morris. Displayed here are three of the seven photos.
Each PAN artist must choose two natural areas in which to work. My first site is the Mississippi River Gorge located between downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul. My second site is the Review Islands on Rainy Lake along the Minnesota/Canada border, a protected grouping of four islands owned by the Oberholtzer Foundation. Both sites are defined by water and have been created by erosion from volumes of water rushing past rock as well as each tiny wave and ripple slowly lapping against shore. These three photos deal with ripples as pattern on the surface of water. One starts to sense the rugged surface of water which grates away the land. There is also a sense of the volume of water underneath this surface that is at work.

I took my photos and did very little in terms of editing or changing them for this exhibit. I just tweeked the contrast a little. They are framed in black metal frames with a ragboard matte. The prints themselves are on matte heavyweight archival paper. I did not want the sheen of photopaper as I felt that a matte paper would communicate the volume and density of the water better.

If you are in the Morris area between October 22 and November 27 please stop in and see the show. There are ten other wonderful artists in the exhibit and it promises to be quite a show.