Photographing 2-Dimensional Artwork

Common Mistakes

For comparison purposes, I decided to first demonstrate some common lighting techniques that you should try to avoid when photographing flat artwork. I started out by activating the built-in flash, setting the camera settings to full automatic and taking a shot (figure 3).

The result illustrates two common problems right away (figure 4).

The first noticeable problem is the distorted shape of the frame. Because the close proximity of the camera to the painting required me to set the lens to a wide angle to capture the entire painting, the straight lines of the frame become curved. I'll demonstrate how to correct for perspective later on in the lesson.

The second problem has to do with the lighting. Since the only light source for this image is the built-in flash of the camera just above the camera lens, the light from the flash is reflected off the glass and back into the lens, creating a white reflection in the middle of the painting. And because the light is reflecting directly off the glass, the color saturation of the painting becomes washed out.

To eliminate the reflection, I disabled the built-in flash, set the White Balance in the camera to Tungsten to match the color temperature of a household lamp, and placed a desk lamp clamped to a LiteStand to the left of the painting in order to illuminate it from the side. I set the aperture to f/5.6, set the shutter speed to 1/5th of a second to render a good exposure, and took another shot (figures 5 and 6).

While the content of the painting is more clearly visible now that the flash has been disabled, the lighting is still not great. Notice the dramatic light fall- off from left to right? I could compensate for that somewhat by placing another desk lamp to the right of the painting, but that would only solve part of the problem. Since the light source is so small in size, it cannot evenly light the left side of the frame.

Professional Lighting with the PhotoFlex Starlite Medium Digital Kit

To solve this issue, I replaced the desk lamp with a Photoflex Starlite Medium Digital Kit and set up one of the SilverDomes with a Starlight. This light is comprised of a Tungsten lamp that bounces off the silver walls of a SilverDome soft box and through two layers of diffusion to create a soft, even light. And since the face of the SilverDome is 32 inches tall (8 inches taller than the height of the painting), the spread of light will therefore be even from the top of the frame to the bottom. Remember to match the size of your object - be it a painting or a person with the size of your soft box to render even lighting from top to bottom.

Since the Starlite puts out much more light than the desk lamp, I adjusted the shutter speed to 1/30th of a second and took another shot (figure 7).

The light is much more even along the left side of the frame. However, the SilverDome is positioned too far forward, and the light is reflected in the glass covering the artwork.

To fix this, I simply positioned the light further to the side, angled it close to 90-degrees of the painting, and took another shot (figure 9).

The result shows that the reflection is gone, and that the light along the left side of the painting is much more even. However, there is still some light fall-off from left to right (figure 10).

To balance this out, I set up another Medium SilverDome with a Starlite, positioned it directly opposite the first SilverDome, and took another shot (figure 11).

The result shows a tremendous improvement in the lighting of this painting. The color saturation is full and the light falls evenly across the painting. If you look closely, you will notice that the top and bottom sections of the frame are slightly darker than the side sections, but for most people, this lighting is more than adequate (figure 12).

(Note: if you wanted to be even more discerning with your lighting and have the tone all four sides be exactly the same, you could get another Starlite Medium Digital Kit, put one light on a Photoflex Boom above the painting and another one on a Photoflex Background Stand below at corresponding perpendicular angles.)

Finally, I decided to correct the distortion that was occurring in the frame. As was mentioned before, the close proximity of the camera to the painting required me to set the lens to a wide angle to capture the entire painting, making the straight lines of the frame appear curved.

To correct this, I simply moved the camera back about ten feet and zoomed all the way in on the lens to fill the frame. Depending on the size of the object, linear distortion can be minimized, if not eliminated all together, when you shoot with a longer lens, or zoom lens setting.

I refocused the lens, and without any other changes to the camera settings, I took a final shot (figures 13 & 14).

Controlling Distortion

Changing Subjects without Changing Sets

Keep in mind that once you have your lighting set up, you are then easily able to photograph many pieces of work in a relatively short amount of time. In this situation, I replaced the watercolor painting with this framed case of Malaysian butterflies and within a few minutes, I had another professionally lit shot of an otherwise difficult-to-photograph object (figures 16 & 17).