This was my post back then...
6/28/04 6:52 PM (Updated on 6/28/04 7:42 PM by michaelaldana) Viewing 9 of 23 Replies
Not sure about digital but am assuming that you get the same problem with light as regular film and artificial lighting... that is green or yellow lighting on your photo/slide. If you want to take professional looking pictures of your art... do this: invest in some black felt from a fabric stor that is larger than your largest work by at least 1.5 feet on all sides. Invest in a cheep tripod, but make sure it have a level and can bend in 3 directions... up down, side to side, and both together for diagonal... also make sure it can flip to shoot vertically. get a string or tape measure.
Go outside on an overcast day... but not a heavily clouded day and NEVER in direct sunlight. An overcast day provides even lighting. Post your felt up against a flat vertical surface. Stretch it flat and tape or staple it to the surface (take out all wrinkels). Get your art and hang it over the felt at about center (of art piece) even with your chest. Find the middle of the piece from right to left. Once you've found that take the string and walk it back in line from the middle of the piece until it stretches at least 6-8 ft out from the work. Then walk to the piece hanging, measure the middle of the pice from top to bottom and using the string marked the center left to right, level the lense of the camera to the middle of the piece from top to bottom and right to left. Once you have it centered, walk back along the line until you get to a position where you have a slender border of black showing around the piece inside your view finder of your camera. Walk your eyes along the inside of the view finder and make sure there are no uneven edges along the sides... uneaven, meaning if it look slike a trapzoid, you need to adjust it to look like a square or rectangle (this distortion is called paralax). Get rid of any paralax by makeing slight adjustments... but don't tilt the camera... adjust by moving up down right or left. take your shot of the piece. If you are using a REAL film camera and are taking slides... take about 6 shots of the piece (reproductions of slides cost more than original printing, and they can be off in color... usually more blue). Also if using a SLR camera (single lense reflex-- the one with the mirror on the inside you hear clicking when shooting) adjust the F stops from optimal to just one lower and one above... for bracketing of the piece... you make like it darker or lighter and its good to have at least one option.
If you shoot inside, you HAVE TO BUY tungsten film for your camera and tungsten lighting to illuminate your artwork. Tungsten film and lighting eliminate yellow or green light you get from normal lights... for instance regular light bulbs give off a yellow light.. flourescent lights give off a green light. Tungsten gives off a clean light. Light from above and to the side... and folow the other steps on how to set it up. They have cheap tripods that will work for this job at wal-mart for about 25 dollars or so. I'd invest in a nice one though. Hope this helps... it is the RIGHT WAY. Natural lighting is key to good slides. I'm not sure how the digital camera processes lighting... but I'd never take actual proofs of my artwork with a digital camera because the color is not as accurate as the color you get from film. If you do shoot with a non-digital camera... take your film to a professional processor and not the local drug store processing... the difference is dramatic in proper chemical color balancing. The place I take my slides to checks color balance 4 times a day. The local drug store... probably never checks the color balance... and they "color correct" your pictures without asking you... you have to request they not do that. Hope it helps.
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