Photographing
3D ArtworkPhotographing
3D Artwork
Article by Catherine Jo Morgan, from www.cjmorgan.comThis article summarizes what I’ve learned in the past few months about how to take excellent slides of medium sized "table top" 3D art. This means vessels, sculptures, similar craft and artwork from about 10 to 20" in height, width, and/or depth. In my case, I’m taking bowl sculptures up to 20" in diameter, up to about 17" high. If you’re taking 2D artwork or 3D artwork that’s much larger or smaller than this, a lot of what I learned won’t apply. For smaller work, there are easier ways to diffuse the light than the ways I use. My solutions have been heavily influenced by working in a small 8x10’ room. This room is usually my "clean studio" for painting, varnishing, drawing, etc. To adapt it to a photo studio meant working around existing furniture. If your space is much larger, you may find other lighting solutions superior. These notes are intended only to supplement information already available. You will probably want to read other articles online. I’ve also listed some excellent books on photographing artwork. I’m not a professional photographer. I began taking slides of my own work years ago, in order to save money. More recently, I decided to upgrade both my equipment and my skills, in order to improve my slides. I had no idea it would take as much time and money as it did. The result, though, is that now I can not only take excellent slides of my work, but do so with pleasure. My 3-D Artwork Size RangeIn the past my bowl sculptures were 10 to 17" in diameter. The new series is a bit larger, with one bowl almost 20" in diameter. This is "table top sculpture" size work. So some of my specific learnings will be more useful to potters and ceramic sculptors than to jewelers or painters. Print VersionsFor printing, you may prefer this article in .pdf format. You can download it by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target." Select the location to which you’d like to save it, then hit Enter. Or you may view the complete article in html, with the text narrow enough that it should print well in portrait format from most browsers and printers. ViewingFor viewing online, this article has been divided into sections for easier viewing:
My most helpful new investments – for shooting slides of 3-d artwork with pleasure and excellent results I’m especially grateful that I bought all of the following. Some are quite inexpensive. All of them either the process much more pleasant or enhanced the results. I’ve put them in approximate order of cost, from low to high.
Taking Your Own Slides of Sculpture and Crafts Learning to take excellent slides of artwork is an art in itself, demanding many skills. It’s not a quick proposition. If you need great slides quickly for a certain show deadline, you’ll probably need to use a professional photographer. Of course, choose a photographer who specializes in art or craft jury slides. Be sure s/he will give you the copyright so you can make duplicates later. Why make the investment in time and money to learn this art yourself? The most important reason is that photographing your work can help you really see it. The better you perceive your own completed work, the more insight you gain into how to make your next artwork. You can emphasize the views and features of your choice, instead of leaving this in someone else’s hands. You can change your mind about this during the photography process. You can learn what backgrounds and lighting bring out the best in your work – useful information for exhibiting it. Usually once you know how to photograph your work, there are some time savings too. You save the days it would take to deliver or ship your artwork to the photographer and back again. You can set your own timing. In the long run, it will save money. This is usually the first reason artists choose, but in reality it should probably be the last. If you get skilled enough to do this well, you’ll begin to want to upgrade your equipment. Even the initial equipment will usually cost more than having one set of excellent slides made professionally. And the time it takes to learn to do this really well, is lost production time. When I made this choice, I had no idea how much investment of time and money would be required. I wondered if it could possibly be worth it. Now, having made my first set of really fine slides, I know that it was a great investment. Setting Up a Photography Studio for Slides of 3d Artwork
© 2004 Catherine Jo Morgan. www.cjmorgan.com This article may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission of the author. However, it's made freely available to other artists and interested people. Please give credit to the author, with the website address, when sharing any part of this article with other people. Thanks. page last updated: March 6, 2004 photographing – 3d artwork, 3-d artwork, sculpture, crafts taking, shooting slides of 3-d artwork, 3d artwork,
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