Photographing 3D Artwork

I made the background hanger from two pieces of wooden molding, ¾ x 1". Screw eyes on the top of one piece enable the background to be hung from any nail or hook. The two pieces of molding are held tightly together by bolts and wingnuts. Of course you clamp the pieces together to keep them aligned, before drilling the holes for these bolts. I painted the hanger white.

The background paper or fabric slips between the two pieces of molding. Sometimes I need to add a small C-clamp in the middle, to hold the slot closed securely.

I made the background hanger wide enough to hold 53" wide backgrounds. Now I’d make it a little wider, because some, like the black velour, comes wider. It’s possible to trim backgrounds to a narrower width. Sometimes this is worthwhile. But it’s quite a pain to do.

The current photo studio has Closetmaid wire shelving along the sides of the room useful for photo backgrounds. So I hang the background hanger from large S hooks suspended from this shelving. I’ve found it useful to put turnbuckles between the S hooks and the background hanger. This makes it easy to adjust the height of the hanger, and to even it out.

Choosing the best background for the artwork is a major decision. For the new series of bowls, I tried several backgrounds before settling on the best one. The background should be nonreflective, unwrinkled, sturdy, and attractive with the specific artwork. It’s best to keep the same background for the whole series of related artworks. And the background should be completely unobtrusive in viewing the slide, so all attention goes to the artwork itself.

To establish the background width needed, you’ll need to frame some shots and measure the width. Since the camera viewfinder doesn’t show the entire shot, leeway is needed. I found that adding 2" at each side, to the background I could see through the viewfinder, was enough leeway. The background will need to be wider than you imagine, so be sure to take this measure before buying any backgrounds to try.

Workable choices include:

1. wide felt from a fabric department or store. Black or gray work well, but for your particular art another color might be perfect.

2. Plush or velour fabrics. I found that black plush (like polartec) was my second best choice.

3. Standard photo background paper, usually 53" wide, in light gray or any of a wide selection of colors. There are two or three major brands, with slightly different colors. Usually each photo equipment dealer carries one of these brands, so to find exactly the right color you’ll need to look at several sites. If you can select the paper in person from a photography shop, so much the better.

4. Black velour backed with plastic. I bought a trial piece but haven’t tested it because I found that a completely black background gave the bowl sculptures too much "ungrounded floating" quality.

5. Graduated backgrounds, light at the base of the artwork, gradually darkening toward the top of the artwork. These come in various colors, but white to black is most often used.

I found the graduated background wonderful. You can achieve the same effect with a "drop shadow" setup or other lighting and diffusion arrangements. But it requires more space than I have. So for me, the graduated background is perfect. I use the 42" wide white to black background, Varitone 09. For smaller work, it’s available in 31" and 15" widths. For larger works, it’s available in a 70" width.

I almost didn’t try the Varitone graduated background, because I’d read several forum messages online from artists who said it always looked blue instead of black in their slides. I decided that if this were a problem, I might be able to cope with it by using a warming filter on the camera lens. As it happens, using the warm Fuji 64T slide film, I didn’t have this problem at all.

Picnic tablecloth clips work well to hold the front edge of the background in place. For the photo setup base, I use a drawing board or a larger melamine tabletop laid on top of the drawing board. So the tablecloth clips fit nicely.

Of course you can use little C clamps or doublestick tape too. But the tablecloth clips are faster and don’t mar the background. You find them in the camping section of a store.