Photo Comparison

Here's a side by side between my old Kodak 3.1 megapixel and my new Olympus 8 megapixel.

 

Oddly enough it seems to be much harder to get a good picture from my new camera.  With the Kodak all I could do was take as many shots as I wanted till I got one that looked the best.  With the new Olympus I've got so many options it's hard to know which ones are the best.  Photographing this work is not an easy thing to do to begin with.  With the bumpy glossy surface glare is a real issue here.  I've given up trying to shoot the work with spots because no matter where I place the spots I get glare.  The work above is a perfect example.  The black suits actually have a lot of texture to them.  If I try to light the work with spots I get a lot of glare that looks just horrible.  I'd rather they look solid black for the documentation.  So I'm kind of limited to natural light and playing around with the setting on the camera till I get something I like.  Luckily I can take as many photos as I need to with out the worry of the cost of film.  The image on the right is much closer to what the painting really looks like.  The Kodak camera worked great for my smaller work, but I really couldn't get a good image of the larger pieces.  I also couldn't get very nice looking prints from my old camera.  It's fine for the web but that's about it.

One thing I didn't realize about a digital slr camera  was that there is an assumption that  people who use these types of cameras are the type of people who want complete control over the image  the camera produces.    This means, to a certain degree, that the images from the camera are somewhat unfinished.   That's not to say the camera takes bad photos, far from it, but it does mean spending a bit more time in photoshop tweaking around with setting to get the best picture possible.

What this all boils down to is that I just need more time using the camera and photographing my art work to figure out what works the best to get the best image. 

Comments

[Jackie]

Howard: I had the same problems with my new digi camera when I first got it. I don't like the built-in flash on it at all. I am so used to my old Nikon SLR, that I still use it to take 'back up" photos of my artwork. I found using a tripod and the manual settings on my digi cam, plus natural light, yields the best results. I still do a bit of photo editing. I guess if it weren't such a hassle and it weren't costly, I'd just save myself the trouble and have a professional shoot the photos for me!

[Howard]

Hey Jackie, Yeah natural light seems to be the best. I can fiddle around with the white balance on this camera though, but I rather not have to do too much of that.

[Elise]

Hey Howard, I participated in that "how to display your work" workshop and one of the participants was a professional photographer of art work and he showed some tricks on how to shoot work that picks up a lot of glare, I can't remember what he did but I have my notes somewhere, I'll try to dig them up.

[Howard]

Elise, that would be great.

[Michael Terra]

Howard...
Try draping a shear white cloth above and to the sides of the subject to 'randomize' the light ont he surface of the paint. You may find that if you play with this you can recover the texture of the paint.
Try adding some low level, (15 watt), lighting from the side inside of your tent to create the highlights on the surface of the black, expoosing the textures that you put there.
Hope this helps. Blessings!

[Howard]

Thanks Michael. Those sound like good tips. I'll give them a try.

[Jackie]

Hey Michael - those were great tips! I guess that's what those umbrella-looking things that pros use are for - diffusing or bouncing the light onto the subject. I wish I had an empty room, or a corner of a room in my house where I could leave things set up for when I need to take photos of my work.

[Shelley]

Hey kids, check it out, a homemade lightbox on the cheap!

http://tinyurl.com/gegca

Keep on keeping on...

[Howard]

Thanks for the link Shelley. I'd have to rig up something a little larger for my paintings but it's a great starting point.

[Jackie]

Hey Cool! I may try that for my next shots! I think we even have some very large boxes that we didn't recycle yet...

[Howard]

Yeah, It'd be perfect for your work Jackie.