How to Photograph Artwork, How to Photograph Art, Photographing Artwork, Photographing Art Hello.

The following tutorial is a relatively quick and simple how-to for photographing 2-D artwork such as paintings, textiles, glass-covered images, reproducing newsprint, and more. I will also cover how to correct and post process the photographed artwork.

I have found the easiest and most controllable way to photograph artwork is to use strobes or off-camera flash. If you are unfamiliar with off-camera lighting in general, I highly recommend you spend (a lot) of time reading and exploring www.strobist.com.

Let's go over some basic gear needed to shoot artwork:

A good lens, with no distortion or vignetting (see lens reviews at Photozone). Macro lenses are an obvious choice.

Strobes or off-camera flashes, preferable with a PC-Synch port.

Flash transmitters or receivers such as optical slaves, Cactus V2s, Pocket Wizards, or Nikon's CLS system. You can also use flash cords.

Light stands that can go to the full height of the work you are photographing.

Tripod to keep your camera steady, and to help keep the camera square to the artwork.

Grey card (not essential, but will simplify the entire process).

Camera! (Digital is preferred, so you can preview your work.)

For photographing wall-hung artwork, I have found that using two flashes, each on a lightstand and each reflected into an umbrella, the best setup. One light goes on each side of the artwork, at the same height as the artwork and at 45°...

Last night at the Comedy Festival in Amsterdam, standup comedian Theo Maassen destroyed the brand-new €15.000 camera of freelance photographer Ilvy Nijokiktjien who had been hired by the organization of the festival to document the performance. Maassen didn't like to be photographed apparently even though Nijokiktjien was just sitting in a seat amongst the public and was not using flash-photography nor walking around, and was hired by the organization as mentioned above. Nijokiktjien has filed a complaint at the police office. I can only hope that charges are going to be pressed but the damage is done: if you don't like somebody taking photos, just smash the camera! The reaction of the public who had cheered Maasen on and who still were hostile with Nijokiktjien after the incident made that very clear.

Mister Theo Maassen seems to be pretty full of himself. *disgusted*

June 3 update: Ilvy Nijokiktjien has retracted the complained filed with the police after Maassen and the Comedy Festival organization offered to refund the camera. It boiled down to the fact that Maasen hadn't given permission to the organization for photos to be taken while the organization had failed to communicate this to the photographer they had hired.
For me this sounds like a very feeble excuse: Maassen could have easily asked Nijokiktjien to refrain from photographing or asked her to leave, but he chose to get her up in front of everybody, humiliate her and destroy her camera. An overreaction of somebody with an inflated sense

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Hotel in Gifu City, just right next to the JR station. The whole area is being rebuild and this is just the one old building standing there. Sort of reminds me of the Dolphin Hotel in Haruki Murakami's book A Wild Sheep Chase.

Camera: Pentax *ist DS, lens: Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC MACRO