Editing your Image – How to Shoot your Art VII

July 14, 2009 | 4 Comments

ShootArt - Editing Water Nymphs by B. Kelly-Goulem

1) Load it: Load your images to your computer and open them up in an image editor like Photoshop. IMPORTANT: The first thing you must do is save your image as TIF or PSD file type. Never work on a JPEG image and resave it, as you will lose quality with each save until the image is degraded beyond use.

2) Anything but the focus: Editing an image can improve the tonal qualities of the colors, correct and / or improve lighting and allow you to crop and straighten out the image as necessary amongst many other things assuming you have working knowledge of your image-editing program. What editing cannot do is correct an out of focus image, which is why above all else, getting a sharply focused image is critical.

3) Balance it all: Check that the darkest areas still have detail and the lightest areas are not disappearing into whiteness.

4) Focus, focus, focus: Check that the whole image is in focus.

5) Save it: Save the file first in the format you are editing in and then save a JPEG copy set to the requirements of the site or purpose you will be using the image for. (72 dpi is sufficient for correctly displaying an image on the web).

If you have set you art work and camera up properly as described here and taken the time to make sure you have the right lighting, proper exposure and sharp focus on your image when you refine the image using your preferred image editing software you will end up with a photo that optimally displays your art work and ideally helps you to find new fans for your work.

Further Research

There are many helpful sites online where you can go to find more information on how to shoot art and more tips on photography in general. Here are a few of the main ones I used as references for this series:

www.kenrockwell.com

http://www.dallasartsrevue.com/resources/How-to-Photo-Art.shtml

http://artlinkswap.org/photographing_art.shtml

http://finerworks.com/hints&tips/photographingartwork.asp

http://www.theartistsweb.net/wiki/How_To_Photograph_Artwork

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How to Shoot your Art – The Series