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How to Photograph Your Artwork Part 3: Lighting

Lighting your artwork is the most difficult aspect of photographing your work. The main principle is simple. Keep it even. But even lighting across your painting or drawing can be difficult to achieve. The following are two different ways lighting your work:

Daylight

Daylight is a good source for lighting your work. It will cover the surface of your piece uniformly (unless obstructed). However, if it is an oil painting the sun may reflect off the shiny surface and put a big glare on the photograph. A glare on the photography of your artwork is undesirable. You want to be able to see the true color in your art work and a glare makes that impossible. If you are shooting an oil painting that is showing a glare, wait for a cloudy, but bright day. That will help.

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The other challenge with shooting in daylight is the background. You want a professional background and most outside walls or grounds are not what you are looking for. You can try black, gray, or white photo paper for a back ground by taping it behind the image or painting the surface with flat or matte black paint. Whatever you use you do not want texture or glare. You can of course PhotoShop the background out.

In this image of his painting “jetaime”, Peter Everett effectively lit his work evenly and consistently. Notice how there are no “hot spots”: all the elements of the painting seem to have equal lighting and attention.

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