photographing paintings
Updated: 4 days ago
One of the trickiest parts of being an artist is figuring out how to accurately photograph paintings. Some acrylic paints dry matte and some dry glossy. When you photograph a painting in cool light or in warm light, the colors shift dramatically. If you want to be able to print the painting (in a calendar for example!) you need to make sure the photograph is as accurate as possible.
When I recently photographed this painting I was shocked by how different the two photographs looked! One was photographed in a warm light but has a lot of glare, the other was photographed on a wall I use for photography all the time. These are two very different paintings! With very different moods! It's crazy.
I will often piece together a version of a painting in photoshop until it looks to my eye like the original painting, which is how I created image at the top. It took several photographs in different settings to make it work.
Now you know that accurately photographing paintings is very challenging. And you can see how much the mood changes if the color shifts from warm to cool. Fascinating, right?
