*This article was written for those using a non professional point and shoot camera. If you have access to a professional SLR camera and professional photo equipment, visit our entry on "Photographing Artwork For Professional Photographers".
Necessary Equipment:
1) Digital camera (preferably higher than 8 megapixels)
2) Tripod
3) Drafting tape (not masking tape) for taping art to flat surface
Recommended Equipment:
1) Digital Camera capable of Manual (m) settings higher than 8 megapixels
2) Cable Release
3) Gray Card (for metering)
There are many different sources of light that the average person has access to, but in the absence of a professional studio, we recommend photographing outside in the natural light for the most accurate colors. You have one of two options for photographing in the daylight:
1. Bright Sunlight
- Produces accurate color
- Enables texture of medium to be visible
2. Open Shade
- Color shifts towards blue, but the image can be adjusted in Photoshop or
sometimes by using the cloudy or shade white balance on your camera
- Produces soft flat illumination
- Reduces texture of medium
Before you decide which light source is best for you, let's go over some basic rules:
1) Do not photograph in direct sunlight, this will wash out the image. The best time to photograph your artwork is in the early afternoon when the sun is overhead.
2) Make sure your camera is set to the highest resolution or largest photo size possible. Check your camera manual for more information on how to do this. (All cameras are different)
3) Do not zoom. Move your camera closer by moving the tripod closer. The zoom feature on a point and shoot camera is just a crop of the full size photo and can cause a loss in quality. Although zooming can reduce distortion with the edges of the artwork swelling up, this can be easily fixed in photoshop, whereas loss of quality can not.
4) If possible, remove artwork from any framing behind glass to eliminate glare and reflections.
5) Artwork must be as flat as possible to ensure the reproduction will not be distorted.
6) Never use a direct flash! You will not need to use your flash when photographing outdoors, so be sure to turn it off.
Now that you've decided which light source is best for your artwork, let's get started:
Take your painting outside on a sunny day. The natural outdoor light is MUCH better than anything indoors.
Find a place where you can hang your artwork directly onto the wall. If your artwork is on a paper medium, tape or thumbtack all four corners to the wall to ensure the artwork is completely flat. If your artwork is on stretched canvas, put thumbtacks or nails in the wall for the top stretcher bar to rest on. If you were unable to find a wall to hang on, lean the painting against a wall so that it stands almost perfectly upright.
Make sure the light is even on all parts of the painting. If there is shade or shadow along with direct sunlight on any part of the painting, find a different spot.
We would suggest using a tripod with your digital camera to make sure you're taking perfectly steady shots. No tripod? Find something tall and sturdy to let your camera rest on.
Make sure your camera is straight and level with the painting. If the painting is not hung up and is leaning against a wall, tilt your camera slightly downward to match the angle that the artwork is leaning. This will help minimize distortion of the image.
Be sure to fill the viewfinder of the camera as much as possible and then check to see that all the edges of your work are parallel with the edges of the viewfinder. Distortion will occur if the camera is not dead center to the artwork.
Take several pictures because it won’t always be as easy to tell on the viewfinder whether or not there’s any distortion or anything is out of focus. Once your images are up on your computer, you’ll be able to see for sure which photo is best.
If you're using the manual (m) setting on your camera, here are some tips:
1. Use an 18% gray card to meter, if possible
2. Set the white balance for "Daylight"
3. Use a small aperture for greatest depth of field to ensure art will be in focus, ex f22
4. Use a small iso, preferably 100iso, to eliminate or reduce grain
5. Use a cable release or self timer to make the exposure
Once you have the digital file of your artwork, you can send it to us at FavillePhoto@gmail.com for correction (free with the purchase of prints) or refer to the second half of the article "Photographing Artwork for Professional Photographers."
If you'd rather have it shot in a professional studio setting, visit our artwork reproduction page.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
How to Prepare for Your First Art Show
Some art shows are different than others, in regards to whether they offer power or not, offer tables and chairs or not, etc. But, in general, you will have to pretty much provide your entire set-up. Follow some of the tips below to help get you started on preparing for an art show.
#1.) Obviously, before anything else, you need products to sell. Visit Faville Photo's Giclee Printing Site to learn more about our giclee printing products. Please feel free at any time, to contact us via e-mail at FavillePhoto@Gmail.com or call us at (623) 204-7516. We're always here to answer questions, give advice or recommendations about our different printing products, or help you figure out the best way to prepare for your up-coming show. We're easy to work with, fast, affordable, reliable, and professional. We look forward to hearing from you and helping with your event!
#2.) Now that you have your prints, let's talk about your setup. With the exception of a couple of shows, pop-up tents are not mandatory for display, but HIGHLY recommended, especially during the hotter months (which in Arizona seems like that's 11 of the 12 months in the year). Tents also look much more professional. You can find great pop-up tents for less than $100.00 at both Wal-Mart and Target.
#3.) After the tent, the exact setup depends on what kind of art you're displaying, but since Faville Photo is a Giclee Print Shop, and specializes in photo printing and stretched canvas printing, let's assume you're going to be displaying some of the products that we probably created for you. The best way to display stretched canvas pieces is on a wall. We recommend visiting your local home improvement store like Home Depot and picking up either Pegboard Wall or Garden Lattice Wall. The Lattice wall is a little cheaper and lighter (easier to transport), but the Pegboard wall is more sturdy and, in our opinion, more customizable. Either way, you'll enclose your tent with a couple sheets of the wall of your choice. We recommend getting cable zip ties from the same home improvement store to mount the wall pieces to your tent. These are strong, easy to work with, and easy to remove at the end of the night.
#4.) With the wall in place, you'll need a way to display your work on the wall. If you decided to go with pegboard, be sure to also get pegboard hooks. These will mount right to the pegboard and you can set your art on top of them. If you chose the Lattice wall, you'll want to get S-hooks, and hang your art on the wall with those hooks.
#5.) Now that you have your tent and walls in place, you'll want to get a table so you can lay out all of your information. You can get a nice looking and easy to transport fold up table for $50 dollars at Wal-Mart or Target, along with the tent. Always take business cards, fliers, brochures, etc. At a lot of of these art shows, you are trying to immediately sell your work, but you're also trying to build a fan base, or take commission work. And, in some cases, people just don't bring the cash with them, but they're honestly interested in your work. Give them some information so they can get back in touch with you later.
#6.) The table is also a great place to display some of your smaller products. We always recommend creating your work in large options as well as smaller options. If someone absolutely loves one of your pieces, but can't afford $300.00 on a large canvas print, there's no reason why they shouldn't leave your booth having purchased a $30.00 matted print of it instead. Get a matted print rack from Jerry's Artarama, or any other local Art Supply Store, so you can display all of your smaller print options in one of those. They make it easy to transport, and easy to display. Another great option for a smaller product is our mini canvas' (each one comes with a mini easel as well).
Displaying at an art show is easy as that. There are always exceptions to the rule. Some shows, like First Friday's are at night, so you have to deal with lighting issues, and electrical issues to power your lights. Night shows, or shows that don't provide electricity are rare, so we're not going to cover that here. If your art show is different, or you are displaying different kinds of products, or you just have a question about something we didn't cover in this article, please feel free to contact us at any time. You can reach us 7 days a week, 8am to 10pm at (623) 204-7516, or you can e-mail us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at FavillePhoto@Gmail.com
#1.) Obviously, before anything else, you need products to sell. Visit Faville Photo's Giclee Printing Site to learn more about our giclee printing products. Please feel free at any time, to contact us via e-mail at FavillePhoto@Gmail.com or call us at (623) 204-7516. We're always here to answer questions, give advice or recommendations about our different printing products, or help you figure out the best way to prepare for your up-coming show. We're easy to work with, fast, affordable, reliable, and professional. We look forward to hearing from you and helping with your event!
#2.) Now that you have your prints, let's talk about your setup. With the exception of a couple of shows, pop-up tents are not mandatory for display, but HIGHLY recommended, especially during the hotter months (which in Arizona seems like that's 11 of the 12 months in the year). Tents also look much more professional. You can find great pop-up tents for less than $100.00 at both Wal-Mart and Target.
#3.) After the tent, the exact setup depends on what kind of art you're displaying, but since Faville Photo is a Giclee Print Shop, and specializes in photo printing and stretched canvas printing, let's assume you're going to be displaying some of the products that we probably created for you. The best way to display stretched canvas pieces is on a wall. We recommend visiting your local home improvement store like Home Depot and picking up either Pegboard Wall or Garden Lattice Wall. The Lattice wall is a little cheaper and lighter (easier to transport), but the Pegboard wall is more sturdy and, in our opinion, more customizable. Either way, you'll enclose your tent with a couple sheets of the wall of your choice. We recommend getting cable zip ties from the same home improvement store to mount the wall pieces to your tent. These are strong, easy to work with, and easy to remove at the end of the night.
#4.) With the wall in place, you'll need a way to display your work on the wall. If you decided to go with pegboard, be sure to also get pegboard hooks. These will mount right to the pegboard and you can set your art on top of them. If you chose the Lattice wall, you'll want to get S-hooks, and hang your art on the wall with those hooks.
#5.) Now that you have your tent and walls in place, you'll want to get a table so you can lay out all of your information. You can get a nice looking and easy to transport fold up table for $50 dollars at Wal-Mart or Target, along with the tent. Always take business cards, fliers, brochures, etc. At a lot of of these art shows, you are trying to immediately sell your work, but you're also trying to build a fan base, or take commission work. And, in some cases, people just don't bring the cash with them, but they're honestly interested in your work. Give them some information so they can get back in touch with you later.
#6.) The table is also a great place to display some of your smaller products. We always recommend creating your work in large options as well as smaller options. If someone absolutely loves one of your pieces, but can't afford $300.00 on a large canvas print, there's no reason why they shouldn't leave your booth having purchased a $30.00 matted print of it instead. Get a matted print rack from Jerry's Artarama, or any other local Art Supply Store, so you can display all of your smaller print options in one of those. They make it easy to transport, and easy to display. Another great option for a smaller product is our mini canvas' (each one comes with a mini easel as well).
Displaying at an art show is easy as that. There are always exceptions to the rule. Some shows, like First Friday's are at night, so you have to deal with lighting issues, and electrical issues to power your lights. Night shows, or shows that don't provide electricity are rare, so we're not going to cover that here. If your art show is different, or you are displaying different kinds of products, or you just have a question about something we didn't cover in this article, please feel free to contact us at any time. You can reach us 7 days a week, 8am to 10pm at (623) 204-7516, or you can e-mail us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at FavillePhoto@Gmail.com
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The Importance of Reproducing Original Artwork as Limited Edition Prints
In today’s economy, the market for original artwork has diminished considerably. Once potential buyers are now concerned about keeping their jobs and making the mortgage payment on time. Connoisseurs who used to purchase $1000.00 paintings without even flinching are thinking twice about paintings half that price. This is a serious problem for professional artists who live off of the sales of their paintings. These artists don’t have full-time jobs to fall back on. Art is their job - art is their life, and their lives are being threatened by the faltering economy we face.
There is a solution to this problem, however, that some artists will take advantage of now, and it will carry them through the current tough times, as well as increase their market share in the future when the serious buyers return. The solution: Original Artwork Reproduction. There are a number of places that can take an original painting, drawing, or pastel and scan it or digitally photograph it to create a high resolution digital copy of the work. Prices for this service vary from shop to shop. On the low end of the spectrum, you can find places that will reproduce original art for $50.00 to $75.00 per piece. On the high end, some places charge as much as $200.00 or $300.00 per piece. Do some research and find the place that suits your needs, both in quality, and in budget.
Once a digital copy of the artwork has been created, a whole new world of opportunities opens up to the artist. Instead of selling the original painting for a one-time price of $1000.00, an artist can now reproduce limited edition prints of the piece over and over again. The cost of production is drastically reduced, so in turn, the price can be reduced as well. A lower price means that more people will consider purchasing the piece, because it will now fall within their tightened budget. There is no limit to how many prints an artist can choose to sell, so the potential profit is much greater per painting, when selling prints versus the original. Don’t forget – the original is still available for purchase for the still-wealthy connoisseur. Another advantage of reproduction is the wide variety of options that are available to the artist. Offer small photo prints, matted prints, postcards, and more. The goal, in this economy, is to offer a wide variety of products in different price ranges that can appeal to anyone; Rich or poor; there is something that everyone can afford to take away.
Lastly, this is not just a temporary solution to weather the current economic storm. This is a permanent opportunity to increase profitability and share your work with a larger group of people. When the economy stabilizes, there will still be plenty of people living on a tight budget. These people deserve to enjoy fine-art too. Continue to offer products in low price ranges so that anyone can afford something. You will gain a lot of exposure, and you’ll be sharing your gift with many people who normally wouldn’t be able to enjoy your beautiful work.
For more information on Original Artwork Reproduction, you can contact John Gilman with Faville Photo. Faville Photo specializes in artwork reproduction and large format giclee printing.
Call: (623) 204-7516
Email: FavillePhoto@Gmail.com
Web: www.FavillePhoto.com
There is a solution to this problem, however, that some artists will take advantage of now, and it will carry them through the current tough times, as well as increase their market share in the future when the serious buyers return. The solution: Original Artwork Reproduction. There are a number of places that can take an original painting, drawing, or pastel and scan it or digitally photograph it to create a high resolution digital copy of the work. Prices for this service vary from shop to shop. On the low end of the spectrum, you can find places that will reproduce original art for $50.00 to $75.00 per piece. On the high end, some places charge as much as $200.00 or $300.00 per piece. Do some research and find the place that suits your needs, both in quality, and in budget.
Once a digital copy of the artwork has been created, a whole new world of opportunities opens up to the artist. Instead of selling the original painting for a one-time price of $1000.00, an artist can now reproduce limited edition prints of the piece over and over again. The cost of production is drastically reduced, so in turn, the price can be reduced as well. A lower price means that more people will consider purchasing the piece, because it will now fall within their tightened budget. There is no limit to how many prints an artist can choose to sell, so the potential profit is much greater per painting, when selling prints versus the original. Don’t forget – the original is still available for purchase for the still-wealthy connoisseur. Another advantage of reproduction is the wide variety of options that are available to the artist. Offer small photo prints, matted prints, postcards, and more. The goal, in this economy, is to offer a wide variety of products in different price ranges that can appeal to anyone; Rich or poor; there is something that everyone can afford to take away.
Lastly, this is not just a temporary solution to weather the current economic storm. This is a permanent opportunity to increase profitability and share your work with a larger group of people. When the economy stabilizes, there will still be plenty of people living on a tight budget. These people deserve to enjoy fine-art too. Continue to offer products in low price ranges so that anyone can afford something. You will gain a lot of exposure, and you’ll be sharing your gift with many people who normally wouldn’t be able to enjoy your beautiful work.
For more information on Original Artwork Reproduction, you can contact John Gilman with Faville Photo. Faville Photo specializes in artwork reproduction and large format giclee printing.
Call: (623) 204-7516
Email: FavillePhoto@Gmail.com
Web: www.FavillePhoto.com
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Faville Photo's First Blog!
Faville Photo is a small locally owned and operated giclee print shop in Mesa, AZ.
We originally started this business so we could reproduce Jessica's digital photography onto canvas, photo paper, or other fine art media. We had a really hard time finding helpful or affordable places locally that could do the kind of printing work we wanted, and eventually just decided doing it ourselves would be the best option. We invested in all of the equipment and materials necessary to get started and were successfully printing Jessica's photography onto stretched canvas and they looked fantastic. Faville Photo was born!
After a few months of focusing on Jessica's photography, getting out to art shows and speaking with other local artists, we realized that alot of other local artists were also having a hard time finding affordable printers to do their work. Many of them were ordering prints from out-of-state, waiting 6 weeks for them to arrive, and paying massive shipping costs. We were shocked to hear this! It was at this moment that we decided to become the first local giclee print shop that is affordable, reliable, fast, and most importantly offers great customer service. We had been through the troubles of finding printing options before, so we understood exactly what these other artists were going through, and we wanted to be their solution.
Faville Photo now boasts a very large customer base comprised of both artists and photographers, as well many regular local customers that need a reliable custom printer.
We offer 10 different types of printing media, in sizes ranging from extremely small like 2"x3" all the way to extremely large like 40"x72". Not only can we handle ANY custom, large format or regular format printing project you have, we do it affordably and in an extremely timely manner - often taking only 1 day for most photo prints or fine art prints, and only 2 to 3 days for stretched canvas prints. On top of everything, you get our top-of-the-line customer service - 1-on-1 personal service, 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. We're always here and available to answer questions, give ideas and recommendations, and take care of anything you might need.
Visit www.FavillePhoto.com to check us out!
Now that you know who we are and what we do, let's get to the point of this blog. From time to time, we are going to be posting important articles, how-to's, and information about all of the services we provide, which include: digital photography, artwork reproduction, product shoots, giclee printing, custom framing, custom matting, canvas stretching, graphic design and much more!
Check back soon for our first article: "The Importance of Reproducing Original Artwork as Limited Edition Prints"
We originally started this business so we could reproduce Jessica's digital photography onto canvas, photo paper, or other fine art media. We had a really hard time finding helpful or affordable places locally that could do the kind of printing work we wanted, and eventually just decided doing it ourselves would be the best option. We invested in all of the equipment and materials necessary to get started and were successfully printing Jessica's photography onto stretched canvas and they looked fantastic. Faville Photo was born!
After a few months of focusing on Jessica's photography, getting out to art shows and speaking with other local artists, we realized that alot of other local artists were also having a hard time finding affordable printers to do their work. Many of them were ordering prints from out-of-state, waiting 6 weeks for them to arrive, and paying massive shipping costs. We were shocked to hear this! It was at this moment that we decided to become the first local giclee print shop that is affordable, reliable, fast, and most importantly offers great customer service. We had been through the troubles of finding printing options before, so we understood exactly what these other artists were going through, and we wanted to be their solution.
Faville Photo now boasts a very large customer base comprised of both artists and photographers, as well many regular local customers that need a reliable custom printer.
We offer 10 different types of printing media, in sizes ranging from extremely small like 2"x3" all the way to extremely large like 40"x72". Not only can we handle ANY custom, large format or regular format printing project you have, we do it affordably and in an extremely timely manner - often taking only 1 day for most photo prints or fine art prints, and only 2 to 3 days for stretched canvas prints. On top of everything, you get our top-of-the-line customer service - 1-on-1 personal service, 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. We're always here and available to answer questions, give ideas and recommendations, and take care of anything you might need.
Visit www.FavillePhoto.com to check us out!
Now that you know who we are and what we do, let's get to the point of this blog. From time to time, we are going to be posting important articles, how-to's, and information about all of the services we provide, which include: digital photography, artwork reproduction, product shoots, giclee printing, custom framing, custom matting, canvas stretching, graphic design and much more!
Check back soon for our first article: "The Importance of Reproducing Original Artwork as Limited Edition Prints"
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