Do It On The FloorĪ common problem in photographing flat artwork is not taking the picture dead on at 90 degrees but slightly off from that. This allows the viewer to see the most detail while still seeing the work as a whole without distraction. At least one photo should be of the art itself in its entirety with other objects cropped out. However, this should never be your primary photo of the art when submitting to contests or publications. Surrounding objects, plants and people can give a sense of scale and context to the art. Many people like to photograph their art in situ as it is displayed, such as hanging on a wall or in out in the garden. This ensures I don’t cast a shadow on the artwork or have glares. That means I am photographing from the direction of light but not with the light behind me. I like to position lights on either side of me a few feet away and stand in the middle. A simple end-table lamp with the shade removed can provide quite a bit of light, but tall floor lamps are even better because they are the right height. When this happens, take the time to move ordinary household lamps around so that you have adequate light and light from more than one angle. Sometime you need a work-in-progress shot and sometimes you don’t have time to wait for daylight hours. Sometimes you need to take photographs inside the studio. Care was taken by the photographer to show the faint iridescence of the martini glass and the black feathers on one of the penguins. These penguins were photographed indoors against a white wall with warm diffuse lighting. The diffuse light of early morning, late afternoon and mildly overcast days is ideal. When the sun is very bright, colors tend to look bleached out, and there are problems with glares and sparkles on glass and polished stone. Of course, you don’t want a dark sky with cold light, a little high cloud cover provides much better lighting conditions than a very sunny day with no clouds at all. The best lighting for photographing art is outdoors on a mildly overcast day or during late afternoon or early morning. Good natural lighting makes it easy for the camera to take a very sharp photo. This picture of hanging mosaic ornament balls was taken outside on an overcast day. Staging and Lighting for Art Photography Diffuse Sunlight

You can take excellent photos with ordinary and low-end digital cameras provided you take just a little time (minutes) to ensure that you have adequate lighting and background. And that is just the point of this long-winded introduction: YOU DO NOT NEED AN EXPENSIVE CAMERA TO TAKE PUBLISHABLE PHOTOGRAPHS OF MOSAIC ART AND PAINTINGS.

If this seems like a rant, it is, but my cheapo cell phone is capable of taking better photographs than a lot of what we received. Hey, do you know what time Burger King closes?” It’s a little blurry, and there’s shadows on the top corner, but you get the idea. Many of the photographs looked like they were taken by a passing teenager who could care less: “I think I got a good shot.

It was actually shocking that people could have enough patience and artistic sensitivity to produce the quality of mosaic they submitted to us, yet not display any of those traits when taking photographs of that same art. The pictures I am talking about were so dark and/or blurry that I couldn’t tell what type tile was used in the mosaic. Note: You don’t have to be paranoid about sending me pictures of your art. If you are going to spend over 40 hours making anything, does it makes sense to photograph it without spending at least 4 minutes to make sure you have a neutral background and adequate lighting? After all, the vast majority of the people who see your art will actually only see the photograph of it and not the mosaic itself.

To be brutally honest, some of the photos made me nothing less than angry. I was pleasantly surprised by how incredibly good some of the mosaics were, but I was more than a little bit disappointed to see how poor some of the photographs were. Not too long ago, I included a request in our email newsletter for customers to send us pictures of their mosaic art.

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