Artwork Photography for visual artists and galleries

◘ Artwork Photography ◘ Digital ◘ Pricing ◘ Terms

High quality photography of artists’ works is a very important part of any promotional package, which is why we offer a range of various methods of photographing and presenting artworks aimed both at individual artists and at galleries. Please read on to find out more about how we work and what we can do for you.

What we do

We can photograph 2 and 3 dimensional artists’ works in a studio or on location using traditional and digital cameras and professional portable lighting equipment. We can photograph on colour slides and transparencies from 35mm to 5x4” or digitally where images are outputted onto CD ROM.

Where we work

We normally come to your studio and photograph your works there; this saves you travelling time and the hassle of transporting your works backwards and forwards from studio to studio. Alternatively we can pick up your works and photograph them on our premises if you so wish. For works that are too large to be photographed on our premises or in your studio we hire a studio out and arrange for the transport of your works to and from the studio.
We can also photograph your works on location. This is especially relevant to 2 or 3 dimensional works displayed in open spaces or in buildings.

How we work

Films and processes

We use professional photographic equipment and films that are stored in  a cool environment and processed in professional laboratories to guarantee the highest quality results.

To help you pick which kind of film and process is best for you, here are some examples of types of films and their potential usage.

35mm slide film can take 36 exposures and is suitable for archiving, preview for a slide show or printing small sized photographs up to 10”x8”. It cannot recognize small details and some colour shades on your work.

6x9cm transparency film takes 8 exposures and is especially suitable for printing larger formats from A4 size up. This film has significantly higher colours and small detail recognition. It produces excellent results in the printing of exhibition posters, catalogues or presentation cards. Printing Houses prefer to use it even when they use it for printing post cards. Very importantly it is cost effective as it produces significantly higher quality results than 35mm film for a very low price increase.

5”x4”transparency film This film is also called a sheet film. Each film takes one exposure. It is used for printing very large posters, and can give exceptionally high colour recognition and details, although unless specifically required by the gallery or a printing house the cost is high.

For a Photo Shoot with traditional and digital cameras

Before the shoot:

How to prepare the space for setting up the cameras and lighting equipment in your studio:
 

• free up  the whole space before the session. It will save valuable time and consequently money. We need a space at least 2x by 3x the width of the largest of your paintings so that we can get far enough back from the work and allow for the positioning of lights on either side.

• make sure there are at least two good power points within reach, and that there is no strong sunlight entering the room.

• free the space from excessive dust and dirt as this damages sensitive photographic equipment.

• organise your work in the order in which you want us to photograph it. Before the photographic session select individual pieces of the same or of a similar size and put them together.

• Prepare  an empty, clean and preferably white wall where your work can be hung and then photographed. If this is not possible please let us know so we can arrange to bring our own white background.

   

During the photo session:

When we photograph your work, the quality of the finished product is of  the utmost importance to us. Every time an image is reproduced, including when it is photographed, this leads to some loss of detail and shifting of colours, even the process of developing films is not 100 per cent identical all the time.
To reduce to a minimum these imperfections caused by photographing, processing and printing, we use a photographic technique called bracketing exposures. What this means is that we take 3 exposures of each of your works, one exposure is according to a flash meter reading, one is ½ stop higher and one is ½ stop lower. This eliminates imperfections that arise out of variations in the way slides and transparencies are processed in laboratories.
In practice, however, we can usually limit this bracketing to under-exposing light and middle toned paintings by half or one stops and over-exposing very dark paintings by half or one stops.    

Once the film is processed, you will receive 3 slides or transparencies  of each of your works, so that when you are presenting them to your potential clients, they will have 3 choices from which they can select the one that is most suited to their needs, for example they may need slightly darker or lighter transparencies because their printing house requests it.

With a digital camera we don’t take three exposures of each artwork, because the digital images can be adjusted both during the process of photographing and also afterwards when they are uploaded onto a computer.