Mary Lawler - Art Blog
Photographing Your Artwork and Resizing Images
by marylawler , May 19, 2009—12:00 AM
Photographing Your Artwork and Resizing Images
It's a challenge to give artists step-by-step instructions for photographing, downloading and sizing their artwork, because everyone is working with different combinations of Mac, PC, Camera model, mega pixels and photo editing software.Photographing Here are a few tips that apply to almost any camera. It's important that your camera is 4mega pixels or higher. Make sure your camera set to the highest setting ISO Large or Hi. Some cameras have a RAW setting, choose this. This mode will give you the largest file with the most information. Take pictures of your artwork as closely as you can, either lay it on the floor or hang it on a wall. Shoot it straight on, not tilted in a chair or leaning against a wall. Overcast days are perfect for photographing art. Never shoot in direct sunlight, always in indirect light. Do not use a flash unless you can control the "hot spot" it will leave. Try not to shoot through glass unless there is no other option. Shoot your work including the frame if it has one. You can crop it out later if you want.
Download your pictures from your camera to your computer to wherever your software puts them. (It's always a mystery to me). If you already have a system set up then ignore this part. Create a new folder on your desktop called ORIG FILES. Go find the newly downloaded images and drag them to the new folder. Open Photoshop Elements or other editing software and open an image.
Sizing Here is where we might part ways. These instructions are for Photoshop CS or Photoshop Elements but may be very similar to your software so get what you can out of it. If the image it has a perspective bow in it you can select it, go to Transform, Skew and drag the corners around until it straightens out. Now you can adjust the color, brightness etc. Go to Image Size or Resize and look at the numbers. For the web you want roughly 8×10-ish and 72 ppi (sometimes called dpi) and roughly 600 × 800 pixels or larger but not more than 5 MB.
For the ICN hi def screens you want hi res images 300 ppi and at least 1700 pixels minimum in either direction. If you unclick the Resample Image box you can change the resolution and the image size will change with it. Click on the Resample Image box and you can change the dimensions without altering the ppi. Your hi res images should end up 900 KB or larger. For ICN, larger is better as long as it is 300 ppi and a min of 900 KB
Saving and Sorting Make two more new folders on your desktop One WEB and the other HI RES. When you are done adjusting and resizing an image click "Save As". Name the image, save it as a .jpeg, and save it to the appropriate folder on your desktop, 72 ppi to the WEB folder and 300ppi to the HI RES folder. Keep the original file unchanged. This keeps the images separated and easy to find when uploading. So now you have three folders, Original Files, Hi Res and Web.
Burning a CD For PC people: Go to Start, select My Computer, and select, CD DRIVE. When the window opens you can drag the entire appropriate folder or single images from your desktop to the window and then click "Write these files to CD". I'm sure you have put a blank CD in by now, right?
For Mac People: Go to Finder, File (on the very top menu bar) and choose New Burn Folder. Name the burn folder. Drag and drop either the images one by one or the whole folder Hi Res or Web or both onto the burn folder. Go back to File and choose Burn (folder name) to CD. That should do it. Now you can save your files in whatever system you have that works for you. Always save the Original Files, they contain the most information and you can go back to one if you screw something up. If the only images you have, have already been sized for the web, or shot with low-resolution equipment, you can't make them larger. If this is the case you should go back and re photograph the image. There is a lot of info, groups and sites, on the web for troubleshooting your process. Or ... ask a five year old.
Post Note: As Marie mentioned in her comment below, RAW files have a lot of information and therefore take up a lot of memory in your computer. It's always a good idea to copy ALL your images to a disk, archive it and store only the lo res web versions on your computer.
COMMENTS
08/04/2009 * 15:15:05
If you have plenty of money, all you need do is download a quality photo of your artwork onto your computer, transfer the photo to a disc and take the disc to Kinkos where they will copy actual size or larger/smaller (your choice). I am on a very tight budget so I simply print them out on my Lexmark printer using high quality watercolor paper to 8×10" format, then cut my own mat to fit the copy/copies. PS print art when you have new ink cartridges installed. The color will not always be accurate with a cheap printer.
07/21/2009 * 20:16:38
Very helpful. I have done some of it and set my camera to the highest setting which was 4.0F. Also have downloaded some free programs to resize, i.e. Photoshop express and GIMP 2.0. I'm still working on resizing new paintings.
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06/07/2009 * 20:40:05
Hi, thanks so much especially for the burn to cd information. I had to laugh about downloading images from camera to pc. It also is a mystery to me where things go when downloaded--I USUALLY can find them.
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05/28/2009 * 10:37:12
Charles,
I have an 8mp camera and I do not use a tripod. However, some camera models are extremely sensitive to movement and getting a clear shot can be a challenge especially in low light. The camera model that came out right after I bought mine, had improvements that stabilized the camera to eliminate that sensitivity.
If your camera is set to the highest ISO, you should have all you need to get a usable file. You may not be able to blow it up to a 20 × 24 print very well but for smaller prints and the web, you should be fine.
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05/27/2009 * 18:27:20
I really quite know how to ask this question, but I have been told two things, if I don't use a tripod I am wasting my time and I need a high ISO. I have a 7meg but really don't know how much ISO I really need.
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05/27/2009 * 16:12:48
Thank you so much for that advice. I am starting to draw and paint again and I had no idea how to get my actual artwork into my computer as an image. My next step is to find out how to make my artwork into prints. I would appreciate any advice in that area.
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05/20/2009 * 15:11:01
Mary,
Excellent walk through. Might add that a very important suggestion you made is setting up specific folders for "originals" and "web view images". Can't tell you how long it's taking me to sort the photos after once again using the "wrong image" to resize. Regarding the RAW images; careful there they absorb your memory big time. Tend to learn things the hard way; all the more valuable your walk about here! Thank you!
christy DeKoning ( homepage )
10/25/2009 * 20:29:09
Hi - I know this is an old thread, but just wanted to pop in and let you know that this month in Watercolor Artist Magazine (www.watercolorartistmagazine.com) there is an incredible article on photographing your work - everything you need to do it like a pro.