How much mp should the camera have 14 mp or 18 mp ? I am not a camera wise lady I have painted all my life and I am older when it comes to all the exciting new technology. But my mom always said adapt or die. And I will not let my work die lol . I think as a new person there should be more discussions on how to take and load pictures of your art.

My camera is a 10 MP Nikon D40 camera and does just fine. Old by most standards and I can't get the 2 or 3 largest print sizes available.

The trick is to use a tripod and good natural light; then, take it to Photoshop or Gimp or other processing methods and fix any lens blur, sharpen if needed, adjust color to match the original, brighten, increase contrast, ect. And to have your computer screen calibrated properly. Most computers, especially new ones are perfectly calibrated. I check all my uploads on an ipad for color because I know that my ipad is calibrated correctly. I also ordered prints of my work to be sure I was doing it correctly. FAA printed exactly want I saw.

Just keep in mind that the more you do to your JPEG the smaller the image becomes and, in turn, the smaller your printable sizes will be. Use the high Res box after uploading to check your work for issues such as blurriness and pixelation. Over processed pieces will become pixelated, try to get the most out of taking the original shot. A steady camera is the best place to start.

I will post tips on how to photograph your work next week when we have more members.

Thank you for being a grate help and I will be looking foreword to to your tips next week.:)

~I found a link in the FAA Community that does well answering any questions you may have. Including photographing your artwork. See the link at the bottom.

~I prefer to photograph my work outside in bright, Northern exposed outdoor lighting. If that is not an option, you can position your work at a 45 degree angle to a Northern exposed window and photograph your work using a tripod far enough away that you have to zoom in to crop out edges, but not too far away. A few feet away.

~Have your camera at the same angle as your artwork is and focus on dead center of the work and on a tripod to reduce or eliminate blur from camera shake. Don't be too close. Stand about three feet away and zoom in to crop out edges.

~Photograph the artwork before sealing it as to avoid the shiny quality that sealers add. Some paintings will have a sheen anyway especially ones with a lot of black in them, you may need to angle yourself off center slightly to eliminate glare.

~If your paintings have a lot of black in them, you will notice that your light-colored clothing will bounce light back onto the painting especially if you are photographing outside.

~Using a light box will solve many problems. There are all types of them available. There are also instructions on how to make a homemade one online.

~Watch those sneaky shadows and uneven lighting. Sometimes I'm concentrating so hard on getting everything in focus that I don't realize I am casting a shadow on the work or something else is casting a shadow.

~Indoor lighting casts a yellow hue unless you are using natural light from a Northern exposure window, then it will be blue. Outdoor lighting casts a blue hue unless your art is placed in direct sunlight; then it will be a yellow hue.

~Photograph your work in the RAW setting if it is available. RAW files give you more room to process your image before degrading the image. This also allows you to manipulate the color black. Photoshop automatically converts your RAW images to jpegs when you are done manipulating them and you end up with a larger file.

~Even with the best photo, you probably will still have to process the image in Photoshop to crop out edges and make it its very best and correct the hue or saturation, brighten or increase contrast, ect. Keep in mind that the more you process your image the more degraded the file becomes. So be sure to get the very best photo you can to start with.

~Gimp and Picasa are free and do much the same as Photoshop. Google search the free downloads. I'm still learning Gimp and haven't yet figured out how to take a RAW file and convert it to workable JPEG. I also use Photoshop. Photoshop processes RAW photos nicely.

~See discussion post on Links To Things That Might Interest You:
http://fineartamerica.com/groups/horse-pictures.html?showmessage=true&messageid=910631&targetid=910631

Thanks for letting me join this group. While horses are not my prime subject, I have a sister who rescues them and so I do like to paint them whenever she gets a new horse at her ranch. Horses are quite beautiful and majestic creatures, (terrific subjects for paintings!) so this group is certainly an homage to them. :)

Thank you, Reb, and welcome to the group. I want this group to not only be a homage to horses, but horse lovers. Horse art sells well here at FAA and hopefully, this group will become a place to look for fabulous horse paintings to purchase. :-)

I am glad to be a part of your group. I have had horses throughout my life and trying to get my business up and going again. I have just started to work on my art again and working to improve daily. The artwork displayed on your site is impressive. I have enjoyed them all.

Welcome to the group, Nancy, and thank you. I too have been around horses my whole life. I was practically born on a horse. I was two when I started riding. :-)

Take a look at the members work too ( you're probably talking about their art not mine, hehe). Some great stuff there as well. :-)

Thanks for the invitation - great idea for a group, and thanks for your efforts

Welcome, Nate. I love your work. Makes me happy. :-)

Hi Jani, There is a program called OnOne Perfect Photo Suite which has a resizing tool. If the picture is good quality you can enlarge a tremendous amount without loss of the quality. You will not get a pixelated look or blurring. It is a little pricey but worth it just for that option.

Thank you for the tip, Terry. :-)

The link in the O.P. isn't clickable try this: http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=432109

Here are some excellent examples of perfect print quality from some of our group members. Sharp as a tack. Click on the image and click the high Res box to see for yourself.

Those are photographed at the highest level of expertise.

Here are two of mine. I'm not a photographer by profession. Trying to be, but still learning. These are also good print quality. Not as superb as the above, but very printable still.



Click on the high Res box to see what the largest print size would look like.

Sometimes, if I don't feel they will look good at the largest sizes, I will knock one or two (or more) of the largest print sizes off by simply not putting a price in those boxes and turn off the high Res box viewing option. With that said, the images still need to be presented at the very best that you can do. If you can't fix them; then hire it out or learn. I chose to learn and am still learning. It has been very rewarding so far. I've sold prints here and have not had a single rejection or return.

It would figure that as soon as I say that I've never had a problem, one would arise (less than a month later).

Since my last post, I did get a problem with the image, Painted By The Wind after I received a sale. The problem was that I was offering a larger size than I could get printed. My 10 MP camera can only sometimes get a 36 x 26 print of my paintings, but I had done some cropping and processing to the image which makes it not printable at that size.

The blank white box being available for a price does not mean that it is printable at that size.

It took a full and very stressful day to get a new image that would work and I barely made it. The print size just under the 36 x 26 would have been no problem and the buyer would have seen it as the largest size available.

My biggest concern was trying to match the color that the buyer saw and sticking as close to the original as possible without degrading the image. The sale did go through. I still won't breath at complete ease until the 30 days to return the print have passed. I don't want to ever go through that again so I did some searching and I have found a chart that will help me know for sure what pixels are needed for any given size offered for sale on your upload page.

One side of your image must be at least this many pixels in length or more (your images pixels x pixels show in bold above the price chart after you upload your image). If the image just barely makes the requirement, I suggest dropping one size down just to be on the safe side. If the pixels sizes land in between, choose the lesser of the two:

8 x 0 = 686 (pixels)
10 x 0 = 857
12 x 0 = 1229
14 x 0 = 1200
16 x 0 = 1371
20 x 0 = 1714
24 x 0 = 2055
30 x 0 = 2571
36 x 0 = 3086
40 x 0 = 3429
48 x 0 = 4114
60 x 0 = 5143
72 x 0 = 6171
96 x 0 = 8229
108 x 0 = 9257

Use the pixel chart for both sides. Height and width.

Remember, if your images are blurry or pixelated they still will not be printable. Probably at any or most of the sizes you offer. It must be sharp at the required pixels. The photo cannot be stretched to fit. Clean, sharp photos straight from the camera or scanner is best. If you do some processing, take the biggest one or two sizes you can offer off by leaving the price box empty. Especially if it barely fits into the required pixels by pixels. I have since corrected all my images.

Edit: The sale did go through and no returns. Whew!

Jani :-)

Info on your print quality: http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=432109