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Maxwell Hanson

9 Years Ago

Photographing/cropping My Artwork Is Driving Me Insane...

I don't know what it is but I cannot for the life of me get good photos of my artwork using my point and shoot 8mp camera, a tripod, overcast lighting, and a tripod. I make sure the camera and artwork are parallel. It's getting really frustrating, I've taken 100's probably close to 1000 photos of the same 10 or 15 artworks and can barely get a single one right. I've honestly taken more accurate photos that were way easier to crop with my iphone for god's sake.
It's mostly getting a photo that won't crop out the artwork when I edit it.
What's the best way to photograph an artwork so that when I crop it I know I won't have to crop out parts of the artwork itself? Is there a way to crop your image so that you can have straight edges of your artwork without cropping out parts of it?


---Example image I found hard to crop but was about the closest I could get to being aligned correctly

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Val Arie

9 Years Ago

Hi, The photographers will no doubt come along shortly... but to me it looks like you don't have the image centered parallel to the lens. the top looks like it is leaning outward as your edges are not straight. I did some for a friend and put the image on the ground and shot down at it keeping the lens centered over the image.

 

Marlene Burns

9 Years Ago

Maxwell, use the picasa program..it is free and will do many, many more things for you than crop.
You are under the mistaken notion that your camera does the croping, when in fact, any program out there will do that POST picture taking.
Good luck!

 

Bob VonDrachek

9 Years Ago

if you place the painting with the edge plumb or true vertical and place your camera at the heigth of the center of the art it should come out with straight side. you can also plce the camera farther away and zoom in.

 

Roy Pedersen

9 Years Ago

Hi Maxwell.Looking at the image it looks like it is bowing out at the top.What kind of lens are you using as if it is a wide angle lens it can lead to the image being distorted.Something around the 50mm would be good
Some editing programes will let you correct for lens distortion.What are you using

 

Maxwell Hanson

9 Years Ago

Hey thanks for replying guys, I will make sure to try to make the lens and picture more parallel. I can see that I have overlooked that step a bit. My camera lens says 18-55mm on it and I like to use it zoomed all the way out as close to the art as possible for the highest res photo.

I have Photoshop. Is there some kind of way I can flatten part of the image or something to make it crop nicely without distorting the rest of the image?

I am aware that the camera does not do the cropping. But I find that when I take a picture that may appear nice and aligned, I go to crop out the background that is not the artwork on my photo editing software and it is then inconveniently obvious to me that the picture was not as aligned as I had perceived it to be when taking the photo.

 

Maxwell Hanson

9 Years Ago

I edited my original post to show my latest photograph of the same piece after adjusting it to be as parallel to the lens as possible. Still, not a nice crop when I open it in the editor. Any ideas?

 

Mike Savad

9 Years Ago

buy a scanner. 8mp is not very large or detailed. photography is hard, shooting a painting even harder. if you have photoshop you can tweak the crop and straighten it that way. otherwise you can do a transform and straighten it that way. otherwise you'll have to place the thing on a level wall and make sure the tripod is perfectly level and shoot with that.

---Mike Savad

 

Rich Franco

9 Years Ago

Maxwell,

Let me see if I understand what you're asking here. Are you saying that because your copy of your art work isn't perfect, the crop comes out wrong?

Think of it this way and if you're using a P&S camera,this may play into it too. If the proportions of the capture and a DSLR is 2x3,4x6,8x12,16x24,then the artwork has to be the same proportions OR you'll crop out some of the art or need to leave in some of the background.

Does this make sense?

Rich

 

Chuck De La Rosa

9 Years Ago

What you are seeing is called "barrel distortion". This is a result of the physics behind camera lenses, but in short the smaller the diameter of lens the greater the chance of barrel distortion with straight lines. What's more is that the wider the angle, the greater distortion. Software such as Adobe Lightroom have camera and lens profiles that can automatically fix this to a degree, in addition there are other tools in Lightroom to further fix the distortion. Shooting it with the lens set to an equivalent length to 50mm might help too.

In Photoshop, look for your Perspective Correction tools. You should be able to correct some of this with those tools. But I agree with Mike, I think you are better off scanning your work.

 

Floyd Snyder

9 Years Ago

If all else fails, find a local studio photog and pay him to shoot a couple of pieces for you. Tell them exactly what you are trying to do and that you want to learn to do it yourself.

 

Ronald Lopez

9 Years Ago

if the cropping of the photo is your problem...maybe you can download some photo editi g apps for it..

 

Joseph C Hinson

9 Years Ago

If I am reading between the lines right, he's using some form of photo editting software and means that when he crops the "outer space" of his photograph (of the art work) because of the way he's shooting it and the resultant distortion, he has to crop some of his painting out. Maxwell, you may need something like Photoshop Elements that will let you fix the distortion of the image or, better yet, do as Floyd suggested, and have a photographer shoot it who knows his way around a camera.

 

Colin Utz

9 Years Ago

Sometimes you canīt do what you want with the tools you have. You wouldnīt try to pump up a car tire with a bicycle pump, wouldnīt you? With your 8 MP P&S you never get the results you want and need to sell your prints.

Maybe there is a photo club or school group you can ask, or as Floyd said, you have to look for a professional photographer.

 

Steven Ralser

9 Years Ago

I've pumped up a car tire with a bicycle pump (not to bad with a standup pump).

 

Mike Savad

9 Years Ago

i think what he's getting at is, he's getting distortion because the image isn't perfectly straight in any one direction. and when he crops it, most of the edges are removed because the thing isn't straight.

---Mike Savad

 

Colin Utz

9 Years Ago

"I've pumped up a car tire with a bicycle pump (not to bad with a standup pump)."

But it wasnīt funny, I guess ... ;-)

 

Kevin Annala

9 Years Ago

Quote: My camera lens says 18-55mm on it and I like to use it zoomed all the way out as close to the art as possible for the highest res photo"

First off you need to do opposite. The wider end, and closer up will cause more distortion. Go a bit farther away and shoot zoomed in at about 50mm. Make sure the painting is as close to level and straight as possible, and make sure the camera and lens are horizontal with as close to as little tilt upwards or downwards as you possibly can. Level and even is key. Whatever is left as far as distortion can be corrected in editing.

Do that as a starting point and you should have the least amount of distortion possible as a starting point.

 

Roy Erickson

9 Years Ago

what Kevin said - and - make sure the lens is pointed centered on the art - not to one side - nor as it looks in the image above - it appears your lens is not perpendicular to the center but at the top of the image.

 

Wayne Sherriff

9 Years Ago

A basic dslr camera with a prime lens - say a 50mm one will get you the results you're after. A grid can be switched on with most dslr's and that will assist in lining up the perimeters of the paintings.

 

Maxwell Hanson

9 Years Ago

Hmm. I would like to learn about the photo editing that I can use to reduce distortion.

Mike and Joseph seem to get what I'm meaning to say most. I know I can get it right....I've gotten some that are close after lots and lots of effort but it took hours to get decent photographs of maybe 1 or 2 pieces.

I payed an amateur photographer that is an acquaintance of mine to photograph some of my works. He messed up with the glare but his cropping was perfectly aligned without having any of the artwork edges missing in the image, and he didn't even have to use a tripod.

 

Maxwell Hanson

9 Years Ago

Kevin- I will try as you say next time and compare the results.

 

Kevin OConnell

9 Years Ago

Maxwell, I have seen many paintings and sculptures taken on a hanging wall, or with a nice backdrop. I happen to like that if done right with a good piece of art. It gives it more dimension as well.

 

Roy Pedersen

9 Years Ago

Try shooting some with your lens zoomed in to around 50mm and you should see that there is far less distortion that will make it easier for you to crop.Once you have done that you can adjust it in photoshop.If you a google search for the photo distortion correction tool you will see lots of tutorials that you can follow

 

CAROLYN SLATTERY

9 Years Ago

I agree with Mike; scan the painting and then stitch it together in Photoshop. I have even scanned large drawings in four pieces. Once you have pieced them together seamlessly you will never be able to tell and you will have an excellent file of your painting. I've tried photographing my large paintings and they Never turn out right. Except when I hire a professional.

 

Maxwell Hanson

9 Years Ago

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I'll give it another go tomorrow with as precise alignments as possible. I'll try it zoomed in too at different levels and see what that does for me.

As for scanning, I have a really small one that's not really working right now..I might look into the scan & stitch tecnique in the future but I will definitely check out the Photoshop distortion correction tools.

 

Mike Savad

9 Years Ago

mine is a standard size, or maybe it's legal size. in any case i could scan a 18x24 piece on it in 8 scans.

---Mike Savad

 

Rich Franco

9 Years Ago

Max,

Here is a link to my site and a few examples of how to level your camera to the artwork and also some lightings things you can cheaply set up:

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/rich-franco.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=148572&page=2

Rich

 

Richard Hoffman

9 Years Ago

I use a very old program that has vector and bitmap warping. I am always photographing oil paintings, and warping them into shape. Sometimes I draw an object with the correct aspect ratio, and warp to the shape. I have also warped to drawn grids. The program is from the beginning, and I not sure how to get to work on newer operating systems.

 

Lisa Kaiser

9 Years Ago

I feel your pain, bro. My paintings are too large for good pictures. If I downsize my paintings, like magic, no photo issue. Smaller paintings require a lot more skill, so there is a down side to down sizing. Mike's advice is the best idea.

 

Rich Franco

9 Years Ago

Lisa,

If you have a DSLR, then should be easy,just need to follow the recipe...........

Rich

 

This discussion is closed.