ART 338 / Photographing Sculptures

Assignment: All sculptures must be photo documented. Use the photo booth and dept. camera as provided (unless you have your own of a high enough quality (see below) and take images that meet standards as explained below. Each artwork should be represented by 3 views; frontal, side and ¾. But you might take more images due to exposure bracketing (see below) etc. As soon as you have taken your images you MUST empty the camera card. Please be sure that the camera and tripod are always placed back in its secure locker and at least one of the batteries is being recharged.

Submitting the Work: For the first two sculptures I will review images by email as a way to give you feedback. Ultimately photos will be submitted in the context of your final portfolio.

Evaluation: Photographs will be evaluated as part of your grade for your portfolio and judged based on meeting the standards for quality photos as stated below.

Digital Image Standards:

A good image of a sculpture has the following qualities:

· In focus and of the correct exposure including a balance of darks and lights (FYI: it is better to avoid washed out whites and be a bit on the dark side because that can more easily be corrected in Photoshop)

· Well framed artwork that fills image without touching the edges or being cut off and centered in a neutral, clean background

· Well lit so that image has no hard shadows.

To achieve this follow these guidelines:

Camera: Point and shoot cameras have cheap lenses and often do not allow manual settings (auto exposure, auto white point etc.) Use the department camera or your own if you have an “SLR” with a digital back. SEE Camera Settings PDF for specific camera setting instructions

Camera Settings:

- Exposure: Sometimes auto exposure works but the best practice is to bracket your shots. The easiest way to do this is use the auto exposure and then use the +/- function to ‘bracket ‘ (ie one shot is slightly darker/under exposed) and one is lighter/over exposed.)

- File type and size: Truly high quality images should be taken in uncompressed file formats (TIFF) and sized large (3000 pixels in its largest dimension making for a 15+ MB file) so that they can be used for making prints. But when images will only be used digitally (on screen) these cumbersome files are not necessary. In out case we will use the jpeg format sized at 2000 pixels in its largest dimension. Ultimately, after cropping etc. we will resize to 1200 pixels.

- White point: This is the condition that sets the color “temperature” of your image. Think about a white wall that looks warm (toward the yellow), it is in the 2000 degree K range. One that looks cool (toward the bluish) is probably more like 8000 degree K range . The color temperature of your image is a function of both the temperature of the lighting you use and the white point setting in the camera (they should match). Shoot with photo lights (5500 K) because regular incandescent bulbs are too warm (2800K) and will create yellow whites. Learn how to use the camera’s “set white point” function it is an excellent way to get good images. We will also learn how to adjust white point and exposure when edits images in Photoshop.

Physical set up:

- Lighting: Set lights at roughly a 45-degree angle and slightly above your work. Remember to set lights and position sculpture to decrease very hard shadows. This can be done by moving the sculpture farther away from its back drop, cross lighting to counteract directional light and or use bounced light with umbrellas.

- Framing: Situate you sculpture and position your camera so the sculpture is centered and mostly fills the frame. The camera should be set near or slightly above the level of the sculpture. Use a tripod so you have complete control. Clean up the armature, use the backdrop cloth to get a shot with no distraction in the background.

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