Ask Stape 3

Dear Stape:

I'm finding that photographs of my paintings are poor representations of the original, especially portraits, which tend to look flatter than the original pictures, and less subtle, as if transitional passages have been homogenized. I'm using a 6 megapixel digital camera and shooting with available light inside the studio which is decently lit with a skylight. The biggest difference between my portrait/figure painting and landscapes is that the portraits are painted employing indirect techniques such as scumbling and glazing.
In your opinion, what is the best approach for photographing paintings for one's portfolio?

Big D.

Dear Big D.

I am not an expert either, but I am able to take decent photos of my paintings most of the time. I have a black felt cloth that I shoot them against. I do my photography in the shade outdoors, but I also have a setup inside that is permanent and lit with floodlights. Recently I haven't used it much.
I set the paintings on a bench against the wall of my house, against the black cloth which I have hung with pushpins in the wood siding. Part of your problem may be that you don't have enough light in your studio. I take a couple of shots and recompose each one trying to get them square in the viewfinder.If I need to I lay a bright white piece of cardboard as a reflector in front of the painting to bounce some more light up into it.

I have a very ordinary Sony pocket camera that takes 7.2 megapixels. My wife waltzed happily into my studio a year or two ago saying "Stape! I got a great deal on a new camera for you! You don't care if its pink do you?" For my purposes it works fine.
The answer to the problem has changed since the old days of shooting slides and film. Now I open them up in Photoshop, I use then small version, Express, and I adjust them as best I can. I am beginning to wish I had the larger version so I could work in CMYK, and I may have to acquire that. My wife has it on her computer and is skilled in its use. I just don't think RGB. But for now that is what I am doing.You may have a different program for working up photos. I have friends who like different programs that they have and those often came with their cameras. I dont think they need top be very fancy to work, just logical.

I adjust the lighting, mostly I usually add a little contrast and lighten or darken the image as needed. The answer to getting your halftone right is probably here.The color adjustment is harder and I tweak it as best I can. Often the color is just off a little and I have but to back off the blue or something and it is ready to go. I used to have a pro shoot all of my advertising photos and it used to be 8 by 10 transparencies. I can't say that my work came out better then either. If you are uncertain of your abilities and working for reproduction in a magazine , you may want to go to a pro.For your own portfolio you should be able to take good enough shots yourself.

There are folks out there reading this who ARE expert photographers, I invite you to weigh in with your suggestions on this. That's the beauty of a ,sometimes it is a forum as well as my megaphone.
...........................Stape

Dear Stape

How do I prepare previous canvases when I want to overpaint with a new painting (oil over oil)? And what about impasto ridges on the previous oil painting?

Mick

Dear Mick:

I don't think you should. Canvas, at least cotton canvas is not terribly expensive. I suspect that you are intimidated by the prospect of stretching your own canvas. Don't be. It is not very hard. You can't just keep buying stretchers and not reusing them, that's ridiculous!


But if you must paint over an old canvas here is how to do it. Slip a piece of masonite panel under the canvas and in front of the stretchers so that as you work on the front you don't emboss the stretchers onto your canvas. Hold your palette knife by both the handle and the tip, like a draw-knife and cut the ridges of paint off the surface. Then sand it a little, 150 grit should do. Then paint it white or off white with titanium and a shot of liquin so it will dry in your lifetime. Then let it dry for a few days.

It is hard to get a perfectly smooth job out of this, if you are painting a finely rendered thinly painted piece this may be a problem. If you are doing an alla prima out door piece it may not be. I sometimes use a stiff brush and deliberately leave a texture in the white I paint onto my canvas. That will hide a few flaws. But I wouldn't get too thick on canvas. This trick is better on panels,. Why not make some of those. Heres how I do that.
..............................Stape