Sullivan J Photography

Hello everyone,

I receive a lot of emails from artists asking me how to photograph their work because they can’t afford a photographer.  I understand how hard it is to start marketing your business especially for a new artist.   So I decided to help you all with the basics.

With the holiday’s, many artists and crafters want to photograph their work, but it can be hard to photograph small pieces if you don’t know what to do, so let’s talk about what I did with this really cute Christmas treat.

GETTING READY FOR THE SHOOT

First, I stabilized the piece and thought about the background.  You definitely do not want your background to take away from the art piece.  I planned to change the background so I will shoot a black, white, or gray background to make it easier to pull the image out and place it on my new background in Photoshop.

Use your back arrow key to return to blog  :0)

Stabilize your work.

Second, place your camera on a tripod and use a cable release so you have minimal movement to your camera.

Third, photograph in RAW format so you can color correct easily.

Fourth, definitely get a macro lens. See the difference of a standard canon zoom lens on 90mm shot compared to a 100mm macro lens, below:

Standard Lens 90mm

FYI…I didn’t move my tripod or the Christmas treat.

100mm Macro Lens

I suggest if you don’t have a macro lens now then you should start with my favorite macro lens, the Canon Telephoto EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro. For more information on macro lens’ check out Canon.  If you’re not a Canon user no worries, just purchase a macro that will work with your camera. Macro lens’ are made for “Close-up Photography” as you can see from the photograph above, a macro lens purchase is worth it!  Your work will look sharp and clean.

Fifth, use a tent if your work has a shiny surface.  Tents are awesome!  You can use them with any style of lighting…sun, flash, etc…

PROCESSING YOUR PHOTOGRAPH

I mentioned previously that you should photograph RAW. It is easier to white balance (correct your color).  You want your potential clients to see what your work actually looks like.  Normally, I use my Adobe Lightroom software if my lighting is the same, whether I photograph in a studio or use natural light, if I have a segment of many photographs with the same lighting conditions, Lightroom is much easier to process.  But with this piece I wanted to play with the lighting a bit so I decided to use Adobe Bridge to rename, apply copyright info and to view all of my pictures.

Adobe Bridge

Once I decide to develop a photo, I’ll double click on the image, see below and to the right:

White balance, Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light, Blacks, Brightness, etc…  Also, below RGB you will see boxes to click on and adjust even more to your photo.  Check out Amazon to see books out there for your software.

Develop your photo in Photoshop from Bridge.

I photographed this cute snowman in various positions and lighting.  I knew that I was going to change the background and because the snowman had light and dark colors in it I shot my photographs with a light and dark background.  This way I could play with both types of photos to see which one would be easier to select my subject.  Just trust me…it doesn’t take long to change a background but it can take forever to select your piece in Photoshop!

Black Background

Light Background

SOME ADDED TOUCHES

I decided to use the shot below so I used the lasso tool to cut out the Snowman treat.  I opened a new file and made a background that matched his nose and reversed the gradient tool because I wanted you to see the snowman : )

Select Subject

Work on your background.

Next, I used the move tool to cut the snowman out from the selected area and placed it on top of my new background.  To make the snowman fit go to Edit>Free Transform.  Hold your shift key while you proportion it to the background so you don’t distort your work.

Once you select your work move it to your background.

If you are happy with the photo…next clean it up, viewing it at least 100%. Sharpen your image by clicking on Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask.

Remove dust spots or anything that takes away from your work.

This is then end result

Happy Holidays to you all!

So all you artists, crafters, or anyone that would like to photograph their small pieces of work, remember:

• Stabilize your art piece.
• Use a tripod and cable release.
• Photograph in RAW format.
• Use a macro lens.
• Use a tent if your work has a shiny surface.

If you want to go a step further to enhance your work you can change the background in Photoshop.  I did:

• Select your art piece from the photograph.
• Make a new file concentrating on your background.
• Move your artwork (photo) to the background with the move tool. (drag & drop).
• Clean up your photo – remove dust and other distractions.
• Sharpen your image.

Hope this article has helped you learn how to photograph your work. Good luck and as always feel free to email me or add a comment to this post.

Cheers,

Janice

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving….I did  :)

Today I would like to talk about how to photograph Macro in Black and White.  I really enjoy printing my B & W (black & white) photographs, they have an elegant quality to them; but there are several factors you must pay attention to while photographing macro.  Let’s talk about these factors so you can produce a beautiful & elegant photograph.

When I was taught to shoot B & W, we didn’t have digital cameras.  The requirement was that we must have full tonal zones and shoot corner to corner in focus with no over or underexposed areas.   Well, if you have read my blog posts and seen the photographs I produce now, you will see that I have changed a bit on my educated style of photography, but, and I stress the “But”….I do believe that you must learn how to photograph correctly and then play around and be more creative.  Back in the day, we used to dodge and burn areas of the photo in the darkroom to fix the photo, but today most of us shoot digital and use the computer to fix pictures.  I must say that software has improved so much and I’m happy for that.  When I was researching for this post, I went back to some of my info on how-to-photograph digital B & W.  I couldn’t believe how outdated the info was!  So always, always, research and see what’s out there…the photo field is changing constantly now that we are in the digital age.

So I’ll stop talking about the past and now talk about today’s info and what I do to create that spectacular, awesome B & W photo

First, I want you to read up on the Zone System.  It’s important to this post that you understand the tonal range of a photograph in B & W.

Remember, to look at the photos click on them and to get back to the blog use your back arrow key.

Second, when you photograph digitally you must pay attention to noise, especially when you want a black and white print and it’s a macro shot.  We have a double whammy when it comes to noise!! (Long exposures and the look of the close up print.) So please pay attention to this and take the time to add light to your subject, if needed and change your camera settings. My camera has a noise control for long exposures; if you have this on your camera, enable it. If your camera has the capability to shoot B & W and you’re not sure how the picture will look then go ahead and change it to photograph B & W. I don’t recommend this…only do this if needed because you can change a color photo to B & W but you can’t change a B & W to color!

Third, when photographing macro, pay attention to the balance of the photograph. The photo below is a standard shot of a family (my family), nothing spectacular about the photo but you do notice that my husband’s color is red compared to the rest of us. I could fix his face but I decided to make this a black & white photo for our Christmas card and to tell you the truth…I’d rather have this in B & W :0)

BEFORE

AFTER

Because you will be photographing macro…I want to stress that when you print you will notice imperfections more than a photograph that is like the example above and that I gave you this example of my family portrait because I want you to understand as we shoot closer and closer to a subject, the more going on in the photo, the more distracting it can be.  Unless you have some balance to your form, shapes, lines, textures & patterns, your photo can just be a picture with no meaning to it, just a blob of visual junk.  What’s nice about black and white photography is if you have that wonderful textured photo or any of the above styles I mentioned, B & W will enhance those styles. Color can be more distracting in a macro shot…when you’re in doubt change it to B & W, you may be surprised with the results.

Fourth, I recommend you take the time and photograph in RAW format.  This way you will have more control in adjusting your contrast and can achieve a full range of zones.

Of course to achieve a great macro you will be using a sturdy tripod and a cable release, correct….read my previous posts on How to Photograph Close-Up if you didn’t know this. Just be careful to take your time shooting your macro.  If you want all of your picture in focus you may need extra lighting or you can shoot a variety of pictures and merge them together (I’ll have an article on this at a later time).  If your exposures are underexposed you’re going to have problems, so even if you overexpose a bit that’s ok…. I feel it’s better to overexpose (not blown out) than to underexpose.   Check your histograms on your camera.    I found a couple of sites if you want to read up on Histograms (GOOGLE) to make sure you haven’t under or over exposed your subject.

When you shoot RAW you can adjust your white balance and exposure easier. I use Adobe Lightroom to develop my photographs. I absolutely LOVE Lightroom!!!! My post production is fast and fun

If you want to try this program for a month click here, it’s worth it!!

If you would like more information on Adobe Lightroom check out this link.

I decided to work with this shot…I like the soft feel of the candlelight. So I went to my Lightroom program and developed this picture to Grayscale:

I liked the lines of the pine so I played with the various tools Lightroom offers. The key is to play and learn from mistakes. Lightroom will not damage your photo, so play! You will acquire an eye for your own style of work and definitely understand what you’re doing. I read this great book on Lightroom by Scott Kelby, “The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers”. Check out Amazon or your local library and read up on the program.

Once I adjusted this in Lightroom I opened it up in Photoshop:

I wanted more contrast to the photo and I like the curves setting to work with this in more detail.  Next, I flatten the image and the last thing I do is sharpen the photo.  In photoshop I went to filter/sharpen/unsharp mask and made my adjustments:

This is the finished product… cropped a bit off the top. I like this in B & W, the lines of the pine draw your eyes up to the candle light.

Sullivan J Photography

This last example shows you how color can sometimes be distracting.   Unless you’re an interior designer and want the colors to match the floor plan, this could be a nice pic, but personally I like this photo in B & W.

Sullivan J Photography

My adjustments to this final photo were done exactly like the photo of the candle-light.

Sullivan J Photography

Today I discussed some important things to remember while photographing Macro B & W’s.  Remember, that a macro photograph/print will show more problem areas.

So:

• Learn about the zone system.

• Pay attention to Noise.

• Pay attention to balance; your textures, lines, shapes & form of the subject(s).

• Photograph in RAW format.

• Sharpen image.

I also would like you to try Lightroom for a month…  I promise you will absolutely love this Adobe product!  Of course if you have any questions or other info to add to this post, please feel free to comment.

Hope you all  have a wonderful holiday season this year!!

Cheers,

Janice