Why Art Documentation is Important
For artists, proof of work is paramount. If it wasn’t for art documentation and reproduction, we wouldn’t have a canon of art history, and our knowledge of art would be limited to our immediate communities and field of vision. Reproducing art allows us to disseminate our work widely, and in professional terms, secure representation, exhibitions, and funding.
Who Needs to Document Their Work
The elephant in the room is this: Aside from exhibition documentation, or records of work displayed in situ, photographers, film, and media artists don’t have to worry about documenting their work as much, if at all–their work can already generate stills and movie files to share. In those circumstances of physical showcase, they also probably know how to document their work (or fake it effectively!)
The artists who need this guide are likely painters, sculptors, illustrators, textile artists, makers, and performance artists; this piece is for you!
Why YOU, Non-Photographer, May Need to Document Your Own Work
There are a few reasons you may be considering doing this yourself:
- You don’t have the money to pay a professional photographer
- You’re sick of paying a professional photographer and want to invest once and never again.
- A professional photographer let you down–was it out of focus? The white balance off? Who hurt you? (was it me?*)
- You’re making work faster than you can book to document–especially true of makers who are creating to sell on their sites.
- You already have some photo skills due to interdisciplinary training or self-starting and think you can take this on.
- You live in an area where skilled photographers aren’t easy to find, and if you make them travel, you will have to shelter and feed them.
Whatever the reason, this guide will help you with the foundations for getting your work out there.
*One of the worst things about freelancing in a tech field is that the learning curve is steep and the gear evolves fast. The early days were painful. 12 megapixels? Ugh. Gallery spot lights. Double ugh.
Before We Begin…What Are You Using These For?
Before we get into the possible gear you may need, let’s see if you need to spend the money on anything specialized. It’s important to first ask yourself where the images are meant to go. If it’s your website, social media, selling platform, gallerist, etc, the investment in a camera may not be necessary, your phone might just be all you need!
If it’s a catalogue, book, magazine, reproduction? You’re going to want to take a different approach, and make an investment somewhere.
Documentation Types
The type of documentation you need will dictate the equipment you will use. Here are the two most common forms of art documentation:
Installation Documentation
What is installation documentation? This is a record of your work as exhibited in a show or hung in a physical space. The aim is to photograph the work(s) with full view of the space–either to preserve a record of the exhibition, or to show the work’s scale.
Copy Documentation
What is copy documentation? When art is documented to show the piece, isolated, with as much detail as possible. Work on a wall can have some of the wall present in the frame, but with copy documentation the situation of the piece on the wall is less important than an accurate representation of the content of the work/its surface.
Because walls? They can be added in post if you need them.
The purpose of this kind of image is for use in your portfolio, social media, or reproduction in a catalogue, book or a print. This is also why it’s best to get as much of the image frame filled with the work as possible–get that resolution!
The Gear
If a camera isn’t already a tool of your practice, then you have a decision to make: get a mid-range one that will do an amazing job for your purposes. Or, if you have a smart phone with a decent resolution and the option to shoot RAW file type, you can get some excellent results with what you have.
Camera
At the time of writing this, the best beginner and lower price midrange cameras are 20-26Megapixels in resolution. Don’t forget to look at your local used market online, photographers upgrade equipment and sometimes part with their old gear at a good price. You can expect to pay $800-$2000USD depending on the kind of camera you select and lens configuration.
Lenses for Documenting Exhibitions:
If you have a camera with an interchangeable lens mount, I find a 16-35mm lens to be the best all around in documenting a space. It’s just wide enough, while still giving you the ability to zoom in. For beginners wanting to document exhibitions, look for lenses that handle real estate and landscape photography well.
Lenses for Copy Documentation
You want a very sharp lens with minimal distortion (not wide angle) and capable of getting close detail. A macro lens will be a good friend, 50mm will work well. If you want to keep some versatility of zoom range, go with something like a 16-50mm (often a kit lens!) or 18-55mm.
Phones:
iPhone: 12-15 Pro and ProMax versions are quite good in RAW mode
Android: Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel and the OnePlus are all good choices for camera phones.
For installation documentation, especially if it’s meant for your website and social media, can absolutely be done with a smartphone. Most have zoom options from wide angle to macro, allowing for a great deal of control in capturing a space. Make sure that you go to your camera settings in your setup menu to make highest quality resolutions your default.
Tripod
To get the best outcome with the most detail, you’ll need whatever you’re shooting with to be very still. If you’re a shaky leaf or your artwork requires low-light for display, you will need a tripod.
Tripods for Phones are easy and affordable. You can also stand them on a chair/stool/stack of books to get the right height.
Tripods for Cameras: they can be pricey, but worth it for the stability while it holds a heavier, more breakable item. Here is a reasonable starter tripod.
Lighting
The essential element of photography, even more than the camera itself, is light.
Lighting for art documentation can be so tricky to get right, but it doesn’t have to be expensive.
There are also some affordable and portable solutions, such as:
Tube Lighting
This kit also comes with a reflector, so you can do some softening and bouncing/filling of light. If you often work very large, it would be worth purchasing two so that you can place them on either side of the piece to evenly distribute light.
Spotlight
I hate spot lighting. In galleries, in studios, everywhere except a living room. They are typically balanced toward the warm side. Directed at an artwork they create that lovely glowy highlight… while casting the edges of the work in shadow. Sometimes they are daylight balanced, in which case this is not a welcoming glow, just a harsh blowout and it looks depressing and dated. You can document an installation with this lighting, but you cannot do your copy documentation under these ambient circumstances.
Exceptions: powerful spotlights in a studio in a 1:1 ratio, using a diffusing method like a bounce or flat. So if you work using spotlights to begin with, as I know many do, rethink their number and positioning when lighting for copy documentation.
DIY Multipurpose
You’re scrappy, or cheap, and I like it. Home lights, like this one with multiple heads all lights pointed at the work, from enough distance can be used in these instances. You would need at least two for that 1:1 ratio.
Strobe lighting
A strobe is a very strong fill flash, that when synced to your device is set to fire in tandem with your shutter. If you’re here learning about documenting art, you probably don’t have a strobe, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t curious and won’t need one, just that it’s another investment while there are other ways. This just happens to be a good one to consider if you have a lot of art you need documented in a very consistent manner. Especially for reproduction at scale.
Reflector
A reflector or “bounce” can help soften or redirect light to areas in which the direct path has dropped off. It is one of the cheapest tools in a photographer’s kit, and for a price point in the $40 range, has a significant impact for the investment.
Color
Color Balancing for Copy Documentation:
There are a few tricks for getting the color of your work to be accurately recorded.
You can try calibrating your camera white balance against the palette of colors in your work until they look accurate, or you can invest in a color-checker, a little passport of color chips to insert somewhere in your frame (without intruding on your work) so you can make sure your color is perfect in post. As a visual artist already the most familiar with your own work, you may be able to do without and trust your eye in shooting or editing.
Color Balancing for Installation Documentation:
Getting color exact in installations with lower or inconsistent light is challenging, and you may not get it there, but don’t worry; it’s not really the point anyway. You just want to give the most accurate representation of the gallery space and the scale and placement of your work in it. Aside from angles, what that often translates to is setting your white balance to that of the lighting temperature so that it doesn’t come out orange/yellow. Phones are going to try to auto-white balance, with mixed results. Instead of the more complex color passport that you would use in copy-documentation, you can use a neutral grey card in these scenarios to balance against in the scene, or keep it somewhere inconspicuous but well lit in the frame (a spot you can digitally remove it from later) so you can balance against this tone in post, or if you have a reliably white wall, you can sample from that point–see the below part on Editing!
Settings
Shooting RAW
For either smartphone or camera, shooting RAW means you’re recording all the information in the scene directly from the sensor without any inferences/interpretations of the information. This gives you greater control over editing in post. You can do a lot more to adjust your exposure, shadows, highlights, contrast etc. If you’re going to do post-production anyway, shoot this uncompressed file version. Even when shooting RAW, it is worth noting that if you overexpose your image, there’s some information–like the whites in a blown-out spot–that you will never get back in post.
Shooting JPEG
If you want to avoid extensive editing, and that control is not a priority–you may have ideal shooting conditions! Always check your settings and shoot the largest JPEG possible.
Manual Settings on a camera:
ISO/Sensitivity to Light:
Always shoot with the lowest ISO possible–you want those pixels free of crunch and distortion. If you’re using a tripod–either a proper one, or something makeshift like a stool or stack of heavy things, then you won’t have to worry about using a longer exposure to make up for the low ISO.
Aperture:
You’ll want to shoot at an aperture of f8 or above. The narrower the aperture, the wider the depth of field. This will mean the entire work will be in focus.
Note: If you’re documenting a sculpture or textile work, you can definitely play with a shallow depth of field and a wider aperture to give a sense of the dimensions of the piece.
How to Document Your Exhibitions
Appraise the Conditions
Ideally, the exhibition space is lit well, and you won’t have to modify or bring additional lighting. The trickiest variable is when a gallery space has more than one type of lighting, ie:
- Track/tube lighting plus windows in the space
- Fluorescent lighting mixed with tungsten
In these instances you may want to ask that one source be turned off, or, make another trip to the gallery at night so you can document the space again with just the artificial lighting. It will have a very different feel–and will almost always be easier to color balance with a single color of light.
Walk Around
Take a moment to walk the space as a viewer and artist. Really look at the installation from every angle. Quickly make a shot list so that you’re sure to capture all the vantage points you’ve identified as most interesting. Then you can get out your camera/phone, and start in position one.
Adjust
Set up your camera/phone and tripod, and check your settings using the tips above on color and white balance. If you’re feeling really unsure, go with auto–either auto white balance alone or both auto white balance and auto exposure–and move forward.
Next, take the photos! Between shots, try to review to see if your images are sharp or any adjustments need to be made. Zoom in on your shots to make sure they are as sharp as they seem on the tiny screen.
How to Copy Document
Hang It Up, or Put It On a Pedestal
Painting/Drawing:
Hang the piece on the wall at a comfortable height so that you can ensure a completely flat straight-on perspective. Anything too high or low will have you instinctively angling the camera/phone. While this can be fixed, it’s nice not to have to.
Sculpture:
For a 3-D object, cover a table with a large piece of paper, this will sit under the sculpture/textile/object. Curve the paper upward and have it attached to an arm or taped to your wall. If it’s a white object, consider using a contrasting shade in paper.
Light It Up
To get the most accurate representation of your work, you want to make sure that the piece is evenly lit. To achieve this inside, you need to create a 1:1 lighting scenario (or use strobes, but I am assuming you’re here because you don’t have and are not going to get strobes!)
1:1 means that for each light, there is one placed opposite it, the same distance from the work, directed at the same angle. You can use a measuring tape to make sure you get this as close as possible.
The easiest way of achieving this is a light on either side of the artwork. But let’s say you’re in your studio and you have nice tube lighting above the work–great, then you just need to fill in the bottom, which is getting dulled by light fall off and creeping shadow, by placing another tube light below. The one linked above works great.
You can achieve copy documentation lighting if you can take the work outside. It shouldn’t be an overly sunny day, because then you may have some directional light issues to deal with, like glare or harsh shadows. Lightly overcast days are the best because clouds naturally diffuse and even out the light.
You can also try shooting above for something large or heavy, but the chances are, unless you use a strobe positioned in front of you, you will cast a shadow on the work.
Editing
Post-production can do a lot to save a shoot, but when going into the planning and execution of your installation or copy documentation, you will want to try to get your settings as close as possible so that you can save yourself a lot of work in the back-half. I would be lying if I said you can’t also work some miracles. For that, you need some time, skill, and the software.
Here’s what you can reliably fix in post in both paid and free apps and programs:
- Horizontal and vertical shifts
- White balance, as long as you have a single lighting source. Correcting cross-lighting gets a bit more complex.
- Smudges, weird walls
- Glare on oil paint/material reflections in sculptures/framed work (tread carefully to keep the texture looking good)
- Color vibrancy, exposure, contrast, shadows
- Some amount of sharpness and clarity–if you shot on an extremely high iso, and you have a crunchy image, this can’t be fixed.
Software
If you’re saving money by not hiring a professional, you may still have to spend money somewhere. There are free editing programs and online tools, however some of the really necessary features like: lens correction, RAW file editing, masking and fine tuning are going to be paywalled at pro versions.
Everyone wants your money and it’s a bummer, but if these are the tools you need as an artist, they’re also a tax write off! Also, just like your streaming subscription, you can game the system by paying month-month for the software and cancelling in between binging your favourite show/batching your documentation.
Like most photographers with formal training, I use Adobe. It’s a love/hate relationship, but the tools do work. Choose an editing tool that will fit your budget and your skill level–because this is for non-photographers, and this is a place of non-judgement.
A Few Software Options
- Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop–if you have to do a lot of manipulation, go with Photoshop because it can also do what Lightroom does. If you just need those standard adjustments and a lot of them, but don’t have to patch things digitally, use Lightroom.
- VSCO
- Photomator
- Photoscape X which is free!
- Darktable is open source and recently updated to be fairly equivalent to Lightroom–free and worth trying if you’re not already hooked on Adobe.
There are some amazing tutorials on the sites themselves and YouTube has a free course or short tutorials for every issue and every program, for instance here’s a quick one on fixing verticals from a real estate photographer–which is related to installation documentation in the challenges presented.
Some of the creators are pros with the patience of saints and generosity of knowledge. I’ve gathered a few examples across the suggested programs to give you an idea of what might be a good editing program for you.
Basic tutorial for Photoscape X
Basic Editing with VSCO–I would avoid using presets in editing images of art
If After Reading This, You Still Want to do This, You CAN Do This
There is a lot to consider and learn when documenting your own work, costs can really add up when you are just trying to save money. I know it seems daunting, but if you have the startup funds and time to build your skillset, it’s going to be such an incredible asset to your practice. With full control over your documentation, and how your work looks online and to the wider world will be in your hands, you may singlehandedly be making your place in the canon of art.
