DSLR Photography Forum

I like to reproduce my art work and post them. In doing so I learned how much the camera and post processing can drastically change the look of the work. My first photos of my latest work look like block prints but the painting itself is much softer. It took more post processing to produce a more accurate image of the painting than to produce a distorted view. I will say, on first sight I liked the block print look better.


First version



Final version

So you are saying the second photo looks more accurate as to what the painting really looks like? Its quite a dramatic difference. I actually prefer the look of the first one as it is more vibrant, but that's just one opinion. I do like the processing of the bright central band in the second painting better, however. The first one looks like it is much sharper and so may look less "painterly". What is quite surprising is the color shift between the 2. I wonder what #1 would look like with less sharpening in your post processing.

With less sharpening it would look more like #2. You can do a lot with those kind of corrections if you want to depart from the original. I have been framing prints of my photos of art, rather than the original art. It's just cheaper and saves a lot of wall space.

I was actually about to start a thread to post this link:

How to Photograph Art - Dallas Art Review

It may be one of the best how-to articles on camera use I've read in a very long time. It has some things that I don't completely agree with, but nothing that I think is incorrect.

But as far as I know, there's no clause that says that photographs must faithfully depict reality.

The real photography in photographic art is making an image of your own art. The photograph takes on a life of it's own.

(Dec 20, 2011, 18:47)Don Schaeffer Wrote: [ -> ]The real photography in photographic art is making an image of your own art. The photograph takes on a life of it's own.

I agree with you...and then...there is printing! What will a reflective art do once captured by an additive medium and then reproduced with subtractive inks?

how did the work fare once each was printed out?