Deadline for Entries:
August 2, 2010

Juror:
Janet Walsh

2010 Prospectus:
downloadable pdf

or send SASE to
Kansas Watercolor Society
Wichita Center for the Arts
9112 E. Central
Wichita, KS 67206

In Part I we examined the “fine art” of photographing your work in sunlight. This time we come inside for a new experience of a different kind, and the use of tungsten lighting in the process. As I noted in Part I there are a few extra items we’ll need to accomplish this, as follows:
1. A relatively large space in which to set up equipment.
2. Two light stands, two reflectors, two 500 watt photo bulbs.
3. One roll or more of 35mm, 36 exposure TUNGSTEN slide film.
4. An easel or other support for holding your painting.
5. A gray card for taking meter readings.
6. The four-value gray scale for attaching to the side of your painting (see Part I)
7. A light meter if possible, but an in-camera light meter will also work.
8. One large extension cord with at least three plugs on the end of the cord.
9. A stable and well-built tripod—absolutely necessary

The large space
This can be in a garage, basement, spare bedroom--you name it. The important thing to remember is that ideally this space should be “quiet “ enough to allow you to leave your equipment in place; if you have to set it up every time you want to photograph paintings, you’ll find it becomes a hassle. Being somewhat the perfectionist, I recommend you buy an extra tripod so you can leave it there—BUT REMEMBER, IT MUST BE A SUBSTANTIAL TRIPOD! Don’t waste your time with a flimsy, hard-to-keep-the-legs-straight kind of tripod; spend a little money and spend it only one time, you won’t have to buy another.

The light stands, reflectors, and bulb:

Continuing in my perfectionist mode, I recommend investing in two substantial light stands. (I assume here you are serious about photographing your paintings indoors and make the presumption you want a permanent installation--your call). The reflectors can be simple, but not the clamp-on kind, unless you just like headaches. There are many relatively inexpensive reflectors available. I like to think of efficiency, though, which means that if you spend a little more money, your reflectors will have easily adjustable mounting points that won’t slip after you have them set just the way you want them. The typical “hardware store” reflectors move around and are flimsy, so avoid that kind. Even though everyone uses them and the photo suppliers can get them for you, try to buy the more substantial ones if you can. These reflectors should be at least 10” or 12” in diameter, (prevents overheating the bulbs, which can, if overheated, break or explode. Though this doesn’t happen often it’s good to be aware of the possibility). Also available are transparent white diffuser covers which soften the hard light of bare bulbs, but since they cut the light intensity they will require an additional lens opening of ½ to full f-stop for the proper exposure.

The higher wattage of the 500 watt photo bulbs is important because the higher wattage allows a higher f-stop on the camera lens. The higher f-stop assures tighter detail in the photograph—the higher the f-stop the higher the detail, the lower the f-stop the less the detail. Remember this anytime you photograph your paintings or reference scenes: f-16, f-11, f-8 are your goals—anything in that range should ensure good sharpness in the final slide. F-5.6 is iffy unless your camera has a superior lens; anything at that setting or below is fine for landscape scenes and outdoor shots on rainy days but won’t work for good contest entry slides.

There are two kinds of photo bulbs calibrated to two kinds of color film:
1. 3200 degree Kelvin specifically for tungsten rated film.
2. 4600 degree Kelvin for daylight film instead of tungsten—not recommended.
“Kelvin” is the name of the gentleman who developed the color temperature scale. Sunlight, for example, has a color temperature of approximately 6000 degrees Kelvin. All daylight color film is designed to come close to that color temperature, but it’s an inexact science because technology has yet to develop a film or digital chip able to perfectly adapt to the varying conditions of light. Therefore, the pursuit of accurate color is a “sometime thing”, particularly when heavy shadow and dark areas in a painting are present.

The film, 64T

The “T” is for ‘tungsten’ (I recommend Kodak Ektachrome 64T). If you use daylight film with a tungsten bulb the color will be terrible! Daylight film must be balanced with a blue-colored filter or bulb; that’s a discussion for another time as filters are a complex addition and unnecessary for now. Out film speed is EI(Exposure Index) 64 as it has less contrast (see Part I) and thus better shadow detail and color rendition.

An easel or other support

I discussed this in Part I so that discussion is applicable here as well. Using those same instructions for your support will be fine for your tungsten lighting setup and the same principles apply. If you feel ambitious and want a more permanent photo area and have a bare wall available it’s possible to build a 5/8” plywood support--perhaps a 30”x40” or less, depending on what you think is needed to hold your work flat against the wall. HOWEVER, work tends to fall off a vertical wall or stand if the work is not mounted on the stand securely. This can present problems so, if you decide to mount plywood on the wall, it should be hinged at the top to allow tilting the bottom of the support toward the camera. If an extension or lip across the bottom of this is applied, that will keep your painting from sliding ungraciously to the floor, damaging itself (and your mental serenity) in the process.

The Gray Card

This is an important starting point in copying art photographically. Its use also applies to my previous discussion on outdoor photography, but because of loss of gray matter due to the “aging process”, I neglected to mention it in Part I. Set up the gray card in the center of your “to be copied” painting after lights have been adjusted. This reading will be your main exposure (as noted above, works the same for outdoor copy work). If you possess an adventurous nature, shoot a roll of film using the exposure taken from the gray card without any adjustment above or below the median reading from your camera or light meter, but I find the gray card best used as a median point, bracketing f-stops as noted in Part I.

The Four Value Gray Scale

This was covered in Part I and is not complicated; review the first installment for information on how to use.

Light Meter or In-camera Meter

A light meter separate from your camera works well in copy work (an “incident” light meter is best). It allows you to read the light over the span of your painting, thus guaranteeing the evenness of light from side to side and top to bottom. It is somewhat difficult to use your camera for this, as it must be detached from the tripod, then re-attached after the readings are taken. Perform this task FIRST, then attach the camera and make the necessary settings and adjustments to lights and “squaring up” the painting in your camera. Do this first and the other adjustments will more easily fall into place.

Large extension cord

You need a FAT extension cord because you are plugging in 1000 watts of light to this line. DON’T USE THOSE ORDINARY BROWN HOUSEHOLD CORDS! That’s the road to disaster: they’ll get hot and start to melt, then the fuse blows, the cord stinks, and your house burns down, so be careful here. If a little extra money is spent on reflectors, they should have a more substantial cord, which I highly recommend.Those heavy duty cords with the plug-in box on the end—usually with three to six plug-in receptacles with a switch for turning the plugs on and off—such cords are good for what we’re discussing here. A well-made box will have a fuse also, a safety factor. Note: the extension cord to the plug-in box cord should be of equal weight to that of the cord on the plug-in box, ensuring the cords will not overheat. These boxes, since they have their own switch, have the added advantage of allowing you to turn lights on and off without a lot of messing with the reflector switches--amazingly helpful when surrounded by tripods, cords, and lights!

The Tripod

As noted earlier, get a good, stable tripod, having some weight to it so when you kick it (and you will kick it), it doesn’t fall over and break your camera as it knocks over a light stand and explodes a 500 watt bulb on your living room carpet—that is, if you’re doing this in your living room in spite of all my advice to the contrary. Basement floors also need respect—everything that falls on a basement floor will break—guaranteed! AND, don’t forget our clumsy feet intentionally look for all those cords in which to tangle themselves. A would-be art photographer can become quite involved, or should I say, “entangled” in the work; it will help if you learn to dance.

After all this detail the photography seems an anti-climax. I’ve spent my allotted space telling you about the equipment necessary to photograph your paintings indoors and haven’t gotten to the intricacies of arranging your lights, exposing the film, photo bulb life-expectancy, color shifts, balancing the light on your painting, etc. Please note that while these descriptions are extensive, tungsten light photography isn’t nearly as complex as it may seem. The equipment I’ve discussed is, however, important, therefore I’ve taken extra space detailing those items so you’ll have a complete guide for their purchase.

At this point you are probably saying, “I think I’ll just stick with photographing my paintings in sunlight…” and that is fine except in the dead of winter, when indoor photos make a lot of sense. Or in the heat of a Kansas summer--I usually pass out before I get my pictures taken and have to be resuscitated.

In Part III, I’ll discuss how to photograph your work and the taping of slides for submission to competitions.

This article continues in Photographing Art Part III

Back to Top
Back to Photographing Art Part I