Photographing Paintings for Slides - AKWS Program by Craig
and Michele Suchland
(from notes taken by Teresa Boston)
(Craig provided a
disclaimer that he is not a professional photographer, but has had some success
and only providing information on his technique.)
You do not want to have crooked, under- or over-exposed
photos in a slide frame, you want to fill the frame of a slide. Keller's or Photowright are two shops that
can prepare slides for you.
If you want to do this yourself, following is equipment
Craig uses:
Preparing to take the
picture:
You need to use at least two lights, more if it is a
larger painting to evenly light it up.
He uses a 45 degree angle from picture on each side and
carefully measures vertically and horizontally to ensure it is as even as
possible. You don't want dark corners or
bright spots on the picture.
You want to ensure the camera is level and centered to
keep picture from being skewed.
Sometimes he hangs the pictures sideways to capture the
image. You don't want to inadvertently
crop off parts of the painting.
View finders for cameras are different as to space around
pictures so you will need to experiment with your own.
Check the focus.
Turn off all other lights so you donít get bluish
daylight cast or orangey light from incandescent lights.
Don't use auto exposure.
Use a light meter to measure light and set exposure. Read your camera manual.
Craig uses a gray card (18% gray).
Fill the view finder with the gray card and let the auto
exposure figure out the correct exposure for "average gray". His camera will save these settings.
He takes some photos with smaller and larger apertures so
with a whole roll he gets maybe 12 good pictures out of a roll of film.
E6 processing - slides are sent outside. Keller's and Photowright can develop in a few
hours.
You DO NOT want them to imprint on the slide mount.
Keller is on 33rd @ Spenard and Photowright is
on Fireweed.
Slide masking: You
may have some white space or areas around the picture. All you want to see in the slide frame is the
painting.....some shows specify whether you can use silver or black tape for
masking. (Read prospectus!)
Craig pops the slide apart taking care not to touch the
slide itself. Goal is to tape around the
picture so no border shows or frame.
Putting back in the holder and orienting correcting is important. Be sure it's even and straight. He has used airplane glue to seal the
slides. Check with a loop to ensure you
haven't caught a hair or lint in the slide.
Another hint: He
keeps the tape for the slides in a baggy to keep it from getting lint or dust
caught to the sides that might cause a problem.
Finally, check your slide in a projector. The exposure may look different when
surrounded by pure black border.
Book on photographing your artwork gives good tips as
well.
He has had good luck photographing paintings behind
glass.
He has not dealt with any services that go from digital
prints to slides, nor does he have a feel for the acceptance.