About Taking Photos Of Paintings And Color Temperature Of Photo Related To Appearence On Screen

Oh my. All the technical photography pros here will certainly be impressed with all that you have done.

I do none of that & my prints sell just fine.

I either scan my paintings, photograph them with my phone camera outside in indirect light or inside using "day Lights" bulbs.

Then after photo or scan, I open them in my computer & compare how they look on my laptop & I use a free simple image editor program to adjust the tone, usually warming up the hue a tweak or doing the white balances. I get it pretty close to how the original appears (pinks never do well) & upload them here.

Marcia,

Here's my "recipe".....

https://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2764654

Rich

What Carlin said.

You really don't need to overthink it.

I take paintings or prints of prints outside on a bright but overcast day. Stand them on an esal, take a pic and adjust them PS.

They sell just fine here, four or five other places on the net and hanging in local galleries.

I have demoed this for friends of mine that paint and they were shocked at how well it works. A couple of them are selling a few things here on FAA and self-published Gilcees in local galleries now.

There are several big-name artists that paint specifically for the Limited Edition market. They paint in small sizes that fit into flatbed scanners that create image files that they can print up to 40 and 60 inches.

Thank you for so quick replies!
Carlin, it sounds very comforting that your pictures sell fine and I guess look a lot like the original even though you tamper with the colors digitally!
Rich, thank you for leading me to your very informative thread. Still I feel unsure about the outcome of my prints. I do use photoshop eyedropper tool to check the white, the bright and the colors in my digitized photo. I do only hope that even if my pictures then look yellowish on mobile screens, that they will come out right in the prints.

ps. about natural light: Another reason to use natural light - is that natural light holds all wave lenghts and artificial does not (f.ex. natrium light which is yellow). Even though artifical light has developed. Reflected colors (from an oil painting or water color painting) can not be richer and fuller than the light that is put on them.

Most, if not all, digital cameras are now capable of presetting the color balance. Simply follow the manual instructions. Basically, you have the camera sample a pure gray or white subject and it adjusts for that.

Using any of the other options will often result in incorrect balance, since the camera will attempt a balanced image based on the colors in a scene or subject. That can get you close but is seldom accurate enough for the discerning artist. When shooting products, it is important to use manual/preset color balance.

The images looks fine on my screen when it is set to 6 500 Kelvin and they look alright in the photoshop program too. The tool in photoshop that measures color and brightness shows the right values.
I have tested to set my screen on the computer to a lower temperature and then the images turns yellowish. Also when going to FAA website to look at the pictures on acellphone/ mobile (probably not set to 6 500 Kelvin) the photos look yellowish. This makes me wonder if the photos will be printed in "6000" Kelvin in which the photos look yellowish or in 6 500-7000 Kelvin - the temperature in which they look fine?

Are you calibrating your monitor screen?

Guessing at degrees Kelvin is simply that - guessing.

Using utilities, such as those within Photoshop, are still subject to errors with screen calibration.

Thanks a lot for taking time with my issue! Really!
Yes I am calibrating my monitor screen (= computer screen) accordingly to the photos temperature. I have the values for the temperatures of the photos (= not guessing). The default on the monitor (computer screen) showed to be 6 500 K which most of the photos are taken in - some a bit higher. But it seems like my mobile has a lower (warmer) temperature as well as my friends mobiles. Hard to know though, since the closest to settings I can find on the mobile is "night screen". Under the settings for night screen there is an analog-ish scale to regulate from cooler to warmer.

Marica,

Setting the color temperature of your screen is not calibration. You need to use a calibration device such as a Spyder, ColorMunki, Eye-One, or similar. It's really the only way to know if your monitor is displaying correctly (or not).

As a baseline visual test, you should try using this image to confirm that your screen's grays are pure and aren't tinged with any color, and also that the tones at both ends of the upper scales are distinct from one another:




If you'd like, I can email you this image in PSD and/or JPG formats.

Marica

The color temperature that the images were shot at has nothing to do with the color temperature of the monitor.

The monitor should be calibrated to the D65 standard using a calibration tool.

The color temperature of the image relates to the color of the light that is falling on the painting when the image is shot, which you need to do using a gray card.

See Rich's link.

That being said, assuming that most of your paintings were done on a slightly warm tone paper, they look very consistent to me.

Marcia,

I shot a lot of film for Kodak and Fuji back in the day and both suggested the time period I mentioned for the truest color rendition. If you don't want to get a calibrated Color chart, like I show in my tutorial, then next time you're at Lowe's or Home Depot, grab a bunch of paint chips like these, mostly "taupe-y" gray and take one copy of your artwork WITH these and then the final without and then, in Photoshop easy to correct slight color shift, which easily shows up in the copy image on these grays.....

Rich

You don't have to match the screen with the color temperature of the photo. The screen should be adjusted to the ambient light of the room. The photo is set to the ambient right of the scene. ( when photographing art its a good idea to know you light source temperature and set the camera to that but if you shoot in Raw you can adjust it later). If the screen is calibrated you don't adjust it to the photo. The photo should look right on screen if it was taken with a correct white balance setting and the screen is calibrated.

Many people will tell you to photograph your paintings in open shade. This is not the best way. Shade is very bluish compared to sunlight, so what happens is that the Auto White Balance function in the camera adds yellow (the polar opposite of blue light) to attempt a balance. The problem with this method is that it can easily affect the intensity and purity of the other colors in the subject.

The best way is to illuminate your work with lamps of known color temperature, like photofloods, or other bulbs designed expressly for photography. Usually, they'll be 3,200-degrees, or 3,400-degrees if they're made for movie film/video. That way, when you set the camera's white balance to the same figure, you'll get a spot-on match.

Marcia,

OOPSIE! Left off the link to the paint chips,

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/gray-card-checker-o-meter-rich-franco.html

Rich

Murry

Never use auto white balance to shoot artwork.

Auto white balance averages all the colors in the shot so it would change for every different piece of art.

A proper fixed white balance for the ambient light is what's needed.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experiences!
I try to conclude. I mean, reflect upon it and try to integrate it into my experience.

Murray Bloom, yes, you are right about the difference between calibrating and setting the temperature on my computer/monitor. Since I do not have the skill to calibrate I thought I at least could set the temperature and then restrict myself only to adjust brightness and darkness in the photos. But as you say, in order to know what I do to them I need also to calibrate the monitor. I found a calibrating test on the webb, and if I remember correctly, it showed that my screen does not display distinct tones between the highest/lightest tones. But on the sheet in your comment it looks alright. Thanks for offering me a psd or jpg!

You also have a good point in that the camera automatically compensate for blue with adding yellow in order to white/grey-balance. I have had a thought about the photos been taken so close to the Northpole, the light is different here, especially in wintertime. And February occurs in winter. I took photographs last summer, but the cameras I lended were insufficient. The opportunity to lend a camera good enough showed in February.

Which brings me over to the comment by David Smith.

David Smith, thank you for reassuring me that the color temperature of the photo has nothing to do with the color temperature on the monitor/device showing it!

So about "true" color representation: I did a lot of experimenting and it took me several days to find out about, and how, only to adress "the grey" issue. My final decision was to spray the board, on which I then mounted the pictures, unevenly black and taped a white cross of paper over it- for the camera having something to relate to. I tried grey card and to set the white manually. (A card made by printing a 18% grey sheet on my printer - and maybe that is not good enough) I gave up after had trying for a couple of days (I cannot lend the camera for too long.)
So, yes, I have used the automatic white balance- and it has its limitations. (The color relations in the photo are not the same as in the painting - so the illusion of depth and space are a bit lost). So You are right about white balance - it is crucial. And yes, the paper I paint on have a slightly warm tone.
Your advice "a proper fixed white balance for the ambient light", I think I actually managed to do that - and still this phenomena of yellowish on the mobiles... And it brings me over to Bradford Martin who brings up similar experience/knowledge.

Bradford Martin, thank you! You and David Smith seems to agree. I can say that the camera I lended are able to measure the ambient light and it was between 6500-7000 Kelvin. (The nordic light is rather cool). Therefore the paintings are shot with that setting. So according to that there should be no problem. And the photos do looks alright on my screen, but not on mobile devices. It is very evident on the very fair/light paintings.

Rich Franco, thanks again! Great tip to shoot with the greycard with and without painting to have as reference! And yes I did a little thinking and thought that I wanted a "lot of light" and "sharpness in depth" is not an issue - so yes I used F8 maybe F11 for some . Pure luck then.

The chances that the photos will come out right in print, I assume is pretty good - though this yellowish problem on mobiles nags me. Also it will be hard to sell the photos as digital, I guess.
Thank You all - now I end the disucssion!
Marica