Business of Art; Photographing Paintings Part 1
“A Tree Still Grows” 30″x40″ acrylic on canvas ©Niebrugge 1972
When I began painting as a serious professional in the early 1970’s, my art photography equipment consisted of a Kodak Instamatic camera using rolled cartridge film and a cheap three legged wooden easel. My research consisted of reading current art magazines, where they instructed me in the importance of photographing art outdoors without direct sun for best color and exposure.
I remember balancing large framed paintings on the rickety easel, its adjustable legs held together with a bolt through a slot secured by a wing nut, and having one leg collapse catapulting the painting onto the pavement. Or, if the art was much taller than the easel its top would protrude into the back of the canvas causing a bulge. At best, the backward slant of the easel would cause the photo of the art to be distorted. The painting would be larger at the bottom of the photo and the sides would slope in towards the top. I finally learned to hang the art on a fence so that the sides would be parallel.
“Bahia San Felipe” 24″x48″ acarylic on canvas ©Niebrugge 1973
The magazine articles emphasized that the background around the art be free of distracting elements, and showed examples of bad photographs. A painting propped up by a tire, and the tire larger than the art. Or, a person holding the art while it was being photographed their hands, hair and clothes dominating the picture. The examples were hilarious, but most often proved to be the case. I know I was really proud of a particular grape stake fence in the back yard as being the perfect background. Unfortunately, the view finder in these old cameras was above and sometimes off to the side of the lens so you had to guess if the art was centered in the picture. A lot of my first photos are mostly the grape stake fence with just a part of the artwork. This was all being done with a hand held camera so many of the photos were out of focus.
And, of course, once the roll of film was exposed it was taken to the local drug store and sent away for three or four weeks to be developed. After getting my one photo of each painting back, I had to send out for duplicates until I got really smart and started taking 10-12 shots of each painting per roll. Fortunately I kept trying to improve, I learned and got better and technology upgraded the equipment.
My next blog will tell about the wonders and miracle of Polaroid.
Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist
