Business of Art; Photographing Paintings Part 2
Photography and its equipment have improved rapidly since the early 1970’s when I used the Brownie Instamatic camera. The popularity of SLR cameras with through the lens view finders made photographing artwork easier. No more adjusting the camera to the right or left or higher so that only part of the subject showed in the viewfinder because it did not line up with the lens. With this new innovation, what you see is what you get!
So, about 1975 I ditched the instamatic and I bought a Minolta SRT-101 with tripod and began shooting 35 mm slides of art outdoors with 25 ASA film for the truest color. The dimensions of my artwork do not always match the rectangular format of a slide, some of my paintings are square, others are long narrow horizontals or verticals that allow distracting background to be seen. To eliminate this, I applied thin strips of black graphic tape to the back of the cardboard slide mount to mask unwanted areas. The problem with this method was that the tape often came loose and jammed the projector.
To improve, I learned to remove the film from its cardboard mount, mask unwanted background by applying thin, silver photo masking tape directly to the film then remount the slide in a new holder. This secured the tape tightly between the sealed slide holder. Although tedious and time consuming, it made a professional presentation. Later I figured out how to save hours of work by masking only the original slide and sending it to the lab for duplicates instead of masking each duplicate individually. This system served me well for many years.
During that era when I needed a photo of artwork immediately and couldn’t wait two to four weeks for processing, I used a new piece of equipment that processed 35 mm film at home. The problem with this system was that it required Ektachrome film that made everything look blue, but if a client was eager it was better than nothing. Another speedy solution was the invention the Polaroid camera that developed a print in 60 seconds. The drawback to Polaroid prints were that they faded fast, the colors were not true, and the format was square, but they served very well as a temporary solution.
By now you may be wondering why I didn’t use a professional lab, which is what I do today. For 19 years I lived 250 miles from the nearest city, in the wilderness of Alaska, and had to pretty much rely on my own resources. Today I live in Palmer, 40 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, where professionals make 35 mm slides, 4×5 transparencies, and digital files of my original artwork. I rely completely on the know-how of experienced photographers to save me time and give me the best possible product, and this is the method I recommend.
Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan Artist
