Okay, so I’ve been wanting to get some super clean, professional-looking shots of some artwork. I figured a white background would be perfect – you know, make the art really pop. So, I decided to give it a shot, literally. This is how it went down.
Gearing Up
First things first, I needed to gather my stuff. I don’t have a fancy studio or anything, so I had to get creative:
- Camera: I just used my regular camera. It has worked well for many of my shootings.
- Artwork: This was the easy part! I already had the pieces I wanted to photograph.
- White Background: I used some poster board. Big enough to cover the area behind the art.
- Lighting: Okay, this is where it got a bit tricky. I don’t have studio lights, so I gathered a couple of desk lamps and hoped for the best.
Setting the Stage
Next, I had to set everything up. I found a spot near a window for some natural light, and then I started arranging:
- I taped the poster board to the wall, making sure it was smooth and straight.
- I placed the artwork on a small table in front of the backdrop.
- I messed around with the lamps, trying to get even lighting without harsh shadows. This took some trial and error! I pointed one at the backdrop and one at the art itself.
The Shoot!
With everything in place, I started taking pictures. I took a bunch of shots, trying different angles and distances. I also played around with my camera settings:
- Aperture: I played with my aperture size.
- ISO: I keep the ISO at normal.
- White Balance: I set it to “Daylight” since I was using natural light and my lamps were pretty close to that color temperature.
The Results (and Some Tweaks)
After the shoot, I uploaded the photos to my computer to take a closer look. Some of them were pretty good! But others needed a little help:
- Brightness/Contrast: I used some basic photo editing software to brighten things up and make the white background look truly white.
- Cropping: I cropped some of the images to get the composition just right.
- Blemishes: I noticed a few small marks on the poster board, so I used the “clone stamp” tool to remove them. Easy peasy.
It took a little work, but I’m pretty happy with how the photos turned out! It’s definitely not perfect, but for a DIY setup, I think it’s a great starting point.I hope this is useful to everyone!
