I wish someone taught me how to professionally document my work while I was in high school, as it would have saved me a lot of money. The purpose behind this blog entry is to provide each of you with a basic knowledge of how to photograph your own work. Let’s begin with the materials that will be necessary
Materials:
35mm SLR Camera
18% Grey Card
2 Photo Flood light bulbs (250 watt)
T64 slide film (Fujichrome is recommended, and is available at Richmond Camera)
2 Clamp lights or Stand lights
Backdrop (solid dark color that is free of wrinkles)
Tripod
Procedure:
Step One: Preparing the Area
Since you will be using Tungsten slide film, it is necessary to photograph the work indoors, in a location that is free of sunlight. Tungsten film will react with sunlight, resulting in slides that have a bluish tint. If you are shooting your slides during the day, it is necessary to completely cover any windows to protect your film from sunlight.
After finding your location, you will need to hang your backdrop. Remember, this backdrop can be any number of dark, solid colored materials. I often use an oversized black sheet that has been pressed, as to eliminate background detail that could compete with the artwork. After hanging the backdrop, you will need to set up your lighting. It’s best to angle your lights at 45 degree angles to the artwork, as it usually reduces glare. Try to position your lights and your camera about six feet from your subject (sometimes larger work will require you to move further from the subject).
Step Two: Getting the Correct Exposure
After you have loaded your slide film into your camera, you will need to take a light reading for your shots. This will only have to be done once, but be sure to take the time to get an accurate reading before you begin shooting. To do this you will need to use your grey card. A grey card is the exact tone that your light meter seeks for a balance of value in any given scene. Sometimes, a scene will have exceptionally high contrast, and will make the camera think that the overall value of the scene is too light or too dark.
Since you will be using a very dark backdrop for your slides, the light meter will give you an over-exposed reading, in an effort to make 18% grey out of the given scene. To trick the light meter, you will need to hold your grey card directly in front of your artwork, fill the frame with grey, and take your light reading from the card rather than from the actual scene that you will be shooting. I recommend that you use an aperture setting of f 8.
Based on past experience, I have noticed that I my light meter often gives me a shutter combination of 1/15sec when using an aperture of f 8. Even though I’ve noticed this trend, I always use my grey card to get an accurate light reading. In addition to using the grey card, you will need to “bracket” your shot in order to guarantee a successful image. This is slightly more expensive, but it will give you the highest quality slide possible. Bracketing refers to shooting three slides of your given scene; one at the exposure provided by your light meter, a shot one stop down, and a shot that is opened up one stop.
Ex) Using my grey card, with the aperture setting of f8, my light meter might indicate that the scene will need a shutter speed of 1/15 sec. I would then shoot one slide at 1/15, one at 1/10, and a third at 1/30. This will give me three slightly different slides. Ideally, the original image that was shot at 1/15 will be the most accurate, but sometimes your meter is not accurate and one of the other two slides will contain the exact exposure.
Step Three: Getting Your Slides Developed
Once you have shot all of your work, you will need to take your film to Richmond Camera to get it exposed. Realize that it will take about a week and a half to get your slides back. Once you have picked up your slides, you will need to look at them using a magnifier and light table.
Separate out all of the slides that are the proper exposure and place them into an archival slide sheet. This sheet of perfectly exposed slides will be the originals from which you will make duplicates. Duplicates can be made at Richmond Camera, and should take approximately one week to be returned. Make as many duplicates of your work as you will need for art school, and NEVER send away your originals, as you do not want to have to shoot the same images again later.
Step Four: Organizing and Labeling Your Slides
Now that you have all of your slides, you will need to organize them, being sure to put your strongest work first. Those who will be reviewing your portfolio are likely to judge your ability based on the first few images that they see. Impress them right away, and you will have their attention throughout the remainder of your portfolio review. It may also be a good idea to save one of your stronger pieces for last, as the review panel has a tendency to remember the first and last pieces that they saw.
It’s important to fill the empty slots of your slide sheet with black squares of paper. This will block out unwanted light, and will allow those who are reviewing your work to see your slides more clearly. In addition to all of these things, you will need to properly label you slides. Always check to see if the art school has specific guidelines for labeling the work. If specific directions are given (VCU for example), you should be sure to adhere to them.
Given the competitive nature of the marketplace for artists and artist/educators, it helps to have professional looking labels. These can be created on labeling machines and word processors. If handwritten labels are a necessity, print clearly. The care used in labeling slides is a statement about your professionalism. If the slide is poorly labeled, cracked, scratched, etc., it may lead the viewer to believe that you do not care . . . so why should they?
Check your slides periodically to be sure the slide labels and signal dots are sticking to the slide. It is highly frustrating for the person operating the projector to have slides stick due to labels that fall off into the projector or slide tray.
Each slide should have labels that provide the following information:
1. Your name.
2. Title of your work. All titles should be italicized or underlined. If your labels are handwritten simply underline the title.
3. The medium. Be reasonable in your choice of terms. Slide label space may affect your word choice, so select your terms well.
4. Date of completion.
5. Dimensions. Whenever you provide dimensions for a work of art, you must use the following conventions:
Three-dimensional works: Height x Width x Depth (always in that order)
Two-dimensional works: Height x Width (always in that order)
