How I take photos of my paintings

before – dark and gloomy

As I said yesterday, I’m on a painting break. I’ve decided to spruce up my Etsy shops with new, improved photos. I finished up my Art by Katie Jeanne shop last week, and now I’m on to my Miz Katie shop. 

after – lighter, brighter, prettier

Like I’ve said a few times now, I bought a new slr camera last summer. It has 24 megapixels, whereas my old Nikon only had 6 or 8. You probably already know that the more megapixels your camera has the larger the prints you can make. The higher the megapixels the better quality your photos will be, too. Long story short, I’m able to make much larger, better quality prints and photos now.

This is how I take photos of my paintings

I also bought new lighting last year, and have a photography table set up specifically for taking photos of my paintings. These were all big changes. I used to use my worktable to take photos of my work, and I’d have to clear it off every time I needed photos. Now I have a table in my office with a nice white lace tablecloth on it. It’s some different than that dark old paint stained table I was shooting on. My paintings look 100% better now. Don’t you agree?  

before

Now

Slowly, but surely, all of my Etsy listings (roughly 1000, including all those expired. ack!) will have these new bright shiny photos in them. I just need time to retake all the photos of my paintings. Then there’s a little thing called editing each one in Photoshop. This is why I’m taking a studio break. It’s a long, daunting process, but so worth the time. Every time I see a listing with my old photos in it, I cringe. So dark and gloomy. I’m going to work my tail off until all my listings have these new lighter, brighter photos, even if it takes me all spring and summer to do it. Don’t worry. I’ll still be blogging. I’ll probably update you now and then on my progress.