The above image is from the Shadow Box exhibition website.
This February I am participating in the Shadow Box exhibition at the Textile Museum of Canada for the first time. Follow this link www.tmcshadowbox.com to find out all the details about this fun show. An image of each entry is listed under the artist’s name.
For my entry I adapted one of my small folk art pieces to fit into the wooden shadow box form that every participant is given. I painted the frame with a base coat and then added interference paints to give it a ‘Bollywood’ glow. Then I applied fabric about half the width of the outer edges to give it more depth. I added fabric to the inner sides of the frame to give a sort of soft upholstered effect. Then I added a wider border around the image and embellished it with more beads. I wanted to achieve a jewel box effect. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph my work before I mailed it off and the flash has washed out the image on the website.
Here is an older image of ‘My Pony Moon’ before it was inserted into the shadow box for this exhibition. I reduced the noise level in the photo because the sparkle from the sheer fabric a the top of the image created unpleasant glare. But it is still not a perfect photo and the result is lost detail. Photographing anything with shine is a challenge particularly if a flash is used as in the case if the shadowbox image. A tripod and some diffused lighting may have helped or just no flash at all.
As an experiment I have photographed another textile image in my home…with flash and without flash…to see the difference. I used my 35mm lens and a tripod with all four images.
The first image below was taken with the flash on. The flash adds unwanted sparkle to the felt and dulls the colours. The image also has a flattened look to it.
This second image was taken without the flash and the fabrics and colours are much more natural looking in appearance. The image appears more 3-dimensional as well. I used a wide aperture… F1.8… for lots of light.
I then tried a few other combinations using one of the built-in scene modes…adding a flash diffuser to the camera and simply turning off the flash on the camera. Neither of these options produced as nice an image as setting the aperture priority to F1.8.
The third image was taken with a flash diffuser added to the camera. There is still unwanted sparkle in the felt and the focus seems uneven.
The fourth image was taken with the flash turned off on the camera. No sparkle in the felt but the focus isn’t as sharp as it should be and the image is somewhat flat and dull.
These examples illustrate the difficulties and challenges when photographing any artwork. A good tripod and a little experimentation with lighting can make or break the outcome of the final image.
One final adjustment to the image is to check that the colours are true to the original. My camera was set to auto white balance and it did a pretty good job with all the colours except the bright pink. It is a little too orange in tone, so in Photoshop I replaced the pink with an adjusted pink tone closer to the original. Now the image is a decent representation of the original artwork.
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Good points about photographing art, much harder than it may look to most people.