Photography of Sculpture

Photography of sculpture requires an understanding of the work by the artist involved and also a not insignificant ability to use lighting to bring out texture and colour. It is crucial to work in conjunction with the artist to ensure the look and feel is consistent with the way they see their work.

The lighting needs to show the three dimensional form of the object, easier  said than done. Sometimes a hard light will need to be used to bring out all of the surface texture on the artwork and authorities a broad soft light is used. The light often comes from the top or the side but virtually never from the front. Maybe a reflector to fill the shadows is all that is needed.

I often gently digitally combine a number of captures and align the images in Adobe Photoshop where a reflective surface or other attributes of the artwork make it impossible to record in 1 shot. I guess this is like the “painting with light”technique of old.

 

I generally photograph small sculpture on a white background and use localised lighting often with the background going dark. I shoot with a Canon 5DsR onto a large screen calibrated monitor to check colour and contrast etc. My chosen software is Adobe Lightroom which I use to edit the images and find fast and acquire in the rendition of colour.

Have a look at a few recent examples that illustrate some of the techniques I mention.

Cheers,

David McArthur

Parallax Photography