Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Photographing sculptures indoors

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Some museums (by no means all), allow photography (usually non-flash). MoMA in New York almost encourages it. Perhaps this is because many of the modern images are copies of commercial products (eg Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans), and perhaps because it’s a museum that doesn’t take art too solemnly.

Avoid clutter in the background, shoot with existing light, (up the ASA to 3200, shutter speed 1/25 to 1/100) restrict the depth of field by opening the f stop to f4 (or lower if you have a wide aperture lens).

You don't have to aim for a classic ¾ view; many sculptures and mobiles are best see from directly front-on. Focus on the center of the sculpture. Stand away as far possible and use the zoom to avoid distortion and enhance focus.

Line up the base of the photo with the floor if you're aiming to keep horizontals and verticals true.

Sometimes it helps to add a figure in the picture, walking past, looking at it to add perspective or direct attention. No need to get the figure in focus, it can help if the figure isn't in the field of focus; this draws attention to the sculpture.

Manhattan MoMA, 090809, Canon 5DII, 17-40mm, f4, 1/50
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8 Comments:

At July 24, 2009 at 11:18 AM , Blogger rolenzo said...

Yes,there's Mr. Snappy, snapping away in MOMA while some of us are watching students struggle to write pro-con arguments while the humidity lurks somewhere around inhuman.
Nice camera tips, sir; just wondering how to get my Nikon pinhole camera to do an f4. Stop! in the name of love of art.
Lart

 
At July 25, 2009 at 1:12 PM , Blogger Barry Natusch said...

Lawrie, are you STILL there? Why aren't you in Galicia already? Life is shot.

I could do with a little humidity actually. Up here in at 3400 meters in Cusco in the Andes, the temps drop to near zero at night, the air is dry dry dry.

Drinking coca tea helps. Wonder if I could ship some back?

 
At July 25, 2009 at 6:04 PM , Blogger rolenzo said...

B, Surely that is not a typo, "Life is shot." I larfed to read it, thinking of Freud in his slip. Bretagne lies between us and Galicia, and three weeks of Kochi heat in the foreground. Please, send us some coca tea...and fax us some toilet paper too.
Jealous of your dry nature.
Lawz

 
At July 25, 2009 at 9:35 PM , Blogger Barry Natusch said...

Actually, shot for short is a family lexical item. My wife started it by writing "shot" for "short", now we all say it.

 
At July 25, 2009 at 9:35 PM , Blogger Barry Natusch said...

Actually, shot for short is a family lexical item. My wife started it by writing "shot" for "short", now we all say it.

 
At July 25, 2009 at 11:16 PM , Blogger rolenzo said...

You wouldn't short me would you? We just finished watching the late Heath Ledger as Ned Kelly (I know, Australia is not Ao Tearoa), and there was shorts fired all over the place but I thought they were a bit shot of the richness of tale achieved by say Peter Carey, whose navels are better than his shot stories.
Is your wife there with you at altitude, conflating disparate lexical units then?
Lort

 
At July 26, 2009 at 11:52 AM , Blogger Barry Natusch said...

Cosco (where I am at present) is Quechua for "navel" but the Quechuans didn't have a written language so they couldn't write novels, even short ones, or do I mean shot navels?

No I am unaccompanied on the Americas leg of this trip, but meet up with the originator of Many Phrases Not Quite English in Northern Thailand Southerne China mid-August.

Tomorrow departing for two days on Titicaca which is I hear even higher than the navel of the world.

 
At July 27, 2009 at 7:51 AM , Blogger rolenzo said...

Barry,
While you're in Cosco could you please pick up a case of fuzzy navel drink mix? Wouldn't mind a short or two.
Southern China...Yunnan? One of my favorite old haunts, down by the Lao border it was, Jinghong, Ruili, Shishuonbana. Li Jiang of course, several times before the earthquake.
Meanwhile, hope you have improved your altitude so we don't have to give you too much latitude.
vaya bien
Lorenzo di Moncici

 

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