The Artist and the web - using multimedia
My first professional assignment to photograph Art was the murals painted by Charles Mahoney in Oxford. A set of transparencies of the murals was purchased by the Tate Gallery and one of the photographs was later used as a Christmas card, another first. Since then I have occasionally photographed paintings and other artwork enjoying the challenge of converting one media into another. Confined by optics, physics and chemistry the results are always a translation not an exact copy.
Capturing the image
Professional reproduction work for print requires skill and specialist lenses with a corresponding cost. However to capture images for display on the web the technical requirements are much lower. For example a typical image for print will have a resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) compared to the web image standard of 72 dpi.
For reproducing flat artwork up to A4 in size a good scanner can offer benefits over using a camera. Problems with optical distortion will be minimal and colour matching should be close. Ideally the image should be imported directly from the scanner into an imaging editing programme such as Photoshop. The only reservation with this method would be using it on light sensitive originals where photography would be preferred. In terms of cost and speed scanning is the first option I would recommend.
With larger artwork and paintings with impasto then photography would usually be the best choice. While I would recommend the service of a professional photographer for the Artist wishing to do their own here are a few tips.
To minimise geometric distortion match the angle of the camera to the surface angle of the painting. As your camera moves off true you will see the shapes and angles in the picture distort.
Where possible do not photograph your artwork behind glass.
Generally soft defused daylight lighting works best.
Even photographs from professional digital cameras are improved by adjustments in an image editing programme.
Displaying the image on the web
While displaying your images on the web opens the potential for them to be viewed it also could allow them to be copied. There are various ways to deal with this concern, the extreme being to add a large identifying caption across the middle of the image. To my mind this defeats the purpose of displaying them.
It is my belief that the purpose of my web site is to display my work to the viewer and I have two approaches to deal with copying. The first is add a caption to the bottom of the picture (see opposite) using image editing software. The second is not to display images at too great a size without a caption. Neither method prevents copying but makes it harder to obtain a saleable image.
The most common way to display images on the web is as a JPEG file. This file format compresses the original file losing some of the original data in the process. The degree of compression has an effect on the quality of the image and the resulting file size. With the growing popularity of broadband connections file size has less of an impact on download speed. Even so it is good practice to choose the minimum acceptable as it allows quicker downloads and offers some discouragement against copyright theft.
Brave New world
While visiting the BBC website I saw what they call an audio slideshow on a retrospective exhibition of portraits by artist David Hockney. It combined still photographs with audio interviews and the result was impressive and inspiring. I had already become interested in using audio on the web for podcasting and this provided the spark to go further.
When Artist Michael Rees approached me to take digital photographs of his paintings inspired by the Hockney video I offered to extend the project. While taking photographs of Michael’s paintings and other artwork we decided that his painting “Gridlock” would make a good subject. The painting was visually complex and interesting and offered a variety of close up shots. The audio was recorded first on location using a portable digital recorder. Michael had made notes of points he wished to mention and I acted as an interviewer to guide him during the recording.
Pleased with the result we decided to make another with Michael discussing the influences on his art illustrated by various examples of his work. Both films were made using a professional digital still camera rather than a shooting on a video camera for higher image quality. The audio was edited first and then after the photograhs were individually matched to the originals they were edited to the subject being discussed. This method gave Michael a media package consisting of:
Digital Photographs of his artwork for web display
2 Videos at a resolution for display on a television from a DVD
The 2 videos at a lower resolution for web display
The 2 audio tracks from the videos as MP3 files for podcasting
Both these two videos were posted onto You Tube that also allows linking using social network sites such as Face Book to further extend their promotional value. You can view both films from the left-hand menu.
The complete package offers a very cost effective way to promote and catalogue an artist’s work. The photographs are suplied at a resolution of 300 dpi files to allow their use in promotional literature as well as 72 dpi files for web display.
The Artist's advantage
Being an artist immediately gives you a huge advantage in having the potential to fill your web site with quality content. It is important that this is supported by good design. Do not just think of good design as being just about layout and style, ease of navigation around your site is crucially important.
Adding multimedia elements such as audio and video gives you the opportunity to enrich the visitor’s experience. In giving an artist a voice it can give an audience a deeper appreciation and understanding of their work.
