Note: This article is from Jesse Wiseman Hull’s website, now archived here.
Friday, October 12th, 2007
Artists today must be multi-talented, to say the least. As a ceramic arts student, I thought that while I was in school, all I needed to focus on was clay/glaze chemistry and making ceramic forms. But unless you have an unlimited budget to “hire out” to professionals, you have to be part artist, potter, chemist, photographer/graphic designer, accountant, promoter, writer/editor, electrician, gas technician… the list could go on and on.
I can’t stress the importance of archiving your work through imagery. I document most of my tests and kiln firings in the same way and include those images in my notes.
Having said that, of all the learned skills listed above, photography is one of the most frustrating tasks I’ve taken on.
What works for one person, won’t work for another… heck, what works for one pot won’t work for another! But here’s some information that may help.
The Camera:
Choose a camera that suits your needs. There’s no use spending $900-$3000 on a camera, if you’re not going to use half the settings available.
I went with a digital format. I can remember just 7 or 8 years ago, I was still having to deal with slides when sending info to galleries, publications, etc. Now most accept, and even prefer, high quality digital imagery supplied on a disk. It’s easy to store and it usually doesn’t need to be returned.
My camera is considered a standard “point and shoot” model. The features I was drawn to were:
8.3 megapixel CCD,
4X digital zoom/10X optical zoom,
2-1/2″ LCD screen (the bigger the better)
Manual exposure controls: ISO adjust for shutter speed / aperture combinations.
Do your homework before you buy… my camera actually has some bad marks in terms of it’s score, but when I looked past the overall “star ratings”, I realized that these minuses were in considering the video mode . I mention this to show how you can get a really good camera for what you’re trying to do, if you focus on what you’re trying to do . If I want to make movies, I’ll get a video camera…
Accessories:
The best accessories I can suggest would include a good sized memory card (1GB or larger), a good telescoping tripod, a protective camera case, and an extended “no-hassle” warranty on the camera itself. My warranty was around $50 for two years, and covers all but “complete submersion in water”. Photo editing software is valuable for minor tweaking, but most publications won’t accept images that are heavily edited, so you’ll always want to focus on taking good pictures in the first place.
Lights:
Get some light stands that will allow you to try different types of bulbs. You’ll want to experiment with tungsten, fluorescent, incandescent, halogen, Metal Halide, etc. Keep in mind that some bulb types also have different color (Kelvin) ratings. I can’t really say what each person will prefer, but I’ve had good success with the new compact higher wattage fluorescents.
3- Diffusers, Light Tents, Reflectors, and …Snoots! :
If you’re going to go with a light tent get the largest one you can buy/fit in your space. Most of them are collapsible, but you’ll need a sturdy surface that is wide enough to put it on, and also high enough to use a tripod for your camera.
Mine is 59″x59″x59″. I bought it after seeing Bill Campbell’s then photographer, Jeff Willis, using a similar one at Campbell Pottery. Kris Friedrich also uses a larger tent.
I had tried a smaller 28″ diffuser box that is probably great for shooting jewelry, handbags, etc. It still does a great job of capturing Molly’s (hear it: non-reflective ) hand spun fibers, but it was agonizing when shooting my pots.
The walls of the smaller tent diffused the light into large “window panes” reflected onto the piece I was trying to capture. The larger box doesn’t do this, but you have to learn how to use your camera in a diffused situation or the image will look too soft/out of focus, especially along the edges of the piece.
Reflectors and soft boxes always gave me similar problems to the smaller light box.
The best pictures I ever had were taken by a pro-photographer in Kansas City. He allowed me to be there as he was shooting, and had his camera hooked up to a laptop that showed what the camera’s view screen did at a much more discernible size. In this way, we could identify potential glare, position, color issues prior to taking the actual picture, loading the image onto the computer… etc.
We tried several different ways, “going by the book” in terms of lighting, aperture settings, diffusers, reflectors…
We finally decided to put a pot on the large infinity board platform that he uses to shoot family portraits. Then we took some lights and positioned them as far away as possible, so that they light the pot well, but the reflections of the light themselves appeared as small glints on the piece. Viola!
The glints from the lights could very easily be edited without compromising the image. But they actually gave the piece a nice 3-dimensional look, so I left them.
I lost access to that photographer when I moved, but now I try a similar approach, using the large light tent, colored backdrops, and spotlights from as far back as the light output will allow.
In an attempt to increase the light level and recreate the “small glint” effect above, I have used a simple technique by making a “ snoot “. A snoot is a tunnel for the light to go through that restricts it, except for the exact direction in which the light is pointed. With cooler running fluorescents, you can make this from paper or cardboard forming a cone or tube shape. One can also be made from ridged aluminum dryer ducting (a length of 8-12″ works well).
Again, I can’t say that I’m completely happy with my pictures currently, but I think the learning process is coming along.
Hopefully this explains some of the good and not-so-good images on my site, and helps others find a way to build an image library of their own work.
I ESPECIALLY welcome comments/input concerning this post!
