The Wrong Place To Save Money
Many artists I’ve worked with are often caught in a common trap, one that seems to plague artists at a particular point in their careers…
where do you spend what money?
A camera does not a photographer make
Inevitably, and sadly, a lot of artists choose to photograph their own work. Some of them go to the trouble of learning more about photography than they would have otherwise. Some even take classes.
But for the majority, what they do is point and click.
It reminds me about the digital era of graphic designers. Before digital, a graphic designer went to school to learn the art of graphic design. A good graphic designer could tell you why one font projected strength, while another font projected weakness. A good one knew how to pair your message with the font style, color, and lines that embodied exactly what you wanted to say.
Then along came graphic design software, and anyone who bought the software called themselves a “graphic designer.” As one of my dear friends, and long time, old-time, graphic designer called it: garbage in/garbage out.
Digital photography has seen the same slide into quality mush. You don’t need a darkroom, or the skills to use one. You don’t need to know F stop settings. You don’t even need to know which lens to use, and you can turn out pretty decent photographs.
But ‘decent’ ain’t close enough
It’s easy to see how an artist can be trapped in the illusion that a decent photograph is good enough. I’m convinced that digital cameras, like CDs with music, have pretty much killed our ability to notice, or care about the diminished clarity and sharpness that almost any 35mm camera gives us.
But this is your work we’re talking about, and ‘decent’ ain’t close enough–not by ten thousand miles.
What’s with the visual ‘blind spot’ ?
It’s a bit paradoxical to imply that visual artists have a blind spot, but that’s exactly what it seems to be.
Perhaps the blind spot happens because you, as the artist, can see the work in such clarity. Not just the outer clarity that comes from looking at the piece while you’re making it, but integrated with the inner clarity that arises from the bonding that comes whenever we birth a new creation.
This clarity serves you well. But it cannot serve your collector. So this is a place where you must bring consciousness and intention to bear on reality. You must step away from this familiar place of what you see and walk a mile in your collector’s shoes.
Remember, what they see is what they *think* they’ll get
Deliberately remind yourself that reproductions of your work may be the first thing a collector sees. And they do not, and will not, have your eyes to see it with.
When they get a postcard, go to your website, or see the image in an article: this is their First Impression, and it sticks like a fly to flypaper.
For some artists, the clarity and details of the artwork are secondary to the initial impact, which is strong enough to withstand a ‘decent’ reproduction. But why take chances?
Your work is all you’ve got
You don’t play money games, and try to save money, on the very thing that will make you money. It’s a no-win strategy.
Don’t buy coffee out for a year. Don’t get that new winter coat when they one you’ve got is perfectly useable. Rent movies for six months. Eat in, not out. There are probably two dozen different ways you could scrape together the money for a professional photographer (or anything else that would increase the speed and trajectory of your art career).
This is no time to spend money to ward off emotional baggage. Your artwork deserves a deeper and more caring commitment.
Professional photographers know what they’re doing, or do they?
Quality reproductions of your work are second only to the quality of your originals, and not just any photographer will do. Photographing weddings takes a different set of skills than photographing artwork.
And photographing two dimensional artwork is different from photographing three dimensional artwork.
Before you hire any photographer, makes sure their portfolio includes the same genre of artwork that you create. And if a photographer has worked with another local artist, go look at that artwork in person and see for yourself how well the photographs capture that artist’s voice.
In short: serve your art and it will serve you.
Tell me, what have your experiences been with photographing your work?
What else do you think artists should be aware of in this area?
Written by Ariane Goodwin
Posted under Marketing Your Art
Tags: art, art collectors, artists, blind spot, camera, digital photography, fine art, graphic designer, money, money games, paradoxical, photographer, photography, smARTIST Career Blog, three dimensional artwork, two dimensional artwork
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647 days ago,
Crystal Tillman said:
Most of my normal work is flat, small, artwork that can be scanned. Eventually, when I get ready to sell my knitting, I’ll give hiring a professional photographer some serious consideration. Otherwise I would have probably just tried taking the photos myself, and wondered why I wasn’t selling anything. Thank you for the information, and the warning.
[Reply]
647 days ago,
Julie Thompson said:
Excellent article, thank you for posting this.
In all fairness, I am swinging literally a worldwide market on a shoestring. I don’t splurge on winter coats and my coffee is brewed at home. But it isn’t a matter of pinching my pennies in the wrong places, it’s a matter of how well would a print of a feather even go? Reproductions would be great if it’s a satisfactory alternative for collectors, because right now, in all honesty – I’m painting as fast as I can. I would love to get together a SOLID press packet with top notch photography – hopefully a window to do such will open up after the Christmas season.
[Reply]
647 days ago,
Lynne said:
This article’s subject is really VITAL. My dad was a professional photographer who photographed the work of artists after he retired from his formal career in NYC. I learned a great deal from him. I didn’t learn how to do it, but to honor his expertise and years of experience with what it took to pull off a very difficult task. He used to go in to NYC to his lab when he was in his 70s and wait til the slides came out of the lab. He told me ‘labs are NOT all the same’. So he had the one that he knew would do the best job. He told me that greens were notoriously difficult to capture accurately (this is before digital, so I don’t know if this applies now to that). And basically, even though I know a great deal about it, I NEVER shoot my own work.
I’ve hired a pro. I also ALWAYS get a physical proof sent to me of postcards I have made. I often need to have them tweaked!
And by the way, after he and my Mom moved here with me, the artists he used to make photos for, were never able to find anyone of his caliber they told him. I believe it.
Lynne
[Reply]
646 days ago,
Dawn Mckenna said:
As someone who is capable of professional quality photography, I say you couldn’t be more wrong.
A claim to the title of professional does not make someone worth hiring for photography. In fact quality shots are perfectly possible given a little knowledge, set up and effort.
Furthermore not every sort of art is appropriate to having prints made of it, indeed not every type of art should be made into prints. For some artists prints are an expansion, for others prints can be a deathknell for their business.
It comes down to whether a unique un-duplicated piece of work is worth more than something that hangs in hundreds of people’s homes.
For some artist’s? Their market consists of people who collect unique pieces, the addition of prints could actually hurt their sales as it makes the art piece no longer unique or un-duplicated.
For an artist with a loyal market of people who want unique pieces? Adding prints would be a disaster and a total waste of money.
For others it is a new lease of life.
So the question really comes down to:
Are prints appropriate to my market?
Is it worth hiring a ‘professional’ and risking a bodge job rather than learning how to do it myself?
Quite frankly, your post is rather pretentious, it presents your viewpoint as the only ‘right’ one except your viewpoint is narrow and doesn’t take into account all the possible variables.
One would suggest that if you’re going to write an art blog that you try not to talk down to your audience and actually broaden your understanding since from this post alone I can ascertain that you are lacking knowledge in certain key areas.
[Reply]
646 days ago,
Ariane Goodwin said:
Whew, Dawn, that was some response, and such a contrast to Crystal’s.
First, let me clarify that I was using the term ‘reproductions’ in a broad sense, to represent any form that represents the original. I was not using it to just indicate making “prints.”
In fact, what’s much more important to me is not reproducing an original so it can be duplicated and sold more cheaply, though for a lot of work this is perfectly legitimate, but my greatest concern is for the reproductions that happen because someone cannot see the original (they live too far away) and must depend on reproductions to assess the quality of the original, i.e, on websites, on postcards, in brochures, etc. (Not to mention the “reproductions” that a gallery must depend upon in a portfolio or website.)
Also, I’m not questioning that some artists are capable of shooting their own professional, quality photographs. Sadly, this is a rare combination: good artist, good artwork photographer.
If you can create high quality photographs that truly honor your original artwork, then this post was not meant for you. You are not the audience I am addressing.
I also do not, if you go back and look at my post again, equate professional with quality. I suggest that you have to assess any professional relative to the specific skills needed to photograph the artwork of your genre, and that you research the professional before hiring.
I have seen way too many badly photographed pieces of artwork to water down my comments so I don’t look like I’m “talking down” to my audience.
This is not a popularity contest for me, it’s a matter of making sure artists have all they need to move their art careers to the next level, so their work can inspire us all.
[Reply]
646 days ago,
Ariane Goodwin said:
Julie,
Your artwork, on feathers, is a fascinating challenge. What is the best way for you to put your work in the world?
I suspect it’s not a quick answer, but would take some serious brainstorming to look at a wide range of possibilities.
I would respond in more depth, but honestly, I just don’t have enough information. But I’ll tell you, you definitely have my attention.
[Reply]
646 days ago,
Ariane Goodwin said:
Lynne,
Oh, your Dad is a store house of treasures that will be lost when he goes. I sure hope you have taken some time to sit down and interview him and record the conversation. What he knows is invaluable, and even if there is not a direct translation into digital, I’ll be there’s lots of gold in there.
[Reply]
563 days ago,
nini said:
Only you as creator know which colors are closer to your original, you will know….But I think every artist should have a digital camera on the studio to just document their work. The profesional concept is just a name…
[Reply]
523 days ago,
CrystalTillman.com » Blog Archive » Featured Sites: Simple Dollar, Smart ARTist, Lateral Action said:
[...] It focuses on marketing artwork, selling your work, as well as commonly overlooked stuff such as photographing your work. It’s a new blog, so there’s not a lot there yet, but what’s there is very [...]