Shooting good photographs of your work:

The quality of your images can make or break your website.  Consider the following aspects as you photograph your work:

• Lighting should be diffused in order to minimize harsh shadows.  We have a set of softboxes in the Sculpture Lab the provide a wonderful diffused light.
• Use a tripod to prevent blurriness in your images.
• Setup your shots so that your work fills the picture frame.
• Small 3-D work should ideally be shot on a paper sweep so that a gradient is created from foreground to background.
• When work is too large to shoot on a paper sweep–or when it would be inappropriate to shoot it this way (if a particular context is part of the work, for example, or if the work is site specific, performance, or installation) then do your best to shoot the images in a simple setting that will not distract from your work.
• When shooting 3-D work, you should shoot from as far back as possible to minimize distortion. Back away from the work as far as possible and zoom in.
• Composition is important. Compose the photo as you would a drawing: create diagonals, compose with off-center emphasis, and experiment in some images with cropping in to create detail shots.
• Experiment with shooting from a range of perspectives.
• Use Photoshop to clean up imperfections, modulate brightness and contrast, crop, etc.

Adjusting the scale of your images for the web

The following tutorials will help you learn how to use Photoshop and Bridge to prepare images for your websites.

Tutorial 1 – getting started; using help files; appropriate image size for websites; changing image size; the undo command; changing image size with “save for web & devices”:

Tutorial 2 – editing and sizing multiple images at once with Adobe Bridge:

Tutorial 3 – combining multiple images into a single JPEG; increasing canvas size; using hand tool to pan; zooming in and out; using layers; using the marquee tool to trim images; selecting all; copying and pasting; using the move tool for moving and scaling; inverting selections; deselecting; using guides

Tutorial 4 – changing background color; intro to creating a custom logo in the header image area

Tutorial 5 – creating a custom logo in the header image area, creating and modifying text in Photoshop

Additional useful Photoshop tutorials