Color and Curves

It's the time of year when many artists are applying for summer art fairs and submitting digital images of their artwork.

Photographing your artwork is quite a challenge. Unlike ordinary family snapshots, it is absolutely crucial that the digital images represent the correct colors. Whether you shoot outside with soft, bright morning light, or inside with quartz worklights, you may have color variations.

With a black/white calibration card and Photoshop, you can assure correct color. Photo supply stores (like PhotoVision) sell cards containing black, white, and 18% gray.

When shooting your art, shoot a photo of the card first and then shoot your artwork images under the same lighting conditions.

Then open the card image in Photoshop and open the Curves box. (See chapter 4 in The Painter's Guide to Photoshop to learn more about Curves.) Use the Curves eyedroppers in the bottom right of the box to identify true black, white and gray. Click on each color in the card image with one of the eyedroppers - left is black, middle is gray, right is white. Then Save the result as a custom curve.

Now open one of your artwork images and open the Curves box. Load your custom curve. It will automatically correct the color in your artwork image.

If you have any questions, post a comment here, or send email to sherry@matanzamedia.com.