What's Behind Your Art?

Do the images of your artwork include the mat and frame? Do you photograph your artwork mounted on a piece of white foamboard? The background behind your artwork makes a difference in how good your images look, and in this article I'll explain why.

White Is For Gallery Walls
We've all gone to the opening of a new show at a gallery and admired how great the artwork looks. The white walls give any exhibition a clean, crisp look that really shows off the artwork. No distractions ... just the art. That's why most art gallery walls are painted white.

Similarly, most professional artists use a white mat around their artwork when framing it. They understand that a colored mat can affect how the brain perceives color in the artwork and is potentially distracting to a prospective buyer. Almost any piece of art looks best against a white mat.

... Not For Images
But a white background is not the best choice for images of your artwork. Gallery walls and the mat in a frame are reflective media, and the brain essentially ignores the reflected white light when viewing the artwork.

The images on a computer screen and slides, however, are transmissive media. The transmitted light from a white background or mat around your artwork is distracting and causes the brain to perceive duller, less vivid colors in the artwork. On the other hand, a black or neutral grey background helps the eye see the true colors in your artwork.

These two images illustrate the effect of different backgrounds behind the same piece of artwork.

Less Is More
For flat artwork that will be viewed on a computer screen or projected, you should always crop the image to the artwork and eliminate any background. With an irregularly shaped piece, use a black background or, if it is already matted, crop the image close to the artwork to eliminate most of the background. Also use a black background for slides if the proportions of the artwork differ from the standard slide frame size. But in the case of darker artwork, use a grey background instead of black to provide contrast and help the artwork stand out from the background.

For sculpture, a grey background is best. As with flat artwork, a white background is too bright and will distract from the artwork. A black background, while it may accentuate the colors, also effectively flattens the artwork by eliminating the shadows around it that help the brain perceive dimensionality.

So, crop your images to eliminate distractions and use a black or neutral grey background to help the juror or prospective buyer see your artwork at its best.

And click here to learn more about shooting your artwork in the Learning Center at ShootMyArt.com™.

(The artwork “Lilies” is used by permission of Candace Law © 2001.)

Send Slides

An increasing number of juried exhibitions are allowing digital images as an entry option instead of slides or prints. I advise my clients to send slides if they have a choice, and in this article I'll explain why.

What You See Is What You Get
There's little doubt that the rush is on to embrace the digital era in juried exhibitions and art fairs. Many calls for entry now permit CD, email, or online submission of digital images in lieu of slides or prints. And each year brings more shows that have made the switch to 100% digital for entries and the jurying process. New technology brings with it new problems, though, and digital images are no exception.

The traditional 35mm slide may seem old fashioned, but it's a tried-and-true technology, even when the slide is produced from a digital image. If you submit a slide for a juried exhibition, you know exactly what the juror is going to see when the slide is projected at the gallery ... the same thing you saw at home. And perhaps most importantly, the colors in your artwork will look the same.

... But Not With Digital
With a digital image, the accurate reproduction of colors is not automatic and should not be assumed. The colors that you and the juror each see depend very much on how the computer screen or projector used to view the image is set up and calibrated.

The color of each pixel in a digital image is determined by three numbers, or values, representing the intensities of red, green, and blue light. Every computer screen or projector uses a slightly different formula to create the color from a particular set of values. This is "device dependent" color, and it usually results in inconsistent reproduction of colors when an image is viewed on different equipment.

If the computer screen or projector has not been calibrated, or "profiled", the colors a juror sees in an image of your artwork may not be the same ones you saw at home. A device profile is created by comparing the colors produced on a computer screen or by a projector against standard reference values. This profile is unique to the device and makes the color "device independent", resulting in more accurate and consistent reproduction of the colors in a digital image.

Get Calibrated
Too few artists submitting digital images, galleries requesting them, or jurors viewing them understand the importance of using a computer screen or projector that has been properly set up and calibrated.

Specialized hardware and software is required to create a color profile for a computer screen or projector. An entry-level package for profiling computer screens can be purchased for under $100 and will work for most artists and galleries. Packages for profiling a projector are more expensive.

So get your computer screen or projector calibrated, but until this becomes a common, accepted practice ... send slides.

And click here to learn more about color profiles in the Learning Center at ShootMyArt.com™.