Photographing artwork for portfolio
Let’s have a look at how much you would be spending if you take the photos yourself. I will walk you through different steps and show you how much the basic gears would cost:
1. Preparation
Before the shoot, you need all your gears ready. The first thing you will need is a camera! Earlier this week I made a video on what is the best camera to photograph your art. There are so many choices, but for this video, we will take a prosumer level DSLR, like the Canon Rebel T7 (800D) at the price of $500.
Other tools
Besides your camera, you will need a few more things such as a tripod, a backdrop, and some lights. A tripod costs under 100$. The backdrop can be just a white sheet of paper or cloth, which costs 20$. Alternatively, you can always hang your art on a white wall using a nail. However, if you don’t want to damage your wall, you need to buy the 3M strips that are more expensive. In any case, it will be under 20$. The very basic lighting kit costs $50.
That’s $670 total for your gears.
2. During the shoot
The photoshoot itself is quite straightforward. For example, taking a photo of this small canvas takes me 20 mins from setting up to cleaning up. If you are new to this, it may take you 1h. You can calculate your time as a cost unless you are new. An amateur photographer doesn’t get paid.
3. Editing
You don’t need a lot of editing but you do need some adjustments to make sure the colors are right. Before your editing work, you need to calibrate your screen. That’s 150$ to buy a ColorMunki or a ‘Spyder’ (how did they come up with these names?!). I have a ColorMunki myself but it stopped working after 2 years. Now I need to buy a new one.
Color checker
If you don’t want to calibrate your screen, you need to use a ‘color checker’ or ‘color passport’. It works as a reference when you are color grading. That’s around $80. But the best? You buy both products for more professional results.
Photo editing software
You will need a photo editing software. I recommend Adobe Photoshop but I also used other softwares such as Aperture. You can pay a $120 subscription fee for a year. Alternatively, you can spend $5 on Fiverr and outsource this task. However, now we are talking about how to do it yourself, so I will talk about Fiverr another day.
It adds up to $350.
Let’s do the maths
It will cost you for the first year: $670+$350 =$1020 for the first year. We are not calculating your time as a cost, but you can add that too if you wish. From the second year, you only need to pay for a $120 Photoshop subscription. If you do this for 3 years, you will be spending 1020+120+120)/3=420 a year. This is calculated based on using the same gears for 3 years. It is significantly cheaper than having your photographer visit you every month but more expensive than having a photographer come every season.
- Photographer 4 times/year $400
- DIY Your own equipment $420
- Photographer 12 times/year $1200
Photographing art on your own?
Now we have done the analysis, it is totally up to you if you want to do this yourself. I decided to learn photography because it gives me the freedom of not relying on anyone else. It’s a good skill to have.
