Taking a Picture

The most important thing about getting a great painting done is to have great photographs to work from! The photos must be good quality, sharp focused, close up shots. I will happily take them myself if you are not too far away from Gorey, Co. Wexford but if you would like to have a go yourself, here are a few handy tips:

Natural light is usually the best. Indoor photographs taken with flash can cause unpleasant red or green eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul so it is important to get them right. Beware of bright sunlight as it can cause stark shadows and can sometimes make animals squint if they are looking directly into it. Sometimes using the flash outside can get rid of extreme shadows.

Beware of foreshortening, or in laymans terms; big nose shots! Stand back a little if the animal (I find this mostly happens with horses) looks a little out of proportion.

Get to eye level. If the animal is small, put it up on a table or a chair. If it is big, stand on a bucket.

The most important thing is to take lots and lots of photos. If I am taking a photograph of an animal I take at least twenty-five and edit them down. I particularly need lots of choice when working on a painting of multiple subjects, as I may need to have photographs of them from several different angles to get my composition right.

If using a digital camera, make sure the camera is set at the highest possible quality setting. I only recently converted to digital as I have always been a big fan of 35mm, but I bought a very good (and horribly expensive) digital camera. The average size of photo from it is about 3MB. I have had a lot of dodgy, pixelated, fuzzy photographs sent to me because the images were scaled down for emailing or saved incorrectly to disk. If you do not have a good digital camera, either see if you can borrow one or go old-fashioned and use film. They are very often better quality.

I know all this sounds like a lot of hassle, but believe me, in the end it will be worth it, because for that little extra effort you make now, you will have a portrait of your favourite buddy, looking at you as though he or she were standing in the room next to you for posterity.