{"id":2026,"date":"2024-07-09T16:02:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T16:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/?p=2026"},"modified":"2025-11-10T14:07:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T14:07:34","slug":"creative-setups-for-photographing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/behind-the-scenes\/creative-setups-for-photographing\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative Setups for Photographing\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Contribute by Zoe Smith, IMLS Collections Photographer&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Photographing sculptures\u2014especially those with ornate details or unconventional shapes\u2014often presents logistical challenges. Each piece requires a tailored approach to ensure it\u2019s captured safely and effectively. Depending on the artwork, we might mount it on a wall or easel, use foam blocks to protect delicate corners, or simply place it on a table. Every setup is different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One particularly tricky piece was <em>Thomas P. Anshutz<\/em> by Adam Pietz (accession #1938.6). This relief sculpture has small legs underneath its rectangular base, which made it impossible to position upright on our easel. To work around this, we photographed it on its side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maintaining consistent lighting across all our relief sculpture images is important to me, so I had to get creative. I positioned a large softbox above the sculpture, aimed toward the hair of Thomas P. Anshutz, and placed a smaller softbox below the camera, directed at the face. To enhance the highlights on the top and bottom edges, I added a reflector and a low-powered umbrella light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The final result captured the shape and dimensionality of the relief beautifully\u2014and matched the lighting style used for the rest of our collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-1-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2028\" style=\"width:779px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-1-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-1-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-1-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-1-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-1.jpeg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another setup included hanging a fragile plaster piece by Beatrice Fenton,<em> Life Cast of Emily Clayton Bishop\u2019s Left Hand<\/em> (accession #1984.43). We screwed into a piece of wood and used white gaff tape to cover the hardware to minimize any unwanted color cast onto the sculpture. Every piece requires a new and challenging setup to get the best results.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-1024x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2027\" style=\"width:778px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/image.jpeg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contribute by Zoe Smith, IMLS Collections Photographer&nbsp; Photographing sculptures\u2014especially those with ornate details or unconventional shapes\u2014often presents logistical challenges. Each piece requires a tailored approach to ensure it\u2019s captured safely and effectively. Depending on the artwork, we might mount it on a wall or easel, use foam blocks to protect delicate corners, or simply place [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,69],"tags":[47,54,67],"class_list":["post-2026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-digitization","tag-digitizing","tag-pafa","tag-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2026"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2096,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026\/revisions\/2096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}