How To Photograph Your Artwork For Open Call Submissions

How To Photograph Your Artwork For Open Call Submissions

Here is a truth most galleries won't tell you: more submissions are rejected because of bad photography than because of bad art.

We review every submission that comes through the Streeters Gallery open call. Strong work photographed badly gets overlooked. Average work photographed well gets a second look. The image is all a reviewer has, so the image has to do the work.

The good news: you do not need a professional camera, a studio or any budget. You need a phone, a window and twenty minutes. This guide covers everything.

The equipment you actually need

A smartphone made in the last five years. That is it.

Modern phone cameras are more than good enough for open call submissions. What ruins artwork photos is never the camera. It is the lighting, the angle and the background. Fix those three things and a phone photo will beat a DSLR photo taken carelessly.

Lighting: the thing that matters most

Use natural daylight, indirect. The ideal setup is a large window on an overcast day, or a bright room where sunlight is not hitting the work directly.

Direct sunlight creates harsh shadows and blows out your colours. Overhead indoor bulbs cast yellow or blue tints that make your work look nothing like it does in real life. Flash flattens texture and creates glare, especially on varnished paintings and glass.

Position your work facing the window or at a slight angle to it, so light falls evenly across the whole surface. If one side looks darker than the other, turn the work or move it until the light is even.

Photograph during the day. Never at night under artificial light.

Setup: straight on, clean background

Shoot the work straight on, never from an angle. Your camera lens should be level with the exact centre of the piece. If you shoot from above or below, the work distorts into a trapezoid and looks amateur instantly.

Hang the work on a plain wall or lean it flat against one. A white or neutral wall is perfect. Remove everything else from the frame: no radiator, no skirting board clutter, no cables, no corner of the sofa.

Hold the phone steady with two hands, or prop it against something solid. Take five or six shots and pick the sharpest.

Fill the frame with the work, leaving a small margin of wall around the edges. You can crop tighter later.

Tips by medium

Paintings on canvas. Watch for glare on varnished surfaces. If you see shine, change your angle to the light slightly until it disappears. Make sure the edges of the canvas are straight in the frame.

Works on paper, prints and drawings. Remove them from glass frames before photographing if you can. Glass creates reflections that are almost impossible to avoid. Lay flat near a window or attach to the wall with low tack tape outside the frame edge.

Sculpture and 3D work. Shoot multiple angles: front, side and one detail shot. Use a plain backdrop, even a large sheet of paper curved behind the piece. Note the dimensions in your submission since scale is hard to read in photos.

Digital art. Export the original file at high resolution. Do not photograph your screen. Ever.

Textile and mixed media. Include one straight on shot plus one close detail shot that shows the texture and material. Texture is the selling point, so make it visible.

Editing: less is more

Crop so the work fills the frame cleanly with edges straight. Adjust brightness only if the photo looks darker than the real piece. Correct the colour temperature if the whites in your work look yellow or blue in the photo.

Then stop.

No filters. No saturation boosts. No sharpening effects. The reviewer needs to see the work as it actually is. If your submission photo looks dramatically better than the real piece, that becomes a problem at the exhibition. If it looks worse, you have hurt your own chances for nothing.

The test: put the photo next to the actual work. If they match, you are done.

File preparation

Export at high resolution. Most open calls, including Streeters, want images large enough to zoom into. Aim for the largest file size your phone produces, typically 3000 pixels or more on the longest side.

Name your files clearly: YourName_TitleOfWork_Medium.jpg beats IMG_4783.jpg every time. It makes you look organised before anyone has even opened the image.

Check the sharpness at full zoom before submitting. A photo that looks fine as a thumbnail can be blurry at full size.

The five most common mistakes

Shooting at night under a ceiling light. The colour cast makes every artwork look sickly.

Shooting at an angle. Distorted edges are the fastest way to look unprofessional.

Including clutter in the frame. The reviewer's eye goes to the laundry basket, not the painting.

Over editing. Boosted colours set false expectations and make reviewers suspicious.

Submitting tiny or compressed files. If the reviewer cannot zoom in, they cannot say yes.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a professional photographer for open call submissions? No. A recent smartphone, natural daylight and a clean setup produce submission quality photos. Professional photography helps for print catalogues, but it is not required to be selected.

How many photos should I submit? Your three to five strongest works, one main photo each. For sculpture or textured work, add one detail shot per piece.

Should I photograph my work framed or unframed? Unframed is usually better for submissions, especially anything behind glass. The reviewer wants to see the work, not the reflections.

What resolution do open calls require? High resolution, generally 3000 pixels or more on the longest side. Submit the largest clean file you have.

Can I use AI tools to enhance my artwork photos? Correct exposure and colour accuracy, yes. Anything that changes how the work actually looks, no. The photo must match the piece that arrives at the gallery.

Where can I submit once my photos are ready? The Streeters Gallery open call is live for London (November 6 to 8), New York Tribeca (November 20 to 23) and Paris, plus Times Square and London billboard showcases. The Holy Art open call is live across nine cities worldwide. Both are free to submit, all mediums, no experience needed.

Photograph it today, submit it today

Twenty minutes by a window is all it takes. Shoot your three strongest pieces, check them against the originals, and send them in.

Streeters Gallery: London, Paris, New York. Zero commission. No CV required.

The Holy Art: nine cities worldwide. Free to submit.

Your work is ready. Now the photos are too.