Taking Photos of Art in Museums (WIP) [pixietails.club]

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====== Taking Photos of Art in Museums (WIP) ======
A small guide to taking interesting photos in museums, more than just a straight-on close-up. And honestly, all these pieces are already professionally photographed and probably available online anyway, so it's more worth my time and effort to get a photo that's unique to ME and MY interests.

On the one hand, I also want to memorialize the fact that I saw this painting (or whatever) in-person on this specific day, and a photo (or even a selfie) is a good way to do that. On the other hand, seeing a bunch of other tourist line up to take their photos of a singular painting, one after another, barely giving it a glance before moving on, fills me with disgust and dread. 

One way I get around this is to take a photo that encompass the experience of visiting the painting, rather than the painting itself. For instance, when I saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers in [], I didn't even bother trying to squeeze into the horde of people all busily taking their photos. Instead, I took a photo of my POV of the painting:

Other times I'll focus on one particular aspect of a painting that I like, that I might not've noticed if I only saw a photo scan online. 

Or I'll deliberately frame the painting within its setting, making sure to capture the wall around the frame.

For objects within glass, which usually lead to crummy photos because the light reflects off the glass, I try to pick an interesting angle which minimizes the reflection. Or if it's a cool reflection, where you can see another work behind or next to the one in the photo, then I'll look for that, too.

Other ideas are to get low, and take a photo looking up. 

I've always liked those photos of people wearing matching outfits looking at art; you could deliberately do that and plan an outing with a friend where you pick a painting and dress to match.