Five-minute photo guide
How to photograph kids’ artwork with a phone
You do not need a scanner, light box, or special camera. A phone, a bright room, and sixty seconds of setup are enough for most drawings and paintings.
1. Use bright, even light
Place the artwork near a window or in a bright room, but keep it out of a sharp beam of direct sunlight. The goal is light without hard shadows. Turn off a nearby lamp if it adds a yellow patch to one side of the page.
2. Put the artwork on a contrasting surface
A white drawing is easier to separate from a medium or dark table than from another white surface. Smooth the page gently and remove clips, hands, toys, and other objects from around it.
3. Hold the phone parallel to the page
Stand directly above the center of the artwork. Keep the top and bottom edges of your phone as parallel to the paper as possible. If the page looks like a trapezoid, move the phone rather than tilting it.
4. Leave a small border around every edge
Do not crop tightly in the camera. Include a little of the surrounding table on all four sides so the paper’s true boundary is visible. Tiny Masterworks can remove that border more reliably than it can restore a missing corner.
5. Tap to focus and check before moving on
Tap the center of the artwork on the screen, hold still, and take one photo. Zoom in afterward to confirm pencil marks and handwriting are sharp. Retake immediately if the image is blurred or a shadow covers important details.
For paint, glitter, and oversized pieces
Photograph shiny paint from a slight distance and move the light source—not the phone—until glare disappears. For oversized artwork, move higher while keeping the phone parallel. Photograph three-dimensional projects against a simple background from two or three angles.
A quick quality checklist
- All four paper edges are visible.
- The phone is centered above the page.
- No hand or phone shadow crosses the artwork.
- Colors look natural rather than yellow or blue.
- Small writing is readable when you zoom in.