Felix Great, thanks! I think I'll let it dry a bit another day and try and grab shots from different locations in my house.

      lightsnow You need diffused lighting to get a good image of a reflective surface like our oil paints. I would normally say to use a softbox but most here probably dont know what that is 🙂. So the next best thing is indirect lighting or light of the day through a lightweight curtain. The idea is you do not want "hot spots" and you do not want directional lighting which will highlight the texture of the painting and put too many "sparkles" on it. The "curtain" can be vitually anything from a shower curtain to a worn out sheet. Another way to do this is to wait till you have light bouncing off something like a driveway or doorway. Put the painting into the bounced light. That light comes off the reflecting surface at all kinds of crazy angles so you dont get the heavy texture look. Other tricks are putting a kleenex over the flash on the camera or thin white paper. Shoot the flash into a white paper cup.. anything to diffuse the light 🙂

        I should add much of this works just fine for a smartphone as well as a DSLR or mirrorless. Light is light.. its all about controlling it and make it do what you want it to do 🙂

        @Felix hey Felix! I know you said Sunday was the last day to submit. I’m on California time and it’s 6:30pm here. However, I’m guessing you closed the window for entries based on your time zone? Any way I could sneak mine in still? It is still “technically” Sunday for me 😬😜

        Thanks Voy! I did go in and add highlights and shadows to the graves and posted it as an extra on my Halloween TARDIS. Still not midnight here in the US, so in my mind, I got it there in time lol. No bother though, I’ll pay more attention to time zones next time. 😜

        Felix lol, thanks Felix! The darn thing isn’t finished, but I so wanted to be included in the first twoinchbrush competition! I will be more cognizant of time zones next time. Perhaps a countdown clock for the horrible Americans would help? Lmao.

          doggymommee8301 That's a good idea.. I'll see what I can do. Getting good pics of our art is not hard per say.. just takes some patience at times. And I'm just as guilty for ripping off a fast pic and upload because I'm anxious to share 😃

            Felix Yep.. I ran a team for a few years that had members all around the world.. staff meetings were "interesting" to say the least...along with who was on what holiday and when 🙂

                Speaking of.. has anyone varnished their pictures yet? I know it takes some weeks for the oils to dry.. maybe even longer and they tend to go mute a bit. Varnish really brings oils back to life color wise 🙂

                wybnormal I haven't yet. I did purchase a can of varnish, but I read you are supposed to wait six months for oils, and none of my paintings are that old yet (not to mention I have given most of them away). Guess I should start holding on to them long enough to varnish them before they find a forever home. 😆

                    wybnormal I usuallly varnish at 3 months of drying time, but I do not have impasto. For Impasto I'd wait for 6 months. I need to add I use spray varnish pistachio-acrylic that does not yellow like dammar. I also do not paint long enough to see the issues of varnishing in the way I do it. They say if you need to exhibit asap then retouch varnish will be the solution through which drying will continue and when the drying time is up painting can be varnished.