8 de July de 2025
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A good picture can enhance your sculpture a hundred times—if you do it right. Photos are often the only record you’ll have once you put a piece aside, especially when you’re working in plasticine or water-based clays and eventually need to reuse the material. That’s why it’s worth dedicating some time to capture your sculpture in the best possible way.
In this article, I’ll guide you through practical steps to photograph your sculpture, regardless of whether you’re using a professional DSLR or a smartphone. You don’t need to be a professional photographer to take good photos. But a few key principles can make a huge difference.
My First Camera: Why I Learned to Care About Photography
When I started, digital cameras didn’t exist. I had access to a film Canon Reflex that my mother had once gifted my father. My dad was a curious man, deeply interested in art and expression—drawing, music, photography, writing. He wasn’t a professional in any of those areas, but he was driven by a hunger to learn. I think I inherited that mindset, even though we took very different paths in life.
That camera was always around. And using a film camera teaches you a lot. You don’t get to see your results instantly. You don’t get unlimited shots. You have to learn to trust your eye and plan your shots. Developing film costs money, so you don’t want to waste a roll on poor composition or bad lighting. Every photo had to count.
So I learned—first through necessity, later with intention. I didn’t become a photographer, but I did gain the understanding I needed to make my work look its best.
What You Need to Know Today
Luckily, things are much easier now. You can get excellent results with just your phone if you follow some simple principles. I’ll walk you through what matters most:
These four factors can dramatically change how your sculpture looks in a photo. In the following illustration is an essential set up where we put in practice the ideal conditions. Let’s break it down so we understand it.
1. Background: Keep It Clean and Neutral
The background should never compete with your sculpture. Avoid busy patterns, intense colors, or unnecessary textures. While a pure white background might seem ideal, it’s actually hard to photograph correctly unless you have powerful and even lighting. White can easily blow out highlights and flatten your sculpture’s form.
Instead, I recommend neutral tones—shades of grey or black. Grey is especially good because it’s truly neutral and doesn’t alter how we perceive color and contrast in the sculpture. Black can add drama, but you have to be careful not to lose shadow detail.
If you choose to use a colored background, make sure it supports your intention and doesn’t overpower the sculpture. Color influences perception, so be aware of how it interacts with your work.
2. Angle: Show the Sculpture’s Best Side
The camera angle can completely change how a sculpture feels. Shooting from a lower angle often makes the sculpture feel more monumental or heroic. That’s why I often shoot my online course sculptures from below—so they feel more imposing.
That said, the best angle really depends on the pose of the figure. If your sculpture is already looking upwards, a low shot might distort the intent. It’s best to experiment: walk around the piece, take shots from above, below, and level with the work. You’ll quickly notice which angles enhance its character and which don’t.
Still, always include a neutral, eye-level set of documentation shots. A 360° series of images taken at chest height is an excellent standard. These should be objective, presenting the piece without distortion.
3. Distance and Lens Choice: Don’t Distort the Sculpture
Your distance from the sculpture affects how it’s perceived—and more importantly, how it’s distorted.
If you stand too close to the piece, your camera will need a wide-angle setting to capture the whole object. Wide angles exaggerate perspective, making parts of the sculpture look stretched or swollen. This is especially problematic for figurative work where accurate proportion matters.
The solution is simple: step back. Use a 50mm focal length (or equivalent setting on a phone or digital camera), which mimics the human eye’s perspective. Stand about 1.5 meters away and zoom in if needed. This keeps the sculpture’s proportions looking natural and true to the physical object.
4. Lighting: The Most Important Element
This is where most people struggle—and where you can stand out. Lighting has more impact than anything else. A well-lit photo of a modest sculpture can look stunning, while a poorly lit photo of a great sculpture can look flat and lifeless.
You don’t need a full photo studio setup, but a basic lighting formula will go a long way:
In my setup, I use two softbox lights angled from above, slightly off-center. To reduce harsh shadows and lift details in the darker areas, I place polystyrene reflectors at the base of the sculpture. These bounce light upward and fill in the underside without making it look flat.
No Lights? Use Daylight
If you don’t have softboxes or flashes, no problem. Use natural daylight—preferably indirect light from a nearby window. Avoid direct sun, as it creates harsh highlights and deep shadows that are hard to control.
On the opposite side of the window, place a reflective surface (mirror, tin foil, white card) to bounce light back onto the sculpture. This simulates a two-light setup and gives you more balanced exposure.
You can also place polystyrene or foil on the table or floor under the sculpture to help lift the shadows from below.
Take Your Time—It’s Worth It
Lighting is the trickiest part of the setup. It often takes a few tries to get it right. You’ll need to move lights, adjust distances, and test your shots. Be patient. Once you get it, you’ll see the difference immediately.
A good photo lets people see what you saw when you sculpted it. It brings your vision to life in a new way—and makes it easier for others to connect with your work.
Photographing your sculpture isn’t just about documentation—it’s about storytelling. It’s your chance to show others what you see, what you feel, and what you’ve created with care and attention.
Whether you’re applying to an exhibition, posting online, or building your portfolio, these photos matter. Take the time to do it well. A strong image is a powerful tool—and in many cases, the only trace your sculpture will leave behind.
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Sculpture studio © 2025. Javier Murcia.
Developed by Tulpnic.
Sculpture studio © 2025. Javier Murcia.
Developed by Tulpnic.
In-person workshops are scheduled in different places at different times of the year. Most workshops run twice a year in different locations in New Zealand, Auckland being the most demanded of the locations. Australia and Europe are other locations planned to run workshops.
We are setting up a different challenge with a live model changing pose each time. Plenty of material, tutorials and online courses can help you on this journey and keep you connected with the community. To ensure you get this information, sign up for the newsletter.
If you are missing one day out of 2 or 3, we recommend you to wait until there is another chance as you might be missing quite a bit of information and time to do your work. If this is a 5 days workshop it might be ok.
Not really. Simplified figure is the only workshop we have designed to teach the basics of building the human figure so you have enough knowledge to make the most of a model. So, if you are thinking of joining the five days figure workshop with model, this might be good for you, although it is not mandatory.
Not really. The more experience you have the better. Javier Is an experienced sculptor and can adapt to your level whether you are just beginning or you are experienced, whether you are just looking at learning more anatomy or pursuing a more artistic challenge.
The workshops are designed for:
If you want to learn about the human figure, I would suggest you join the Online courses. Why? There is a lot more information Javier can share with you. You can find your time to invest in your learning process. Head studies online is about six weeks course, and the figure online course is about ten weeks. The more hours you put in, the more you will learn; that´s a rule. And finally, it is more personalized as the progress of your work will be reviewed every week by Javier personally.
If you are interested in doing a workshop but you don´t know which one, get in touch and let us know what is that you are looking for and we will help you. Either if you are looking for some good training, knowledge or just living the experience as a hobby, we can help you.
This book is essential for learning more about the human figure as it is very complete. Includes proportions based on eight heads ( be aware that we are using 7.5 heads), bone structure explanation, balance and range of movement of the joins. The anatomy applied to the figure is not necessarily as accurate as in the Paul Richer book. This book also includes pictures of models for an applied explanation.
This book is excellent for learning anatomy from a medical perspective applied to art. Here we also find his 7.5 cannon explained. The illustrations are accurate, giving the precise location of muscles, layers and mapping of the human body. This book is used in official academies like the Florence academy.
In this book, Michel Lauricella presents both his artistic and systematic methods for drawing the human body–with drawing techniques from the écorché (showing the musculature underneath the skin) to sketches of models in action. In more than 1,000 illustrations, the human body is shown from a new perspective–from bone structure to musculature, from anatomical detail to the body in motion.
This small, portable book presents a unique perspective on the human body for artists to study and implement in their drawing work. In this book, artist and teacher Michel Lauricella simplifies the human body into basic shapes and forms, offering profound insight for artists of all kinds, sparking the imagination and improving one’s observational abilities. Rather than going the traditional route of memorizing a repertoire of poses, Lauricella instead stresses learning this small collection of forms, which can then be combined and shaped into the more complex and varied forms and postures we see in the living body.
This book provides a simplified and practical vision of the human skeleton to help all artists in their drawing studies. Here you will find the most common and useful approaches to the body’s underlying skeleton and bone structure, which will fuel your imagination and enrich your observational skills as you draw the living form. In this small, portable guide, artist and teacher Michel Lauricella focuses on the essentials you need to know.
This book is excellent for the quality of the drawings; very expressive, fresh and accurate. This book is recommended as a reference for the quality of work we can achieve in the art standards mostly applied to drawing. It is also a good source of images of bodies and living anatomy.
Here are a few small set of high-quality sculpting tools available from the following stores. These are the kind of tools you’ll likely only need to buy once—if you take good care of them, they can last a lifetime.
