There are plenty of free or inexpensive photo editing software alternatives out there that will help minimize any inconsistencies. While Photoshop still reigns king, Photoshop Elements or Gimp allow basic functions such as color correction, cropping, and other minor adjustments. Lightroom also offers a subscription-based editing program that professional photographers swear by.

Photographers have a saying: Get what you want in the camera so you do very little if any post processing. Following the suggestions above will go a long way to accomplishing this. However, there is a bit of post processing necessary. Three steps are all that are needed to complete your photo. First, verify your white balance. When you photographed your art work following steps above, you included an 18% grey card just outside the work.

In the editing software, choose the white balance dropper and click into the grey card in a well lit area. The 18% grey card is the preset standard for which all colors are calibrated in digital photography. That will reset all colors in proportion to the grey card as they were captured in your photo. If your monitor is calibrated, the photo will look like the original work. Note that if your monitor is not calibrated, the colors of the artwork on your monitor might look a bit different. Do not adjust them any further. If you adjust the color to make it “look right” on an uncalibrated monitor, the colors will be off on a calibrated monitor. On a calibrated monitor they will be correct and the judges use calibrated monitors in their deliberations.

Second, crop out the grey card.

Third, save the image in three sizes. First save the image with no size adjustment, that is full size, so you always have all of the pixels to make later modifications if necessary. Second, save the image to meet the size requirements of the jury submission. This is the one you will submit. Third save a low resolution image as a .jpg file for use on digital media.

Success! You now have professionally photographed your artwork and saved it for future adjustments, submission or the web.