If you’re like me, you enjoy traveling to new and interesting cities. One of the wonderful things great cities have to offer is the chance to view and experience outstanding and occasionally extraordinary art. Sometimes you have the chance to photograph it.
Often cities also have natural history, science and other museums dedicated to some industry or sport, or other specialized subject, such as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s aircraft and space vehicles. All can have great photographic opportunities.
Here are some tips for you to take photographs in museums.
• You’ve got to know the museum’s ground rules. You must determine if photography, in the museum and on its grounds, is permitted. While most museums do permit some photography, often with limitations, such as no flash photography, there are still many museums in the world which ban photography all together.
• Even if there are “No Photography” signs as you enter the museum, it won’t do any harm to ask at the information desk whether the signs mean no photography, or just no flash photography. I’ve been pleasantly surprised many times, especially in Europe, to find they just want to prevent flash photography. The light from electronic flashes can damage some art work, and be very disconcerting to museum visitors.
• If photography is forbidden, put your camera in its bag. Don’t try to sneak in any photographs. Don’t be the “ugly” tourist.
• If only flash photography is forbidden, don’t try slipping in a few flash photographs. If enough people do that, it might eventually move the museum to ban photography all together. You don’t want to help cause the ban because of your thoughtlessness. If you have a separate flash, put it away. If you have a built-in flash, turn it off.
• The light level at many museums often means you need to open your lens, slow down your shutter speed, and/or use a high ISO setting in your digital camera, or use high speed film. If you could use a monopod or tripod, that would certainly help combat those conditions and permit a sharp clear photograph, however, tripods and monopods are rarely permitted in a museum, as they interfere with visitors’ movement.
If you have a tripod or monopod, ask if you’re permitted to use them, before entering the museum. At a recent tour of Winterthur, I brought my tripod for outdoor garden photos. When I toured the museum itself, even though it was in a case, I was required to check my tripod.
• Lenses and cameras with image stabilization or vibration reduction are extremely helpful in museums. If you have that capability, turn it on. It will allow you to get sharp photos at slow shutter speeds.
• Respect the art and respect fellow museum visitors. Many museums have ropes or some kind of barricade preventing you from getting to close to an especially popular exhibit or piece of art, such as the Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris, but usually there’s nothing to prevent you from getting close. If you can get close, respect the art and the others viewing it by not monopolizing the space near it. Let everyone have a chance.
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The museum’s collection might not be the only thing worthwhile photographing there. Sometimes the museum itself is spectacular. Parts of the Louvre in Paris, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia have amazing exterior and interior architecture. The photograph on the right was taken at the Louvre. It’s not a painting or even a mosaic. It’s a ceiling of one of the galleries at the Louvre and a magnificent work of art itself.
• If you’re using an SLR or DSLR, don’t forget to bring a wide angle or wide angle zoom lens. It’s often needed in a museum for photographs of the museum itself or some larger sculptures or other exhibits.
• Ambient lighting in museums consists of artificial light or a combination of artificial and natural light. Therefore, unless your flash is your main light source, the automatic white balance setting on your digital camera may not produce accurate results. You may be better off manually setting white balance. Some DSLR cameras allow you to create a custom white balance setting. Use a WhiBal card, or consider getting an Expo Disc to get the correct white balance setting. For point-and-shoot digital cameras include the WhiBal card in a couple of photos which will give you a white balance reference to help you color correct your photos in your computer.
Ned Levi is a long time professional photographer with a passion for wildlife and travel photography. You can view some of Ned’s travel and other photos at NSL Photography, or get more travel photography information on his Blog.
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Thanks for sharing these great photo tips.
You may be unaware that in this day of “Hard Security”, many museums that post “no photography, no videography” signs do so for security reasons – so that someone can not take photos/video to use in planning an attack later.
Hi DCTA,
Thanks for taking the time to give your input.
I agree that there are some museums for whom security extends to photography and videography. The Holocaust museums in Washington, Los Angeles and New York, and the Museums of Tolerance are a few such museums in the US. Actually, they are also worried about weapons coming in via “so-called” photographic equipment.
That being said, after talking with countless museums about their photographic policies, both in the US and Europe, it seems clear that their photography bans (altogether or only flash) are generally based on three main themes:
1. Copyright & Sales – the museum wants to limit photographic, and video images of their objects and exhibits which may infringe on copyrights, and may reduce sales of catalogs, and their photographs and video of the same.
2. Damage to Art – the museums are concerned with some works of art which will degrade from exposure to UV light from electronic flashes. Actually with more and more museums putting more paintings and drawings under protective glass, this problem is quickly disappearing for the most part.
3. Interference with visitors’ experiences – the museums have rightly concluded
that one of the most annoying things that visitors do to each other is take incessant flash photos. When last in the Louvre, in front of the Mona Lisa, much of the time, while trying to photograph it myself (see above) I constantly fought flash reflections, and red dots from digital cameras focusing. (I didn’t use a flash, and I used manual focus.) It was awful, as it was at many of the more famous works of art there. The Louvre needs to enforce its flash ban.
For most museums, in my opinion, banning photography, especially still photography, for security sake, is a waste of time. In most museums you can get a map, and easily note where things are. Plus for a dedicated terrorist, they will find a way to document, even surreptitiously via photos, the museum. In many cases, the Louvre, for example, you can even get a detailed map on the Internet.
Congratulations on a well balanced and thoughtful set of tips. They are obviously based on a lot of practical experience in many different museums and galleries. Your response to DCTA is very sound. The increasing use of compact digital cameras with automatic flash is provoking a re-emergence of the “flash damages the exhibits” controversy, that was largely discredited by science-based reports published in the mid-1990s. I have just finished a re-examination of this evidence, extended to include a consideration of these small cameras and other reasons why galleries might object to flash photography. If anyone wants the details, a pre-publication draft of “Amateur Photographers in Art Galleries” can be seen at:
http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/mhe1000/musphoto/flashphoto.htm
I will welcome informed comments on this paper. I suspect that in some cases the banning of all photography on exaggerated conservation fears, actually hides a wider anti-camera agenda.
Very helpful article. When I visited the Louvre in 2006, taking photos of the Mona Lisa was strictly forbidden. I do not know when the policy was implemented or if it is still in effect today. However, I observed many people sneaking pictures, shooting from their waistlines so as not to been seen by security guards.The painting is smaller than most would imagine, the area is cordoned off so you can’t get close it, and you’re constantly being bumped by the crowds. I’ve sometimes have a fleeting question in my mind if I was foolish for sticking with the rules. When all is said and done, I’m glad I did.
Thanks Gail,
You’re definitely permitted to take photographs of the Mona Lisa today. You’re not supposed to take flash photos of it, but the guards don’t stop anyone from using their flash, which is a shame, as it’s extremely annoying if you just want to look at the painting. You constantly see flashes hitting it.
There is a railing keeping the crowd away from the painting these days, which directly in front of the Mona Lisa, keeps you almost 50′ from it.
The painting is housed in a special container, set in concrete, behind two sheets of bullet-proof triple-laminated UV protection glass. Flashes really can’t damage the painting because of the protective glass.