Camera Required for Freshman Art Student

JoeW · Aug 28, 2025

UMPhoto said:
I’m a freshman art student, and the university wants us to document our art progress using a camera. They’ve given the guidelines below. Would you be able to recommend something for a student majoring in painting, I.e., a non-photography major? Thank you.

“Students are expected to document their work for a variety of purposes including coursework, portfolio development, reviews, applications and web site development. To address these expectations, we recommended a moderately priced digital camera with manual control features to adjust image exposure and set custom white balance.”

Go to a camera store (not Target or Walmart). They do a business every fall selling cameras to HS and college students. They can steer you in the right direction.

But if that's not an option, here's what I recommend. Get a used DSLR--forget mirrorless. Get a tripod that allows you to tilt the camera down to the floor. A kit lens is fine (and they'll be the cheapest anyway). If your camera is set up on a tripod, that is going to eliminate a lot of issues you'd have to deal with. The biggest variable you'll need to handle, especially for shooting paintings, is "white balance." So you should do some reading on that. WB is about the light that is bouncing off of your painting and how your camera reads it. I can take 10 pictures of the exact same setting and just by changing the WB, get radically different looks. So WB matters a lot if you want to get true colors for your paintings.

Here is a screen capture of a slide from one of my classes where I teach photography. It illustrates a photo of a Dahlia using 4 different white balance settings. A phone camera will be fine for just "documenting the work" stages. But if you want to get the correct color temperature of your work--if that's a critical piece of what you need to capture--then a phone isn't going to do that for you. And a lot of point and shoot cameras won't allow you to do much with the white balance either.

Don Fischer · Aug 31, 2025

This might be the place for a decent cell phone. I was going to mention getting a decent point and shoot. Problem I had with lesser cost P&S's was they didn't last much over a year. But when they were working they all took decent photos.

These days the P&S I use is a Panasonic ZS 100. It gives me as good pictures as my DSLR Nikon 7000!Only close to draw back for me is zoom range. It goes 25-250mm and sometimes it's simply not enough. Draw back is cost. Think I'd paid close to $700 for it but now I think it was worth it. Photography grows on you and you might find it grows on you also so if you could come up with something say under $1000, I'd do it. My sister is into painting and used to shoot scene's she wanted to paint and print from them. I would not at this time spend a bunch of money on a DSLR as you don't know at this time how long the bug may last. Nikon and Canon both have a nice looking P&S but price is still up over $600 new. If that cost works for you I might suggest one of them. Most my experience with P&S's is with much less spendy models. Were I well to do I'd try one just to find out, I'm not well to do!

Would be really easy getting in over your head for what you want, stick to P&S's. Come to think of it, I've seen some really low prices on the Nikon D 7000 used. About $250 but doesn't come with a lens. I'm pretty sure you could find the same deals with different cameras buying used. For you needs you don't need an expensive lens. So ya know, for DSLR's I stick with Nikon, been using them a long time!. For printer's I go with Cannon. Have had HP, Epson and my Canon and canon blew the other's out. You don't need an expensive one, maybe you already have one you could use. I have no idea what it cost's to have digital prints done. Bought my first computer and printer when I got my first digital camera. If you go the printer route keep in mind your using it to photograph something you want to paint. Easy to find a printer under $100, well under that that will work for you.

Forgot to mention, if you go the printer route you probably need at least an 8x10 size printer. Bigger will simply waste your money. All you need is to be able to see the subject clearly. Even the colors won't matter that much but form and composition do. You can change everything in a painting to suit yourself.

SunriseAvenue · Sep 2, 2025

I agree with PPs saying your smartphone would probably get you better results than a used DSLR, but the choice is definitely yours. If getting an actual camera is a must, do that. Going to a camera store might be the best option here because they can give you directions based on the requirements from your college. Here are a couple of guides on working with overexposed and underexposed pictures that might help you with the post-processing: