I have been trying to take pictures of my artwork for an online portfolio, but my photo keeps turning out underexposed when my flash is not on. It's in manual mode. When the flash is on, the pictures turn out alright, but still not the best.
Thanks, Sam
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For most purposes you should seek soft, diffuse light with as few visible highlights or reflections as possible. If it's a sculpture or the like in which shadows can be distracting, you may need multiple sources of light. For a painting, a flash bounced on the ceiling might help, or multiple lights from an angle rather than straight on. Lighting art is the kind of thing whole books get written about.
If accuracy of shape is important, you'll have to make sure you shoot your work from straight on, avoiding angles both sideways and up and down, and that in its turn can complicate lighting and reflection. Some linear distortion can be fixed in post production, though.