Photographing Art for Prints

D

dancook

Suspended / Banned
Messages
6,800
Name
Dan
Edit My Images
No
Do I need a colour chart card, or will grey card be ok?

I don't even know how you go about using a colour chart card - grey card, I just use WB tool.
 
WB is a good start, and may be all you need. Be wary of differential colour tinting due to nearby coloured objects, e.g. on a sunny day on a lawn the bottom of a painting on an easel will be greener than the top. The simplest way of using a colour chart is by eye: photograph it, display on screen, hold chart up beside screen (in good colour checking light) for a first check, then print and place chart beside the print for a second check. Adjust screen/printer colour profile in direction suggested by differences and compare again. Repeat until it's near enough or you give up and decide to spend money on calibration technology.
 
The SpyderCheckr 24 software is dead easy to use and takes nearly all of the guesswork out.

Get your exposure cock on
Take a pic of the card
(If in Lightroom) select your preferred camera calibration
Set the WB using a grey patch on the card
Crop if required
Open in their software
Save a lightroom preset
Restart lightroom
Apply new preset to all images with that lighting.

Remember to reshoot the card every time the lighting changes.

There are more sophisticated approaches involving creating new camera profiles to go in the camera calibration tab but the above works for most things.
 
Thanks both

juggler said:
The SpyderCheckr 24 software is dead easy to use and takes nearly all of the guesswork out.

Get your exposure cock on
Take a pic of the card
(If in Lightroom) select your preferred camera calibration
Set the WB using a grey patch on the card
Crop if required
Open in their software
Save a lightroom preset
Restart lightroom
Apply new preset to all images with that lighting.

Remember to reshoot the card every time the lighting changes.

There are more sophisticated approaches involving creating new camera profiles to go in the camera calibration tab but the above works for most things.
Click to expand...


Useful! will have to give it a go
 
Provided your light source is good, a decent quality grey card should be fine. Use flash and not a dodgy LED or fluorescent with bits of spectrum missing (less than 95 CRI rating). Then with the grey accurately matched all other colours should fall in line.

Oil paintings can be difficult with the surface picking up specula reflections that can only be controlled with crossed polarising filters over the lights and on the lens (google).
 
HoppyUK said:
Provided your light source is good, a decent quality grey card should be fine. Use flash and not a dodgy LED or fluorescent with bits of spectrum missing (less than 95 CRI rating). Then with the grey accurately matched all other colours should fall in line.

Oil paintings can be difficult with the surface picking up specula reflections that can only be controlled with crossed polarising filters over the lights and on the lens (google).
Click to expand...

Currently bouncing flash at full power off bedroom with magnolia mist coat (mid decoration) :D so setup needs improvement.
 
juggler said:
The usual lighting setup for flat work is one large light either side of the subject.
Click to expand...

Yes I've seen, that will require some investment, I don't have two equal lights+softboxes.

It's my wife's business anyway, I'm just trying to educate her in how she should be doing it properly.
 
HoppyUK said:
Provided your light source is good, a decent quality grey card should be fine. Use flash and not a dodgy LED or fluorescent with bits of spectrum missing (less than 95 CRI rating). Then with the grey accurately matched all other colours should fall in line.

Oil paintings can be difficult with the surface picking up specula reflections that can only be controlled with crossed polarising filters over the lights and on the lens (google).
Click to expand...

The one time I photographed oil paintings the artist was adamant that she wanted to capture some of the specular highlights - as well as some diffuse highlights to give the impression of shine. All without compromising contrast or clarity. I'm not entirely sure I met the brief.
 
juggler said:
The one time I photographed oil paintings the artist was adamant that she wanted to capture some of the specular highlights - as well as some diffuse highlights to give the impression of shine. All without compromising contrast or clarity. I'm not entirely sure I met the brief.
Click to expand...

Surface texture is obviously important with oils etc and I know what she was wanting with specula highlights that reveal it, but in practise when we view an oil painting naturally, the specula highlights move slightly as we move our heads or change position. That's how we know what they're showing, but in a copy photograph they'll just show as white speckles, fixed in position, and possibly obscuring detail. Hard to strike the right balance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top