Photographing artwork

C

Cuddy

Suspended / Banned
Messages
4,410
Edit My Images
No
Just wondering if anyone photographs their art work, and if so what kind of lighting do you use.

I am currently trying my hand at pencil work, usually main subject in pencil on white paper.

Problems are the orange hue of the small halogen desktop lights, and reflections from the pencil graphite.

regards brian.
 
This book is excellent for lighting techniques and goes into great details.
 
Cheers Scott i will check that out.

Also wondered if anyone uses a paticular type of light for small work.
 
Changing your white balance to tungsten or white florescent light may sort out the orange tint to your pictures.
 
Last edited:
Having had to photograph line drawings, painting and graffiti I would suggest standing straight on to the subject with camera at centre height in order to avoid distortions.

How bright is the location? Can you use a tripod? If there is plenty of light use a tripod and as long an exposure as you need. If using flash then I like the lambdency diffuser/bounce of the ceiling/wall (FITP is selling some for £9). If the item is behind glass then avoiding the flash is best.
 
Camera absolutely dead square to the subject.
One light each side (a square softbox on each light is ideal) at an angle of 45 deg. The light on the right is angled to light the left and vice versa.
The lights shouldn't be too close, because of the effect of the inverse square law - the greater the distance, the less the fall off of light over the width of the subject.
Flag off any excessive ambient light that is hitting the subect, this isn't usually a problem unless direct sunlight is striking it.
Set a custom white balance and use an incident meter to measure the exposure.
This arrangement will produce perfect results every time, and will also reveal the texture of the subject. But if it is an oil painting, you may get unwanted reflections, a polarising filter on the lens will usually help with this, but if it doesn't help enough then you can fit a linear polarising gel over each light too.
 
Thanks Gary and Darren, good advice there, didnt even give a polarizing filter a thought ive one lurking in a bag somewhere.

I am using 2 lights at angles, and its about time i made a soft box so i will try that as well.

regards brian.
 
Cuddy said:
Thanks Gary and Darren, good advice there, didnt even give a polarizing filter a thought ive one lurking in a bag somewhere.

I am using 2 lights at angles, and its about time i made a soft box so i will try that as well.

regards brian.
Click to expand...

Flash in the pan have some softbox bargains....

Are you using flashes as lights?
 
cowasaki said:
Flash in the pan have some softbox bargains....

Are you using flashes as lights?
Click to expand...
I'm assuming that you're using flash, because that's what you need to use, especially if colour accuracy is critical.

You won't get consistent colour from continuous lighting because of voltage fluctuations. Any decent quality flashes will do, i.e. either hotshoe flash or studio flash
 
Thanks Gary and Darren, im using continous lighting not flash though i have an adjustable hotshoe flash unit. Its not colour but grey pencil images from dark through to near white.

Work%20In%20Progress%20Raptor.jpg



A work in progress at the moment, this is a scanned shot using the library scanner its a bit too light.
 
Last edited:
Garry Edwards said:
Camera absolutely dead square to the subject.
One light each side (a sq....................
Click to expand...

That being the correct way to shoot artwork, you can cut a few corners if you don't have flash heads and softboxes available.

If you shoot outside on an overcast day, you can at least get even light on the subject, in terms of brightness and colour.
 
Thanks again guys, Chaz i have tried scanning using the local library scanner. Its an option, as is daylight but not always practical.

I wll take onboard all thats been suggested and try and find what works the best for me, im hoping to do quite a bit of art captures down the line so indoor work will be uppermost in my mind.

regards for all the tips.

brian.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top