[armondos]

Hello guys,

I have a special assignment to take pictures of paintings for portfolio. Does anyone knows how to do it. Or some web which have some tutorials for that. Never done this before. I assume that I need special lighting or light box. But you probably know better.
Cheers in advance.

[Dabhand16]

I guess that will depend on how the paintings are presented. That is are they framed and behind glass, or just on unmounted canvas?

Also the size will have a bearing on what lenses you might want to use in order to keep any distortion to a minimum.

I've successfully copied stuff in the past outdoors - to get nice even light - with the picture on the ground and just ensured that the camera was parallel to the subject. If you are going to try to do it with them being hung on a wall there will be a host of other issues you will have to address.

A polorising filter might help if they are behind glass.

[armondos]

First of all thanks Graham for reply,

Paintings are as unmounted canvas with oil pastels. Which might be an issue with light reflection. If I will gonna do that outdors I presume that it has to be a cloudy day or even light shade place. Is it wright?

[Dabhand16]

Yes - shade or cloudly will give nice light. You might not have too many reflection issues with this sort of lighting. Can you borrow one to do some test shots first?

As I said, I've done this with a tripod pointing at a picture on the ground, but if the pictures are big, you might not be able to raise the camera enough, and using wide angle lenses in this situation is not good. Better would be to hang them and shoot from a longer distance.

[Dave]

If the paintings are inside, as long as you place them opposite a decent white wall, you could bounce the flash off behind you, which would create a very decent soft light back to the canvas.

[armondos]

I was wondering about that, but I will try outdoor technique first and then see what happends
Bouncing flash light might be tricky because oil pastels are kind of shiny and might cause reflections. It's worth to try anyway.

[Dave Canon]

I have photographed a few paintings but I used exactly the same method as Dabhand. I try to pick a bright but overcast day and lay the pictures on the ground on the North side of my house (i.e in the shade). It is best to use a tripod, if you have the right type. Make sure you get all of the picture in the frame as you can always crop a little later. You may need to increase the contrast a little in Photoshop but if you process straight away, you will have the original to compare.

Dave