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Taking pictures of paintings
Fri, 2007-03-23 16:45 — udijw
Brian Edmonds writes:
I am trying to take pictures of paintings in my studio. I am having trouble with hot spots and dead spots. I have tried angling the lights but I get a little of both. I am using a canon digital camera that allows for changing settings but only has the snapshot flash. I would also like to take these digital pictures and turn them into slides. I know there are companies that do this do you have any suggestions?
I have read your blog entries but do not know which suggestion applies to me. I am an amateur photographer but I can usually manipulate things enough to get by. My studio has natural light fluorescent bulbs. Should I try to use these lights in combo with the angled lights or should I try to use only the angled lights?
Thank you in advance.
Truly frustrated,
Brian Edmonds
Hi Brian,
Taking pictures of paintings is a tricky subject. While it looks simple when thinking of it, going into the practical setup can be rather tricky.
There are a few setups you can use to take picture of painting. I think that the easiest way is to take your pictures out side to a shady location and take the shots.
If you insist on taking the shots in a studio (and I can see a few reasons for insisting so) here are my recommendations.
- Use a tripod. Even if you are using a flash, and can go to high shooting speeds, using a tripod will help you verify that your camera is completely parallel to the painting.
- You can use the setup up suggested in the diagram below. It has two strobes with umbrellas. If you don’t have two strobes you can use continuous lighting, just make sure you use the correct white balance - use a gray card.
I have left angle "A" as a "variable" as it depends on the size of your painting. For small painting I’d go with "traditional" 45 degrees. For larger paintings I’d use a wider angle. When playing around with angles make sure that the strobes are not angled too wide. This will cause the light to skim your painting, reducing brightness and creating uneven lighting (brighter on the edges). Also make sure that both strobes are set t the same output levels and positioned in the same distance from the painting.
Best of Luck,
Udi
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Comments
another option...
...will be to get out of the studio altogether. Go find a 'open shade' wall of a building and drive a nail in it. On a dry, not too bright you can take perfect pictures-of-pictures or 'reproductions' and forget about the flash altogether. You should stick to the tripod though, and I would also suggest a remote triger and mirror lock-up if an SLR. you can check some of the reporductions I've done that way on www.avestaart.com. Hope that helps
what i like to do (digital SLR)
1. at least three flood lights (i use tungsten bulbs from walmart because i am poor, you just need to do a white balance first) coming from left, right, and top.
2. mount the camera on a tripod (level precision is a plus) while the picture is on the wall no glass what-so-ever.
3. set the camera to the slowest speed and the f/stop to the smallest (i get f/11 @ 80 iso and let the camera's aperture priority handle the shutter speed).
4. then i clikc with the cable release (or remote if you have that).
5. if your results happen to be slightly skewed or your colour is a little off, photoshop can fix all of that.
http://rummelx2.com has some of my reproductions.
peace and love
ande
Another Method
This was lifted from www.ephotozine.com sounds like it is exactly what you need. Some of the links did not survive but you can always join...
I would recommend inside as you can control the lighting temperature and level. Also you won't run the risk of your paintings getting wet when it starts to rain. :-)
All attempts to remove reflection on oil paintings by 45 deg lighting, diffused sources etc. will still give unwanted reflection and loss of contrast. Believe me, I tried everything when I first started using a 5x4 to take trannies of artworks for artists' catalogues. I spent hours adjusting lights, adding diffusers, re-adjusting again when I had to shoot a different canvas size...always still hade reflections somewhere spoiling the shot as brush strokes are generally nor all in the same orientation unless the artist is using a very specific style.
The only way you will get the results you want is to use cross-polarisation. It's easy to do but you need to invest a little cash to get started.
You need to cover your light sources with polarised filter sheets. When I started, due to lack of funds, I was using some old tungsten studio lights so had to buy some very large polarising sheets from Jessops. This was about 15 years ago and they were about £35 each back then. I mounted them on gel filter holders that clipped to the reflectors. I also mounted them fisrt in window mounts made from heavy mounting board to make them easier to handle. If using hot lights you need to be careful not to let the lights scorch the filters! If you are using electronic flash lights you will get away with smaller filters and are less likely to have scorching as the mdelling lighst are ,uch lower wattage than photo-floods.
Both filters should be mounted in the same polarity. To complete the effect you mount a polarising filter on your camera lens and turn it to 90 deg polarisation to the filters on the lights. Voila! All reflection will vanish. you can even take shots through glass if the painting is framed with glass. It's almost spooky to see your reflection in the glass vanish as you look through the filter!
N.B cross polarisation will not eliminate reflections off metallic surfaces.
You'll need to a adjust exposure to compensate for the loss of light due to x-polarisation. IIRC it's a about 3 stops. If you're using digital you'll be able to test exposue easily to establish what adjustment you need to dial in.
Take your readings from a 18% grey card. I used to use an old Weston incident light meter with the ISO set to compensate. I also used a Polaroid to check exposure compensation before exposing a batch of expensive 5x4 tranny film.
Remember to include a Kodak Colour separation guide on the edge of the frame if you are planning to have the images printed for a catalogue so the printer can set colour balance and exposure.
Kodak Color Separation Guide with Grey Scale
You may get away with a lower cost method if you have a flashgun that will give even coverage of your paintings. You could then use a small piece of polarising sheet over the front of the flash and a polariser over the lens. If coverage is a problem then you could add more polarised flashguns.
Here's a demo of the effect for macro photography.
Some more info...
Here's a supplier of polariser sheet in the US.
Hope this helps.
p.s. The technique is explained in: "How to Photograph Works of Art", by Sheldan Collins, Amphoto 1992, ISBN 0-8174-4019-4
painting reproduction
have a look at http://www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/downloads/standardtechniques.pdf
Photographing oil paintings
Many years ago I had to take photographs for an art publication and went through all the previous suggestions until a friend of mine (now living in Orange County CA) told me to turn the paintings upside down, it has to do with the way the brush strokes are made and lo and behold end of problem. Then try to light it from 45 degrees.
Hope this helps
Colin J E
Cape Town
South Africa
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