photographing paintings, which camera would be best?

[stu42]

Hi,
I`m new here, I need a better camera to photograph my paintings for selling over the internet, at present I have a canon powershot a590, i`ve had trouble with it taking photos of larger paintings 5 foot or more , and also it seems to be having trouble capturing paintings with a lot of red/orange in, an example would be this, there is actually orange in the top right, somehow the red is also saturated http://oi60.tinypic.com/rcni9f.jpg examples of other work i photograph can be seen here Stu Wright Artist | Facebook
I know another artist who loves her s100 canon powershot,I was thinking of getting a canon s110 i like the compact size....but I did also think of getting a Canon EOS 1100D SLR, would the results be better with this dslr? or what is the best camera for under 300 for taking photos of my art ? photographing paintings seems to better outside, though I did consider getting a lighting umbrella & stronger bulbs for inside work.......

I hope people can advize, I look forward to your replies !

regards,

Stuart in Birmingham, England

 

[DustinB]

I don't really think your issue is the camera. The most important part of taking a photo of something like a printed photo or painting is the lighting. Think about how a scanner works, it has a bright light that floods the surface evenly as the sensor passes over it.

Try finding a way to fully light the area without shadows or glare, think large diffused light sources. As an artist I'm sure you know that lighting or simulation of lighting is everything. This is very similar with capuring something with a camera. Lighting makes or breaks everything. There's a video by Gavin Hoey on youtube where he demonstrates this technique, it at least shows the principles of lighting something you want to essentially "scan". The video is about photo retouching but watch the first part.

When I take pictures of printed photos I use 2 softboxes setup at 45 degree angles to the camera. This way it floods the area with light, but the 45 degree angles keeps the light glare from reflecting back at the camera. In your case you also have texture from the canvas so you are going to need large light sources. Maybe try to find some bright lights and hang white sheets in front of them to diffuse and spread the light.

As for the colors, if they are still off you will need to use image editing software to try and correct that.

 

[Designer]

The best thing to help is correct lighting. Correct in color and coverage. Usually one would use lights on either side, and as many as needed to evenly light the art work.

If you are trying to light with mixed lighting (i.e.: incandescent, fluorescent, and daylight all mixed together, you're going to have great difficulty in getting the colors just right.

Use only one color of light, and then make corrections on the computer.

As far as what camera to use, I'd start by considering the lens first, and get whatever kind of camera that the lens works on. Seriously.

What you want is a lens that will produce excellent results, both in color rendition and with very little distortion, especially at the edges and corners, where problems like that are most likely to occur.

So let's say it's a Canon (something-or-other) of moderate focal length that gets the best reviews. Then get a Canon camera to "hold it".

But work on the lighting first, as I'm guessing that your present camera will suffice assuming you can get the colors correct.