Shooting flat artwork

Hertz van Rental · Mar 6, 2007

quackzed said:
if you light from both sides your gonna lose alot of the texture...

Not at all. You just move one light slightly further away so you get a slightly brighter light down one side.
It's a bit of a balancing act because you have to get enough shadow to give texture without it getting harsh - or one side of the canvas being way lighter than the other.
Outside with North light you can angle the painting. 45 degrees to the sky to get pretty flat light. As you move the canvas nearer the vertical you get shadows. Just remember to ensure that the camera is always 90 degrees to the canvas.
But if you start off with 'flat' light you are working from ground zero. Use it as a base for experiment until you find something that works. At the very least you will still have something useable.

Majik Imaje · Mar 6, 2007

I have done this for many YEARS. and the people I worked for were extremly fussy artists.

I have mentioned their names previously and I am very proud to have met them and worked with them because as I have continually said.. I am nothing a no body.. but i was obsessed with learning.. and becoming financially indepdent from working in the trade as an electrican.

EDNA HIBEL is considered to be the formost female artist in the world

Joseph tripetti

Leroy Neiman

are just three of the big names.

I would do the exact same thing for each piece of thier art.

I would hang it in the gallery on a wall with no direct lighting.
I would turn off all the overhead track lighting.

but just using the ambient light coming in from the front window I was off to the left of that window in a small alcove. NO LIGHT(S).

my exposures were always in minutes 1 - 3 minutes depending on the COLORS.. of the original.

My method worked so well, the colors matched the original perfectly, and the textures were very apparent. Using such a small F stop i.e. F 45 lent to GREAT DEPTH of field showing the details in the textures perfectly.

this is only my opinon, but this is / was how I was able to IMPRESS these skilled individuals, and I worked for them for many years, until I moved to alaska! and two jobs after I moved way up here. they flew me back twice to work for them, handsomely I might add.

Thee is only one thing any Trade teaches you.. and that is HOW TO THINK!