Photographing very large flat artwork with flash or strobes?

[skieur]

Standard approach is camera on a copy stand with two long fluorescent lights (diffuse, daylight colour temp.) on extendable "arms" at a 45 degree angle.

skieur

Most people don't have a copy stand laying around or are prepared to buy one. You can hang your work on the wall on top of some black velour and shoot two soft light sources at the appropriate angle. It's the same thing.

But again, there are so many "gotchas" with this type of work, that you need to hire a photographer that is experienced with this type of work. The art work needs to be lit completely even (for me it's within a tenth of a f/stop or you will see noticeable color shifts). The camera needs to be completely centered or you will get keystoning. If there is any shiny surfaces on the paintings or glass, that changes the lighting set-up. If the painting has texture, that changes the lighting set-up. If the room has space limitations, that will change the lighting set-up. And as mentioned before, you need to know how to process the images to get accurate color. If you are not working from a calibrated monitor and have a color managed work flow, you might as well shoot the art with a disposable camera and make prints at the drug store.

I've probably shot 150 pieces of art in my life, it's not a lot, but it's enough to have made me cry inside a few times. It is very tedious and exacting work.

I would tend to say that buying a copy stand is the most efficient way of getting rid of most of the "gotchas", particularly if you are likely to do a lot of this type of work. Customers/clients would certainly expect and consider this to be a more professional approach.

skieur

 

[JPooh]

the best results ive gotten is to place a white sheet several feet directly in front of the artwork and place the flash between the sheet and ur painting, have the flash face the white sheet and bounce the flash off of that. that should give you great even lighting

I am going to respectfully disagree with you. Completely. This is a great way to get glare on your paintings. The angle of incidence=the angle of reflectance. Imagine your painting is a mirror. If you can see the lights or the thing you are bouncing the light off of in the mirror, you are going to get reflected light in your lens.

if you have the flash face the painting, regardless of the angle, it can be too harsh and ruin certain areas especially if your paintings have metallic paints.
another light you can use and easier is if you use some form of continuous light diffused through a soft box of umbrella. use a dimmer on the bulb if you can

I disagree. You have the flash angled at the painting so that only diffuse light makes its way back to the camera and the reflected light doesn't. Again, imagine your painting is a mirror, you want to move your lights off to the sides so that you don't get the reflections of the light in your image.

There is no relationship between the brightness of the light and needing a dimmer to getting a good shot of artwork.

the more i read it now i can most certainly disagree with my second statement as well but as far as the first part goes, i was referencing an experience i had and what gave me the most success when I did it... it might not be ideal for all situations :blushing:

 

[LearnMyShot]

to do this cheaply and if you have no natural light try clamp lamps....they're $7.00 each and you could bounce them off white foamcore boards 90 degrees from your paintings...probably 3 on each side...put white on the floor..once you're set up look for any reflections and adjust the light accordingly...put your camera on auto white balance..good luck!