Photos of Paintings

I am hoping that with a good series of tests, I can pull it off. I have a good camera and glass and I'm not opposed to experimentation. The original artist wanted to see if I could do it cheaper than his other option (not that it's a money thing). We worked together for a bit and we have a mutual good friend.
 
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Back in the late 70's I lived in Santa Fe and shot art work for many artist there, for publication. I used a 4X5 and 2 strobes at a 45 degree angle, one on each side. The strobes need to be polorized and a polorlizing filter on the camera. Also include a gray scale and a color scale in the shot, this is for, if it goes to publication, so the printer has a reference to set up thier equip. This can also help you in your PP. Hope this helps

Gregg
 
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First (my brain dumping) is to set up a soft box style tent. ...

This is definitely not the way to go. As mentioned in other posts, you want moderately small light sources and you want to use cross polarized lights (one set of polarizers on the lights orientated one way and another on the camera orientated 90 degress to those on the lights). Do not put any diffusers on the lights.

You also need a lot of space. The lights need to be 2-3x as far from the painting as the painting is wide. Also the lenses needs to be rather long so that the angle of view to the opposite corners and not too different and so that the lights don't have to be placed at a low angle to the painting to avoid glare.
 
That won't work. What dwig is saying for a start.

I'm thinking of $50.00 - $75.00 a digital negative

Way too low on the price.

You're not going to give the results that are required for repro work shooting the way you are. Artwork photography for reproduction is not easy, it's very hard to get right. Lighting the piece is only half of the equation. You might get away shooting pencil work like that, but oils? No way. There are many variables to consider when shooting oils or pastels for example. Shooting artwork is expensive for one. You can't shoot artwork for repro with a DSLR, not for HQ output.

If I sound like I'm being negative, I am. You can and most likely will waste a lot of your time, and more importantly if the artist is depending on you to give them an accurate file to print with and you can't, you're wasting their time. My gf is an artist that works in oils, I know first hand what she went through trying to find a studio that shoots artwork properly and how much money she wasted.
 
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