Lighting suggestions for large flat artwork?
Jim Waggener
suggestions on a studio lighting setup for photographing large (40x50") oil
paintings which reflect a lot of light and creates hot spots on my shots.
Currently I am using 2 tungsten light stands angled 45 degrees and a
polarizer. I use Fujichrome 64T. Even with this I STILL have hot spots on
the artwork. I've tried moving the lights further away, changing angles and
still have this problem. Do I need umbrellas, flash, fluorescent or what to
eliminate that glare problem?
Thanks as always,
Jim Waggener
m...@alleleb.biol.berkeley.edu
: You folks helped me a lot with my tripod purchase. I'd appreciate your
I always photograph large artwork outside on an overcast day--you've
got the whole sky for a softbox, and you can't get more natural light.
Hang a backdrop over the garage door or a tree branch or an assistant.
If it's in three dimensions, I may use a reflector or two, but that's all.
If you live somewhere where overcast days are in short supply, try
and use something like the open doorway on an east-facing garage in
the afternoon.
--
Mark P. Nelson, Programmer/Analyst III
Department of Integrative Biology, Thomson Laboratory
Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos -- the only sysadmins that matter
StillMan
buy new lights and lenses, stand on one foot, hold your mouth right and fast
for 36 hours to remove reflections from flat artwork.
--
Tony Spadaro
in shooting artwork -- particularly oils -- and should be covered in a Kodak
booklet and several other sources. Check you library for books on photo
techniques and check the Kodak website.
--
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com
home of The Camera-ist's Manifesto
The Improved Links Pages are at
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/links/mlinks00.html
"Jim Waggener" <ji...@visi.net> wrote in message
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Alan Browne
StillMan wrote:
> That is far too easy for the folks around here - you have to cross polarize,
> buy new lights and lenses, stand on one foot, hold your mouth right and fast
> for 36 hours to remove reflections from flat artwork.
Granted that is a neccesary step for a beginner, but still considered a
bit crude.
Alan Browne
the hotspots.
Another poster suggested overcast daylight which is good.
In sunny conditions, you coud face the artwork northward to get good
flat light.
Daylight film, obviously, and experiment with the polarizer.
Flash would likely accentuate the problem. You could fire the flashes
against white walls/ceilings so the light arrives at angles to the
work...(daylight film too) but I suspect the overall effect will the
same as your current lighting.
Cheers,
Alan
jriegle
the work after color correction with my 50mm lens stopped down, I was
concerned with shutter bounce causing some blur. I was using ISO 100 speed
print film over exposed by 1 stop for best color and contrast. Because line
voltage to my house varies, color correction was tough to get right. I could
never get the illumination perfect in the corners either.
I bought a couple cheap strobes (Promaster ones with the little socket for
corded remote) and wired up a cord so that I could have the flash on each
side of the piece to be copied, 10 feet from the center of the piece and 30
Deg off the plane of the piece. It works beatifuly. At 30 Deg, the light
from the two strobes are the same as from one straight on so it is easy to
calculate the aperture needed. The pieces I were shooting were no larger
than 24x18. Since you are shooting large pieces, you will need to move the
strobes another 5 or 10 feet back.
Now I get even illumination, no color balance problems and no worries about
camera vibrations. The rig cost me about $50 to assemble.
John
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