[Leica] Thoughts on photographing art

[Christopher Crawford]

I do a lot of this kind of work.

What are you shooting with? A full frame digital camera? I¹d use at least
a 50mm lens. Anything between 50 and 100mm is fine. If you have one, use a
macro lens, even if the art is large. Macros have better flatness of field
than most other lenses, and give a lot better sharpness, especially in
corners, when photographing flat art like a painting. Zooms don¹t work
well, even within the focal length range I recommend. If you don¹t have a
macro, a standard 50mm is probably best.

Lighting is the hard part. It must be PERFECTLY even. Measure it with an
incident light meter with a flat diffuser. Place the meter in all four
corners and in the center. All 5 reading must match exactly. Even a 1/3
stop difference will show.

Remove the work from frames if possible, frames will cast shadows on the
edges of the work if its oil or acrylics framed without mats, where the
frame touches the edges of the painting.

Another lighting issue is the color of the light. Photograph in a
windowless room where no daylight can get in, or shoot at night. Daylight
won¹t be the same color as the lights you use to light the paintings, and
will mess up color balance. Also turn off any lights in the room and
adjoining rooms in the house for the same reason. I was once messed up by
using two soft boxes from different manufacturers in the same shoot. The
color of the interiors of them were not exactly the same and it showed in
the photos! So be sure to use the same brand of strobes and the same
accessories on each strobe.

-- 
Chris Crawford
Fine Art Photography
Fort Wayne, Indiana
260-437-8990

http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com  My portfolio

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On 6/4/16, 12:14 AM, "LUG on behalf of Adam Bridge"
<lug-bounces+chris=chriscrawfordphoto.com at leica-users.org on behalf of
abridge683 at fastmail.com> wrote:

>I¹ve been asked by a local artist to help her photograph and make prints
>of her paintings.
>
>I was wondering if any of you who might have done this before can give
>some suggestions about best focal-length lens to use for this? I was
>thinking that, longer is better? I¹ll be shooting work that¹s lit with
>camera and art on tripod and easel, using remote shutter release etc.
>
>Any thoughts on technique would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Adam Bridge
>
>
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