Photographing Art

[anwmn1]

I have a friend that is an accomplished painter. He recently asked me to photograph his work for him and really wanted the details such as cuts and cracks to show. I went to his house and brought along 2 White Lightning 800's- large softbox, and large ocotobox. Some came out pretty good and others not so much.

The biggest issue was the canvas not being stretched tight because of the way he paints. I kept getting glare along the ripples both from natural light and the strobes.


Some of the better ones-

http://aaronnewman.smugmug.com/photos/426354726_acC39-XL.jpg

http://aaronnewman.smugmug.com/photos/426357321_askSC-XL.jpg

Glare on the next few
http://aaronnewman.smugmug.com/photos/426365533_irA4T-XL.jpg

http://aaronnewman.smugmug.com/photos/426368448_RNpSh-XL.jpg

http://aaronnewman.smugmug.com/photos/426368939_5tgGp-XL.jpg

Any thoughts on how to set up to not get the glare?

Some of these are only 16x20 while others are 48x72

[roentarre]

So crafty and artistic in deed :clap

[i_worship_the_King]

I'm so glad you posted this.... I have to shoot an art gallery some time in the coming weeks. It's going to be several mixed-media pieces (mud on canvas, etc.) and I was afraid to take a strobe at all. Debating just one of the 500 watt video floods diffused pointing to the ceiling, tripod, and 1-2 second exposure to get it looking as natural as possible.

What was your setup, and how would you change it now that you've developed a few frames?

Were there any problems with the local lighting and nailing white balance? Artists are particularly picky about color, I hear :deal

[Nikolai]

Aasron, what was you setup? I mean in theory the only way not to get a glare is to ensure no direct reflection hit the lens, i.e. setting the light sources WAY off camera's axis... :scratch

[bob swanson]

:dunno How about bouncing the lights and/or using a polarizing filter?
bsvirginian

[Scoupe]

...or using a polarizing filter?
bsvirginian

The polarizer might indeed be your best friend for this project.

[anwmn1]

Setup-

Location was the artists home. Space was approx 20x20 so moving lights was very limited.

I adjusted the lights based on the piece I was shooting. Sometimes 45 degree angles- sometimes almost dead on- other times bounced off ceiling and bounced off wall.

Like I said the biggest issue was the canvas not being flat- the glares in the bottom shot top left corner is prime example. That area of the painting had ripples as high as 1/4 inch. we tried to push them in but just caused additional ripples in other places.

Ideally I would have liked more space to shoot in but fear it might require additional lights to solve the problem.

I have told the artist we may need to reshoot some of the larger pieces.


Suggestions on setup?

[anwmn1]

:dunno How about bouncing the lights and/or using a polarizing filter?
bsvirginian

Polarizing filter is a good idea. :lust