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photographing art

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elsa hoffmann:
A friend and I have been photographing art for an exhibition coming up in SA
Pierneef was a prolific painter and his art sells for millions. Several millions. Several...
The images here are called the station panels - and they are all in a museum/ gallery. We also photographed paintings and copper plates by the same artist, some which are in the National Gallery in Cape Town.
I am not sure who pressed the shutter when - as we worked together with set up and lights and the whole thing - as the panels were in a gallery and we had to move from one to the other setting up every time as we had to do the next panel. Problematic as we couldn't be consistent due to space constraints. some of the panels were in small corners - so getting the lights right was difficult - especially since its oil and very reflective. Overhead lights also gave off a nasty reflections on some panels. It was a challenge. What worked best with most of the panels, was to place the 2 lights facing one another, rather than face the panels. If you get the idea...
Does anyone have any better ideas about shooting art? I have done lots of art before - but this was challenging in a different way. (yes I am aware that one of the images are duplicated)
The other thing is - you use a color passport and try remember as best you can - but start editing and suddenly you just dont remember if the panels were that flat - or if you over saturated them! Panel sizes roughly 2m x 2 m give or take

Pierneef Panels by elsa hoffmann, on Flickr

ColinM:
High Elsa, whilst I haven't tried shooting paintings (esp those behind glass) I have had a few attempts to "copy" a gloss photo print, which threw up similar issues.

Apart from reflections and colour/White balance, what were the main things you weren't happy with? I don know the original paintings shown here, but first impressions are that some seem slightly lower in contrast and muted (but maybe the originals were too).

Though I never tried this, would using a polariser help at all with reflections & saturation?
You didn't say whether these were taken hand-held, or if you could use a tripod, which would change things a lot.

Airy:
Shooting at an angle with a shift lens is an option. W/o shift lens, have a D800 and straighten the perspective in PP, or do a stitch.A front pic for checking the proportions is of course more than useful.

Bjørn J:
I have also used the trick with the two lights facing each other instead of facing the painting at an angle, it can sometimes give good results. I have photographed flat art for several years, I find it interesting and challenging. Especially when there is glass in front of the painting.
I always use macro lenses for such work, as they are generally well corrected and have little distortion. I have recently acquired a Nikon 85mm PC-E tilt/shift lens, and plan to use it for that kind of work.
Some weeks ago I photographed the whole collection of paintings in a gallery, and there was a beautiful light from the huge windows in the roof, the windows were angled, not directly overhead. The light meter showed totally even light even on huge paintings. I took all the photos twice, once with studio flash, and once with the window light. The latter gave the best results in most cases.

Frank Fremerey:
I did a lot of reproductive jobs, some which I am really proud of. That is because I did not know how to do it when I started and in the end managed to get a near perfect result, like these:

http://www.ottaus.com/index.php/die-galerie1.html
http://www.ottaus.com/index.php/die-galerie2.html

Trouble was the format of 200cm x 25cm
Trouble was glass framed
Trouble was that in the frame collage elements of a certain depth were applicated

What I did is to build a housing made of Aluminium profiles, covered in Light box foil and using that box to diffuse the light with a direction that did not allow reflexes into the camera's sight.

I will not give you a full walkthrough but I was really happy with the result, the customer more than happy, he never thought is would be possible to pull this thing of.

Good luck, be inventive, visit a builders market for inspiration.

Frank

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