photographing paintings?

[otter]

I have inherited a collection of paintings from my parents. In order to catalogue them I need to photograph them, and I'm wondering what I should look for in a digital camera. I don't want to spend too much money, but I do want to end up with good quality reproduction.

Any suggestions about lighting would also be really appreciated. The project is going to take some time so I'm trying to work out a set up with lights, easel etc. that I can leave in place for a while, taking pictures of a few paintings at a time. Natural light varies so much I'm hoping someone might have some suggestions about artificial light, or filtering natural light, and dealing with glare.

(most of my camera experience has been with an old Pentax SLR years ago - we have a really low end digital now, but I'm hoping to buy something better if I can only figure out what to get!)

[ckuhn55]

First, what do you plan to do the photo's after you file them? Are you going to print them? What size prints?
2. Do you just want to look at them on the computer?
3. what megapix is your current camera?
http://pbase.com/ckuhn55

[otter]

Thanks so much for the reply!!

Current camera is a 6 or 7 year old Sanyo - model VPC x 350 - Costco basic. No zoom. Poor lens quality. We bought it a larger memory card.

I need high resolution to record as much detail, accurate colour as possible, then will burn them onto a CD. From there I can convert them to jpegs to work with on thumbnails, spread sheet catalogue. I also want to be able to print them, upload them to my web site, or email sample pictures to galleries etc.

The challenges are to find something that will deal with the large flat area of a painting with as little distortion as possible (rather than the usual 3 dimensional cousin John at the beach type photo), and to reproduce the colour and tone as accurately as possible to create a record of them, rather than to try to make a nice looking photo.


In the good old days more years ago than I'd care to admit to, I did some studio photography of art work with an old Pentax SLR using a wide angle lens and 'daylight bulbs', screens etc. Sounds like things have changed a lot.

We tried taking some shots with the existing camera - ran into problems with distortion, real problems with variations in colour/lighting - yellowing etc.

So I think we need a better camera - good lens, etc. And possibly lights etc. I'd rather not spend large amounts of money if I can avoid it.

Can you use a zoom to minimize distortion the way you would a wide angle lens? How good a zoom do you need? Is there an optimal distance between camera and subject that will minmize distortion but still give good resolution, and would this be a factor in the kind of lens I would choose?


Graphics programs do amazing things to make corrections - but that's not the same as providing as accurate as possible a representation of the subject. I understand that you can measure grey scale accuracy and hue - Kodak colour bar? Does this work with digital, or are there alternatives? Any suggestions?

Any thoughts on lighting? If there weren't so many of them I'd just do it outside on a grey day, but I've also got to record info etc. as I do each one - and getting enough grey days without rain (aside from dragging everything in and out) can get tricky. If I can set something up that will let me use the same camera position, support and back drop to shoot a series of paintings it would make life a lot easier. Any thoughts on the best way to come at the problem - can I get graphics programs to adjust things but still maintain accuracy or does it need a lighting solution?

Should I be working with a cable release?

Any thoughts on used cameras? Buying on line?

Lots of questions - sure have lots to learn! Any ideas or suggestions to any or all would be really appreciated!

All the best

[jim_panzee]

If you want really good results, I would be inclined to rent or borrow a good 6X6 film camera eg. Hasslblad or Bronica. Set your pictures against a flat wall (easels create distortion) with a suitable background to match picture and frame, use a tripod, and seek good advice about lighting. If this is a one off project and worth doing, its worth doing well. Afterwards your films can be processed onto a CD.

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[richiehatch]

I read somewhere about this before and have done similar things in photographing drawings in the office i work in. Paintings are tricky to photograph under any lighting conditions. I would reccommend using a digital camera with at least 6 megapixels. If its a digicamera zoom right to the long end of the range as you will have less distortion there. If you can set up custom white balance to match the lighting conditions that would help with colour accuracy. I personally used a Canon 300d (Digital Rebel) with a 50mm f1.8 prime lens. This lens is extremely sharp and has only a small amount of distortion (which can be fixed in Photoshop if you want). I now have a 20D and will be doing it in exactly the same manner as described above. It would be a huge advantage to be able to use a DSLR as you have more control in such a tricky situation as this. Also whatever lens you use try and set your aperature to around f8-f11 as this will give you the sharpest results. As someone rightly suggested a medium format 6*6 camera would give very good results also.

Regards

Richie