geoffrey_sexton

<p>There’s another forum thread where it is mentioned that strobes are so taboo with some galleries due to UV damage, that some customers will reject the photographer altogether. They also go on to say that is only some who take this position though. But you might be right, it may be an unnecessary concern. I do see that some UV gels can be applied, so I would think it’s fine.<br /><br />Yeah, I realized I was thinking with a video mindset in thinking I could relight every new section. A longer focal length lens is probably the only option. <br /><br />I don’t think detail in a painting is ever a consideration of intricately fine or not. It’s preferable to look at paintings up close and anything printed less than 300 dpi is going to look awful.<br /><br />I like the idea of looking into scanners though. I looked passed that thinking the kind I would need would be terribly expensive. I should see about that option though. But in having a place do the prints for me I would just send them a digital file to print from, so that's why it would be a big ordeal to look to them for taking care of the scanning.</p>

<p>I'm not in contact with any museums or galleries, but that's definitely something to consider looking into. It hadn't occurred to me to research anything other than what other artists are doing to try to sell prints, but I guess they must usually limit themselves to prints within 18" x 12".</p> <p>That's good to know about the HMI's. I haven't looked into them because of the prices, but yeah something to see about renting some time. </p>

<p>Alignment is the biggest headache about this. I've been trying to think of a way to get even, parallel shots but I think I will have to gauge as best I can. I was kind of hoping that Lightroom and Photoshop would help with any lens distortion or slightly inconsistent angles. I was curious to see if large format digital cameras might exist, but from what I found only medium format ones are made digital. Even if I had the insane cash for the PhaseOne XF100mp I would still need 10 more inches worth of pixels to cover the whole painting. The Canon 5ds could do it in maybe 4 sections.</p> <p>I will have more paintings than this current few to need the same resolution photos of. I have thought of taking them to a place that does this with scans. However I would need to rent a truck of some sort to transport them and it all starts to add up to the same price of owning a lot of this photography equipment.</p> <p>I've actually been considering getting more experienced with this kind of work to offer it beyond my own needs in freelance. That's another reason I'm determined to see what I can do and hopefully build up more experience in this area.</p>

<p>Thank you both for your assistance. I'm shooting in a residential home. This is all beyond me - I've only just now started to realize how much more familiar I need to be with the electricity. I've never touched a circuit breaker. I might have to hire an electrician like you said. That's a good idea to turn off the circuit breakers one by one to chart everything out.</p> <p>The heat is another big concern. I was hoping that using a dimmer/variac, to keep the lights low while situating them, would be adequate, in only turning the lights all the way up for the seconds spent shooting. I'm starting to consider those White Lightning strobes a lot more now.</p> <p>I guess just 2 of those strobes might be all I would need, especially since I'm shooting in small sections. Would you recommend using white umbrellas or softboxes for this? I always see it done with umbrellas but I have also read that using lights straight on without diffusion is the way to go. I was planning to stick with the 50mm lens because I think it might be my sharpest lens. But a longer focal length macro lens might be something I should look into. I've got old Nikon lenses that are longer focal lengths, but they require an adapter for my Canon and I'm suspicious that may start to render a less sharp image. I should compare both approaches.</p>

<p>Hello,
<br> <br />I've been reading through this forum and have a much better idea of how to approach this, but my situation leaves me with some questions. I'm trying to get high resolution images of my paintings. The paintings are usually 3' x 4' or 4' x 4'. I would like to have the option of printing them real size. I have a Canon 5d so it will require me to shoot the paintings in something like 9 to 16 sections, rather than straight on. My frame should cover about 20" x 13" for each section, so I don't think lighting the entire painting is necessary. Trying to light the entire painting might have me creating shadows, as I will have to be closer in shooting it will a 50mm lens. This is part of the question - is this an incompatible light kit for lighting paintings in a small/medium room? I was looking into (4) 1000 watt tungsten focusing lights. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/285849-REG/Lowel_D2_94Z_DP_4_Four_Light_Kit.html I was planning to try it with 500 watt bulbs at first. But if I am going to spend a lot of money on lights I would prefer to have the option to use them for video work as well. That's why I'm not so interested in strobes or lights with a much lower wattage. I also read here that strobes give off a high level of UV, which is a concern to paintings.</p> <p>I know the tungstens will pose an issue with heat and the number of amps required to power them. Someone mentioned using "a variac or series parallel switch" to regulate heat, while adjusting the lights and only using full power for the actual seconds shooting. I had to look up what a variac was and I couldn't find what a "series parallel switch" was. Looking at variacs, the largest amount of amps one would accept is 30 amps https://www.circuitspecialists.com/variac-tdgc-3kva.html How can it be so difficult to find one that accepts the amount of amps required to power a medium size light kit? If I use (4) 500 watt bulbs instead of the 1000 watt ones does that mean I can reduce the amount of amps needed to roughly 20 amps instead of 40 amps?</p> <p>I'm also concerned with the amount of amps needed from the outlets. How do you actually determine what outlet is a separate circuit from another? It seems a little crazy that I should need to find 3 more separate circuits, besides my room's, (if they have 15 amps each) to power a light kit. Am I missing a convenient technical answer to this? It doesn't look like I would be much better off with strobes in that regard either. Looking at the White Lightning series it says all the models require 6 amps each. So that's a bit better than the 1000 watts but also worse than 500 watt tungstens.</p> <p>I know I'm being a bit complicated trying to combine cinematography with photography in one light kit. Anyway, I appreciate any help!</p>