How to photograph a pencil drawing?

I've taken on a small job of photographing pencil art. The pieces

are 8x10 or smaller and I'm having no troubles with the actual

shot. The problem I'm having is that graphite is quite reflective

and I'm getting areas where the art isn't quite clear due to the

glare. I have two strobes, a silver umbrella, a white shoot through

umbrella with a black backing, a softbox, a silver/white reflector,

and two speedlights to play with for lighting.

Any suggestions on how to remove the glare and yet still light the

piece properly?

can you show us a picture? how far are the lights placed from one another to the artwork. do

you have it set up like copy work at 45 degrees? you may also try just aiming the reflectors

without the umbrellas.

Michael

Don,

Angle of incidence equals angle of reflection. Try flat art copy technique. Hang the art, place camera square and level with the art. Place two lights on either side of the art, feathered(use the edge of the light.) The more you feather, the more even lighting. Use flags to block of direct, stray light from entering the lens and prevent flare. Your two stobes with or without umbrellas should do just fine. Good luck! :-)<div></div>

flat copy technique, polarisers over light sources (with reflectors NOT brollies) and camera

lens as well. This will improve saturation, and allow you to control contrast, by the degree to

which the polarisers are "crossed"

Thanks for all the help, folks. I was able to use a bit of information here and there to get the results. I actually ended up turning my reflectors around and using the side walls as my primary light sources, with the light coming approximately at a 30 degree angle. I underexposed it and then raised the exposure in RAWshooter.

See, there was one spot on two of the pieces where quite a lot of graphite had been deposited and the heaviness of the pencil had warped the paper, causing a hot spot in two places.

Yeah, you should see how I managed to finally get a proper zero degree perspective. Talk about a "pro" studio :)