Photographing a charcoal drawing

<p>I was asked by a friend, an artist, to photograph a charcoal drawing. I can shoot indoors with bright, flat, very uniform natural light, which would make the task very easy. Will anything be lost, such as texture, by not using angled lights?</p>

<p>No expert, but if you're using natural light, I'm assuming a window. That window should be as clean as possible. The other thing is that natural light is always moving, so you need to know the best time to make your capture. You could still use a reflector to readjust as the light is moving. Charcoal paper usually has a lot of tooth, so I believe the texture should come through pretty well. But why don't you want to use lights?</p>

<p>I don't know charcoal paper but yes, if you get window light bounced from a white wall on your painting it might be too diffuse to get paper texture through.<br>

OTOH: if you have sunlight hitting the paper from an angle you'll be fine. Unlike any light you could bring the sun is so distant that you don't need to provide a 2nd light at the other side of the paper.<br>

A window, in an otherwise rather dark room, would be the same as sun light. - Maybe ask the artist what the job is about. - Doing a reproduction of the painting that will end on a buyer's wall or just getting whatever he painted to maybe print that pattern on glossiest paper?</p>

<p>Harder light will bring out more texture, both in the paper and the drawing itself. That's what I would do, rather than depend on flat interior lighting.</p>

<p>Thank you all. The place where he suggested meeting for the shoot has multiple windows and a skylight. Given the advice received here, and some more thinking, we won't do it there, and use lights to bring out the texture in the charcoal.</p>

<p>How big is the drawing? if it will fit on a scanner, then just scan it. Even a scanner will pick up some of the texture of the paper/charcoal.<br /><br />If it's too big for a scanner, to do this properly you need to set it up on a copy stand with appropriate lights. If you just prop it up and point your camera at it, it will be very challenging just to get everything square and evenly illuminated.<br /><br />As Jochen asked, what is the purpose of photographing the drawing? Is it for reproduction as a poster? In a book? On the web? His portfolio?</p>

<p>A scanner is a great idea for a small drawing if it has had fixative applied--otherwise there will be a lot of charcoal on the scanner glass!</p>

<p>I agree that a scanner would have been the easiest solution--it was my first thought--but the drawing is 20x15 inches. I didn't even think of the charcoal that might have wound up on my scanner! I don't own a copy stand. I know it isn't a matter of just propping up the work and pointing the camera. I don't think it's challenging, only tedious, to get everything square. For this purpose, an illustration to be reduced in size and included in a novel, I'll use an incident meter and adjust the lights until the illumination is uniform to 1/10 of a stop.</p>

<p>Thank you all.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Hector, there's a very easy way to square up artwork with the camera. It's called "autocollimation" and simply needs a small flat mirror in addition to the camera and a flat surface.</p>

<p>You place the artwork on a flat surface and line up the camera as square as possible by eye, getting the correct magnification. You then place the mirror bang in the middle of the artwork. Next adjust the shift, tilt and swing of the camera such that the reflection of the camera lens is dead centre in the viewfinder and the mirror. You may have to refocus so that you can see the lens reflection clearly. Done! (There is only one condition of absolute parallelism to the mirror where the reflection of the lens is co-axial with itself.)</p>

<p>Due to its delicacy, in the case of the charcoal drawing I'd advise removing the drawing from the copyboard before placing the mirror down and aligning the camera. Then remove the mirror and replace it with the drawing.</p>