Reflections when Lighting Artwork (Oil Paintings)

[johnmarkpainter]

Yes I have done a search :)

 

I am photographing artwork to be evaluated by a Gallery. It is a collection of Etchings,

Watercolors and Oil Paintings. The Flat peices (under Glass) aren't a problem. The Oils are

a couple hundred years old and aren't Flat...the Canvas has dips and Bulges in them that

cause Reflections that I can't totally get rid of by Light Placement.

 

Right now I am just using two Umbrellas at 45 degree angles. One painting did better

when I lighted from the Top & Bottom instead of the Left & Right.

 

What do I need to Polarize my Lights? Will I also need a Polarizer on my Lens? Will this

actually work?

 

Thanks,

 

Jmp

[miles_feigenbaum___dallas_]

Howdy John,

 

I checked out the BWC Labs setup for doing this exact type of thing.

They had the walls painted flat black. Under the flatblack was a sheet of steel , used with magnets to hold the artwork to the wall. They had a 4 by 5 view camera with a standard lens like a 210 mounted to a table of sorts that rode fore and aft on a trolley setup made from angle iron flipped with the apex facing upwards and the steel wheels that are made for the angle with the groove in them.

On each side wall area they had 4 ea. studio strobes in parabolic reflectors suspended from the ceiling on a flexible tube so they could be adjusted. The lights were arranged verticle starting at about 2 feet off the ground to a couple of feet from the ceiling.

Same setup on both left and right walls.The lights were setup about 6 feet from the wall, more or less. They told me that they aim each side to go a little past the center of the artwork so as not to have a hotspot. The other walls lights shine across the work just past the center also.

They have 12 by 12 sheets of polarizer film over each light fixture (8) and they also put a polarizer filter on the lens.

The sheet polarizer has an arrow on them facing horizontal and all are positioned the same.

they use 4 by 5 EPN and one other that i wrote down but don't have the info with me.

The room is totally dark when this is being done.

they keep one lady busy full time doing this.

[poul]

i shoot my own artwork using a flash bouncing of ceiling of a huge loft with white walls. while not good enough for prinitng art album book off it, it's good enough for presentations and portfolio work:

 

http://polyrealism.com

[twmeyer]

The setup Miles describes gives a totally lifeless reproduction of the two dimensional characteristics of a painting, if that's what you want, and good luck duplicating that. <p>I suggest 2 softboxes as least as large as the work is, and if you really want to make it look good, use grids or louvers in the boxes, as this is crude polarising that still allows for the texture of an oil painting to be seen. I do this alot, and usually set one either a half stop higher than the other or remove the inner baffle from one to increase contrast from one side. This shows the texture of the painting's brushwork, allowing some specularity which a cross polarising set up will completely eliminate. <p>Shoot the two boxes across the painting, effectively lighting the left side with the box on the right, and vice versa.<p>Good luck with this, old paintings are very difficult and boringly tedious to photograph, and there's usually very little money available from very particular people, unless it's a famous work at a big museum, and then the money's mediocre and they're even more demanding... t

[johnmarkpainter]

Thanks,

 

Good info and tips to try. This isn't a full time thing for me...just helping out a friend who

repsects my time enough to pay me so I want to do a good job.

 

The images are going to a prominent gallery so I don't want to look like a total CHUMP :)

 

jmp