Painting reproduction, which equipment to use?

[ken2]

I am enquiring on behalf of a friend regarding this issue. He was

asked to reproduce a few paintings onto canvas. Planning to use

large format equipment but not too sure of the proper lighting

techniques. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

Regards,

KeN

[light-zone]

<quote><i>"He was asked to reproduce a few paintings onto canvas."</quote></i>

<p>

Huh? Do you me take pictures of paintings?

[graeme_mitchell]

I'd recommend, if it's possible, to take the original piece to someone with large format copy camera/scanner.

 

Then take that digi file to the Iris or Epson 9600 and run it on canvas.

 

It'll cost more money, but it will be a hell of a lot easier to let someone good deal with it.

 

see http://www.udevelop.com/scanning.htm and http://www.udevelop.com/fineart.htm

to see what I mean.

[ken2]

Graeme, he was commissioned to do the reporduction and also archival storage of the paintings. Thus he will be shooting them over the next few days. He has all the equipment necessary but just the setup tha is of concern. What would you suggest?

[light-zone]

2 lamps, each at a 45° angle to the painting, I prefer a softer light source. The LF camera must be exactly opposite the painting, and the painting must be square up on the GG. Careful of reflections caused by heavily glazed paintings. Some might suggest a polarizing filter to help with reflections. Thickly applied paint, ie. with a pallet knife must be as such recognizable.

<p>

Put a color scale on the side of the painting to aid the scan operater in pre-press work.

<p>

BTW, this has all been covered MANY times in this forum.

<p>

<i>Having all the right equipment does not a photographer make....</i>

[f._william_baker]

This is a large source of my income as a photographer. As the above responces say, you need to set the lights at 45º and to do it properly you MUST polorize both the light source and the lens. I use at least 2400 watt seconds of power from strobes to be able to shoot at � 16 - 22. I use either a 120mm Macro or a 210mm depending on the size of the painting. I also shoot several densities of the chromes at 1/3 stop increments as some printers prefer a "bang on" transparency and others print better from a slightly lighter one. This also depends on the colors in the painting. Good luck as while this may seem simple it can be very perplexing at times.

F. William Baker

[kelly_flanigan1]

Some owners will skin your hide if you use strobes. We have had clients who specify that strobes cannot be used; to insure that a valuable painting isnt degraded by the UV. Modern stobes have better UV filtration. Using tungsten lamps without a dimmer between shots can cause heat damage too. <BR><BR>Placing a Kodak color process swatch and grey scale card at the edge will allow the next guy make a better print; after your transparency or negative has faded decades down the road.

[dick roadnight cotswolds]

For oil paintings flatten the angle of the lights to minimise reflections.

 

If the paintings are under glass, use the movements on the camera to prevent the reflection of the camera apearing in the picture.

[dk_thompson]

fwiw--we reproduced a large painting 1:1 onto canvas a couple of years ago at our museum. The original had been hanging in another building for about 30 years and measured about 5x9 feet. We had to do a 1:1 repro of it, and wound up shooting it on location with 2-2400 ws speedotron blackline packs and about 6 heads. We used a toyo GII and a 210mm lens, and shot Provia 100. The final film was drum scanned and output on a wide format inkjet printer onto canvas. Our exhibits shop gave it a UV lacquer overcoat and stretched the canvas onto a frame almost like a painting. This hung for about two years while we had the original in an exhibit and it looked pretty good, almost like the original except for the lack of texture.....make sure you drop a colorbar or grayscale into the shot to correct back against, and run tests off the printer before committing to the final piece. It helps to correct back to the painting if you can have it nearby & if you use a protective lacquer, be aware that this can shift the color balance as well. Hope this helps--btw, you may or may not have to cross-polarize them, we shoot a ton of paintings and only cross-polarize probably 50% of the time. I only do it when I absolutely have to. Opinions expressed in this message may not represent the policy of my agency

[golliegwillie]

Get the Kodak Copy and Duplication Handbook and you'll be fine.

[kinesisphotogear]

This question appears so often I finally posted <A

HREF="http://www.kinesisgear.com/copywork.html"> a page</A> on my site.