Photographing Artwork.

[Jim Ford]

When I photograph my wife's artwork, I try to do it outside on an overcast day. This gives a nice even diffused and shadowless light.

If you try doing it indoors using artificial light you can get problems with shading - typically from top to bottom if the light source is above the subject. This is because of the 'inverse square law' that light obeys. Without going into the maths, this means that light intensity falls off very rapidly as you get further away from the source. If the bottom of the artwork is twice as far away from the light source as the top, the light level at the bottom will be one quarter that of the top. On-camera flash isn't always satisfactory as it is difficult to obtain even lighting and avoid 'hot-spots' or reflections from shiny areas such as graphite pencil.

When I have to photograph artwork indoors I often use a powerful LED lamp such as this one:

7dayshop.com - Online Store

The lighting colour is near to that of daylight, and held as close to the camera axis as possible, you can manipulate it to get the lighting you require. It's also bright enough to enable you to use short exposure times so you can hand-hold the camera.

Jim

[Littlesparrow]

I have been photographing mine outside too unless they are small enough and flat enough to scan to the computer, any tips from the experts gratefully received.

[PMG]

Always photographed mine outside in ambient daylight - a bright grey overcast day gives even lighting. I used to tape mine to the conservatory door on the outside and then set the camera up on the tripod at the right distance - works well when its a large peice of work say A3 and above - trying to do it over the work flat on the floor gives shadows and risks the work getting dirty (next doors cat walking across it for start!). I used to do this for opening slides in my slide shows where I wanted lettering on the opening view: scan the slide in then add title, name or whatever you need, print it out - take it outside tape it up and rephotograph - hey presto - new slide with the information over the opening view etc!

Pauline

[ChrissyMarie]

I try to photograph outside on a dull day too. However, I do vary things and use the scanner sometimes, I find some of my dark papers can really mess up with reflection. I recently finished an oil painting of a deer which is too large to scan and I am getting light reflections no matter what I do....I may have to get a bit more inventive for that one....so far, I haven't come up with a solution

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by ChrissyMarie

I recently finished an oil painting of a deer which is too large to scan and I am getting light reflections no matter what I do....I may have to get a bit more inventive for that one....so far, I haven't come up with a solution

You may find a polarising filter might help, though they can be difficulty to adjust to an optimum setting.

Jim

[The Woodman]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

When I have to photograph artwork indoors I often use a powerful LED lamp such as this one:

7dayshop.com - Online Store

The lighting colour is near to that of daylight, and held as close to the camera axis as possible, you can manipulate it to get the lighting you require. It's also bright enough to enable you to use short exposure times so you can hand-hold the camera.

Jim

I've just bought a smaller model to photograph subjects underground, Jim, the smaller model. I'm very impressed with it and can imagine it will perform as you say to assist with illuminating artwork for photographing indoors.