Photographing Paintings with a DSLRWhen I wrote about photographing paintings last time, I discussed hiring professionals and the equipment they use. In the years since that post, digital camera technology has developed a great deal and in a direction which works well for photographing paintings. What an artist needs in a photograph of their work are the correct colors, values, and chroma of the piece, with a distortion- free lens, in a very high resolution which can show the detail in the brushwork, as well as the varying sharpness and softness of the edges. For years the best way to do this was with a medium format camera with a digital back. The price for this equipment could run easily into tens of thousands of dollars. The major recent change in consumer digital photography is that the camera companies have engaged in what technology writers derogatorily refer to as the ‘megapixel war’. This race for better sensors with higher pixel counts has pushed the capabilities of DSLR sensors into the range of the low- end digital backs, potentially saving the DIY painter a ton of money. Obviously hiring a professional photographer will achieve better results. They will have better equipment and the experience to know how to use it. They are also incredibly expensive (in Italy I paid €1. You can buy a whole set up for the price, and since photographing paintings is really a one- trick pony, getting it good enough isn’t that difficult. Back to Dave Coffin's Home Page Decoding raw digital photos in Linux en Esperanto em Português auf Deutsch на русском па-беларуску.
To photograph artwork well one needs the following equipment: A tripod, proper lighting covered by polarized film, a color calibration system and gray card, a decent DSLR body which can be tethered to a computer, a computer with tethering software, a good macro (micro) lens with a circular polarizing filter, and software to edit and archive the work. First place the painting on an easel with two bright, full- spectrum, lighting sources at 4. Lights, painting and camera should be at the same height. ![]() There should be no other light sources, and anything white that can cause a glare on the painting should be covered. (Professional studio photographers recommend not using the camera’s auto white balance, so I first set my white balance in the camera to 5. K (which is similar to the color temperature of the light given off by my bulbs). I then made a preset in the camera, photographed a group of paintings over and over, and tweaked the color settings until my light balance looked correct when the image first comes out of the camera) . My set- up for photographing paintings. Put your calibration card in front of the painting, photograph it, then run it through the included software (if needed convert RAW to DNG with Adobe’s free DNG converter). The software finds the color squares, measures them and makes a preset for your camera. Save the preset. Remove the calibration card and put a gray card next to the painting. X- Rite Color. Checker Passport software screen. Photograph the painting by first putting the camera in mirror- up mode (or set the remote connection to use mirror- up mode). Set ISO to the lowest number, usually 1. Set image type to RAW. Set the lens to manual focus mode. Turn the polarizer on the lens until the glare on the painting is gone. Next turn on live- view monitoring in the tethering software on your computer, put the tethered image in full- screen mode, zoom in to the maximum and manually focus the shot by hand. If your tethering software can take the photo in mirror- up mode, shoot from the computer screen, otherwise use a shutter- release cable or remote. Do not use the shutter- release button on the camera as it can move slightly and blur the shot. Experiment with various f- stops to find the sharpest for your lens, normally with a macro lens the middle range from f/4 to f/1. Import the photo into your editing software and apply the calibration preset (click the eyedropper on the grey card if the white balance is off). Make any other corrections, i. I then tag the paintings with the year, location and subject, so I can find them easily later. I’ve also made export presets for all the possible uses I’ll have for the photos. It makes preparing images trivial. Some tips for larger paintings: If you don’t have polarizing sheets, the lights can be at angles greater than 4. If there are problems with getting an even light across a large painting, find an area with even lighting and take multiple photographs, moving the painting on a flat plane at the same distance from the camera until you have photographs of sections of the whole painting. Then use stitching software such as Adobe Photoshop, PTGui or the free Microsoft ICE to put the individual images together. This method can also be used to get ultra- high resolution images of larger paintings while using a low- megapixel camera. With a bit of work you can capture an amount of detail which would give medium format cameras a run for their money. Subtle HDR is another idea if the value range is too great for the camera. Below are some of my thoughts on photography equipment for painters. Much of the expense of photography equipment is to make sure photographers are able to capture fleeting moments. Since photographing paintings is done under very controlled circumstances, it isn’t necessary to buy the best and newest equipment. I’ve added Amazon referral links). The tripod can be one of those cheap $2. I have a couple that people have abandoned in my studio which I’ve used in a pinch. The problem is that they can be annoying to move into position. They are normally not recommended as they can wobble, but since photographing paintings should be done via a remote and with the camera in mirror- up mode there isn’t any movement. Still it’s better to have decent one like those made by Silk or Dolica, they run $3. I use a Silk). Manfrotto or Vanguard are better brands and, while they cost more, a tripod is something one should only buy once. Proper lighting is inexpensive. I needed lighting to paint after dark in my studio anyways, so I picked up a soft- box lighting set- up with the following specifications: 1. W (6. 25w equivalent) Continuous Lighting, 5. K pure white daylight bulbs, General color rendering index Ra > 9. This is the one I have, to give an idea of what they look like. Professional photographers will use flashes which can produce stronger and better quality light, but you can’t paint from a flash. Finally, polarizing sheets should be placed over the soft- box, a cheap place to get polarized sheets is Polarization. As to which camera to buy, there are better websites to read than this one (Luminous Landscape has an interesting article here on sensor benchmarks). Generally it’s considered a good idea to spend more on lenses and save on the camera body. The lenses last longer. I went with Nikon since they seem more interested in high pixel- count sensors while Canon seems more focused on their video capabilities. The recent Nikons have also removed the low- pass, antialiasing filter for sharper images (removing the low- pass filter can put the camera at risk for moire, but art- photographers I wrote to say it hasn’t been a problem). A new Nikon entry- level (DX) D3. As you move up the line of Nikon’s offerings, the D5. It also has a bunch of bells and whistles that don’t matter when photographing artwork in a controlled studio environment. The same goes for the D7. Again, all things that don’t really matter for photographing paintings, but which should be considered if you plan on using the camera for other things. For the record, the D5. Dx. O than the D7. Buying a generation behind, used, or refurbished can save money. High- end professional Nikons with a full- sized (FX) sensor (the D8. D8. 00. E) are 3. A macro (or micro) lens is normally for photographing small things up close. The reason they are used for photographing paintings is that they have flat field of focus with little geometric or color distortion. They are also generally very sharp lenses which can capture fine details. Painters need a prime macro lens with a fixed focal length, not a zoom. Since I have a small studio now I’m using an inexpensive 4. AIS lens for my sketches. Most professionals seem to prefer an 8. The longer focal lengths tend to be better quality, and will have less geometric distortion, but you need more space to shoot larger paintings. A fast, f/1. 2 or f/1. Finally, because one should focus manually while photographing paintings, autofocus isn’t necessary and old used lens can have great (sharp) optics for less money.
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