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Re: [OM] Shooting paintings

Subject: Re: [OM] Shooting paintings
From: Tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 15:01:59 -0500
Cc: "Enrique Cabrera Rochera" <qcabrera@xxxxxxxxxx>
On Friday, March 29, 2002 at 18:52, Enrique Cabrera Rochera 
<olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote re "[OM] Shooting paintings" saying:

> On monday I have to satisfy the demands of one of my most challenging 
> customers: 
> my mom. She is a semi-professional painter and usually does an exposition per 
> year. 
> So far, my dad did the photographies with the OM10 that started the saga at 
> home. 
> However, he never took it seriously enough, and the brochures were never 
> great. There 
> are a few factors that you should be aware of:
>
> - As far as lenses are concerned, I had thought of the 135/3.5, since it is 
> the only tele 
> prime I have. I could however use the 35-70/3.5-4.5 or the 50mm if you 
> thought it would 
> be better.

The 50/1.4 SN>1,100,000 has 0 distortion according to 
http://members.aol.com/olympusom/lenstests/default.htm and is sharp.
 
> The challenge is: I was ready to shoot this with morning light, near a 
> window. Place the 
> paintings in the vertical plane, and (sorry, no tripod... and no possibility 
> to get one 
> before monday) shoot them with the OM2s with no flash and some Fuji Provia. 
> But I 
> remembered there are dozens of great photographers out there in the 
> zuikoholics 
> anonymous list, I'm sure they'll come out with what I will be doing wrong.

No tripod? So support your camera on a chair or table with books to adjust.
 
> Any suggestions will do. I plan to shoot a 36 for 3 or 4 paintings, so I can 
> try with 
> different combinations you may offer (i.e. would diffusing the flash light 
> work? I don't 
> have the diffusers for the flashes.... should the cover of the slide box 
> work? -translucid 
> colorless plastic- ... Spot metering? Averaged?)

Use a neutral slow slide film like Provia. Your mom may want to use the 
slides to send to other galleries, TV stations, newspapers. The brochure 
printer will probably prefer slides - ask if you can.

Remove any glass or plastic in front of the painting.
Have a black or gray background cloth for the painting
Use a polarising filter to reduce reflections from the medium.
Use a level to keep the paintings and camera strictly vertical.
Keep the camera square to the painting, centred.

Light: Make sure the light is neutral. 
If sunny, I would take the pix outside and diffuse the sunlight with a 
clean white cotton sheet. Don't use the green lawn, a neutral surface like 
pavement is preferable. Have the light at 45 degrees from the plane of the 
painting. The light outside is more neutral  (no reflections from coloured 
walls, carpets, ...) and allows a faster shutter speed.

Include Kodak colour control patches, or at least a grey card along one 
edge of the painting to aid accuracy when printing. The hardest part in 
reproducing paintings is getting the colour right. It is most noticeable 
when you fail at this... 

I would bracket 0, +1/2, -1/2 stop from the incident or grey card reading. 
Take notes and perhaps include an index card "+1/2" etc. with the colour 
control patches.

Read http://people.smu.edu/rmonagha/mf/art.html ! (that should keep you 
busy.... :-) )

Once you know what works for you, you may want to photograph all of your 
mom's work, make a website, .... and increase your inheritance :-)

Good Luck, tOM
--------------- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Olympus-Documentation
tOM Trottier,   ICQ:57647974    http://abacurial.com
        758 Albert St, Ottawa ON Canada K1R 7V8 
        +1 613 860-6633 fax:231-6115 N45.412 W75.714
"The moment one gives close attention to anything, 
even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, 
awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself -- 
Henry Miller, 1891-1980


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