Setup

  1. Lighting. For film work, we would need color balanced tungsten lights, and film to match. We’ve got more flexibility here, so we can use inexpensive Home Depot work lights, with their shadow-casting grids removed. Buy two sets of these, with two lights and a light stand each — about $20/set. Be very careful, these lights can get hot. When replacing burned out lights, never touch the element of the new bulb since your fingerprints will cause early burnout. Place the assembled lights at 45 degrees with the artwork.
  2. Holding the artwork. Non destructive would be really nice. Not intruding into the art would be nice, too. Not a problem if matted, but can be problematic with bare art.
  3. Camera settings (page numbers refer to your printed User Guide. Note that the .pdf file page numbers are offset from the User Guide page numbers by 2 — add 2 to the page number to visit the comparable page on the online guide.)
    1. Digital zoom. ALWAYS turn this OFF. Page 29.
    2. Flash. We’ll be using manual exposure settings, and flash is off by default, just the way we want it.
    3. ISO speed. Set this to 80 for maximum image quality. See page 62.
    4. Compression and Image Size. Pixels are cheap. You can’t create them after the fact. Use the maximum setting, then throw out later if you must. Use “Large” and “Superfine” (both). This creates the largest files with the lowest compression.
    5. Color temperature and white balance: White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the “color temperature” of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, however digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB). An incorrect WB can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green color casts, which are unrealistic and particularly damaging to portraits. Performing WB in traditional film photography requires attaching a different cast-removing filter for each lighting condition, whereas with digital this is no longer required. Understanding digital white balance can help you avoid color casts created by your camera’s AWB, thereby improving your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions. This tutorial continues at: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htmWe’ll set color temperature using the camera’s custom white balance feature, page 53. This involves photographing a white piece of paper (when it fully fills the screen).
    6. Manual focus, depth of field, focal length. Place the camera at a distance from the artwork that allows your “mid sized” art pieces to fill most of the field of view, with the zoom set at mid range. This will give you enough coverage to photograph a wide range without having to move the camera. Autofocus should work fine for flat art, but you may want to use manual focus for 3d.
    7. Exposure. Using manual exposure (page 43), set the aperature value to a higher number to maximize depth of field. It appears that the range on this camera is from f2.8 to f8.0. Select, say, f8. Put a large gray card in place of the artwork, and place/zoom the camera so that it sees the card, and only the card. Adjust the shutter speed so that it reads +0 when the shutter is half-depressed.
    8. Tripod. Be sure your tripod is fully locked down before taking pictures.
  4. Considerations for 3d work
    1. Lighting source. We’ve been using lights directly shining on the work for the 2d stuff. We’ll want a “broad source” for 3d. This is most easily obtained by bouncing the light off a reflector. Metal looking fabrics work really well - space blankets can still be found.
    2. Building a lighting ratio. To make 3d objects actually look three dimensional, the light coming from one side should be greater than the other by half a stop to maybe a stop and a half. These are gentle differences, and you can do it by eye, or use the spot meter capabilities of the camera to judge the setup.
    3. Background. Fabrics work really well, we’ve used no-wrinkle neutral gray stretchy stuff.
  5. Considerations for photographing work under glass. Yes indeed these can be done, with some special care. Art done with pastels must be kept covered, so you’ve got no choice.
    1. Place lights at 45 degrees
    2. The room must be otherwise dark
    3. Cover tripod legs and anything else that could reflect back into the glass with a black fabric