For copy work of any kind, the camera is perpendicular to the object to be copied (as already discussed. Mirror trick may be a good one!) If the paintings are on walls (at different heights) however, orienting the camera to the center each time (along with the lighting) will be a pain. What size are the paintings? If small enough, it may be easier to put the paintings flat and photograph with camera centered above. This makes lighting easier.
To eliminate glare, the lighting must be at a 45 degree angle to the photograph and ideally from both sides (two equal light sources/flashes). Angle of incidence = Angle of refraction, so the camera goes in the middle triangle of zero reflected light. I see the biggest experimenting to be getting even light all over the painting. Flashes into umbrellas or through soft boxes may provide the least "hot" light. Using an inexpensive Wein flash meter when popping the flashes will allow you to compare the light at each corner compared to the middle to make sure that your light is even. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wein-WP500B-Flash-Meter-W-Case-/330701741570?pt=US_Light_Meters&hash=item4cff5c1e02 (Super simple to use) Keep in mind that the texture will be affected by the lighting. You would hopefully be cancelling out shadows by using two lights from each side, but this is more theoretical than completely practical (affected by the size of the light source and its distance relative to the near and far edges of the painting). Regarding copyright... you would not own the copyright on any photograph of a flat artwork (U.S. Copyright law). If the person wanting to sell prints created the original art, then they could sell prints of it - and hire someone else to do the actual copy work. If the person wanting to sell prints was not the creator of the original art, then that art had better be in the Public Domain or THEY are violating the originator's copyright by selling copies of it. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
