Photographing Paintings?

[pepe]

I have a friend who would like me to take some pictures of her paintings because she would like to sell them. I have a standard kit Nikon D80, and wll hopefully buy the 1.8mm lens today. What could I do to make sure these turn out great??

[peeperita]

try for flat even lighting if possible........and if they are not too reflective....(i'm not sure what medium she uses or if they are behind glass).....i suggest shooting straight on to keep perspective distortions down to a minimum.....

peeper

[candleman]

the biggest problem isnt the lens it will be the light.
you'll need to make sure you have your white balance dead right otherwise the colours of the painting will be distorted.
also, and hard light will create shadows, (bad) unless its impressionist and theres textures and bits of old sock stuck to the canvas. then you'll need a bit of shadow to bring out the testures a bit.

soft, diffused white light, and it should help cut down reflections.