Photographing Original Artwork

[anathoth]

I have been asked to photograph some original artwork for a few local artists. The images will be used for documentation, marketing and possibly to reprint.

Does anyone have experience with this? If so what kind of set-up did you use?

[digirebelva]

If they are behind glass a polarizer will probably be needed to mitigate the glare factor

[anathoth]

In my research I have read that a polarized lens filter should be used as well as polarized gels on strobes especially on acrylics and oils that have a "sheen". I do mostly natural light photography (portraits) so I don't have any studio equipment, but wondered if there is a way to effectively light and photograph paintings without it.

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by anathoth

The images will be used for documentation, marketing and possibly to reprint.

Documentation shots shouldn't be too difficult.

Marketing shots will require a fair amount of equipment and effort. You'll need to have the work evenly lit, you'll need the camera mounted centered and square-on to the work, and you'll be doing a lot of post-processing to handle lens corrections (maybe) and to get the colors and tone curve just right.

You can't get reprintable quality from a digital camera. The artwork needs to be scanned on a special flatbed scanner, and then requires a lot of careful color adjustment to compensate for both the scanner and the output equipment.