Photographing a watercolour

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Am I correct in thinking that if I want to photograph a watercolour painting (with a view to printing the results), then I need to position my camera directly above the painting so as not to run into issues with diverging/converging straight lines, etc.
I'm assuming that light will be an issue. Any suggestions?
 
I took a couple of pictures of some watercolour paintings that I painted some time ago. Here's my take, but others may have better ideas...

The camera would need to be on the same plane as the painting, be the painting flat on a wall (preferable) or on a horizontal surface. The paper texture is an important part of watercolour paintings so the lighting should be similar to when it's viewed hanging on the wall. Also make sure you colour match the results to the original.
 
I put them flat on the wall, use a 100mm lens and bounce a flash off the white ceiling for even light.

Works for me.
 
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Way , way back when I had to photograph artwork, we used a sophisticated set up using polarised light and a polariser on the camera lens. This may be a bit overkill for what you are doing, however you may find that using a simple polarising filter on the camera may help .
 
Way , way back when I had to photograph artwork, we used a sophisticated set up using polarised light and a polariser on the camera lens. This may be a bit overkill for what you are doing, however you may find that using a simple polarising filter on the camera may help .
yes, the fine arts place i used to visit was much more sophisticated than my set up..
 
Way , way back when I had to photograph artwork, we used a sophisticated set up using polarised light and a polariser on the camera lens. This may be a bit overkill for what you are doing, however you may find that using a simple polarising filter on the camera may help .
X-Pola is probably not needed for a watercolour... sensor plane parallel to the painting and diffuse even lighting, maybe two diffused lights each side at 45degrees, grey card and colour checker would be useful.
 
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