Photographing artwork

Snapsh0t

Snapsh0t

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I'm involved with a project at the local museum to photograph almost 500 pieces of artwork of wildly different sizes, some glazed, some not. The space we'll be working in is lit by small spots so reflections are a major problem. I have a 20" light tent we can use for the smaller works but there are many large items. I've suggested a wooden frame with a couple of white sheets over it to act as a light tent so we can light whatever's on the easel from the sides. Obviously, being a museum with no public funding, budget is non-existent......

If anyone's got any experience with this sort of thing or better ideas than mine then I'd appreciate hearing from you.
 
Well, you haven't given any real info about the range of artwork that needs to be photographed, but I'm assuming that it will be a very wide range.

You'll be able to get "record" shots of small items using a light tent, and your idea of having white sheets (but think plain white shower curtains instead) stapled to wooden frames will work equally well/badly for larger items, but in my experience you'll end up with mediocre shots of special items that deserve better.

And some of the items are bound to need a much more professional approach, with the right kind of lighting equipment used by a photographer who is skilled in lighting still life subjects - a fairly rare skill.
I suppose one possibility would be to see whether a local camera club is willing to help but by no means all camera clubs have people who are skilled in this field, even if they think they are...

I don't want to be negative, but if they have a non-existent budget, that's the thing they need to change
:exit:
 
We're just working on the framed items which are oils, water colours, prints from engraving, etc., etc. The smallest are probably only 6 inches square, the largest are at least 3 feet.
We're not after perfection with the photography, just a decent record shot to use in MODES (the standard museum database system).
Thanks for the idea about the shower curtains.
The lack of budget is normal for the environment so there's no point railing against it. If you want to do the job you just have to work with or around it.
 
Snapsh0t said:
The lack of budget is normal for the environment so there's no point railing against it. If you want to do the job you just have to work with or around it.
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I've had to do similar in the past Snapshot, I feel your pain, the no-budget thing is fairly non-negotiable isn't it! 99p in Asda gets you a plain white shower curtain and a few quid gets you plastic 'canes' from a DIY store to make a frame. Ideal? No. Good enough for the requirements? Definitely!
 
Thanks for the encouragement, Del. I'll see if the museum handyman (a volunteer like most of us) has time to produce anything when I go in on Monday afternoon.
 
One of the biggest challenges with shooting artwork is representing only the diffuse (colour) information and not confusing it with specular (reflective) light.
The professional work is often undertaken using what's called a cross-polarised setup, where the flashes or lights are polarised with polarising film, and a polarising filter is used on the camera to eliminate the specular light, leaving only the colour information.

More information here: http://chsopensource.org/2013/02/27/polarized-light-photography-for-art-documentation
 
Denyerec said:
One of the biggest challenges with shooting artwork is representing only the diffuse (colour) information and not confusing it with specular (reflective) light.
The professional work is often undertaken using what's called a cross-polarised setup, where the flashes or lights are polarised with polarising film, and a polarising filter is used on the camera to eliminate the specular light, leaving only the colour information.

More information here: http://chsopensource.org/2013/02/27/polarized-light-photography-for-art-documentation
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You're not wrong, but the OP has NO budget, so there won't even be any lights to fit the linear polarising screens to...
 
Denyerec said:
One of the biggest challenges with shooting artwork is representing only the diffuse (colour) information and not confusing it with specular (reflective) light.
The professional work is often undertaken using what's called a cross-polarised setup, where the flashes or lights are polarised with polarising film, and a polarising filter is used on the camera to eliminate the specular light, leaving only the colour information.

More information here: http://chsopensource.org/2013/02/27/polarized-light-photography-for-art-documentation
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Garry Edwards said:
You're not wrong, but the OP has NO budget, so there won't even be any lights to fit the linear polarising screens to...
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No budget is no budget, but physics is also physics. The works include oil paintings, and in my limited experience of photographing old masters the only way of killing all reflections off the shiny and uneven paint surface is to use the cross polarisers method. You may get an acceptable 'record' shot without, suitable for a small reproduction in a catalogue or whatever, and it also depends on the painter's technique, but unlikely to be 100%. Polarising film is cheap. Small pieces to cover a speedlite head are on ebay for a few pounds.

The alternative is to clean up in post processing and, just guessing here, I think that's probably a workable solution. With careful lighting and a bit of luck, you should end up with just a few bright speckles that could be cloned out.
 
What gets my goat here is that someone (OK, hundreds if not thousands of someone's) have contributed an enormous amount of time and skill to make these various exhibits that need to be photographed, but the museum that these exhibits have been entrusted to aren't able (or willing) to spend ANYTHING on photographing them.

Many members here can make suggestions, but all of these suggestions require some expenditure, so we're just wasting our time.
 
No budget for a museum? Must be up North. London gets a bunch of cash for pretty much anything, including pointless bridges that no-one wants...

Snapshot - do you at least have a tripod, or a pile of bricks you can rest the camera on ? If so, knock together an overhead frame (Borrow one of those garden gazebo things from a friend?) and cover it with tracing paper, shower curtains, whatever you can find or steal. I'm assuming you planned to steal or recycle the wood, as this is going to cost a lot more than the polarising film...

Once you've done that, whack the artwork in the newly sellotaped together light tent and, with the camera on the pile of bricks / books you can at least then use relatively long shutter times to shoot the artwork, with the light tent effectively flattening out the harsh reflections from the overhead spots.


Now, if you want to cough up a couple of days lunchmoney to do it properly...

These are £3 each: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-Galaxy-Mega-6-3-I9200-Polarizing-Polarizer-Film-LCD-Digitizer/121879189655?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=35308&meid=d0dcde1707d54ad1a90acb33fa8d0244&pid=100005&rk=5&rkt=6&sd=121879189478

If you buy two, and tape them to the fronts of a pair of worklights (Halogen, but the heat might be a problem), you can then use a circular polariser (Linear works better, but I'll assume you already have a circular, or a friend who does) to cut the reflections from the artwork and shoot in peace.

£6 for two pola films, borrow some LED worklights & get on with it I'd say. Presumably you're paid by the hour to be in the museum, be there for half the time and use the rest of the money they would have spent on you to fart around building a ramshackle light tent on some parts that will help :)
 
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Have you tried negotiating them up on budget? Most comedians will start with none, when in fact they did have money but just didn't want to put it back out into the economy (due to sheer laziness and greed in my view - but that is another discussion!).
 
Denyerec said:
If you buy two, and tape them to the fronts of a pair of LED worklights (Don't use Halogen, the heat might be a problem), you can then use a circular polariser (Linear works better, but I'll assume you already have a circular, or a friend who does) to cut the reflections from the artwork and shoot in peace.

£6 for two pola films, borrow some LED worklights & get on with it I'd say. Presumably you're paid by the hour to be in the museum, be there for half the time and use the rest of the money they would have spent on you to fart around building a ramshackle light tent on some parts that will help :)
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But then the CRI of cheapy LED worklights is terrible. Hell the CRI of some more expensive photography-intended lights isn't great, so far from ideal for trying to replicate paintings accurately!
 
You're actually dead right, I have no idea what farted in my brain there, given that I'm just in the process of going through LED bin charts building a panel lamp myself, and fretting over CRIs!

Halogens would be a much better cheap solution if you can mitigate the heat.
 
Denyerec said:
You're actually dead right, I have no idea what farted in my brain there, given that I'm just in the process of going through LED bin charts building a panel lamp myself, and fretting over CRIs!

Halogens would be a much better cheap solution if you can mitigate the heat.
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Haha you and I both - let me know if you come up with any particularly nice looking ones please?!
 
Halogens have a serious heat problem, and it's extremely difficult to fit any kind of modifiers to them,
Fluorescents don't have a heat problem but again there is a very limited range of modifiers
CRI is a waste of time where accurate colour rendition matters, much worse than fluorescent.

Studio flash is the perfect solution, with no downsides.
Cheap hotshoe flashguns are a reasonable substitute for studio flash, and are far better, and far cheaper, than the continuous light choices.
 
Denyerec said:
How is selecting LEDs based on CRI a waste of time ? Or are you saying any LED lighting is a waste of time? ARRI and Westcott might be interested to hear that so they can stop making kit... :)
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Yes, there are some good LED's, but what we're talking about here isn't the high end stuff, it's the bargain basement "professional photographic lighting" sold on t'internet and which might appeal to people who only have a small (or zero) budget.
 
The important thing to remember here really is the end goal. In the OP's case, the photographs aren't for any use where image reproduction is actually important. For the given purpose they probably wouldn't care if 50% of the colour spectrum was missing and it was shot on a fisheye, so Denyerec's suggestion of polarised LED's is actually quite pertinent - just needs to be qualified for any others reading the thread that may have more precise requirements from artistic reproduction. I've shot artwork for reproduction outside on a slightly cloudy day with a shower curtain and got some of the best results lol

BTW shower curtains also skew colour balance :D
 
I accept your point about quality being considered not to be important for these shots.
Davince said:
BTW shower curtains also skew colour balance :D
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Of course they do, pretty much everything does. But colour balance is easily corrected, poor colour rendition isn't.
 
Garry Edwards said:
What gets my goat here is that someone (OK, hundreds if not thousands of someone's) have contributed an enormous amount of time and skill to make these various exhibits that need to be photographed, but the museum that these exhibits have been entrusted to aren't able (or willing) to spend ANYTHING on photographing them.

Many members here can make suggestions, but all of these suggestions require some expenditure, so we're just wasting our time.
Click to expand...


This sort of comment is not just coming from Garry but from others too, so my reply is not at all personal to him, but I think this sort of statement is very unjust to museums. Councils under huge pressure from the governments 'austerity' drive are cutting museum and library services all over the country. Its kill the museums and libraries or take away care and support from the elderly and sick. Its getting that basic. Loads of museums are being permanently closed down, even when popular attractions to the public. Charging for museum entrance is being brought back in, excluding the poor from visiting. Swindon Libraries are proposing closing every library in their region except just one. How long before nearly every library and museum in the UK is closed down, except those tourist based ones in London ? Potentially Its not as far off as you may think.

http://www.museumsassociation.org/m...nd-the-UK-put-at-risk-because-of-funding-cuts

Local council run museums belong to the public. We have a choice - try to support them and their collections until we get a more concerned and caring government or just throw centuries of conservation and education back into non accessible private collections by selling them off. Museums are not private companies looking for advertising shots on the cheap, they are cultural heritage with ever less money.

I applaud the original poster in their aim to help support a facility of value to so many of the public and this is one of the few times when I think creating images at reduced cost or for free on a charity basis is (at this point in political time) a very decent and wonderful thing to be involved with. As a person who adored going to the local museum (and libraries) as I child, I thank anyone who is helping with this sort of stuff, so that adults and kids of now and the future can have some hope of such facilities still being accessible to normal everyday people.

Are people really so unaware of what we are loosing culturally and educationally due to the truly massive funding cuts?
 
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MidnightUK said:
Are people really so unaware of what we are loosing culturally and educationally due to the truly massive funding cuts?
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The sad fact is that there are members of the public who think libraries are a waste of public funds because you (i.e. they) can buy books. These people don't have much time for museums or the arts either. Makes my p*** boil.
 
My local libraries are jammed full of people using them to the extent that the computers (its not all just books now you know!) actually have a booking system and still get queues of people waiting as well.

I knew someone who was an attendant in Bristol museum last time there were charges to enter and he said it went from a busy place to nearly empty of visitors. It is important to remember such attractions are not free anyhow as we all pay taxes towards them already. When the charges were dropped a few years back, all the people returned. I used to drop in often for the odd 30 mins to an hour but it became unviable for me as soon as fees came in. I think it was about £4 even back then, which is good for a day if you are on your own, but not for lots of short frequent visits or if you also have to pay for a friend/partner and kids as well. Just not viable, esp as so many people who work are on only minimum wage. I cant imagine what the entrance fee would be by now, surely at least £8 per person if not even more Plus a whole day in a museum is too overwhelming to manage, as its way too much information to cope with.
 
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A bit of catch-up: this particular museum is not publicly owned or supported but relies on whatever funding the director can raise plus entry fees and donations. Fortunately, he's good at it and we have some important exhibits like the Stonehenge gold.
We have a Canon 700D plus 18-55mm lens and a nasty Velbon tripod. I've brought in a suitable remote I found in my bits box. I set the camera to Av mode, fixed the ISO and stopped the lens down a bit. A curtain has been draped behind the camera to cut off the direct lighting from the ceiling spots and we're using the diffuse lighting provided by the rest. This gives reasonable results, just a little warm as far as I can see on the camera screen. T'other photography volunteer did the bulk of the framed items so I'm now working through loose items in storage boxes. The museum employee in charge of the project is happy with the results and that's really all that matters.
 
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