Photographing paintings behind glass

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I'm tearing my hair out in trying to photograph some of my wife's paintings which are in frames and behind glass. Is there any realistic expectation of avoiding any reflections?

I'm using a Canon 5D4 with a Canon 24-105.
 
This is the world's simplest problem to solve:)

The angle of reflectance always equals the angle of incidence, so all that you have to do is to make sure that your lighting is at an angle that doesn't reflect into the lens.

At its simplest, what you need is a softbox that is at least equal in size (can be bigger) than the shortest edge of the painting, place it over to one side at an angle of 45 degrees.

But this will cause another problem because the side nearest to the softbox will receive far more light than the side furthest away (inverse square law) which means that you need an identical softbox on the other side too.

Make sure that the camera is dead square to the painting.

This lighting will avoid all unwanted reflections but isn't always ideal for some designs of frame.

A polariser isn't needed but won't do any harm and occasionally may help slightly.
 
I had a nightmare with this a couple of years ago when trying to photograph some miniatures for a book. It's pretty much as Garry said but watch out for shadows or reflections from the frame.
 
This is the world's simplest problem to solve:)

The angle of reflectance always equals the angle of incidence, so all that you have to do is to make sure that your lighting is at an angle that doesn't reflect into the lens.

At its simplest, what you need is a softbox that is at least equal in size (can be bigger) than the shortest edge of the painting, place it over to one side at an angle of 45 degrees.

But this will cause another problem because the side nearest to the softbox will receive far more light than the side furthest away (inverse square law) which means that you need an identical softbox on the other side too.

Make sure that the camera is dead square to the painting.

This lighting will avoid all unwanted reflections but isn't always ideal for some designs of frame.

A polariser isn't needed but won't do any harm and occasionally may help slightly.

Thanks. Softboxes on their way!
 
...and the glass will need to be spotlessly clean.
Can't the glass be removed for the purpose of photographing?

I'll get the artist to clean the glass! It can't be removed as the backs of the frames are sealed and removing the seals would cause too much damage.
 
Thanks, I gave it a try but with no luck.
No surprise there then, a polariser can only be effective within a limited range of angles, the correct answer is the one that I gave you.
I had a nightmare with this a couple of years ago when trying to photograph some miniatures for a book. It's pretty much as Garry said but watch out for shadows or reflections from the frame.
Correct, the lighting for the flat artwork can be wrong for the frame, as I said. The complete answer is to take two shots, one lit for the frame and one lit for the artwork, and to then comp them together - that's the professional approach, which you may or may not want to do.
 
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