I used to shoot for museums in SD, LA, SF... Your best lens is the one with the least barrel distortion; ideally a macro lens (they are designed for copy work) but if smardaz doesn't have one, probably your 50mm f/1.8 is best. You need a tripod. Unless you have a copy stand, which I'm sure you don't.
You want to mount the art on a true vertical wall so the center of the art, vertically and horizontally, is on the axis of the camera lens. You move the camera back on a line perpendicular to that point until the artwork is framed properly on the sensor. The easiest way to do this is with a cross-grid on the wall and a line taped on the floor. The camera wants to be in true vertical and horizontal orientation; that is to say, the back of the camera parallel to the wall on all 3 axes.
Lighting will depend on the size of the art. It's easiest to light with continuous (tungsten) lighting, not strobes. You set at least two lights, one on the left and one on the right, on lines at 45 degrees to the center of the image. You arrange the lights so the entire surface of the art is evenly illuminated, preferably by using an incident light meter to read the actual intensity of the light falling on each portion of the art: the center and all 4 corners. You are lighting with overlapping cones of light, and you arrange the overlap so the lighting is even.
Once the art gets up to a certain size, you start to require 4 lights, a high one and a low one on each of the 45-degree axes.
You shoot in RAW and set the white balance in post. Once you get it right, you bulk-process all the images to the same WB. If you need to be really precise, include a color calibration target in each exposure, just outside the art itself, and use that to check color accuracy. Assuming you do everything in one session, a single color calibrtation shot, of the card itself up close, no art, would probably be adequate for your needs.
Hope this helps.
R.
Message edited by author 2011-08-09 01:12:06. |
