Advice on photographing paintings

[bremoran]

July 28, 2009 at 1:56 pm

Hi all,

I’ve been asked to photograph some paintings that will be reproduced and sold for charity. It’s a personal project for a friend, paintings done by one of his children. They will be reproduced approx A3 size (I don’t know where or how he’s getting them printed).

I’ll use a Nikon D90 with tripod – unsure what lens to use yet (will probably bring the kit 18-105mm VR, 50mm f1.8, and Sigma 10-20 – hopefully this should give me something that will suit). I don’t have any lighting equipment, hoping that I can find natural even light somewhere (maybe with something to bounce light in from the bottom, to remove shadows). I’ll shoot in RAW, to give more flexibility in touching up in Adobe Bridge (though I’ve little experience using this). I’ll get one of the smaller paintings beforehand, so I’ll have a better idea over the next few days hopefully.

I’m hoping for any advice or tips really, that anyone who has done anything like this previously might be able to pass on. I’ve not done anythig like this before, and obviously would like to give my friends the best results possible.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Brendan