On the surface, one might think that it is easy to capture a quality picture of an oil painting, but it can be deceiving!
If you are looking to capture a high quality reproduction of your artwork, make sure that you consider the following:
- Accurate color: the gamut of colors, brightness, and saturation should match the original. The image needs to be white balanced to deliver a true gray scale.
- No glare: Oil paintings are three-dimensional and light from any angle will introduce unwanted glare that robs the image of true blacks; it introduces a white cast. You could correct it in Photoshop, but that will introduce unwanted contrast and color shifts. This must be taken care of in the lighting setup.
- Resolution: With today's digital cameras, smaller pieces are easy to reproduce with sufficient resolution to get a full sized reproduction, but what about a 20"x30" painting? Without a high quality lens and high resolution camera, the full sized reproduction will not be crisp enough; it will look fuzzy.
- Distortion: The tendency is to use a wide angle lens to fit the whole piece in the viewfinder, but that will distort the artwork and without a high quality lens could introduce aberrations on the edges.
- Perspective: If the camera and artwork are not perfectly aligned on equivalent planes, the top of the image will be a different width than the bottom (ex. camera is tilted up slightly to get everything in the image).
Make sure the photographer has a handle on the unique challenges of artwork reproduction, especially oil paintings with their 3D glossy attributes.
 | RWins Photography combines the knowledge of a Photographic Science degree from RIT with 30 years of photography experience and attention to detail that gives you an accurate digital rendition of your masterpiece! Give us a call at 828-243-5392 and tell us about your needs! |