I am a new artist with a dozen paintings I wish to photograph and then sell copies and/or gyclees of them online. I'm not sure what's out there, or which direction to go. Some paintings are watercolor, some acrylic, and some pastel (all flat). They range in size from 6" x 10", upwards to 36" x 72". Some of the smaller ones I might have scanned. I'm not sure if scanning the large ones would be more cost effective in the long run than taking my own photos. With my own photos, at least I have the option of some minor editing in photoshop. The mid size paintings average 16" x 20" to 28" x 40". I want to offer enlargements up to 36" x 60" without distortion. I may print some on metal or glass as well.
I saw a Sony Alpha SLT-a99ii on Amazon for sale for $500. I thought the 42 mp's might do a better job although the files would be very large, but I questioned the price as all the other 42mp's sell for 5x's more. His offer on Amazon has since been taken down (he claimed his contract ran out), and to order one has to contact him instead of Amazon. Sounded a little shady to me. The other camera that sounded good is a Nikon D850, but it's also out of my price range.
Nonetheless, any advice on what camera to buy, and what lens is appropriate for what I need to do for under $1,000, is welcome. Thanks, NL

I am a new artist with a dozen paintings I wish to photograph and then sell copies and/or gyclees of them online. I'm not sure what's out there, or which direction to go. Some paintings are watercolor, some acrylic, and some pastel (all flat). They range in size from 6" x 10", upwards to 36" x 72". Some of the smaller ones I might have scanned. I'm not sure if scanning the large ones would be more cost effective in the long run than taking my own photos. With my own photos, at least I have the option of some minor editing in photoshop. The mid size paintings average 16" x 20" to 28" x 40". I want to offer enlargements up to 36" x 60" without distortion. I may print some on metal or glass as well.
I saw a Sony Alpha SLT-a99ii on Amazon for sale for $500. I thought the 42 mp's might do a better job although the files would be very large, but I questioned the price as all the other 42mp's sell for 5x's more. His offer on Amazon has since been taken down (he claimed his contract ran out), and to order one has to contact him instead of Amazon. Sounded a little shady to me. The other camera that sounded good is a Nikon D850, but it's also out of my price range.
Nonetheless, any advice on what camera to buy, and what lens is appropriate for what I need to do for under $1,000, is welcome. Thanks, NL

I am a new artist with a dozen paintings I wish to photograph and then sell copies and/or gyclees of them online. I'm not sure what's out there, or which direction to go. Some paintings are watercolor, some acrylic, and some pastel (all flat). They range in size from 6" x 10", upwards to 36" x 72". Some of the smaller ones I might have scanned. I'm not sure if scanning the large ones would be more cost effective in the long run than taking my own photos. With my own photos, at least I have the option of some minor editing in photoshop. The mid size paintings average 16" x 20" to 28" x 40". I want to offer enlargements up to 36" x 60" without distortion. I may print some on metal or glass as well.
I saw a Sony Alpha SLT-a99ii on Amazon for sale for $500. I thought the 42 mp's might do a better job although the files would be very large, but I questioned the price as all the other 42mp's sell for 5x's more. His offer on Amazon has since been taken down (he claimed his contract ran out), and to order one has to contact him instead of Amazon. Sounded a little shady to me. The other camera that sounded good is a Nikon D850, but it's also out of my price range.
Nonetheless, any advice on what camera to buy, and what lens is appropriate for what I need to do for under $1,000, is welcome. Thanks, NL

I am a new artist with a dozen paintings I wish to photograph and then sell copies and/or gyclees of them online. I'm not sure what's out there, or which direction to go. Some paintings are watercolor, some acrylic, and some pastel (all flat). They range in size from 6" x 10", upwards to 36" x 72". Some of the smaller ones I might have scanned. I'm not sure if scanning the large ones would be more cost effective in the long run than taking my own photos. With my own photos, at least I have the option of some minor editing in photoshop. The mid size paintings average 16" x 20" to 28" x 40". I want to offer enlargements up to 36" x 60" without distortion. I may print some on metal or glass as well.
I saw a Sony Alpha SLT-a99ii on Amazon for sale for $500. I thought the 42 mp's might do a better job although the files would be very large, but I questioned the price as all the other 42mp's sell for 5x's more. His offer on Amazon has since been taken down (he claimed his contract ran out), and to order one has to contact him instead of Amazon. Sounded a little shady to me. The other camera that sounded good is a Nikon D850, but it's also out of my price range.
Nonetheless, any advice on what camera to buy, and what lens is appropriate for what I need to do for under $1,000, is welcome. Thanks, NL

A $1,000 limit may be a tall order for a decent copy setup. You budge, beside a good camera body and lens has to include some specific lighting requirements, a good quality polarizing filter and some polarizing filter for 2 light sources.

You don't need highly specialized camera/lens gear for short runs of prints for casual sales but if you get into high volume lithographic production, the standards and accompanying requirements may entail higher quality and thereby calling for far more costly equipment.


I would suggest a full frame body and a macro lens in either a 60mm or 100mm focal length. These lenses deliver good quality at closer and moderately close distances so these will accommodate the size range you specified.

Lighting is extremely important for even exposure, control of any glare or reflection that could result from the paints, varnishes or other finishes that you apply to your paintings. Cross-polarized lighting is important not only for reflection or glare control but to obtain proper contrast and color saturation.

You can probably use LED lighting units or electronic flash. LEDs are probably less expensive and you can see exactly what you are doing- flash gear with modeling lamps would be more costly.

You can make a fixed setup with 2 lights, each placed at 45 degrees to the camera/subject axis. Each light is equipped with a plastic polarizing screen oriented according to the markings provided on the cardboard frames that retain the filters. A good optical glass CPL filter is placed on the lens. As you rotate the filter you will see the negation of glare and the increase in color saturation. You can meter the light at all 4 corners of each painting to ensure that it is even and make a few bracketed exposure of each painting.

If you create palette knife or bas relief work, you can use only one of the lights to retain the surface texture- that is called interpretative copying.

As others have alluded to, you will need some gray cards and color checking targets to keep things calibrated.


You can research the used market for the camera and lens gear. A crop-sensor can work but if you equip yourself with a better body, this may be more economical going forward. I'm sure you can fie a good used macro lens. Check with B&H, KEH, Adorama and some of the other reputable dealers.

In my commercial business, I do quite a bit of art reproduction for artists, galleries, dealers, museums, and folks who assess, authenticate and evaluate artwork. The aforementioned setup it the system I use. It may seem very complex but once you have it set up, even out the lighting and standardize your and exposure, it becomes easy and routine to record all of you work as you produce it.

Theses system works well on works of various mediums- oils, acrylics, watercolors, tempera, pen and ink, pencil sketches, etchings, etc.

I will attach a basic lighting diagram, a shot of the polarizing screen that is employed over the lights and a typical painting I have copied. This one is about 60x80 inches, hanging in a museum and could not be removed from the frame. The diagram of the copy stand and a large format camera is just to give you a basic idea of the setup. A digital camera mounted on a sturdy tripod and a mechanism to hold your paintings on the wall will work well- just keep the camera exactly parallel to the wall, level, and centered to he painting.

I wish I had better news for your budgetary questions. I have used Nikon and Canon gear for this kind of work. There are other good brands as well but perhaps it will be more likely to find some good used gear in theses makes. The polarized lighting filter material is available from Roscoe photographic and stages lighting suppliers (Google them for a dealer near you). Excellent CPL filters are made by Hoya, Zeiss, and B+W.

I am a new artist with a dozen paintings I wish to photograph and then sell copies and/or gyclees of them online. I'm not sure what's out there, or which direction to go. Some paintings are watercolor, some acrylic, and some pastel (all flat). They range in size from 6" x 10", upwards to 36" x 72". Some of the smaller ones I might have scanned. I'm not sure if scanning the large ones would be more cost effective in the long run than taking my own photos. With my own photos, at least I have the option of some minor editing in photoshop. The mid size paintings average 16" x 20" to 28" x 40". I want to offer enlargements up to 36" x 60" without distortion. I may print some on metal or glass as well.
I saw a Sony Alpha SLT-a99ii on Amazon for sale for $500. I thought the 42 mp's might do a better job although the files would be very large, but I questioned the price as all the other 42mp's sell for 5x's more. His offer on Amazon has since been taken down (he claimed his contract ran out), and to order one has to contact him instead of Amazon. Sounded a little shady to me. The other camera that sounded good is a Nikon D850, but it's also out of my price range.
Nonetheless, any advice on what camera to buy, and what lens is appropriate for what I need to do for under $1,000, is welcome. Thanks, NL

I am a new artist with a dozen paintings I wish to photograph and then sell copies and/or gyclees of them online. I'm not sure what's out there, or which direction to go. Some paintings are watercolor, some acrylic, and some pastel (all flat). They range in size from 6" x 10", upwards to 36" x 72". Some of the smaller ones I might have scanned. I'm not sure if scanning the large ones would be more cost effective in the long run than taking my own photos. With my own photos, at least I have the option of some minor editing in photoshop. The mid size paintings average 16" x 20" to 28" x 40". I want to offer enlargements up to 36" x 60" without distortion. I may print some on metal or glass as well.
I saw a Sony Alpha SLT-a99ii on Amazon for sale for $500. I thought the 42 mp's might do a better job although the files would be very large, but I questioned the price as all the other 42mp's sell for 5x's more. His offer on Amazon has since been taken down (he claimed his contract ran out), and to order one has to contact him instead of Amazon. Sounded a little shady to me. The other camera that sounded good is a Nikon D850, but it's also out of my price range.
Nonetheless, any advice on what camera to buy, and what lens is appropriate for what I need to do for under $1,000, is welcome. Thanks, NL

A $1,000 limit may be a tall order for a decent copy setup. You budge, beside a good camera body and lens has to include some specific lighting requirements, a good quality polarizing filter and some polarizing filter for 2 light sources.

You don't need highly specialized camera/lens gear for short runs of prints for casual sales but if you get into high volume lithographic production, the standards and accompanying requirements may entail higher quality and thereby calling for far more costly equipment.


I would suggest a full frame body and a macro lens in either a 60mm or 100mm focal length. These lenses deliver good quality at closer and moderately close distances so these will accommodate the size range you specified.

Lighting is extremely important for even exposure, control of any glare or reflection that could result from the paints, varnishes or other finishes that you apply to your paintings. Cross-polarized lighting is important not only for reflection or glare control but to obtain proper contrast and color saturation.

You can probably use LED lighting units or electronic flash. LEDs are probably less expensive and you can see exactly what you are doing- flash gear with modeling lamps would be more costly.

You can make a fixed setup with 2 lights, each placed at 45 degrees to the camera/subject axis. Each light is equipped with a plastic polarizing screen oriented according to the markings provided on the cardboard frames that retain the filters. A good optical glass CPL filter is placed on the lens. As you rotate the filter you will see the negation of glare and the increase in color saturation. You can meter the light at all 4 corners of each painting to ensure that it is even and make a few bracketed exposure of each painting.

If you create palette knife or bas relief work, you can use only one of the lights to retain the surface texture- that is called interpretative copying.

As others have alluded to, you will need some gray cards and color checking targets to keep things calibrated.


You can research the used market for the camera and lens gear. A crop-sensor can work but if you equip yourself with a better body, this may be more economical going forward. I'm sure you can fie a good used macro lens. Check with B&H, KEH, Adorama and some of the other reputable dealers.

In my commercial business, I do quite a bit of art reproduction for artists, galleries, dealers, museums, and folks who assess, authenticate and evaluate artwork. The aforementioned setup it the system I use. It may seem very complex but once you have it set up, even out the lighting and standardize your and exposure, it becomes easy and routine to record all of you work as you produce it.

Theses system works well on works of various mediums- oils, acrylics, watercolors, tempera, pen and ink, pencil sketches, etchings, etc.

I will attach a basic lighting diagram, a shot of the polarizing screen that is employed over the lights and a typical painting I have copied. This one is about 60x80 inches, hanging in a museum and could not be removed from the frame. The diagram of the copy stand and a large format camera is just to give you a basic idea of the setup. A digital camera mounted on a sturdy tripod and a mechanism to hold your paintings on the wall will work well- just keep the camera exactly parallel to the wall, level, and centered to he painting.

I wish I had better news for your budgetary questions. I have used Nikon and Canon gear for this kind of work. There are other good brands as well but perhaps it will be more likely to find some good used gear in theses makes. The polarized lighting filter material is available from Roscoe photographic and stages lighting suppliers (Google them for a dealer near you). Excellent CPL filters are made by Hoya, Zeiss, and B+W.