Lighting for copying prints and posters
Dec 25, 2017 20:19:37 #
Hello from Tasmania and happy Xmas. (It’s Boxing Day, Sydney to Hobart race is about to start).
I have a small picture framing shop and have recently purchased an Epson 9900 printer to complement my framing and love of photography.
One job I am asked is to reproduce and copy art, and I admit Iam at a loss when it comes to the type of lighting I need. A lot of the art will be A4/A3 so I’ll use a copy stand/ tripod setup but some will be poster size so I’ll mount on the wall and copy.
I understand LED contstant light is the thing at the moment, any help greatly appreciated.
Jeremy
I have a small picture framing shop and have recently purchased an Epson 9900 printer to complement my framing and love of photography.
One job I am asked is to reproduce and copy art, and I admit Iam at a loss when it comes to the type of lighting I need. A lot of the art will be A4/A3 so I’ll use a copy stand/ tripod setup but some will be poster size so I’ll mount on the wall and copy.
I understand LED contstant light is the thing at the moment, any help greatly appreciated.
Jeremy
Dec 25, 2017 20:38:53 #
Dec 25, 2017 20:44:37 #
Dec 25, 2017 21:09:19 #
jezzyj70 wrote:
Hello from Tasmania and happy Xmas. (It’s Boxing D... (show quote)
630 nautical miles while some nut is flying around in a sleigh pulled by a bunch of confused caribou? I hope they don’t try to land in a crow’s nest.
Dec 25, 2017 21:26:51 #
Color temperature isn't that important. You need to adjust the camera to match but only once. What important and difficult is to prevent reflection of the light source and to light evenly.
Dec 25, 2017 22:10:10 #
Yeah I think shooting in raw and using a colour card will sort the temp issue, certainly the even lighting is what I want and no hot spots, so I need a diffused light source then
Dec 25, 2017 22:14:59 #
jezzyj70 wrote:
Hello from Tasmania and happy Xmas. (It’s Boxing D... (show quote)
Jeremy, Great article on what you want to do
https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-photograph-paintings-and-prints-with-copy-lighting--cms-22925
Dec 26, 2017 01:03:01 #
After reading that I was still wondering what sort of light source he was using as he forgot to mention it!
Thankfully a reader asked that question, and seems it doesn’t really matter the type of constant lighting as long as your colour correct for it, and I need a soft box or diffuser over the light.
Maybe I don’t need to buy into LED PANEL LIGHTS after all. 😊
Thankfully a reader asked that question, and seems it doesn’t really matter the type of constant lighting as long as your colour correct for it, and I need a soft box or diffuser over the light.
Maybe I don’t need to buy into LED PANEL LIGHTS after all. 😊
Dec 26, 2017 06:36:45 #
jezzyj70 wrote:
After reading that I was still wondering what sort of light source he was using as he forgot to mention it!
Thankfully a reader asked that question, and seems it doesn’t really matter the type of constant lighting as long as your colour correct for it, and I need a soft box or diffuser over the light.
Maybe I don’t need to buy into LED PANEL LIGHTS after all. 😊
Thankfully a reader asked that question, and seems it doesn’t really matter the type of constant lighting as long as your colour correct for it, and I need a soft box or diffuser over the light.
Maybe I don’t need to buy into LED PANEL LIGHTS after all. 😊
Also the lights must be at a 45 angle to the wall, as they are on a copy stand. That should avoid reflections.
Dec 26, 2017 06:49:46 #
billnikon
Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont
jezzyj70 wrote:
Hello from Tasmania and happy Xmas. (It’s Boxing D... (show quote)
I have always used direct sunlight from a window, just inside the direct light and into the open shade. Or, I set my color temp for my florescent shop lights which have always worked for me.
Dec 26, 2017 10:36:04 #
jezzyj70 wrote:
One job I am asked is to reproduce and copy art, and I admit I am at a loss when it comes to the type of lighting I need. A lot of the art will be A4/A3 so I’ll use a copy stand/ tripod setup but some will be poster size so I’ll mount on the wall and copy.
Several decades ago I needed/wanted to make some Kodachrome slides of some existing work (so, it was essentially the situation as for the copies you want to produce) ...
The house I was renting had an open, south facing porch on which I could set up my "artwork" (... leaned against the back of a simple lawn chair (!), so the flat surface was at about the angle of a music stand easel) and camera (facing south at the same angle ... I used a 90mm-180mm Macro zoom lens to ensure a rectilinear, flat field because the originals were smaller than 11x14 (of course, a 50mm-60mm Macro lens would probably be more suitable for larger originals) + to make framing easier on multiple images which varied slightly in size) ... essentially, providing "northern light" (of course, you would want a south facing porch OR one of the equivalent suggestions already made to provide indirect natural light) ...
IMO, the color balance was perfectly neutral.
Dec 26, 2017 10:57:29 #
bpulv
Loc: Buena Park, CA
jezzyj70 wrote:
Hello from Tasmania and happy Xmas. (It’s Boxing D... (show quote)
This is how I learned to do it using photoflood lights. The principles are the same for any type of lights. The key is to make sure your lighting is uniform over the entire surface you are copying
1) The subject must be parallel to the back of your camera with the lens centered on the subject.
2) Two lights must be placed, one on each side, of the subject at 45 degree angles to the plane of the subject.
3) The lights must be adjusted to be of equal brightness measured at the center of the subject with an incident light meter. The meter should be placed flat on the subject with the dome pointed toward the camera lens.
4) First turn on one light and measure it's intensity at the center of the subject.
5) Turn off the first light and turn on the second light.
6) Adjust the second light's intensity to the same light meter reading as the first by adjusting its distance from the subject while maintaining the 45 degree angle.
7) Turn on both lights and check with the meter to make sure that the lighting is even in the center and all four corners. If there are hot or dark areas, adjust the lights accordingly by changing there distance to the subject and repeating steps 2 through 6 until the lighting is uniform over the entire surface of the subject.
8) Take the picture.
Dec 27, 2017 10:34:03 #
MCHUGH
Loc: Jacksonville, Texas
Did copy work extensively back in the days I was in business. Both color and B&W most very old and some art work for the local artist. I used a set up with two lights place at 45 degrees to the work on each side. I used Photogenic flash units and took a flash reading with a flash meter reflective using an 18 percent grey card. The most important part of my setup that eliminated all reflection was each light had a polarizing filter and I had a polarizing filter on my camera. The filters on the lights was orientated in the same direction so by rotating the filter on the camera you could see the reflection disappear. Some of the old timers here will remember seeing very old B&W prints that all you could see was a silver looking reflection from a chemical reaction we called silvering. This set up removes that and you see detail and record detail you could not see with the naked eye. I got the filters for the lights from Edmond Scientific and they were not too expensive. Used this same light set up for commercial photography if needed to get rid of reflection on metal parts. Hope this will be of some help.
Dec 27, 2017 10:41:29 #
bpulv wrote:
This is how I learned to do it using photoflood li... (show quote)
It's better to use the incident meter with the flat diffuser.
Dec 27, 2017 15:16:39 #
Another thought! Although most flat bed scanner can't take the whole poster but you can scan in sections and merge them in post. Scanning eliminate all lighting problems.
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