A 50mm (35mm equiv. 75mm) lens would be ok for 3/4 length to full length portraits, but a little short for close ups of face and might give some distortion.
Look at photographs, analyse them. Why do you like them? Why dont you like them? If you are unable to do this with other peoples photographs how can you know when to press the shutter when looking through the viewfinder of your camera? Technique can be learnt. In the days of film I would have said learn how to develop the eye, developing the film can be learnt from a list of instructions.
11mm lens on full frame? Much too wide for the purpose. Many many years ago I regularly did photographs for a Homes and Gardens feature for a local magazine, and used a Rollei (2 1/4 inch Sq. 80mm lens). Not always ideal, but the camera with the widest lens I possessed at that tme. It did however give realistic undistorted shots.
I would suggest that using a blower is the best policy. The least the lens is touched the better. If the blower doesnt work use a lens cleaning brush and, only as a last resort a cloth, used with care. The number of times Ive seen photographers scrubbing their lenses with vigour, risking a permanently scratched lens. A few specks of dust on the lens should make very little difference to image quality. I only clean my lenses when absolutely necessary, that is very rarely.
If you have a separate scratch disk how would you empty it, and would it affect the saved files on your main hard drive that have been worked on via the scratch disk?
The best way is to photograph the paintings from above. This is ideally done on a vertical copy stand. It would mean that you could set up the camera and art work with the aid of a spirit level. I do realize however that the paintings might be too large for this, but if you intend to copy a lot of artwork it might be an idea to make something up (fixed to a wall) that allows you to place the camera so that the lens is immediately above the centre of the painting. Again ideally you would want to be able to move the camera up and down in a similar way that you would an enlarger, but you might be able to adjust the height of the painting, or use slight variations in the zoom, it is however best to set the zoom at about the equivalent of a standard lens. (i.e. the approximate diagonal of the sensor). On wide-angle setting it could distort. You are right, a light either side of the artwork at 45 degrees, and far enough away to create even lighting should be used for work behind glass. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection, so no reflected light should hit the lens. Take on the good advice of others regarding blacking out the camera etc.
I live in Devon. Great place to visit, Dartmoor to the West Exmoor to the East and miles of interesting coastline, especially in North Devon. Can't guarantee any month for good weather though, very unpredictable, although it sometimes makes for some interesting landscapes. I think Ireland has even more rain than we do.
It does depend so much on the photograph, but I think you can't go far wrong with a thin black frame, Works especially well when framing black & white.
Many many thanks for all the information. Given me much to think about.
In most cases Mac seems to win the day, with a few reservations on their monitors.
Are there any downsides or compatibility issues with connecting Eizo (recommended by Bob Hartung) or NEC (recommended by Berchman) screens to a Mac, either as part of a 2 screen set up or one screen connected to a Mac Mini Plus?
Can anyone recommend a computer (PC or Mac) and display monitor for use with Photoshop CS6? My Budget is around £1,500 ($2,300) and certainly no more than £1,700 ($2,600).
Most of the work carried out will be printed on an Epson R3000.
Very grateful for your views.
Have had my R2400 for six years now and have very rarely had to clean the heads. It is certainly not used constantly, as I might make several prints in one day and then not use it again for many weeks. I was told when I bought it to leave it swiched on all the time to alleviate the ink drying up problem, but have never read this advice anywhere else. It does however seem to work. Or maybe I've just been lucky.
I have the R2400, excellent printer for colour and monochrome, but if I needed to replace it would certainly go for the R3000 because of the larger ink cartridges. Not only slightly cheaper but don't have to fiddle around changing cartriges so often.
The K1000 is an great camera to learn the basics of photography. That is why it was used by many colleges throuout the UK. But do get an earlier model that was made in Japan. They were well built to last. The later ones were made in China and did not stand the sort of use that was expected of them as a teaching tool. The construction of the lenses on these later models was prticualry poor.
Have a look at this site which discribes the difference.
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-film-slr-discussion/82649-k1000-how-tell-japan-made-version.html