Help Needed Please Painting Glare

Greetings Melissa, this is a stunning oil, beautiful colors, and the composition, bravo to you. Now the lighting, is it any differ than other times you have photographed your work. try putting something over the light you are using. As on the movie sets, they use a filter shield in front of the light source, or an photographers umbrella if you have that. Or last resorts take the photo to photo shop and darken it a smidge.....this will enhance the bright colors and darken the darks, I have done this many times......see if that works for you, best of success with this oil. Cheers, Michael Hoard

Note: I can see it, check your camera lens and look carefully that a slight smudge is present on the lens it may not be glare but a smudge.

what is the original size of the canvas, maybe you are too close and its light bouncing back onto the canvas....

Beautiful. Flatten out the light with some diffusion panels. Get it as close to the subject as possible. A large roll of tracing paper might do it.

@Ed that for sure will soften any glare effects which are occurring...please lets us see your remedy....it comes across as an 18th century still life, a masterpiece oil.

Thank you guys for the compliments. I really appreciate them. Ill try an umbrella maybe? I have a huge black umbrella so Ill try that and see if it will work. Thank you guys for your help. :)

Micheal your right. I think I will glaze this one again to get rid of that smudge. Thank you so much

Edward, thank you .. ill try that too and see if it works..

Black umbrella? Black doesn't reflect well at all. I suggest white.
Btw, it's a wonderful painting,

A polariser will get rid of all glare, either a purpose built one, or even a neutral sunglass lens held close in front of the camera.

Ok Walter Ill see i can find a white one.

Mark whats a polarizer?

Polarizing filters.

https://www.adorama.com/searchsite/default.aspx?searchinfo=polarizing+filter

You might think about sticking a small flash diffuser over your flash.

There is a thread here somewhere on photographing paintings.

Meanwhile,

The easiest is to place your lights 45-degrees to the side. Don't shine a light directly at the painting. That's where glare comes from.

Use this over your lights.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/45130-REG/Rosco_101073001720_Polarizing_7300_Filter.html

and a polarizing filter on your lens.

Make sure that the filters on the lights are flat and the orientation in the same.

The one on the lens gets turned 90 degrees to the ones on the lights.

That is assuming one has lights that are easily positioned. I take it you are speaking of flash units?

Do you have this kind of equipment, Melissa?

@Murray, I remember your example once in another discussion and 45 degrees to the side is ideal.

@Walter good video as always, and you are correct about the white being the better choice than a black umbrella. Since being on the movie sets I constantly watch all the cameraman's assistants the different filters they use and placements of them. Also I have noticed still cameramen and camerawomen are using still with extremely wide lens shields for minimum glaring or additional light from the sides of the lens....I believe len's shield proper name.....

@Mark, I will have to try that sometime in the future when I take photos again......

Melissa,

Murray is right. Just use two lights,one on either side, or if the artwork is large, 2 sets of lights on either side. A polarizer might help, but iy might also create a slight color caste, if it's not a really good one.

Here is my page and the info for copying artwork. Just do a serach here for the full recipe:

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/rich-franco.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=148572&page=2



Ideally, you should have a person moving the lights on either side and YOU be behind the camera, looking through the viewfinder to see the effect of the lights and if it's causing any glare. This should be done in a dark room, so there is not any other lights causing the glare or introducing a color from the ambient light.

Once you get the lights right, it will look great, as it does already!

Rich

I worked for a repro lab for 4 years in the early 80's and I shot about 100 pieces of flat art a week.

Rich's set up is similar to what we did, except that we shot everything with cross polarization. Increased the contrast and saturation even on matte finishes.

If the color is a bit off due to the polarizer, cheaper ones tend to be a touch green, do a custom white balance with a neutral grey card ( not the Kodak 18% grey card, it's not color neutral ) if your camera lets you, or just shoot the card as a reference and white balance in your editing software.

Walter I sure dont have a set up.. I was told to take them outside for the white balance? I think I'll wait for sunrise and try again at that time.
Ill definately have to get this set up one day..I always wondered how they, they meaning photogs, took such wonderful photos of wall art and such. thank you for that info.

Melissa, if you're taking them outside, make sure you place them in the shade, or preferably, do it on a cloudy day. The shiny parts are caused by direct light hitting the surface of the painting (whether it's sunlight or artificial light), so if you choose a cloudy day, the clouds will act as a natural diffuser. White balance outside should be ok.

Melissa,

If you do take it outside, here's an easy set-up. With the sun high in the sky, 11:00 A.M. to about 2:00 p.m.,when the color of the sunlight is pure and not warm,like sunrise or sunset, take the artwork hang the art so the back is facing the sun and the front is facing you. Then just take 2 white boards,and bounce the light back at the artwork. The bounce cards should be still on a 45 degree form the artwork. Watch that the sunlight isn't on the front of the lens or you'll create a flare. You can just use a small board and keep the sun off the lens,while you shoot.

Rmemeber that the front of the lens and the artwork, needs to be perfectly parallel to each other,so there's no distortion of the artwork.

Rich

ok so here it is. The sun rises on the back of the house so I took the photo on the front porch. I reglazed the smudgy parts. I covered a chair with white sheet, placed the picture upright on the chair and covered me and the chair with another white sheet. I know it probably scared the neighbors. LOL.. No glare on the picture.. woohoo.. I think I like it much better.

Ick there appears to be a black line running through one of the slices. Ill fix that before I upload. Thank you guys for your ideas. I had to poor boy it until I get my set up. :D Yes I know my signature sucks thats why I like my digital signatures.. I might just change that as well.