Taking pics of paintings - always fuzzy on one side

[animalkookies]

I just got my G3 camera and want to take pictures of artwork/paintings that are very thin and long. Tripod is used but the painting is always slightly less in focus on the bottom of the long painting. If i turn my camera 180 and take the pic again, then the top is slightly out of focus again. I have cleaned my lense, upped the aperature, done many things others have suggested but nothing works. Does anyone have the same problems??? I was told to take the picture from further away and then crop but i still get a little of the same thing.

How do i get uniform focus and crispness in pictures of flat artwork?

[civis]

What are the dimensions of the painting?

How far from the painting in the camera?

Is the lens centerline perpendicular to the painting, or does it point slightly up or down?

What aperture are you using?

Are you using any optical zoom at all?

[animalkookies]

Painting dimensions is 18" x 72"

Painting is about 7-8' away from camera

Lense centerline... does that mean the square in the LCD being in the middle of the painting? If so, it's square in the middle. Or i could have sworn it was.

Aperature: F5 to F8. Tried a few

Optical Zoom: yes and it was the same. No and it was the same.

[civis]

If you have the room to do it, back up twice as far from the painting, zoom in to fill the frame, and then try the shot from there.

I know it might seem counter-intuitive to back up and zoom back in to get a better shot, but if your edges are out of focus and the center in in-focus, this could very well fix your problem. Assuming that the camera is parallel to the floor and pointing directly at the exact midpoint of the painting:

At 8 feet away from the 6-foot painting, the distance to the center from the lens is 96 inches, but from the lens to the top or bottom edge is about 102.5 inches, or almost a 7 per cent difference.

At 16 feet from the same painting, the distance from the lens to the center of the painting is 192 inches, but from the lens to the top or bottom edge is about 195.3 inches, or less than a 2 per cent difference.

Using a bit of zoom will also help minimize the very small amount of barrel distortion that the G3 (and many other cams) exhibit at full wide-angle.

[IanC]

Maybe you could take multiple shots of the frame using the Stitch Assist Mode and join them together using zoombrower software.

[phili1]

First make sure the painting is level. Then get a buble level and make sure your camera is level so it is on the same plain. If your 7 to 8 feet away and you are useing the lights in the gallery tehn you are shooting a t an aperature that does not give you much of depth of field. so the camera censor plane has to the same as the painting.