Lighting Help Wanted

[1by1]

I have recently purchased a rebel xt and intend to use it to document drawings and paintings. Can someone recommend a light set up? I am new at all this so, I am not sure if I want a strobe or constant light source. On top of all this I am on a limited budget. All advice welcome. -----thanks

[tim]

I'd recommend buying a good lighting book and reading it. One I got from the library covered all this sort of thing, and it's stuff you would learn much more easily from a book than from a forum. Diagrams are important for this.

[chtgrubbs]

You will need two lights of equal power and flat even light coverage. I use and recommend Lowel TotaLights. Put the lights at a 45 degree angle to the copy. Use a Kodak gray card and move in so that the gray card fills most of the frame. Switch the camera to manual and meter the card, preferably on partial metering mode. Make an exposure and check the histogram to see that the exposure is in the center. Adjust as necessary. Once you have established the correct exposure you will not have to change it unless you photograph something smaller than 8x10 inches, and then use the gray card again. The exposure for the gray card will also serve as your custom white balance tool to set white balance. I recommend shooting raw and converting to get best color balance. You need to make sure the camera is parallel and equidistant from the copy. A level and tape measure are used for this. I would recommend a 50mm macro lens, or at least the 50/1.8 standard lens. Zooms have too much distortion for accurate copy work.

Good luck!