Photographing Fine Art – Questions

I'm photographing a painting and need some help!

I have two entry level studio strobes (100 watt seconds each) and set them up with (2) 40 inch umbrellas, facing backwards, to spread the light for a larger light source.

The painting is approx 30"wide x 42" tall.

I'm using a 24-105 zoom, shooting in manual mode at f11. (canon 5D).

I get good, sharp exposures, but am having difficulty with balancing the light evenly across the painting.

Another problem is, I can't seem to get it squared-up!

It's skewed. I tried moving the camera and ckecking the paralax in the viewfinder, and it looks pretty close, but I can't get it perfect.

Only solution so far is to distort it back to normal in Photoshop. Seems to work well, but it's not perfect.

Anyone?

Use a long lens & get away from it. Farther is better.

Set at a 45-degree angle from the art? You might try then without the umbrella. A point source should give fewer highlights from an oil painting.

Photographing my Artwork

How to Photograph Art

If it is an oil painting you are probably going to get reflections from the surface owing to the reflective nature of oils and the varnish. I would suggest using a polarizing filter. Watercolours are not such a problem, but remove it from behind the glass first. As regards getting it squared, make sure the centre of the lens is pointing at the centre of the painting, measure it, then measure from the lens centre point to the four corners of the painting, that figures should be the same.