Any good tips for photographing artwork?

Hi,
Any good tips for photographing art work?
I've started a collection of street art and graffiti from around Bristol,
England.
I think I get better representation of the art by standing back and zooming
in.
This reduces the destortion and produces a flatter looking image. This,
however, introduces camera shake. I've started using a cheap tripod and the
timer feature. (Its a digital camera with no cable release!!! Aaaaah!) The
camera wobles about but apears to settle down by the time its reached 10s.
Its a "cheap" camera (Finepix S5000) which bosts 10X zoom. Am I pushing the
lens to its limits if I zoom that much. Do I get an improvment in quality
(due to the lens) if I zoom less? Do I get an improvment in quality if I
wind up the fstop. This would rely less on the lens being good. I'm I
wasting my time because other factors effect the quality? (Its a sudo 6M
image being saved to the card.)

Exposure?
I take bracketed photos. (I think its over a stop above/bellow). The
"normal" one usually gives the best looking photo. However the darker one
has richer colors and is less washed out, but is a bit dark. Which would you
recomend I use? Should I take the darker one and fiddle with the levels?
What happens about screen calibration and then taking prints from the
images? What experiance do people have of "looking good on screen, yet not
very good prints and vice versa?

Stitching....
Blah blah ....

Copyright...
Blah blah ....

I think thats enough for now.

Ta BB.

http://www.places2visit.co.uk/holething


-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.places2visit.co.uk

If you have a 10x zoom lens, you will find that there is substantial
pincushion distortion at one end of the range and substantial barrel
distortion at the other end. In between is a point of no distortion. With
a 10x zoom, it is probably not halfway along the range... it is probably 2x
or 3x up from the widest point.

Your lens is probably sharpest at about f/8.

Bracket exposures. Note that a picture may appear too light on your LCD
preview and actually be just right.

Lighting is critical, but if you are working outdoors, you may not have much
control. Overcast skies (common in the UK) are very helpful.


--
Clear skies,

Michael A. Covington
Author, Astrophotography for the Amateur
www.covingtoninnovations.com/astromenu.html

I shoot up close and then use the skew and distortion controls in Photoshop
to "Square-up" the picture.
Ed

"BillyB" wrote in message
...
Hi,
Any good tips for photographing art work?
I've started a collection of street art and graffiti from around Bristol,
England.
I think I get better representation of the art by standing back and
zooming in.
This reduces the destortion and produces a flatter looking image. This,
however, introduces camera shake. I've started using a cheap tripod and
the timer feature. (Its a digital camera with no cable release!!! Aaaaah!)
The camera wobles about but apears to settle down by the time its reached
10s.
Its a "cheap" camera (Finepix S5000) which bosts 10X zoom. Am I pushing
the lens to its limits if I zoom that much. Do I get an improvment in
quality (due to the lens) if I zoom less? Do I get an improvment in
quality if I wind up the fstop. This would rely less on the lens being
good. I'm I wasting my time because other factors effect the quality? (Its
a sudo 6M image being saved to the card.)

Exposure?
I take bracketed photos. (I think its over a stop above/bellow). The
"normal" one usually gives the best looking photo. However the darker one
has richer colors and is less washed out, but is a bit dark. Which would
you recomend I use? Should I take the darker one and fiddle with the
levels? What happens about screen calibration and then taking prints from
the images? What experiance do people have of "looking good on screen, yet
not very good prints and vice versa?

Stitching....
Blah blah ....

Copyright...
Blah blah ....

I think thats enough for now.

Ta BB.

http://www.places2visit.co.uk/holething


-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.places2visit.co.uk

Michael A. Covington wrote:

If you have a 10x zoom lens, you will find that there is substantial
pincushion distortion at one end of the range and substantial barrel
distortion at the other end. In between is a point of no distortion. With
a 10x zoom, it is probably not halfway along the range... it is probably 2x
or 3x up from the widest point.

Your lens is probably sharpest at about f/8.

Are you talking in general, or do you know something specific about the OP's
camera? If it's the former, then all I can say is other people have suggested
that f/5.6 would be best for the sharpest photos based on tests they've done.



--
Ben Thomas
Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not
relate to the official business of my firm shall be understood as neither
given nor endorsed by it.

Michael A. Covington wrote:

If you have a 10x zoom lens, you will find that there is substantial
pincushion distortion at one end of the range and substantial barrel
distortion at the other end. In between is a point of no distortion. With
a 10x zoom, it is probably not halfway along the range... it is probably 2x
or 3x up from the widest point.

Your lens is probably sharpest at about f/8.

Are you talking in general, or do you know something specific about the OP's
camera? If it's the former, then all I can say is other people have suggested
that f/5.6 would be best for the sharpest photos based on tests they've done.



--
Ben Thomas
Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not
relate to the official business of my firm shall be understood as neither
given nor endorsed by it.

BillyB wrote:

Hi,
Any good tips for photographing art work?
I've started a collection of street art and graffiti from around Bristol,
England.
I think I get better representation of the art by standing back and zooming
in.
This reduces the destortion and produces a flatter looking image. This,
however, introduces camera shake. I've started using a cheap tripod and the
timer feature. (Its a digital camera with no cable release!!! Aaaaah!) The
camera wobles about but apears to settle down by the time its reached 10s.
Its a "cheap" camera (Finepix S5000) which bosts 10X zoom. Am I pushing the
lens to its limits if I zoom that much. Do I get an improvment in quality
(due to the lens) if I zoom less? Do I get an improvment in quality if I
wind up the fstop. This would rely less on the lens being good. I'm I
wasting my time because other factors effect the quality? (Its a sudo 6M
image being saved to the card.)


I wouldn't bother saving as 6M - reviews I read said that there was no
discernable difference in quality between the 3MP setting and the 6MP setting
(ie no extra detail) - so you'll just end up using more memory.

I agree with your procedure except I would place myself at such a distance that
I only needed to use about a third to a half of the available optical zoom
because you get distortion at full wide angle and full zoom.

--
Ben Thomas
Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not
relate to the official business of my firm shall be understood as neither
given nor endorsed by it.

"BillyB" wrote in message
...
Hi,
Any good tips for photographing art work?


Ta very much for all responces so far. It looks like there are "optimal"
setting for what I want to do. I'll try these out and see how I get on.
I have found that photographing things with a stong colour upsets the White
Balance. I tend to set the WB manually in these cases. I've found that
sometimes I can get good results with flash. Even in daylight. However
sometimes it reflect of the background or the artwork. I often take one of
each and deside later which ones to keep.

Ta very much. BillyB.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.places2visit.co.uk

On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 20:20:04 GMT, BenOne© wrote:

Michael A. Covington wrote:

If you have a 10x zoom lens, you will find that there is substantial
pincushion distortion at one end of the range and substantial barrel
distortion at the other end. In between is a point of no distortion. With
a 10x zoom, it is probably not halfway along the range... it is probably 2x
or 3x up from the widest point.

Your lens is probably sharpest at about f/8.

Are you talking in general, or do you know something specific about the OP's
camera? If it's the former, then all I can say is other people have suggested
that f/5.6 would be best for the sharpest photos based on tests they've done.
You will get better results if you photograph your subjects in the
garden as you will get fewer reflections -flash is bad news (as is
rain!
eric phillips