Documentation 2

Setting up the first time may seem a little daunting, but it's actually fairly simple and straight forward. It becomes easier each time even if you are short on space. I'm able to leave my "set" in place, but still make it a practice to have several paintings on hand before shooting. This makes more sense shooting with film as each roll of film has at least 20 exposures and I don't wish to waste film by taking only a few exposures to be developed. Using a digital camera I am more apt to shoot as I finish each painting.

Make your set. Begin by placing your work so it can be easily photographed. I like to pin my unframed paintings to a 1/4 inch thick medium or dark grey piece of foam board that is pinned to a wall. The painting is supported at the top and bottom by push pins that are stuck into the foam board, not the painting. Stick the pins below and above the edges of the paper. The bottom pins support the paper and the top pins keep the top from falling outward. If your paintings are abouta the size you may be able to leave the bottom pins in place as you exchange one work to shoot for another.

Place the painting centered and level at your eye level so you don't stoop while looking through the view finder of the camera.

Load film in the camera and adjust the camera's ISO speed to the ISO speed of the film.

The camera on the tripod should be placed at a distance from the work so that all of the painting shows and is centered in the view finder with extra space showing around the work on four sides. Elevate and place the tripod so the center of the camera lense is centered on the vertical and horizontal center of the painting. Distortion will be eliminated with the camera correctly centered. Small digital camerals are especially prone to distortion if off center to the work.

Attach the shutter release cable.

Place the lights 3 to 6 feet from the painting somewhere at an angle of 30 to 45 degrees, the same height as the vertical center of the work. There should be no bright or hot spots on the work. Avoid this by pointing the left light toward the right side of the painting and the right light toward the left side of the painting. This gives a fairly even spread of light. If you have a third light, bounce it off the ceiling to even the light out more, but only if your ceiling is a neutral color. Avoid or reduce hot spots too by moving lights further away from the work.

Again, do not leave lights on for extended periods of time. Doing so reduces their longevity. And do not leave them on unattended. They get hot!

After the camera is set and centered, and the lights placed you should focus the camera either by looking through the lense, or by measuring the distance of the film plane as marked on the top back or the camera eith a tape measure and adjusting the focal length by turning the distance ring on the camera lense. This for SLR cameras.

Cool!

Next, adjust the exposure. Shoot at as slow a speed as possible. A 15th to a 30th of a second is okay. At the correct exposure your aperture will be small while the f stop will be a high number, somewhere like between 8 and 16. A high f stop means a small shutter opening which corresponds to a larger depth of field, meaning your slide will be in focus even if you're not.

It's a very good idea to bracket your exposures. Shoot once with your exposure under exposed by one f stop, once with your exposure right on, and once with your exposure one f stop over exposed. That's three exposures, but doing this will ensure a perfect exposure.

Digital cameras of course work on the same principals as 35 mm cameras, though the adjustments differ. Ensure that the resolution of the camera is set to its highest setting. An example might be 2048 x 1536 pixels. Adjust the compression setting to something like superfine. If there is a ISO setting, set it to the highest setting. Set the shutter speed to a slow setting if possible. Set the light source to Tungsten, or evaluate the white balance.

Use a cable release if you have one and if your camera accomodates one. If not use the time release.

Slide film shoulkd be processed at a reputable film house, not the local drug store.