Rich Franco's “The Art of Copying Art Work!”

Hello to All!

There seems to be a lot of discussion here, on FAA, about art work being copied and the resulting issues, too dark, too light, blurry, areas out of focus, “Is it my camera?”, etc., and I'd like to take some time(Rich,sometime?, How about lots!) and explain the basics and then the not so basics of copying your art work correctly.

First, the vast majority of images copied and then rejected if sold, are from not following a few fundamental steps and generally, not the quality of the camera, or for that matter, the size of the art work, itself.

ANY camera,digital or film, can adequately copy your art, but of course, you are limited with the output that your camera can produce and enlarging your file, adds to the list of problems. So I'll start with this, if you have a digital camera and it's in sorta newish and can be mounted on a tripod and has a self-timer and finally, can be switched to something other than “Auto”, you're good.

What limits great copies from good copies,will be the quality of the sensor, that's in the camera you have. Example: if you have a point & shoot (P&S) camera, it's sensor is about the size of you finger nail on your pinky and I'm not looking at my nail, but yours! That's pretty small. Of course, cell phones have sensors, even smaller! Although they are catching up.

http://www.gizmag.com/camera-sensor-size-guide/26684/

Using your P&S camera and it's tiny sensor,regardless if it says 12-14-16 mega-pixels(mps), will limit you to the eventual size of the print that can be offered here,when you compare the same 12-14-16 mps that are on DSLR's, Digital Single Reflex cameras, with sensors that are almost full frame, or are actually the full frame sensor, that is the same size of the old 35mm negatives and slides we use to get.

So all “pixels” aren't created equal! The pixel from the full frame DSLR is many times larger than the pixel from the P&S camera and thus, the amount of information,stored/captured in the larger sensor,will make a much better image.

This little “side trip” through digital cameras, will answer a lot of questions later and hopefully, benefit the understanding of the process, as we come to each step.

Bottom Line: Any camera can be used to copy your art, the better($$$) the camera, the better the file that will be produced.

Let me talk a little about “light” and the quality of light,both inside and out. Studio lights, strobes and even hot lights, are produced to create a certain “type” of light, looks like sunlight, looks like incandescent light, but are used to create that particular type of light, over and over. When I used my strobe light to photograph a person or product, I knew that the light would be consistent,shot after shot. One last thing to consider,when working 8-10 hours a day, in a dark studio.

Outside light, on the other hand, is almost constantly changing through the day. Did you notice I said “almost”? There's a period and I learned this many years ago, from the local Kodak guy,when testing film for Kodak, that roughly from 10:00 a.m. And 2:00 p.m., on a cloudless day, the “color” of light is almost a perfect 5500 to 6500 kelvin, no, or little color caste. There is an argument that 5500 or 6500, is now the standard, although ALL TV stuff, is now set to 6500,which is a tiny bit warmer than 5500 k.

My point, you ask? Well, if you are going to copy your artwork outdoors, then guess when's the best time to do that? Yepper, 10:00 to 2:00 and the closer to 12:00, the better. This is assuming you can “light” your art work, directly by the sun and not in the shade. Using a nice white “tent”, to kill any direct light coming from the sun, is best. Second best, is to have your art work in the shade, but bounce sunlight, from large 4x8 foot sheets of white Foamcore,evenly, back into the art.

And even the mostest betterer, set your camera's white balance and use a gray card,to first capture the art, which “teaches” the camera, what a true and accurate color is and ALL the colors in the art will be reproduced accurately.

Bottom Line: You can accurately copy your art work, outside, if you use a few rules and tools(white diffusion material,white Foamcore), and white balance(WB).

So, say you're living in Seattle and you say to me, “Hey Rich, I think I remember what the sun thing you talk about is, but what do I do?” Good question, let's go inside,out of this rain and talk about it!

Shooting your Art Work Indoors

What's really nice about shooting your art work indoors, is that, it hardly ever rains,get's dark,windy,buggy(mostly, I'm in Florida!) AND YOU can control the light! Unlike that Sun thing, which is constantly moving! So good news! So where do we start? Whoa, not so face, mon ami, lets gab a bit first. There are ALL kinds of light sources you can use inside, from professional lights, both hot and cool(fluorescent).

Probably my first choice, if you have the room!

They make these neat vertical banks of light now, 4 bulbs, like in a “shop light” and turned vertically and provide a very even,steady light source and once the “white balance is “corrected” to these lights, will be perfect, as long as the bulbs last. Of course, you can make this same kit your self, with a trip to Home Depot, buy the 4 bulb “shop” light kit and 4 5500K bulbs, for each “Shop”light and you're good to go! Unlike true hot light, these never,ever get hot and can be on, all day. In fact, the bulbs should be on about 20 minutes when you start, so they get all up to the right temperature. So if you have the space and shoot a lot of artwork, then this set-up will work for you!

The next level is to use the bulbs/reflectors in my tutorial,which cost here about $23 each, so you would need about 4 to 6 lights,depending on the size of your art work. And then anything else you might use, should have the same bulbs,regardless of how you point them or direct them. Using different bulbs,with different light color,will be a true headache and not worth the savings.

Bulbs:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-120W-Equivalent-Daylight-5000K-R40-CFL-Flood-Light-Bulb-ES5R42350K/100687002?N=5yc1vZbmatZ1z0u1gt

Reflectors:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-150-Watt-Incandescent-Brooder-Clamp-Light-HD-303PDQ/204684496

Bottom Line: You can easily and cheaply set up your own “studio” for copying art and cheaply too and get great results!

Now, before we jump into the “mechanics” and the “copying”, one last tidbit of information about light and how it applies to copying art work. Unless I'm wrong and I doubt it(Sir Charles Barkley), MOST art work will be rectangular or square, not many circles being sold here on FAA! So here's the issue, we are using a light source, that is round and the “circle” of light that is aimed towards and onto the art work,will also create a circular pattern, makes sense? And to keep the circles of light from ONLY lighting the spots they hit, we have to make sure that the circles overlap each other and blend in.

Here's a “tidbit” and a great crossword puzzle/Scrabble word, “Umbra” and her brother, “penumbra”. I really just like to use words that have “bra” in them, like “braccolli”! Anyway, I digress. The diagram below,demonstates both the “umbra”, A and the “penumbra” B. Why this is important, is that you ALWAYS want your artwork, within the umbra, or “A” here in this diagram. So the first short black line (C), is where your art should hang, not on the back wall(D),where there is a smaller and harder “sweet spot” to hit. The umbra, is evenly lit and if done correctly, the entire surface of the artwork, will be properly exposed. You can see that the lights are on a 45 degree to the artwork and that's the reason, so now you know why I always say, make sure the lights at at this 45. You now know as much as me! Good news/bad news!

*** Having trouble uploading images right now to my Blog!