Hi all
I have been asked to photography hand made tapestry, they are modern, but I am sure they will be one day works of art. There is about 15 of them and have taken about 10 years to complete. Most are about 6 x4 feet and some larger. I have not photographed cloth materials in the past.
I intend using arca an M-line 2 technical camera with an IQ160 with either SK60 XL or Rodie 90 Diagron W.
Would use guys use Tungsten Lighting and adjust the WB in C1 or use Strobes with soft box to ensure even lighting.
For the larger panels would you stitch or go wider such as SK43xl, also there is the challenge of moire where there is large parts of plain material.
Your input is very much appreciated.
In our
Division of Cultural Heritage Imaging work we recommend the creation of a custom ICC profile using a professional color target like the 140 patch Color Checker SG. We help our clients with that on a frequent basis.
We'd also recommend the use of a white-reference (a clean white wall, or a large roll of seamless white, crinkle free, or similar) to account for any lighting variation across the subject. You can also use a white-reference to re-even the light after using a ratio'd light source to create a greater sense of texture on the subject which can be important to objects like tapestry.
If you're getting any moire then you are under sampling the original object and the best approach is to increase capture resolution. This of course assumes the only priority is the perfect cultural heritage capture of the original including the underlying threading, and ignores practical issues (like how much you're being paid compared to the amount of work required to shoot at a resolution sufficient to avoid moire and provide accurate capture of the underlying thread, competitive issues, how large a file the client is even able to accept/use, what the use of the capture will be and whether that use supports/benefits-from a huge file etc).
[Single-Shot] vs [Stitching via back movement] vs. [Stitching via pan/tilt] vs. [stitching via subject-movement] all have advantages and disadvantages. A large consideration is how much physical space you have to work with (often our cultural heritage clients have surprisingly little room for their copy stations. With large tapestry and other objects of a textural nature my default recommendation is stitching via back movement with a lens like the 90-SW or 60XL assuming the required resolution can be accomplished without leaving the heart of the image circle.
