I have very little flexibility in a lot of this. Limited wall space and even limited room for tripods.
For example sometimes a large bed will block any hope of placing a tripod.
But you think this is better than lighting with strobes? A friend just wrote that with grids it could work.
F -- I don't think you understand, I already shot all the art unframed. I now want to show it framed. I cannot remove the plexiglass now - it's fixed permanent.
Too much work anyway -- 15 pieces.
If you can't do a tripod, you can try a monopod. You can use that any place you can manage to stand. If you're inside a room, where you're warm and there's no wind, a monopod could be steady enough even for quite long exposures -- but if you do that, check the photo on your LCD to make sure it's sharp and the way you want it, and when you're sure the exposure is right, make about eight more. Small bits of blur are sometimes not visible, and by making redundant photos, you have an excellent chance of getting one that is sharp. You have to be hyper aware of shake, and when you're making the shot, try not to. Use the timer to make the shot, and concentrate on holding the monopod steady.
The point of my post was to suggest a way to eliminate lights. There are ways that you might be able to use lights, but you have to remember that lights are expensive. If you have a cheap source of lights, or you have your own, then you'd be okay. Even with an on-camera flash, if you aimed it at the ceiling or the wall behind you, over even a bedsheet tacked to a wall, (something matte, so you don't get a highlight that'll be reflected in the glass), you'll be able to jack up the light level and shoot with faster exposure times. If you think you need the light, remember that you can adjust white-balance in post processing, which means that you don't have to get really expensive strobes. You could, for example, go down to Home Depot and buy some of their super-bright work lights for $50 or so, and since they're continuous lights, you could move them around until there are no reflections coming off the glass. You'd get a color cast from the light (you'll get a color cast from all the lights unless you're shooting in a neutrally painted bedroom) but you can largely fix that in post.
The reason people use artificial lights for projects like this is to get fast exposure times which eliminates some of the problems involving shake. That is, they can expose close to the camera's native ISO, at a high enough f-stop to give enough depth of field (which you need when you're shooting a frame that stands out from the surface of the art work) and at a fast enough speed to eliminate shake. The problem, of course, is reflections, and they can be hell to get rid of with strobes (with strobes, you can't actually see the reflections in real time - you just have to keep moving them around and reshooting until the reflections are gone, and sometimes, they won't go.)
The reason people use tripods is so that they can expose close to the native ISO, at a high enough f-stop to get the needed depth of field, and at a slow enough speed to eliminate the need for lights, and hence, reflections. The amount of light entering the camera remains the same in either case -- you're just using different techniques to eliminate shake. As for setting up tripods, you can set one up in almost any place you can stand -- since you're inside, on a level floor and without wind, you don't need the full spread on the legs. You could use a narrow spread (supported maybe with duct tape) and then just be careful not to knock it over.
If you're shooting in rooms where you can't change arrangements, you may find yourself in a situation where there is a reflection coming off the picture or frame no matter what you do, because, say, of a window, or because of an overhead light. At this point, sheets of black construction paper, or drapes of matte-black cloth (which you can get at sewing stores), along with a few clamps from Home Depot (Home Depot is the photographer's friend) can help eliminate these sources.
Anyway, these are some ideas that I've used. Really, I'd suggest that you go down to a used clothing and household good store, like a Goodwill store, pick up a cheap picture frame with glass, put a piece of aluminum foil inside of it in place of a picture (something that'll give you an outstanding reflection) and then experiment in your house or apartment. Use different kinds of light-modifying stuff, most of which you can make on your own for a few dollars, and you'll quickly work out the best technique for shooting this stuff, with the equipment you've got. When I say quickly, I mean in a couple of hours.
I learned about the tripod/monopod technique when I was working as an archaeological photographer in the Middle East. There was a very narrow band of time between dawn and the actual sunrise, when photography was best (after the sun got over the horizon, the shadows became very harsh.) But you could shoot almost anything, and get decent color, if you just had a steady enough camera to enable long-enough exposures -- even when, to the eye, it seemed quite dim.
JC
