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Author Topic: Ideal lens for photographing Paintings  (Read 12821 times)

philbond87

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Re: Ideal lens for photographing Paintings
« Reply #20 on: April 17, 2018, 09:02:08 pm »

Any thoughts or direct experience with the 45mm TS-E?

-pw

I've never owned the old 45TS-E but many years ago I had a project that needed something in the 50mm range with tilt capability. I tested the Canon 45TS-E against an old Zeiss 50mm Flektagon in a tilt adapter and found it to be superior in sharpness and chromatic aberration control.

However I've been very pleased with the new EF 50TS-E so far.
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Paul Wright

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Re: Ideal lens for photographing Paintings
« Reply #21 on: April 18, 2018, 01:01:39 am »

Thanks Kirk, I'd use the 100 more often if I could, but space constraints mean it's too long for many works. Most work is shot in artists studios.

-pw
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EricV

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Re: Ideal lens for photographing Paintings
« Reply #22 on: April 18, 2018, 12:34:51 pm »

Could you stitch images where the camera was translated between frames rather than rotated?  At least for horizontal paintings, it might be possible to move the camera laterally, keeping the camera and lens parallel to the subject for each shot.  Not sure how well the stitching software would handle this. 

It might be interesting to test this idea, and some of the other ideas on this topic, by photographing a test pattern consisting of a rectangular grid on a wall.  Once you figure out how to correct distortion on this target, use the same technique for a painting.  Depending on environment, you might even be able to mount rulers around the painting to guide the correction, then crop them out of the final image.
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NancyP

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Re: Ideal lens for photographing Paintings
« Reply #23 on: April 18, 2018, 01:20:27 pm »

In theory, yes. Tony Northrup reviewed a third party lens ring for the Canon TS-E 17mm and 24mm lenses. The ring mounts to the tripod, so shifts move the camera body. Someone on this forum (months or years ago) designed a painting holder with x and y (but not z) axis translation, so that the picture could be moved past a stationary lens.
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: Ideal lens for photographing Paintings
« Reply #24 on: April 18, 2018, 02:08:40 pm »

Could you stitch images where the camera was translated between frames rather than rotated?  At least for horizontal paintings, it might be possible to move the camera laterally, keeping the camera and lens parallel to the subject for each shot.  Not sure how well the stitching software would handle this.

Hi Eric,

Dedicated stitching software such as PTGUI can deal with flat surfaces very well. The idea was first implemented in a software solution by Max Lyons in his PTAssembler software. An example of e.g. a mural is shown on the following page:
http://www.tawbaware.com/pta_help/ptasmblr_help_camera_position.htm

Cheers,
Bart
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: Ideal lens for photographing Paintings
« Reply #25 on: April 18, 2018, 02:18:15 pm »

In theory, yes. Tony Northrup reviewed a third party lens ring for the Canon TS-E 17mm and 24mm lenses. The ring mounts to the tripod, so shifts move the camera body. Someone on this forum (months or years ago) designed a painting holder with x and y (but not z) axis translation, so that the picture could be moved past a stationary lens.

Yes, for frequent use, Ted Dillard's "X-Y Easel" solution is superior (also because one only needs to get the lighting setup optimized for a limited surface area). He has a dedicated webpage about it here:
https://xyeasel.wordpress.com/

He has also discussed it here on LuLa as he was developing it.

Cheers,
Bart
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== If you do what you did, you'll get what you got. ==

Paul Wright

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Re: Ideal lens for photographing Paintings
« Reply #26 on: April 18, 2018, 07:59:55 pm »

Could you stitch images where the camera was translated between frames rather than rotated? 
Stitching? Additional shooting time added to increased post-production time makes the stitching option entirely impractical when a typical project may involve shooting 30-40 works in one day. Most artists and many galleries barely have the budget to commission me as it is.

If I like the artists work, I'll occasionally negotiate a swap. Depending on the standing and reputation of the artist, this may mean a partial or straight swap of a work for shooting for a day. I've done swaps with more established artists where I'll need to do 2-3 days which may be spread over a couple of years to secure a work. Over time I have a house full of really fantastic original paintings, prints and drawings. It's a great way to collect, and I feel a personal connection with each one of them. There are more far paintings on my walls than photos!

-pw
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Kirk_C

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Re: Ideal lens for photographing Paintings
« Reply #27 on: April 20, 2018, 12:00:00 am »

Thanks Kirk, I'd use the 100 more often if I could, but space constraints mean it's too long for many works. Most work is shot in artists studios.

Yes I see you alluded to that in your original post.

How about the Leica R Macro Elmarit 60mm ? It's a great lens, can be found used for reasonable money and is easily adapted to the EF mount.

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