Art Duplication
Art Duplication
- Subject: Art Duplication
- From: Louis Dina <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 09:14:50 -0500
I want to duplicate some oil paintings on canvas. The surface is
reflective, glossy, textured paints, and in places, the dimples of the
canvas are visible. The oil paintings are coated with a gloss varnish of
some sort. My tools are limited, but they'll have to do. I just want to get
as close as I can using the tools I have. First, some background.
I'm using a Canon 5Dmk2, 85mm prime lens with circular polarizer, two Alien
Bee studio strobes on either side with polarizer gels (cross polarized to
eliminate reflections and glare) aimed at 45°angles. I'm photographing the
artwork with a small Color Checker and a Spyder Cube (for the light trap)
to help me assess tone and color.
I built a custom camera profile using XRite Color Checker Passport and I'm
processing the images in LightRoom. I know, not perfect.
In the past, I had a tough time getting even a lone color checker to
reproduce fairly accurately until I forced the 6 neutral patches to match
the L* values of my CC target (which I read with my Eye One with UV Cut
filter). Once I got the L* values of the 6 neutral patches right, the 18
color patches measured fairly close to my spectro readings. Close enough
for me. My conclusion is that the default LR settings are so contrasty,
even with a "linear" Tone Curve, that it pumps everything way up and whacks
the colors.
In LR, I apply my custom camera profile, Click-WB on the 50% gray patch
(which is the closest to dead neutral on my CC target), then manually
adjust the Tone Curve to match the neutral L* values of my CC to match my
spectro readings. My first photos of the artwork had some
flare/glare/reflection due to the high gloss shine, so when I got the CC
Target looking right, the paintings looked washed out and flat. I assumed
this was the reason the CC looked right, but the painting did not. That's
when I decided to try polarized light sources and a polarizer on the camera
lens. It definitely helped and I am pleased with the improvement.
However, even with the polarized images, if I force the L* values of the 6
neutral CC patches to match my spectro readings, the images still look a
bit flat and washed out. The CC itself looks great and all the patches
measure pretty close.
I can adjust the image so it DOES look pretty accurate by eyeball, but then
the contrast of the color checker ends up being high. Mainly, I have to
darken the darken the black and Dark Gray patches so the painting looks
right. I'm hoping to come up with a method that doesn't rely so much on
memory and feel.
I'm baffled as to why this would be? (unless I still have some flare). Any
thoughts or suggestions? (additional equipment or software is not a
consideration at this time).
Thanks,
Lou Dina
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