Fooling your camera?

[Michele Rushworth]

They look the same to me.... both are magnificent. I know what you mean that the photos never look as good as the painting, though, with lots of color distortion. I think every artist has that problem.

[Mike McCarty]

Ant,


They look very similar to me as well. Your hand looks a bit lighter, but most hands, and undersides of our arms will look more pale than the top which gets more sun. Also, your hand is catching the light the way any 3D form would, and unlike the flat surface of the painting.

I could see maybe if you were offering a crop of a very small portion of the painting that the camera might try and interpret multiple layers and even pick out isolated coloration. The camera, if it's a good one, is only doing exactly what your want it to do - render as faithfully as it can what is in front of it. However, when you back up to this distance there shouldn't be a problem if your procedure is sound.

There are some good threads on photographing art work in the building next door. It can be a daunting task, indeed. But truly, you seem to be doing a pretty good job of it.

It seems to me that if your client is getting this kind of reproduction of a wip they could not hope to get much more.

As the queen once said: You may be protesting too much, methinks.

[Mike McCarty]

Ant,

If I could offer an addendum ...

One thing that can bugger up the color of your photograph is the "white balance" setting on your camera. Check to see that the light hitting your painting is the same light your camera is expecting, such as: incandescent, flourescent, natural shade etc.

However, I'm not sure that I am getting to the core of your question.

Your camera's sensor will "meter" the light usually in one of three ways depending on how you've set it. There is "matrix," which is a total image calculus, a "center weighted," and a "spot" metering, which calculates it's exposure based on a small portion of the image that you have selected in your viewfinder.

If you introduce your arm into a "matrix" metering I think it would alter the calculus somewhat depending on how much of the frame you replace. This could alter the total image calculation / exposure such that the overall could look lighter or darker.

I would say that these meter calculations are basing their findings (exposure) more on light than color. This gets a little fuzzy. Whereas light reflects off of one color differently than another, but I think it's all about the amount of light and not color.

I hope I haven't muddied the water further.