Comments on: Sony A900 – First Impressions Sony A900 http://blog.americanpeyote.com/2009/07/08/sony-a900-first-impressions/ Photographer, director, thinker near Zurich Winterthur Switzerland Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:34:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Markhttp://blog.americanpeyote.com/2009/07/08/sony-a900-first-impressions/comment-page-1/#comment-117735 Mark Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:09:01 +0000 http://blog.americanpeyote.com/?p=1179#comment-117735 Hi Tom,As long as you have even lighting over the painting it shouldn’t matter if you’re using the Solux or strobes. People often put two lights at 45 degrees to the paintings (one on either side) to get even lighting. You can also use a polarizer filter on your lens to reduce reflections (it’s also possible to put polarizers on the light sources).If you’re going for ultimate color reproduction you would also want to shoot with a color checker card (like a Macbeth ColorChecker). In this case you would do a shot with the color checker in the image (so it has the same lighting conditions as the painting), and then use this image of the checker to create a custom color profile for the raw development software you use. This is the best way to ensure that the colors of the painting are being reproduced correctly.Check out this link for info on the color checker: http://www.digital-photography.org/macbethcolor_checker/Macbeth_ColorChecker_Gray.html-mark Hi Tom,

As long as you have even lighting over the painting it shouldn’t matter if you’re using the Solux or strobes. People often put two lights at 45 degrees to the paintings (one on either side) to get even lighting. You can also use a polarizer filter on your lens to reduce reflections (it’s also possible to put polarizers on the light sources).

If you’re going for ultimate color reproduction you would also want to shoot with a color checker card (like a Macbeth ColorChecker). In this case you would do a shot with the color checker in the image (so it has the same lighting conditions as the painting), and then use this image of the checker to create a custom color profile for the raw development software you use. This is the best way to ensure that the colors of the painting are being reproduced correctly.

Check out this link for info on the color checker:
http://www.digital-photography.org/macbethcolor_checker/Macbeth_ColorChecker_Gray.html

-mark

]]> By: Tom Saundershttp://blog.americanpeyote.com/2009/07/08/sony-a900-first-impressions/comment-page-1/#comment-117722 Tom Saunders Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:04:04 +0000 http://blog.americanpeyote.com/?p=1179#comment-117722 Thanks Mark,In regards to lighting a painting shoot, I had planned to use continuous (solux bulbs), thinking that this would give me the truest colors. But perhaps there is a strobe setup that might work s well or better? Any thought you have on this would be appreciated.Tom Thanks Mark,

In regards to lighting a painting shoot, I had planned to use continuous (solux bulbs), thinking that this would give me the truest colors. But perhaps there is a strobe setup that might work s well or better? Any thought you have on this would be appreciated.

Tom

]]> By: Markhttp://blog.americanpeyote.com/2009/07/08/sony-a900-first-impressions/comment-page-1/#comment-117713 Mark Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:40:50 +0000 http://blog.americanpeyote.com/?p=1179#comment-117713 Hi Tom, For shooting fine art paintings with the A900 I would go with a mid-telephoto lens, ideally in the range of 85mm to 100mm. It depends on how much space you have to shoot in. You could probably also do it with a 50mm macro, but when I shoot my 1mx1m paintings I like to use my 85mm f/1.4 Minolta. The distance from the painting to the camera isn't too far and the lens is very sharp with nice color rendition. If you go too wide you will have problems with curvature in the image and straight lines on the painting or frame. I think a 100mm macro would also be a nice choice. -mark Hi Tom,
For shooting fine art paintings with the A900 I would go with a mid-telephoto lens, ideally in the range of 85mm to 100mm. It depends on how much space you have to shoot in. You could probably also do it with a 50mm macro, but when I shoot my 1mx1m paintings I like to use my 85mm f/1.4 Minolta. The distance from the painting to the camera isn’t too far and the lens is very sharp with nice color rendition. If you go too wide you will have problems with curvature in the image and straight lines on the painting or frame. I think a 100mm macro would also be a nice choice.
-mark

]]> By: Tom Saundershttp://blog.americanpeyote.com/2009/07/08/sony-a900-first-impressions/comment-page-1/#comment-117710 Tom Saunders Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:17:03 +0000 http://blog.americanpeyote.com/?p=1179#comment-117710 Beautiful demonstration of the a900's potential. Thank you for posting this. I'm on the verge of buying the a850 and it is great to hear such positive mention of the features that drew me to this model -- dynamic range and color handling. One of my intended uses of the a850 is photographing fine art paintings. From your experience with the a900 is there a specific lens that you might recommend for this? Beautiful demonstration of the a900’s potential. Thank you for posting this. I’m on the verge of buying the a850 and it is great to hear such positive mention of the features that drew me to this model—dynamic range and color handling. One of my intended uses of the a850 is photographing fine art paintings. From your experience with the a900 is there a specific lens that you might recommend for this?

]]> By: Markhttp://blog.americanpeyote.com/2009/07/08/sony-a900-first-impressions/comment-page-1/#comment-92978 Mark Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:15:57 +0000 http://blog.americanpeyote.com/?p=1179#comment-92978 The first, third and fifth images all have some brownish hues in them, but the rest should be pretty much devoid of it. The first, third and fifth images all have some brownish hues in them, but the rest should be pretty much devoid of it.

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