People often ask me how to make a good reproduction of a glossy painting. First of all use a tripod.
1.The most important thing is that there is no light source in front of the painting (nor behind). No window, lamp or a reflected light.
2.When impossible, hang a black curtain between the camera and the canvas. Make a small hole to put your lens through.
The light on your canvas must come from the side. If the light source is not strong enough to give a uniform lighting, use a big sheet of white paper as a reflector and bounce the light back to the canvas.
If still one side of the painting is too dark, repair this in Photoshop: make a copy of the image and paste it on top in a separate layer. In curves make this copy lighter. Use the photoshop eraser option. Make it a very big size with soft edges and rub out the wrong part of the image.
The good part of the first image will shine through. Join the two layers and that is it!
Also see this post on How to make a photo reproduction of a glossy painting.
The white paper is a good tip, I have never thought of doing that, I have limited Knowledge of Photoshop. Would it be possible to put a color strip at side so you could balance the colors also?
Hi Peter.
Yes I use a Kodak-strip. But to be honest I only use the gray scale of it.
Hi Ben. First thank you so much for all the help you share!! I so appreciate it!! I bought two led panels and used the black cloth. I’m finding that the brushstrokes are showing – so it ends up being color of the strokes with streaks of white where the light catches the stroke. Suggestions???? Thank you!!
Thank you Robin. When the brushstrokes are really loaded with paint they always might show up. Try to put the lights further away maybe that helps. Did you varnish with glossy varnish? Otherwise try matte varnish. Good luck.