May, 2020
Photo Shoot - Acrylic Paintings
This recently completed project was for Raleigh artist, Brian Anderson. Brian is a painter who creates abstract masterpieces on canvas using acrylic paint. Most of his art pieces are large format (up to 4 ft x 6 ft or larger).
(The first image is Lava 48”x 60”, Acrylic. The second image is Wild River – 48”x 60”,Acrylic)
It all started a while back when Brian mentioned he desired a high-resolution digital archive of his artwork to maintain a copy for use on his web site, but also to make high quality digital reproduction prints (or giclée’s) as another way to sell his artwork. Brian’s painting technique builds layer upon layer of acrylic paint that creates a 3-dimensional aspect. He uses acrylic primarily and finishes most of the pieces by applying a high-gloss urethane coating. The irregular surface texture combined with the highly reflective glossy coating presents a unique challenge in photographically reproducing the artwork.
As expected, the biggest challenge I encountered was developing an optimal studio light setup to remove specular reflections from the highly reflective artwork. I tested various studio lighting setups using a combination of professional strobes and LED light panels combined with polarizing filters.
Ultimately, what worked best were LED studio light panels with a high CRI rating (> 93 CRI). Here’s a shot of my studio setup.
The primary camera used for this photo shoot was a FujiFilm GFX 50S medium format mirrorless camera with a 51.4MP sensor. The images were captured using an ISO 100 setting with images stored as RAW files. The average RAW file size was around 117MB.
At completion of the project I digitally captured 45 original canvas art pieces varying in size from 24” x 24” to greater than 48” x 72” over a three-day period. Brian was ecstatic with the final output from the project, which included the camera RAW files, high-resolution digital images ready for professional printing, and web-ready digital files. I also printed one copy of each final image on 13” x 19” (A3+) Hahnemühle Photo Gloss Baryta 320 paper for his portfolio. I’m continuing to work with Brian to have selected art pieces printed on metal (aluminum) and canvas at various sizes for sale.
You can view additional samples of Brian’s work photographed during the project in this photo gallery: https://obxpixels.shootproof.com/gallery/11595198/. More information about Brian’s artwork is available on his web site: https://brianandersonabstractart.com/.
Post comments or questions below, and reach out to me if you’re interested in setting up an appointment to have your artwork digitally captured at tim@obxpixels.com.