The Framers Forum

Hi all, I am in the process of building up my framing experience and am keen to photograph each frame to have a collection of examples of my work, for a gallery on the web site and book of photographs in the studio.

How do fellow framers photograph their work? I'm having problems with reflections off the glass from the flash, without the flash the colours look dull and not bright enough. The only way I have found to avoid that is to angle the photograph away from the camera, but of course the end result looks a bit naff, I would rather have images with parralel tops and sides.

Perhaps rope in a local photographer in return from some framing?

Any sggestions?

Photograph the frame with the glass out...

yes - thats what i do - photo with no glass - also often i don't use flash just put camera on a tripod and using remote release or self timer - let the cam take a time exposure in good light. lots of examples in good bad ugly !

As Mikey says, no glass, camera on tripod, remote shutter release, natural daylight if possible.

Import photo into Photoshop (Elements will do) and straighten up using the scew tool (Image>Transform>Scew). Colours etc. can be corrected from the Enhance menu.

Job done!

Taking photos of finished frames without the glass is the best way, but I forget to do that, so I developed a way of taking photos with the glass in and getting no reflection.

Does anyone want to know how? I teach a class called "Photographing Finished Frames and Editing with Free software" at industry meetings down here so maybe if you want to know how, you could just come to Australia. The next one will probably be in the last part of this year.

There is a slim chance that someone could persuade me to give hint.

Yes that's right.......photo before glazing............................

yer, then you forget, and have to take piccy after glazing unless you want to undo it all.

A hint would be wonderful Nigel

Ian

Oh please Ormond give us a lesson as I don't have a passport and would be unable to travel to the Antipodean in the autumn.

Seriously it would be very very interesting I have never been able to take decent photo's of frames and have quite a lot of stuff going through which should be photographed.

I just photograph it on a skew so as not to get any flash reflection off the glass, then straighten it up in photoshop.

I use two tripod mounted diffused lightboxes, each positioned at approximately 45 degrees to the frame, and far enough away to be out of shot. 50mm lens with polarising filter removes any reflections. Use a white balance filter (if you have one - or a piece of white card if you don't) to set the white balance if your camera supports the function, then software to take care of any slight angular deformities of the image (I use Photoshop Elements, but will be upgrading to CS5 later this year).

Hope this helps.

BTW, you're in Lincs, I'm in the southern part of E Yorks. Would be happy to come down to demo if you're not down near the Wash!

Jon's solution is close, but I find that even though there are no flash reflections in the glass, there are reflections of other stuff around the room, in the glass.
Therefore we need a method that doesn't reflect anything else in the room. Right???

OK, but you must keep this to yourselves. Answer - reflect black! Hows that for simple?
Material option 1. Make a roller blind from black fabric that has no shine.
Material option 2. Stick black fabric (no shine) onto am 8ft x 4ft sheet of foamboard.
The black non-woven fabric that upholsterers use under chair seats works perfectly and you will be glad to know is as cheap as chips. I bought a 100mtr roll for $125.

Camera Setup - Stand or hang picture as close to vertical as possible. Place camera on tripod about 1 inch to the left or right of the outer edge of the frame and at the same height as the centre of the frame. I always set it up on the left, so please assume that for the remainder of the setup. Zoom so that the frame occupies most of the frame, but depending on how you choose to square your frame in software, you may need some extra space around the image.

Black fabric setup - hang fabric so that the left side is just to the right of the camera lens and just behind it. The right side of the fabric angles across in front of the frame and is a lot closer to the frame than the left side. When you look through the viewfinder or at the camera screen, there should be nothing reflected in the glass, except black!

Use the timer on the camera to take photos. I usually take a couple without the flash and a couple with the flash and choose the best looking one to tweak.

Photoshop has 'Perspective Crop' which is a simple way to square it up, but you may have to adjust balloon or pincushion first.

If you don't have Photoshop, there's 'Gimp' which is totally free. The same results can be achieved as PShop, but it doesn't have perspective crop so there are a few extra steps involved in squaring.

That's it in a nutshell for those of us who are 'mug' photographers and who don't have all those exotic lighting systems and forty seven tripods, that Tim has. I'm envious, Tim!
I hope that helps.

One caution: This method does not work well for deep shadow boxes!

PS. When I taught the class in Brisbane last year there was a pro photographer there who was blown away with the power of 'Gimp' software.

Thanks for that.

this is a good prog for converging lines - i just try to get near as poss - using a longer than std focal length 85mm usually is good but this prog will sort all sorts of things

http://www.shiftn.de/

Not much I can add except don't stand too close and zoom back to a wide angle setting or you get the edges bending.

Many thanks for all the tips. Glass out eh? Now why didn't I think of that! I'll probably go for the Photoshop option as well, on the ones i've already taken.

Thanks very much one and all.

GS

I have a black paper background in my studio of the type pro photographers use. I hire out the studio to photographers and art groups so if you had a number to do it might be worth your while. I also have a basic set of studio lights. Get in touch if interested.

So would black mountboard work? Just going to give it a go . . . .

Currently photographing a load of frames for my new ebrochure... no glass or pictures!. Create the reflection and insert an image in photoshop. That way they all get the same 'reflective' look.

Just pin the mount into the frame with a backing board, once photo'd make up as normal.

Gesso&Bole wrote:So would black mountboard work? Just going to give it a go . . . .

Probably would be OK for small frames! May not be big enough for larger ones.

We often photograph framed pictures glazed with normal 2mm float. Two cheap studio strobe units are positioned to illuminate the subject obliquely, and the camera is positioned at a point mid way between.

The glazed picture is placed directly below the camera.
This is the photograph that you see being taken in the above image. Resized, but not re-touched.

CanvasChris wrote: Create the reflection and insert an image in photoshop. That way they all get the same 'reflective' look.

Chris,
I think the idea was to eliminate reflections because they detract. Your picture is a perfect example of that. I love the way you've framed that piece, but all I see is the diagonal line. It takes a lot of concentration to see anything else. Perhaps that's just my weird mind at work?