My involvement in Fine Art Reproduction Services came by chance and it turned out to be a worthy test of my abilities and creativity.

This was a challenge set to me by a good friend who designs and creates amazing websites.

He recommended me to a new client of his who’s a talented artist by the name of Francis Salvesen. In the portfolio were over 50 paintings he was interested in having photographed for selling on as fine art reproduction prints.

If anyone knows me then they know I enjoy a challenge. It’s an arguable quality but I’m very tenacious and as a result wont stop until I get things right so this was perfect for me.

Turns out it is an art form in itself taking photos of paintings. Who would have thought it would be so difficult to get it right. As it happens – very!

I was lucky enough to have a gorgeous oil to work on and from the very beginning I discovered all sorts of problems. These mainly revolved around lighting and color profiling.

Lighting issues tended to be tiny reflections in the oil that wouldn’t be good enough for re-prints. I have plenty of lighting for my portrait shoots and these were perfectly adequate but they needed filters.

My other issue was the ICC profiles I’d need to get the perfect colors calibrated into my system to get my work flowing accurately every time.

After my initial tests I had learnt allot of what I needed to buy in order to get the perfect image.

First stop was filters. I found a staging company online who thankfully had two linear polarizing filters. These were crucial in negating any glare on the canvas.

My last filter was on the lens. Again another polarizing filter which brings the belts and braces and helps cut out any further glare.

Camera – Nikon D810 which is a full frame camera and is set to manual including the focus.

My lens of choice was a 50mm which gives sharp and un-distorted photographs.

Tripod, very important and its rock solid.

MacBook Pro tethered to the camera. This gave me the advantage of editing as I went through each image but would also act as a remote trigger to negate any camera shake.

I had several visits to get through the paintings. It was all based at the artist’s house where we had fashioned a dark room in order for me to control the light.

As it happens, one of the days was the hottest day this summer and it was insanely hot. I thought my poor computer wasn’t going to make it. Some of the files were so large the processing power was at its maximum and the fan inside was working hard.

We have completed all the paintings needed to start offering the images for sale on his new website – www.brilliantbrushstrokes.co.uk.

In the end we were all very pleased with the outcomes of all the paintings. Some needed a little touching up but it was only minor as all the photos were taking on site and edited as I went so we could get the best pictures every time.

Francis is very happy and this week he has his grand exhibition at La Galleria, 5 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 4UY

If your interested in any of his artwork please head over to his site where you can place a bid.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.