Photography of Fine Art

We specialise in the photography of all forms of Fine Art including paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, wall hangings, textiles, jewellery and conceptual art projects.

Much of our work involves photographing 2D images at extremely high resolution and with great attention to colour management, in preparation for making Giclée print editions. When done at its best this is a highly specialised area of photography. We have invested in what we consider to be the highest grade equipment available for these tasks and focus on producing work of top quality.

For some jobs speed and budget may be primary requirements and in these cases we are very happy to work to the client's brief.

Clients are most welcome to attend, direct and work with me during the photographic session and during the production of limited edition prints. Location work is also welcome.

Please visit the galleries to see examples of our work.

Studio & Equipment, and technical info.

Camera.
Artwork is primarily photographed with a 'Phase One P40+' digital back mounted on a Linhof RD1 large format camera using Apo-Digital Schneider lenses. The latest generation of digital backs made by Phase One produce superb colour as well as huge files. The Linhof RD1 camera is designed specifically for copy work "... a combination of robustness and absolute stability and parallelism." Both the rear and front standards are rigid, accepting only focusing adjustments. The benefit of this is that the lens and digital receptor are perfectly parallel. In virtually all other large format camera these standards are designed to allow movements and therefore have some give - precisely what is not wanted when photographing 2D art work. The Apo-Digitar Schneider and Rodenstock large format lenses are acknowledged as the ultimate in quality. By useing the full image circle of the lenses, the Linhof back holder enables the creation of files larger than 10,650x 13200 pixels (aprox 800mb @ 48bit, 400mb @24bit, 90cm x 110cm@ 300ppi). We also have specialized equipment allowing the creation of even larger files when required, by 'tiling'. These files are entirely accurate and do not necessitate distorting the 'tiles' in Photoshop in an effort to create a seemless image, unlike the more commonly used method of 'tiling' sometimes known as nodal point stitching which we do not regard as adequate for photographing artwork. When more appropriate a Phase One camera with a large range of Phase One and Mamiya lenses or a Canon DSLR are used.

Studio Equipment.
The studio is equipped with both flash and continuous lighting including Profoto and Elinchrom flash, a large range of modifiers, soft boxes and 'Cubelite's etc, Kinoflow lights, tungsten lights, a Foba studio stand, numerous backgrounds and studio still life tables.

Processing and Monitors
For processing files the main monitor used is an Eizo ColourEdge211. Processing software includes Capture One Pro5, the Adobe Creative Suite CS5 and Helicon Focus.

Colour
A fully ICC (International Colour Consortium) compliant colour workflow is rigorously maintained. Camera profiles are built using X-Rites 'Profilemaker5' and Equalight and CaptureOne. The Eizo Monitor is profiled using 'Colour Navigator' . Other less critical monitors are profiled using Xrite EyeOne. For print colour matching a professional viewer, the GTI Graphiclite is used and Solux lights provide the general light source in the studio. An X-Rite spectrophotometer are used for printer profiles.