Shooting fine art?

[patton63]

I've been asked to photograph a fine-art drawing. The drawing is done in pencil includes shading that runs from almost pure black to almost white. Any thoughts and/or recommendations on film speed? I typically shoot Ilford PanF 50 or their 125 speed film. I have occassionally shot their Delta 200 and 400. I plan to shoot this with both medium (6x6) and large (4x5) formats.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

[Konical]

Good Morning, Patton,

For the 4 x 5, try to locate some Kodak Commercial 4127. It develops fast (depending on desired contrast, two-three minutes in HC-110B). It's meant for copying continuous tone subjects (old photos) and does a good job with subtle differences in tonality. The only problem is that, as far as I know, it's no longer available from Kodak; I've purchased some from time to time on E-Bay. Can't help on the 120; wish there were a real B & W copy film available in that size.

Konical

 

[RAP]

You might want to consider color film, negative or transparency. Negative is probably better. Get a color scale or color key and place it in under the drawing, so that it can be cropped out when the negative is printed. The scale will be used so color accuracy can be maintained.

 

[DKT]

Ilford Ortho Plus in 4x5. it's rated as 40 EI tungsten, and 80 for daylight. It's actually a pretty convenient film for studio work in that you can double up with a film like TMX and the speed is pretty much the same. You can use standard developers with it as well, and it can handle wide range of contrasts--you can use paper developers, or high contrast ones (D11, D19 etc) also.

I use it at work for shooting this sort of thing, and copying photos as well. My normal time for a deeptank (t max rs, repl) is 6 minutes at 75 deg. F. You can run it up to about a one-stop push in TMAX RS and it handles nicely, and you can pull it some as well to control contrast....

you can also proof it in the studio off type 55 p/n. the positive is the normal exposure for strobe, and you add a half stop for tungsten. I usually shoot a normal and a plus half, but for line art and etchings--sometimes it helps to shoot slightly under and then push a little bit.
hope this helps.

 

[Ian Grant]

I'll second using the Ilford Ortho film.

It's a brilliant film for copying photographs and artwork, and I used to use it extensively, it's easier to get clean highlights compared to using conventional Panchromatic films. It's also extremely versatile when it comes to processing.

Ian

Ilford Ortho Plus in 4x5.