A client out-of-state needed a photograph of an oil painting of Captain John Webster, which is hanging in the Harford County courthouse, for an article he is writing.

Sounds simple, right? Yes, and No.

The simple part is that your subject is very good at standing very still — for as long as you need (duh, it’s hanging on the wall)

The difficult part is lighting the oil painting without causing hotspots, reflections, etc. Other factors are that the portrait is hanging about seven feet off the ground in a dark paneled hallway with a 18-20 foot ceiling. The courthouse has a very large number of portraits hanging throughout, and I’m not sure if it is because most of these paintings are so old, or if they were originally painted this way, or if the lighting inside the building isn’t optimal for these portraits, but they are appear very dark from the naked eye. I was initially a bit concerned.

I brought my 13 foot lightstands, not knowing before I arrived exactly where and how high this portrait was hanging in the courthouse. I lit the painting with two 580EXs bounced into white umbrellas placed approximately 30 degrees to each side about 5-6 feel away. The strobes where fired wireless with Pocket Wizards.

Another challenge was getting myself high enough to shoot the portrait straight on. I’m sure it was quite a sight to see me standing on 2 reams of paper, which were on top of a step ladder (please don’t attempt this at home). I must have been slightly entertaining for I had my share of on-lookers during all of this.

I was very pleased with the results from my first effort at photographing an oil painting. The lighting I applied really brought out more detail than you can see in when viewing the painting in person. If/when I do this again, I think I will put the lights in a much lower angle, such as 10 degrees with the umbrellas almost shooting back at each other.

I really enjoyed the company of all of the folks I interacted with at the courthouse. Everyone was extremely pleasant and had a great sense of humor.