Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

scruggelgreen · Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:06 pm

Simple question for everyone. What lens do you use for "copy"work? Specifically the lens you would use if you were to photograph a wall painting, child's drawing hung on a wall, or any other similar type subject.

Likely image quality, sharpness from center to corner, CA, and distortion would be the primary factors in a lens like this.

I'm interested to hear what everyone has to say! Thanks everyone..........

triceratops · Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 7931 Location: The other Nevada

I'd use (and have used) the same lens you'd use for portrait work. You don't want to distort the image so for a full frame camera something between 90mm and 135mm should work fine. In my case, for an image of an oil painting I used my 70-200 lens set at 135mm, 1/640 sec., f10, ISO 100. Be sure to position your sensor plane as close to parallel to the plane of the painting you are photographing.

felix_casio · Joined: 16 Jul 2006 Posts: 1781 Location: www.felixtm.com

+1 for the 70-200.

chinchoi · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:31 am

i do shot some copy photo such as my stamp collection, but not really a pro into it. A macro prime lens will do it nicely, 50mm and 100mm seems fit, of course depends how large is the subject and how spacious is your "studio".

tverkhovynets · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 752 Location: Kiev, Ukraine

mauijon · Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 4309 Location: Maui, Hawaii

Most macro lenses are flat field and work well for copying.