Lines in Digital Pictures of Paintings on Canvas?

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

It sounds like I'm not the only one experiencing this, which makes me feel better.

The lines don't show up on the camera when I review the photos, probably because that image is so small, and I haven't tried printing them to see how they'd look since my main point in capturing the painting is to put it up on the web, and I don't have a printer which produces anything like archival photos. Sometimes the lines soften a bit once I save the picture for the web in Photoshop Elements, but they're still there. When I load them onto my computer after shooting them, they open in iPhoto (I'm on a Mac) and the lines are especially prominent there.

I tried shooting out of doors, turning the canvas 45 degrees away from direct sunlight, which is how I often get the best photos with my Nikon 75 standard camera, and the result almost had a moir

[Terri Ficenec]

Hi Leslie!

I've had this problem too... but for me it seems related to how close in I take the picture... or how much it's being compressed in Paint Shop Pro to view it. Only some of my paintings have had this problem with photography patterns and I found that by experimenting with the camera at different distances away, or very slightly different 'zooms' I could avoid the problem with the original photo. I've also run into a pattern like this appearing when re-sizing an image down.... and sometimes just slightly changing the size (a little larger or smaller) seemed to help.

Another thought: I haven't seen this kind of pattern at all since I've started using the Pintura 'portrait smooth' extra fine weave canvas which has a very smooth texture.... but I remember it from some of the shots of took of small paintings on much coarser "portrait" grade canvas from another company. So perhaps Mike's thought that the camera is accentuating a pattern that's really there has merit?

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Terri, I think you're right about the canvas texture making a difference. From the research of some other artists I've learned that this is called a moir

[Julie Deane]

Terri

I used to work in a printing company. When I had trouble with a moire pattern, sometimes it resolved if I changed how the art was angled. For example, a photo with a moire pattern at 90 degrees might look better at 45 degrees. In printing, it had to do with a screen being laid over a photo with an existing screen (the screen is the thing that is put over a picture to break it into dots). Possible what is happening with your art is that the "screen" pattern of the canvas is interacting negatively with the digital camera pattern.

You might try putting your art at different angles on the wall, and shooting samples to see if that resolves the problem. Or angle your camera lens, keeping your art stationary. Also, as was mentioned, try different resolutions/DPI.

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Julie, thanks for the suggestion. I have tried shooting at different angles to the light and it does seem to help a little. A friend who also has a G2 suggested that I change my settings and take those pictures at Superfine resolution and RAW format and see whether that helped. I also think using smoother canvas would make a difference. I like the medium canvas texture but may try using a portrait grade more frequently.

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Since I have still been experiencing problems with the moir