well here are my experience and ideas on putting a painting squarely in the picture frame... i had a case of photographing paintings for a friend and just yesterday i photographed some test charts, only to find that squaring the rectangular frame withing the pic frame is not that easy without instrument help... i lacked a bubble lavel but still that i believe is half the solutuion, cos one should point the leveled camera to the painting center... as often does i came with idea while showering (dont't you ever do?) and here what it is. find the painting center in the cross section of its diagonals. then point the camera there. but who says it is square too? in onother word, is the optical center as far away from all corners? so enter the strings... in order to find the vertical line (to the painting surface)that passes from the painting center one has to use isosceles traigles made from string. cut 4 equal lengths of string (2 for each axis and consisting from an actually one double length piece linking each diagonal points), fix them to the painting corners, and pull them until they all end in the same spot, which should be the camera lens center... it seems good enough, but then i had another problem...i was to use 6 different focal distances for the test chart, so then i would have to make six sets (one from each position)...and the under the running water i remembered the chord fictures most fleece jackets and parkas have to keep the elastic chords shortened. you know the spring loaded aperture in a cylidrical apparatus that keeps the elastic chord tout. in theory if one would pull the 2 strings length through the opening and tensioned, it is impossible to miss the painting center... well actually it was too late to test the idea... what do you think about it? any better idea? there's got to be one.. thanks, kostas _____________________________________________________________________________________ http://www.mailbox.gr ÁðïêôÞóôå äùñåÜí ôï ìïíáäéêü óáò e-mail. http://www.thesuperweb.gr Website ìå ÁóöáëÝò Controlpanel áðü 6 Euro êáé äþñï ôï domain óáò!
