Reverse Engineering In The Studio

We all know how reverse engineering goes in the commercial world - A Chinese company rep sends a new European product to his factory, they take it apart and make computer plans, then turn on the CAD-CAM machines and churn out low-priced copies. 

Their advertising office adds a vaguely-European name to it and then floods everyone's emails with promotion. This accounts for the Montgomery-Fitzhugh ffitch-ffitch Smythe tripod range from Guangzhao. It's a long way from Harrow to Herro...

It also works in the military field - wayward B-29s are interned by the Russians and Heigh-Ho here come 847 Tupolev 4 bombers. 

Well, a conversation yesterday with an artist alerted me to the fact that we sometimes have to do a little reverse engineer thinking in our camera shop. You see the artist wanted to take photographs that would serve as guides for her own paintings - portraits - and then wanted images to be available for further commercial reproduction. Once she had finished a canvas, she wanted a camera and lens combination that would be able to photograph the artwork for full-size reproduction.

So here's the reverse - I could have said a small-frame Nikon or Canon DSLR for the initial shots, but that would leave it wanting for the art copy. I could have said a moderate telephoto for the portraits, but that wold have made the art copy difficult - these are going to be large canvases. Zoom lenses and art reproduction are problematical due to distortion. Compromise, compromise.

In the end the best balance seems to be a Nikon D600 with a 50mm f:1.4 G lens or a Canon 6D with a 50mm f:1.4 EF lens. There will be more discussions about the business of lighting for portraits and flat artwork, but funnily enough some of the simple Elinchrom D-lite and RX sets are perfect for both applications.

It is good when a project like this can be looked at in detail right form the start - potential difficulties can be avoided - and it is also fascinating to think how many ventures would benefit from being seen and engineered in reverse.