Imaging Working Group

  • 1.  Long, flat LED panels for raking light

    Posted 02-15-2024 15:21

    Hello, 
    My very first post. I am the Conservation photographer for the Cleveland Museum of Art. I would like to know what you are using to shoot raking light for items such as asian hanging scrolls. What types of lights are you using? We have a ceiling mounted 4x4 truck LED light bar that isn't very good. It't dimmable but all the LEDs have lens. The outer LEDs spread the light out to the side and the center LEDs focus to a center point, not straight ahead. When photographing raking from the bottom, I use a Broncolor head and small rectangular soft box without diffusion but this is too tall and I have to raise the hanging scrolls as high as I can.
    Has anyone used LED light panels that are elongated to look like a typical 48" fluorescent tube fixture? Similar to the link. These would be wonderful just resting on the ground and save about 18" of height. 

    https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1447145-REG/genaray_ssl_50_50_soft_strip.html
    Thanks,
    David Brichford



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    David Brichford
    Associate Photographer and Digital Imaging Specialist
    Cleveland Museum of Art
    Cleveland OH
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Long, flat LED panels for raking light

    Posted 03-01-2024 10:41

    Hi David,

    In Paintings Conservation at The Met, we are using Westcott Flex Cine Bi-Color Mats (1x2 foot). We have a pair of them mounted on a rolling stand, so this amounts to a 12 inch wide by 48 inch high array. They are dimmable and color temperature adjustable. We have been using them for more than six years and they have served us very well for raking light and all our tethered photography.

    Best,

    Evan Read

    Manager of Technical Documentation

    Paintings Conservation

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    New York, NY



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    Evan Read
    Manager of Technical Documentation
    Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters
    New York NY
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Long, flat LED panels for raking light

    Posted 03-01-2024 17:13
    Hi David, and all,

    Ah, raking light. So simple yet so effective. I've got a bit of an aside, but you reminded me of a situation.

    Recently I was tasked with documenting "embedded fibers in the gelatin" of some gelatin silver prints. They were perfectly visible to the naked eye, but when we used our Broncolor Lightbar, our usual raking light for that setup, the fibers were not as visible

    I then took a speedlight instead, and the sharpness of that light source revealed what we were seeing with our eyes. Since then, I've tried to use a point light source for all of my raking light documentation.

    Images attached.

    Adam


    --

    Adam Neese (he/him)

    Senior Collections Photographer for Conservation

    The David Booth Conservation Department


    The Museum of Modern Art

    11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019

    +1 (212) 708 8455

    +1 (817) 703 9101 mobile

    adam_neese@moma.org


    Change is Modern. Discover something new every day at MoMA.



    Original Message


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