Shoot your paintings outside if you do not own lighting equipment or if your work is too big to photograph indoors. Overcast and shadowed lighting are best for this project because the clouds and tree branches diffuse the light. Set up a 10-by-10-foot white canopy and adjust the white balance on your camera accordingly.
Photographing your paintings inside will require two light sources diffused by a white screen set up 45 degrees from your painting. Good bulbs for the project include the Cloud Dome, Lowel Ego and the EZCube.
If you are working with professional equipment, the best setup for photographing your painting is two studio strobes bounced into oversize white umbrellas for balanced, soft diffused lighting.