Indian Art Work

[krstahl]

I have been documenting American Indian art work on sandstone walls in Montana. The color pictographs (paintings) are fairly easy to photo and PP through ImageJ software. However, some of the other art work is nothing more than very shallow scratches (similar to a petroglyph) on the surface of the sandstone. ImageJ only works on photos with a color substrate (paint). A "straight on" photo does not show the scratches well at all. The shoot locations are several miles from the nearest gravel or dirt road, and wheeled vehicles are not allowed, so dragging in a bunch of side lighting gear would not be practical. The best I have been able to do, so far, is to shoot several macros and then stitch them together. However, the results are still not satisfactory for proper documention. Does anyone have any ideas on how to shoot these shallow scratches so that they show up. Because the scratches are not based with color paints, shooting B&W would be OK but not preferred. I shoot with either a Canon 7D w/ 24-70mm f2.8 L USM lens or I use my Canon S100.

I have attached two photos of what I am trying to capture. The type of art I am trying to capture is inside the red circles I have added PP. Both pics are in color even though the first looks like it is BW (it was in sort of a cave). I bracketed both shots for +/- 1/3 stop, these are the best that came out at -1/3 stop - no flash. Flash seems to burn them out at such close range of about 12 - 24 inches. There is not enough room in the cave to back up any farther.