Insufficient Pixels

Deena,

I think it has to do with scanning at a different resolution but I'm not sure since I am not a painter and do not have to scan my images.
Hang in there. I'm sure members with more knowledge about this will be answering you soon!

Welcome to FAA! Love the terrier. Good job.
Kathy

You can't change the pixels I n a given file without degradation.

You need yo create files that naturally have more. Better camera, different camera setting or bigger scan.

Deena - here is a link to advice here in the discussions area. Don't change your number of pixels!!!

http://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=98980

you shouldn't use a cell phone to shoot these, the images have to be large, but you can't enlarge the image. as it stands the picture isn't printable because the edges are showing and its distorted. you can't have the frame in the shot. buy a scanner and use that.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Can you take it out of the frame and use a scanner? It is a lovely painting!

Edit - I have some very small drawings/paintings on here which I scanned and they typically measure 3600x4800 pixels.

Did you scan your art or use a digital camera to get the file you uploaded?

Thank you for the nice comments! This was a commissioned portrait, and I took the photo with a digital camera. I don't have the original any more. All of the dog paintings that I'm going to upload were commissioned portraits and the buyers have the originals. What if I crop the image to remove the frame? Will that make any difference?

Not really, what a pity you don't have the originals anymore!

It's too small. As in way too small. It's a wonderful painting and I suspect you have others around that can be shot properly or scanned in. You need to find some painters here who have to shoot their own stuff or scan it in and see what they do.

One suggestion might be to find a photographer friend who knows what they are doing. The key to selling here is offering people what they want in terms of subject matter, quality and size. Only a small percentage of my sales are 8 inch prints.

I went in and cropped the frame out and straightened it out a tiny bit, and the system took it. Most of my portraits are 8 x 10 inches, so I don't want to go much larger than that for prints.

Your dog shot is coming up 640 x 800 pixels. That's basically 8X6, not 8X10. You want to load the largest resolution possible to give prospective buyers the most choices. You've basically got a greeting card there.

The frame is still there. Here is one of mine where the original is only 5 x 6.5 inches.

if thats the size you have, then your out of luck. you can crop it so its straight and clean, and sell it as a card. if you have others make sure they are straight, clean, cropped well and as large as you can make it without stretching the image out.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I re-did the photo to crop out the frame. Since I no longer have the originals, there's nothing to scan. I don't know how I can change the pixels.

Unfortunately you can't change the pixels. And the frame is still showing.

Barbara, I love Jasper! Since your original is small, what is the largest size print you offer?

you can't change the pixels. your stuck with that one. you'll have to start with a different one. if you have a scanner you can increase the dpi and create a large print. i have images that were only 3x4" and i can make a 72" print or larger if i wanted. of course though you would have to be careful as the canvas texture also increases in size.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

It can be printed up to 35 x 48 inches. But I scanned it and didn't up the pixels. I'm pleased you like him - I'm sure you will end up with lots of work on here.

Barbara, you are very kind! I hope I can sell some prints. It sounds like it would be better to scan the piece rather than photograph it. All I have of my pet portraits are photos downloaded to the computer. My older stuff I can scan in if it will fit in the scannrer. How do you scan a larger - say 16 x 20 piece? Could I bring it to Kinkos or a print shop?

Just a question on commissioned paintings: Is it legal/ethical to sell these? I know that (most) commissioned photographs the copyright goes to the commission-ee, not the commissioner. It depends on how the contract is worded.

Deena, you could scan in sections and put them together digitally or I'm sure a print shop would do it for you. Just remember to do as high a DPI as you can.

Melany, I'm sure that unless the copyright was sold it belongs to the artist.

I researched this and the copyright belongs to the artist. I created the work from someone else's photograph. I'm not selling prints of the photo, but I do I have the right to sell prints of my work.

@melany - its your image, and you can do what you want with it. the copyright always belongs to the artist, unless it was exclusive to the buyer, in which it would then be outlined in a contract, and they would pay A LOT more for it. even then the contract would have to state that the owner of the image, can't reproduce the image themselves, because the copyright never changed hands, it would only be a promise of reproduction.

however... being that you took it from another photo - if you didn't get permission from that person to make the painting to sell in this manner, then you can get in trouble. while there is a lot of argument about this, there have been people who have gotten in trouble painting a photograph, then getting sued by the photographer. it wouldn't really be any different if the situation was reversed.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

If you had a "work for hire" contract then the copyright might go with the commission but I doubt this is the case.

Keep in mind that any crop removes pixels. Once gone they can't be replaced unless you use some kind of software that tries to enlarge by adding pixels by guessing what might look good. In any case its not going to look good in the final print. Better to start with some new artwork and scan it at a high resolution.

You could run it through a paint program like Dynamic Auto Painter to make it bigger, but you will need to crop out the frame if you are going to sell it.

I'm going to be honest with you in a straight forward manner. I will start by saying what I'm going to say is not an insult, it's just the truth and I'm hoping you find it helpful in a positive way moving forward.

Those photos (not the paintings) look substandard. The perspective is off, bits of the frames are still showing in the corners, and in the case of the terrier it's way too low res...not enough pixels as you know. It is such a small file you can't really do a lot with it. Sure, a greeting card maybe at the most. You have to ask yourself if you want poor quality copies of your work being out there? If you no longer have access to the original painting as you suggest, it's best to just not use it going forward.

Based on the questions you are asking, for the next while your BEST course of action to get high quality copies of your work is to get someone else that knows how to do it, as it is clear you are at the very very beginning level of working with digital photo files and scanning. This is not an insult, so please do not take it personal. This just means you have a long learning curve to go through to do these things to get a quality output. That means either getting a friend that is an expert with a camera, or hiring an expert to do it for you if you do not want to commit to going through the curve.

There are other issues with your prints here also. Another being the glare from whatever lighting you are using (Zhara). Perspective control, lighting, colour balance and taking top quality photos to print your work from is not something you are going to learn in a few days, and you certainly won't learn it here on this forum.

" It depends on how the contract is worded"

No on here is a lawyer but the general standard is that unless you actually convey, via some sort of contract, the copyright or reproductions rights to the person you did the commission for, you own that image. They only own the one "hard copy" or the original you sold them. There are no implied rights that go with the original. A lot of people think there is.

I strongly suggest that every artist captures a high quality image of every original they do.

Once the original gets away, the best way to get a file is to borrow it back and have a file made. Not always easy to do.

Kevin is giving you good advice. If you do not know how to do good captures and create quality images, have some one else do it.

Kevin, thank you very much for your advice. I do not take it personally, to the contrary, I appreciate your input and your expertise. I don't have the originals of my pet portraits - they were all commissioned and sold. I was hoping to use my copies on FAA but I now understand that my photos of the portraits won't cut it. What kind of equipment would I need to get better resolution and better photographs? My camera is a 20 megapixel Nikon. My scanner is incorporated into my Epson printer. If what I have isn't sufficient, what kind of equipment would I need, and as an alternative, what kind of service would provide me with the images that would work? A professional photographer? A print shop like Kinkos? If I can't get acceptable images, there's no point in continuing using FAA. I have other paintings that I can put on the site, but I need to know how to get the best images of them. Is there anything on Photoshop that would help? I know I have lots of questions here, but I am very willing to learn and improve. Thanks again.

the camera will work as long as the images are perpendicular to the camera, and the lighting is good. the camera set to the highest quality largest size. and it will have to be cleaned up after. i use a epson perfection v600 photo scanner when i need to scan something like that in. the ones where they are mixed with something else are usually not as good. a pro photographer who does this kind of thing would work, but are expensive. for now a good scanner and stitching software, some kind of editor to clean the crop fix the colors is all you need.

as someone else said you can crop and clean the image and run it through a painter program http://www.mediachance.com/dap/ and then you can sell them large. they won't look like your original, but who's going to know?

photoshop can't do anything about the size. it just edits the image you already have. if you don't have the original the only option you have is the painter.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Good morning Deena .
For Starters; what is the typical size of your painted images - will they fit on your scanner bed ?

& yes, Printing services can scan your images and put them on a disc for you.

Photographing your own work - has a steep learning curve to it if you do not have photography skills. It can be done with a lot of patience & a desire to learn.
But if you are not interested in migraines - have them scanned.