Painters--how Do You Achieve High Quality Digital Images Of Your Paintings?

I use an Epson v500 scanner. For paintings larger than 9x12 I place another piece of glass on top of the bed to have a level surface and make multiple scans with overlaps then use PanaVue to stitch the scans together. The biggest problem I seem to have is the scanner seems to over saturate the blues and I haven't figured out a very good solution to that.

Get a good camera and learn how to use it or hire a good photographer

The camera you use will determine the pixels.
I'd just hire a photographer who has the equipment and knows how to use it.....preferably in a room set up that controls the lighting.

Celeste,

Welcome!

I just reposted an old "recipe" on "How To" copy artwork, should be just above some where or just below somewhere or just some where!

The "usual suspects" that create poor copies are these:

1. Camera lens and artwork, not completely parallel.
2. Wrong aperture, too shallow, like F2.8,instead of F8 or F11
3. Artwork not lit correctly, hotspots/shadows
4. Wrong camera to start. Point and shoot vs a DSLR or worse, handheld smart phone.
5. No tripod

And I could go on and on. If you have an old film camera and a longish lens or better yet, a macro lens, then that would be preferred over a small point and shoot. If you buy some good low ISO color negative film, ISO 100 or 200 and shoot the artwork correctly, then you can have the film scanned,cheap, $.50 each or so. Where you are, shouldn't be a problem.

In New Mexico where you are, you should be falling over photographers out there and many have the right gear and the right recipe to correctly copy your artwork, if you don't want to go through all the stuff I suggest!

If your artwork is smallish, then this is something you should try!

Rich

I invested in a very good Nikon camera and practiced, practiced, practiced till I got my images perfect. I actually enjoy using my camera now and use it for upcoming painting ideas.

Kathy

Kathy,

It really does take practice. Especially if you only do this once or twice a year. If you can set up a place and leave it and then use the set-up to copy work as it's done, then it gets easier,but then you have to have this space!

Just like with any new "recipe" the first few times, you're reading the instructions,to see if you missed anything and then later, you don't even need the recipe!

Rich

I scan small pieces at home (at 300 dpi). For larger pieces (most of my work) I take them to a local company that does "large format" scanning. Using these scans, I can have full sized prints made without loosing any clarity.

I recently had two pieces (24x24 inch and 30x30 inch) scanned. Here's what the quote looked like:
Qty. 1) 24x24 scan - $55
Qty. 1) 30x30 scan - $65

Celiste,

I feel your pain..because I go through the same thing all the time.

Years ago, it was making slides of your work to apply for shows.

Now it's all this digital thing...New cameras, and new requirements.

After doing what we do, (painting and in my case, sculpture) we have to become photographers.

And in the beginning here on FAA, selling originals were encouraged. ..So the photos only had serve that purpose

Now, it seems to me, we are slowly becoming "Personna Non-grata"

And to be ever found, we must sell POD

Photos that are printable.

So, we all, coming from different disciplines, have to follow Rich's advise, if we ever want a chance

David King: What kind of glass are you using? Cyan plus magenta= blue.

Just plain old glass, nothing special. I think it came out of a cheap frame, it's 11" X 14" X 1/16" thick.

David King: Well, plain old glass is green , the scanner will over compensate for the green by adding magenta , if your scanner's light source is on the cyan side(cold), you will get magenta and cyan which equals blue.
Try this just to see what temp your scanner is running at:
Take the uv filter from one of you camera lenses place it on a the scanner bed. cut out a white as white square sheet of paper that will fit in the filter., so the light from the scanner passes through the filter optic to the square and scan . Now place the glass and the same square piece of paper on the scanner. and scan. If the glass is larger than the scanner bed, find a piece of glass that will not extend beyond the scanners cover.
Look at the color of each scan your ordinary glass should show a shit to either blue or magenta.

I see the color bias towards blue whether I have the glass on there or not so if the glass is having an effect it's hardly noticeable.

David King: If you have a yellow filter try scanning that against a white back ground.
Do you have photoshop?

I have Corel PaintShop Pro, though I'm admittedly not very competent but I do know how to fool around with the RGB filter but maybe just enough to be dangerous.

I don't have any filters, I'm not a photographer.

David king: OK Corel Paintshop pro. then , open a scan of just a white piece of paper . dup the layer and on the dup do a one step photo correction , you can compare the two layers and see how cold your scanner light source is running. Also , please don't tell us you cleaned the scanner glass with windex or glass plus!

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=432109 YOUR Print Quality - Please Read
http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=284083 How to Photograph Your Art
http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=199853 How to photograph your Artwork at Home
http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=200640 How I Photograph Art...
http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=371117 Let’s Talk Photography
http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=102801 Photographing paintings
http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=917008 Rich's Tutorial On Copying Artwork

I suggest photographing before you apply any glazing or varnish etc...they've covered the rest above....good luck...