I’ve never gone to art school, so I have a dumb art question for all my artist readers. When you have a large painting, how do you get it scanned/photographed so that you can make digital prints? I can print them myself, so all I need is a way to get my large-scale paintings made into digital files. Any advice?
Thanks!
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Rjupiter on 06.12.2008 at 08:23 AM
It depends on what type of medium the paint it in be it oil, acrylics, watercolors etc… You can scan some paintings that have saturated colors, like acrylics but are not reflective, like oils, but you will have to do this in sections and piece the image back togther (and fix your colors) in something like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.
There is also the photography method. Shooting the painting with a high quality camera and using that as the bases for your print. But again you will need to adjust stuff in the computer. If you don’t have high end camera, don’t use point and shoot ones, have it taken professionally.
Jaime (post author) on 06.12.2008 at 08:28 AM
I have heard of the scanning method where you piece it together and that just scares me. I think I’d rather have it photographed. Are there people or places that do this as a specialty?
Anna @ D16 on 06.12.2008 at 08:29 AM
Jaime, my father (who does really large-scale paintings) has 3×5 transparencies shot of his work (in a studio with the right lighting, etc.). The transparencies are then sent out for high-end drum scans and color correction.
This is essentially the same thing I do at work when I’ve commissioned a painting for a book cover and need a digital file. I send it out to a service bureau that shoots it, scans the chrome, and returns the file to me on a disk. Some places do it digitally now, of course. You should be able to find a photo studio that does this kind of work relatively inexpensively.
Anna @ D16 on 06.12.2008 at 08:33 AM
Jaime, this are the places I usually use:
http://a2a.com/
http://duggal.com/
Obviously they’re not local to you, but maybe this is a starting point for looking for similar kinds of places in your area.
Dani on 06.12.2008 at 08:34 AM
I’ve got zero art experience myself, but this is a thought “outside the box”: many engineering and architectural firms have scanners that they use to scan old plot plans and blueprints, some of which can be quite delicate. You may want to check your yellow pages and see if any local a&e firms would be willing to help you out.
monogodo on 06.12.2008 at 09:10 AM
I work for a printing company that has a large format scanner.
From our website:
“With our Cruse Scanner, we can scan your original flat artwork or four-color reproductions that would ordinarily be too big for conventional scanners. We can capture your artwork in full, vivid color, at resolutions from 75 to 500 ppi, and sizes up to 48″x72″ and up to 3″ thick.”
I don’t know pricing, as I work at a different location.
Jaime (post author) on 06.12.2008 at 10:49 AM
monogodo – any chance the printer is located in San Diego? :)
Is scanning better than photographing?
monogodo on 06.12.2008 at 15:54 PM
Jaime,
Nope, we’re in Dallas.
According to Cruse’s website, Classic Reprographics in San Diego has one of their scanners. It’s a different model than the one we have, so the specs will be different. It looks like the largest their scanner will take is 30″ x 42″.
I would think that photographing would be better, as all the information will be there for reproduction, whereas a scanner will discard some information for the sake of file size. That is, of course, if the photograph is a standard photograph, and not a digital one, or is a high res photograph.