On Scanning My Paintings:

An Alternative to Digitally Photographing Your Painting.

 

Background:

For years I photographed my paintings as they were completed. The goal was to have good documentation, particularly of sold paintings. Also, I need images to submit to shows, and to reproduce as art prints or cards.

At first I tried photographing them myself. Sometimes it went well. But most times the results were marginal. So I turned to the services of a local photographer who specializes in servicing artist's.

Typically I requested from him half a dozen 35 mm slides from each painting. If I thought a specific painting was particularly good, in addition I would order a 3 x 5 inch transparency. The downsides were the expense and a week or more delay before being able to show my latest artwork, while he photographed the painting.

Then, many art exhibits began accepting digital images as well as slides for jurying, plus I needed digital images for submitting to online galleries and for use on my own website.

Once again, I started shooting the paintings myself, this time with my own digital camera - with the same spotty results. But now, often I was able to improve the images using my computer. Usually, all this was in addition to having the usual slides made.

Then my photographer began to offer shooting digital images with his 10 megapixel camera. At that time, my camera was only 5 megapixels. With my image quality troubles, I turned to him for all my photography, giving up on 35 mm slides all together.

Over the years, I accumulated a large library of 35 mm slides, and quite a few 3 x 5 inch transparencies.

Now. wanting to have everything with the convenience of digital files, I invested in a high quality 8-1/2 x 14 inch bed scanner (Microtec ScanMaker i900) with a 6400 x 3200 dpi high scan resolution. With this scanner I was able to turn my slides and transparencies into great digital images.

 

But scanning slides and transparencies is a lot of work. So far I have scanned the slide images of only a few of my older paintings.

 

Today's Procedures:

With the availability of inexpensive high quality print-on-demand online services, such as Imagekind.com, FineArtAmerica.com, RedBubble.com, and others, the need for high resolution digital images of my paintings has increased.

My photographer now offers the use of a very high resolution scanning camera – but only at a high price, as well as an extended waiting time while he doctors the scanning process and the finished image.

 

For paintings smaller than 8-1/2 x 14 inches I can scan them directly on my own scanner, and I have done this successfully for several 8 x 10 portraits.

 

But, there is a simple way to do the same thing for larger paintings:

For several years I have been using Adobe's Photoshop Elements "Panorama" feature on my computer, and using my scanner, I am able to knit together several scanned digital images, to create a larger image.

The process works by laying the painting directly on the glass of the scanner, and the reposition it by advanceing the painting across the glass with each scan. The process is repeated until the whole painting surface has been scanned.

Initially the process was a little clumsy and the results often not perfect.

The much more expensive Adobe Photoshop program has a similar feature, but at first it worked in a different way, and produced much better results.

Fortunately, beginning with Photoshop Elements version 6, and continued in later versions, Adobe has included what appears to be the same improved Panorama process of the more expensive Photoshop.

I have used this improved software to scan my larger paintings with great success for several years.

 

Here are two examples:

This painting "Ponte Vecchio" 18 x 36 inches, required 14 scans. The final uncompressed .tif file is 289Mb., 14250 x 7105 pixels.

 

This painting "County Fair" 16 x 32 inches, required 12 scans. The final uncompressed .tif file is 228Mb., 12622 x 6310 pixels.

 

This is how it is done:

To scan paintings up to 24 inches wide, lay the painting face down on the carefully cleaned glass.

 

Using scanning software (I use VueScan), set the input panel for scans at 400 dpi – quite enough for good print reproduction at more than full size.

 

 

Then set the Output panel for 100% magnification, TIFF file, 24 bit RGB, and indicate where you want the file to be stored onyour computer.

 

Now scan the painting in strips, with about a 1/3 overlap, plus about of 1/2 inch of gap between the edge of the painting and the edge of the scanning area.

 

With wide paintings scan strips down one long edge. Then turn the painting around, and scan strips along the other long edge.

 

Each scanned file is numbered so that I can identify them as I start knitting them together in the next part of the process. The resulting large files are easily processed by most computers, but may take a few minuites.

Opening Photoshop Elements (or the full Photoshop if you have it), from the File Menu, click "New," and several options appear. Choose "Photomerge ® Panorama" and click again. A new window opens.

 

On the left side under the column "Layout" click the button "Interactive Layout." Then on the right, under "Source Files," Ensure the "Use" dropdown menu reads "Files." Click "Browse" and choose all the scan files for one side of the painting. Then, click "OK."

 

The knitting together step may take several minuets, depending upon the power of your computer. Half way through the process, Photoshop asks you to approve a rough  matched image of the finished image. Check that all seems to be in order, and click again "OK."

The next phase takes longer but ends up with the finished image for one side of the painting, surrounded by a rough black border on three sides.

 

Save this image. Click on PC or Macintosh Byte Order (depending upon your computer).

 

The resulting file has now to be flattened. Save the file again with a different name, and this time select "Discard Layers and Save Copy."

 

Now repeat the steps for the scans of the other edge.

 

Ending up with the other scanned edge.

 

Again flatten the file.

Now rotate the first flattened scan 180 degrees so that both images are viewed oriented correctly. Save the rotated image.

Next merge the two flattened images.

 

Resulting in a merged complete image surrounded by a black band.

 

The computer will ask if you wish to automatically fill in the edges of your panorama. Choose "No."

 

Again, flatten the resulting file.

At this stage I prepare to save the file to my Art Collection folder. I initiate a new Collection folder for this painting naming both the new folder and this image with the painting title. All later image versions of this painting (various sized images, web images, publicity images, and including printing files for cards and prints) will be accumulated in this folder. Save the file.

This first file is always saved in its largest uncompressed version as a TIFF file, retaining the maximum image detail.

After the Panorama process has knitted the individual scan files into a composite image, it has to be cropped (I use Photoshop Elements for this) to get rid of the rough black edges. This slightly reduces the size of the final file.

In addition, I may slightly adjust the contrast and colors to make sure the finished screen image is similar to the original painting.

Slow Morning. Original painting: 16 x 20 inches. TIFF file: 149.3 MB., 7892 x 6301 pixels.

 

Updated November 2011.