How to digitize painting. (Full Version)

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Findinghappiness -> How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 7:29:51 PM)

My legally blind grandfather managed to paint some seriously awesome paintings. They are hanging currently around my grand mothers house. Some are 8x10, others are about 6 feet long and 4 feet high.

My grandmother isn't doing to well, and before the family b.s. happens with funeral, I want to digitize the paintings to get them printed.

Any constructive ways to digitize them.

The only thing I can think of is a tripod, and splitting the painting up into many photographs with a back light, and then stitching them all back together, hoping the light balance stays all the same.

I wish there was a laser scanner or something to rent and use, so that I do NOT have to move the paintings into a photo studio.

Anybody have suggestions to digitize paintings with out really having to move them???

Thank you!



kruelkare -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 7:34:44 PM)

I think you're going to have to movce them... Many commercial print shops have large flatbed scanners which would do a much better job
There are restoration companies who can scane, say, a fresco, in situ, but it's a long and expensive process



Findinghappiness -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 7:35:23 PM)

And a flat bed scanner REALLY scans paintings that HUGE? For real???



Rule -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 7:39:48 PM)

Consult a museum.



Findinghappiness -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 7:40:57 PM)

Museum may scan them? I had no idea...



Rule -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 7:42:31 PM)

Museums often have a lot of research performed on old paintings. Likely they can advise you on your problem.



Findinghappiness -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 7:43:12 PM)

Thank you, will call around.



lizi -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 7:55:28 PM)

I don't know if this will work for you or not but here it goes...
There are many places that will take a digital picture and print it on a canvas. You could take a good quality picture of his art and send it to one of these places or go to local print shop that prints on canvas. Of course you are going to lose some quality with the translation of original art to digital picture. The picture to canvas process also will change things further from the original.

The upside is that you can control the final size of image you want to eventually get and you can also dictate if it is a canvas you're going for, or a print on regular paper or whatever. You can even have things printed on coffee cups or shirts or whatever - you get the idea. You can also take a picture while leaving the canvas's in situ.

The downside is that a large custom picture to canvas is pretty expensive, hundreds. If you can sacrifice on size to ending up with something smaller that'll bring the price down. It will also not be exactly the same as your grandfather's paintings - it will be a facsmile.

You know what I might try? Take a picture and try having something printed out from it on either a smallish canvas or have a regular print made. You can even do prints from WalMart in a poster size from a digital print. It'll give you an idea of what you'll get by going with the photo to print process.

FYI, I got a deal though Groupon for a picture to canvas - 16 x 20, for $45- originally like $110 (?) for my son. He sent in his picture and got the canvas stretched on a frame and absolutely loved it. The place was Canvasondemand. They have a customer gallery where you can see examples of stuff.



LookieNoNookie -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 8:26:37 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Findinghappiness

My legally blind grandfather managed to paint some seriously awesome paintings. They are hanging currently around my grand mothers house. Some are 8x10, others are about 6 feet long and 4 feet high.

My grandmother isn't doing to well, and before the family b.s. happens with funeral, I want to digitize the paintings to get them printed.

Any constructive ways to digitize them.

The only thing I can think of is a tripod, and splitting the painting up into many photographs with a back light, and then stitching them all back together, hoping the light balance stays all the same.

I wish there was a laser scanner or something to rent and use, so that I do NOT have to move the paintings into a photo studio.

Anybody have suggestions to digitize paintings with out really having to move them???

Thank you!



Don't have anything to offer on the capture issue but....I invented some shit for blind people, patents....if your grandfather is that good...I can get the images to a place where they'll be appreciated.



ladysekhmetka -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 9:18:31 PM)

I had a project in my digital photography class where it was essentially doing this.

With a decent digital SLR camera, some good lights and a gray scale in the pic to help with the color correction, you can take the image into Photoshop and tweak from there. I've had some personal success getting some portraits that I painted into digital format to post on my dArt account.



xxblushesxx -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 9:40:23 PM)

Here are Costco's prices for Canvas paintings with and without frames. The first price is without, the price next to it is framed.

12x16 $34.99 $58.99
14x14 $34.99 $58.99
16x20 $44.99 $80.99
18x24 $54.99 $94.99
20x30 $69.99 $119.99
16x32 $64.99 $119.99
24x32 $72.99 $129.99
16x48 $74.99 $129.99
30x30 $129.99 $209.99
30x40 $169.99 $259.99
40x60 $329.99 $489.99




SternSkipper -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 11:17:58 PM)

quote:

And a flat bed scanner REALLY scans paintings that HUGE? For real???



Anything can be scanned for the right price. The equipment they use in a bed orientation for large professional jobs is considerably different that the small devices we're used to seeing.



SternSkipper -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/28/2012 11:22:11 PM)

Example:

http://www.scanners4cad.com/news_views/ProCaptura-wide-scanner.htm



Strongmindbody -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/29/2012 5:01:26 AM)

Yes, museums do massive scans, but with today's cameras you can get great results with a good dSLR and good lighting. A local photographer can do this for you, or you may be able to rent the equipment yourself.

Just be sure to get uncompressed and unprocessed output so you can get the best possible reproduction on a large canvas.



LaTigresse -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/29/2012 7:49:49 AM)

I manage a printing company and we do this with some regularity.

We either scan them, they can be scanned in sections and photoshopped into one. Or, if they ask nicely, and are willing to pay me, I will bring my camera gear into the shop and photograph it for them. I've done all of the stuff for a local artist. So far, he's not interested in selling prints of his originals but the galleries he shows in do brochures and postcard mailings. He's also done a swanky big coffee table book of his work that I am proud to say I had a small part in helping create.



kdsub -> RE: How to digitize painting. (2/29/2012 8:54:06 AM)

There should be no problem photographing the paintings if you have consistent lighting and a quality camera and lens.

Just set up consistent lighting and use manual settings and overlap a third or so. It is easy to combine them in Photoshop and use an online service for printing such as Mpix.

You will loose little, if any, quality and should actually get a better print than the original because you can control color, contrast, and luminosity as needed.

For large prints you will need at least 150 pixels per inch but 240 to 300 would be optimum. Anything over 300 is a waste and not needed for the average full size print.

Butch



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