Original Oil Painting Scanning Service Digital Image Editing Reproduction

R Young Art

When I entered into the commercial world of art several years ago, I decided that if I was to be successful, I would need digital reproductions of my artwork in order to at some time in the future offer prints and images to publishers and licensors. Also for my own reference after the originals have sold. I really struggled to find anyone capable of scanning the originals and initially I contracted a specialist photographer to take 5" x 4" transparencies, thinking that this would suffice. I was totally wrong and regretted it afterwards as I sold beautiful originals for which I do not have a high quality digital image. The quality was poor. The images were blurred, the colours were inaccurate and the lighting was dreadful! I therefore quickly decided to invest in a large format digital scanner. Following extensive research, I realised that scanners capable of scanning rigid stretched canvas and delicate pastels do not come cheap, though I had no alternative. I initially purchased a Contex Chameleon 25 Plus 24" feed through scanner and modified it to scan rigid media. I have since replaced this with a higher quality Epson Expression 10000XL professional graphic arts A3 flatbed scanner and I use Adobe Photoshop CS5 professional graphics editing software to seamlessly stitch A3 segments together for artwork larger than A3. Now, as I have been requested to offer my scanning service to several local Artists who either cannot source or afford a high quality scanning service, don't have the required technological understanding or simply won't tolerate poor photographic reproductions, I have decided to offer this service to anyone and here are the details:

Scanner:

I now have an Epson Expression 10000XL professional graphic arts A3 flatbed scanner.

Media scanned:

I am able to scan any type of flat faced two dimensional original, at any size, in any medium, whether flexible or rigid, to include loose canvas, stretched canvas, wood, board, paper, card, glass, slate, etc. Even delicate pastels, pencil sketches and chalk drawings. For artwork larger than A3 in size, I scan multiple A3 segments and seamlessly stitch them together using Adobe Photoshop CS5 professional graphics editing software to produce a perfect single scan file.

Resolution:

I scan most of the original artwork that I personally create at 48 bit colour and 600 dpi, which is much greater than the 300dpi as recommended by most companies and it creates files of typically around 1.7GB for a 91cm x 61cm original. This is more than large enough for the vast majority of Publishers, Licensors and other applications, hence it is my recommended resolution for artwork up to this size. It also allows prints to be made at 300dpi which are twice the size of the original. I can actually scan at much higher resolutions if desired, up to 2,400 dpi, though the files for large originals become extremely large and very difficult to stitch, edit, store and print.

Format:

I save the scan in an uncompressed tif format that allows future editing of the image file. I can however convert this to other formats and produce a reduced size compressed file for other purposes.

Delivery and transportation:

The original artwork should be delivered to and collected from myself, suitably packed and protected from damage during transportation. My preference is to deliver and collect in person, though via a courier service is acceptable and I can organize this via my contracted courier Parcel Force by prior arrangement and at an additional cost.

Insurance:

The original artwork should be fully insured against accidental damage during transportation and whilst being scanned. I do not provide insurance cover for the artwork of others.

Editing:

I take care to edit out minor blemishes created during the scan using Adobe Photoshop CS5 software. Additional minor editing of certain areas to change from the original is also possible upon request, such as to remove the appearance of cracks in the original or minor damage.

Each scan is individually made, QC examined and passed by myself to verify its quality.

Copyright:

Copyright remains with the owner and is not transferred in any way by this service. I do not assume or accept copyright and I do not accept any responsibility for any infringement by anyone availing this service.

Storage:

I will return the scans on either CD's or DVD's as required for your own storage, printing or onward transmittal to a Publisher or Licensor.

I don't keep copies of the scan files, however I am able to do this for safe keeping at a small extra cost if required. I store all my own originals on a series of portable 8TB hard drives in different locations, just in case of a major disaster in one!

Timing:

As the creation of new artwork is my first priority, I only scan at certain times, hence I may not be able to accept urgent scanning work so it's best to contact me and I will advise the best schedule I can realistically achieve.

Price:

The price varies, depending upon the original type, size, resolution required, quality of the original, delivery method and any custom editing that may be required. As a guide, the base price for scanning an A1 (61cm x 91cm) original oil painting delivered and collected in person by hand would be �75. I can offer some reduction for large quantities. Please contact me to discuss your requirements if interested.

Sample:

Here's a sample 600 dpi scan of one of my oil paintings Reaching for Perfect Grace that has been cropped, converted from a tif format to a compressed jpg and re-sampled to match the actual size of the original in the first image below, then zoomed in a little to show more detail in the second image below:

(Actual size of original)

(Zoomed in to show more detail)

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