[Alan]

I was wondering what is the best way for getting LARGE traditional paintings into a digital format. The way i see it, you basically have 3 choices:

1. Scanning (personally, I don't like this method for bigger pics, and for really large ones it is just not practical)

2. Digital photo

3. Traditional photo and scan the print

Any feedback on this would be great. Maybe it is just a matter of preference? But I would especially like to know how they got traditional matte paintings into digital formats for digital compositing in the time when the industry was making the crossover from analog to digital......

-Alan

[ozan]

how about a slide, then scanned in a slide scanner. i think a color film slide has more informoation that a print, because it's basicly a negative. and unless you use a really great digital camera, the colors will be a little flat. but if you do have a hi end digital camera, that's probably the easiest way to do it.
_________________
ozan

[stacy]

The best way I know of, at least for magazines,
is a studio shoot with controlled lighting on 120 and 220
medium format film in a good medium format camera.

Then scan the film with something like a
Minolta Dimager MultiPro.

[Jaamc]

If you need to do it by yourself, ie. with a camera (either film or digital), you will need, for the best results (capturing format aside):

1. A polarising filter (circular for SLRs)
it will cut of unnecessary reflections

2. Two flash units, positioned in 45 degree angles on both sides of the painting (you might want to experiment with the distance)

3. Use such a focal lenght (with zoom lenses or digicams) that it it will have minimum distortions. If using a SLR, use a prime 50mm lens, even a cheap f1.8 will do a superb job if stopped down to f4-f8 (also needed to minimize light falloff)

4. Also it's recommended to use a grey card to set the color balance

5. A sturdy tripod, although using flash makes it easy to handhold

And don't forget post processing...

1. If you are using a lens that gives less than acceptable results, these should be corrected first (especially any geometric distortions) but also vigneting and possibly cromatic aberrations to some extent

2. If you feel that you need more resolution with digital format, you can combine almost any amount of pics together, but for web display, almost any size above 2Mpix will do, I think (with digicams, you will want to reduce from the original size a bit, because only then you will get the optimum detail per pixel)

3. Sharpening, whether you're using film or digital cams, is essential for the final appearance. Use different sharpening for web and print. If printing, sharpening depends on print size. USM is mostly used now days, although you might want to try demo versions of some spesialised Photoshop sharpening plugins, like ie. Nik Sharpener Pro

Hope this helps...

[Alan]

Thanks for the help. I have taken professional quality slides of work before, and it seems the same method but with a digital camera would be best. Or buy a slide scanner


-Alan

[stacy]

Check out your friends.
Mine are painters, graphic artists and photographers.
One of the photographers lives right next door.
That would be my source for a medium format Bronica.
And the transparencys could be sent to another friend
in Iowa who has a top end scanner. For the cost of
a couple of UPS overnights I could have the whole enchilada.

If your friends are the artsy types you might have
a bigger pool of resources than you realize.