How to Digitize Your Artwork to Create Prints

Many people won’t be able to afford original artwork. But they want your art, and they’ve got their wallets open.

For this crowd, prints are an affordable way for them to enjoy your art. (and for you to make some extra cash!)

So give ‘em what they want.

Making prints of your paintings isn’t difficult at all. It just comes with one extra step:

Digitizing Your Art

Unless you’re shooting with film, most photographs are already digitized. With paintings, sketches, drawings, etc you have two options:

Scanning
Photographing

So which one is better for you?

Scanning vs Photographing

Scanning is ideal for:

Little to no texture artworks (oils, heavy acrylic, canvas)
A2 (~16x24) or smaller

It used to be you had to shell out big time for a scan, but with new technology, scanners are now an affordable and easy way of digitizing your artworks.

It’s accurate (depending on your + artwork), requires less equipment, and less hassle than photography.

Unfortunately, scanning is reserved for smaller “flat” artworks (artworks with little to no texture).

The flatbed is usually A4 - A3 in size (on occasions you can find something close to A2). And while you can still scan artworks that are larger than that by stitching scans together (which we’ll go over later), anything really large would need to be taken to professionals (who’ll charge you an arm and a leg!) or photographed.

PS. If you’re looking for a scanner for larger artworks, look for scanners that have lids that bend all the way back or come off. This way you can move your artwork around to get scans of different portions for stitching.

Photographing is ideal for:

Textures (oils, heavy acrylic, canvas etc)
Large artworks
If you have a camera (your phone doesn’t count!) already and no access to a good scanner

Some details will be hard to recapture in a scan—textures especially. For these artworks, photography is the only option for a lifelike print.

You’ll find for larger artworks, photographing will be easier too, even with the initial setup.

Another situation where you’d prefer photographing would be if you’re prolific with your artwork. If you find you’re digitizing your artworks every week, you might want to consider setting up a small space in your home so you can photograph your artwork whenever you need to save time.

How do I get the best scans?

We’ll go over scanning first.

To get the best quality scans, here’s what you need to keep an eye on:

Scanning into the correct file type
Choosing the right pixel density/pixel count
CIS vs CCD scanners
Fixative for smudgeable media

Let’s go through these in order.

Best File Format to Scan Your Photos Into

TIFF (aka Tag Image File Format) is the industry standard.

Here’s why:

TIFF is compatible across almost all different editing software
Can be saved uncompressed (retaining as much image detail as possible)
Based on CMYK (which will give you the most accurate representation when you actually print)

You can save in other file formats such as JPEG and still print worthwhile images. It’s just every time you resave a JPEG image, it’ll lose some image detail due to compression. And once that detail is gone—it’s gone.

Other than the larger file size, TIFF is just easier and better quality.

Choosing the Right Pixel Density/Pixel Count

Choosing the correct DPI (dots per inch) is crucial for a high quality scan. At minimum you should be scanning at 300 DPI.

And it’s important you use the scanner to increase the DPI. Increasing the DPI through a photo-editing software like Photoshop will result in image distortion.

The higher the DPI, the larger you would be able to print without losing quality. For most artworks, 300 DPI is enough though.

CIS vs CCD Scanners

There are two types of scanners:

CIS scanners: can scan flat surfaces only

CCD scanners: can scan slightly textured and raise surfaces

CIS scanners are going to be cheaper than CCD scanners, but will run into trouble if the paper is anything less than flat. CCD will give you more versatility and less headaches as they can accurately scan paper/canvases with a bit more “character” such as watercolors, from a sketchbook, or thick acrylic paints.

CCD scanners are slightly more expensive, but more versatile as well. Might be better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Fixative for smudgeable media

If your artwork is smudgeable (charcoal, pastel, etc), spray some fixative on it before you place it on the scanner. Scanning without fixative might cause your artwork to be disfigured.

How to Stitch Together Your Scans

If you’re working with larger artworks, don’t fret. You can still get quality scans with a little bit of elbow grease.

There are two ways to achieve this:

Automatic Stitching via Photoshop
Manual Stitching via Photoshop

Automatic Stitching

Photoshop’s automatic stitching capabilities are pretty good which makes stitching very easy.

Here’s what you do:

Step 1: Scanning Your Work

Place your artwork onto the flatbed of your scanner to begin. Make sure as you scan you include some overlap (pictured below) so you’re absolutely sure you get everything.

Step 2: Photomerge

Once you have your scans, open up Photoshop.

From Photoshop, go to File>Automate>Photomerge.

Step 3: Selecting your scans

Choose your scans by clicking “Browse.” Then select “Auto” on the left-hand panel, and make sure the “Blend Images Together” box is checked off at the bottom. When you’re ready click OK on the right.

And voila. You should get something like this:

It might take a couple tries for it to get right, but if this doesn’t work you can try manually stitching which is much more accurate. Here’s how you do that.

Manually Stitching

Step 1: Scanning Your Work

Place your artwork onto the flatbed of your scanner to begin. Make sure as you scan you include some overlap (pictured below) because that’s going to be how you match things up. You’ll see how in a second.

Step 2: Prepare your scans for stitching

When you’ve finished, open Photoshop and create a new image that’s large enough to put all your scans together with a good amount of space left over.

Put your scans together in this new image.

Step 3: Piece them together via Difference

Set the scan you’re trying to match to difference.

Make sure the layer you’re stitching is on top of the layer you’re trying to match.

The overlapped portions should be completely black if lined up properly.

When you’re finished, remember to reset the blending option back to “Normal” so you can match the remaining scans.

Step 4: Create a new layer and apply image

Create a new layer and go to Image>Apply Image. Alternatively you can use the shortcut Crtl + Alt + Shift + E on Windows or Cmd + Alt + Shift + E on Mac.

Step 4: Select entire image and copy

With all your scans “flattened” onto one layer, use the marquee tool to select the entire image. You can also press Crtl + A to do the same thing.

Now press Crtl + C or Edit>Copy to copy this image.

Step 5: Create a new image

Next, create a new image. Photoshop should have the correct dimensions already selected for you like so.

Step 5: Paste and Smile

Now all you need to do is to copy and paste the “flattened” layer onto the new image and you’ll have your finished product.

How to photograph your artwork

With a little bit of setup you can churn out photos that look just like how it does in real life.

For an in-depth guide please watch this video by Chuck Black Art. This is the best video on this topic and will line you up for success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvYHXjWd3y0

For those of you who want the cliff notes, read on.

The requirements for photographing your painting are quite basic. All you need are:

Lighting that is evenly distributed across your artwork

A surface that’ll allow your painting to lie flat (some lean is acceptable, but you’ll have to make sure you take the picture at the correct angle)
Tripod
Decent DSLR camera

Let’s start with lighting.

Lighting Setup

Using natural sunlight

For your lighting, you’re going to need some nice soft lighting that’ll spread evenly across your artwork.

This means no harsh lighting like the ones you have up on your ceiling. Try natural sunlight instead. It’s free and one of the best lighting sources you can find.

If you have a nice window pane and enough space in your home you can set up shop there. If not, you’ve got to move it outside.

Because the lighting needs to be soft, you can either:

Wait for a cloudy day
Find a shaded area

The clouds/shade acts as a diffuser—the umbrellas you sometimes see in front of lighting equipment. This evens out the lighting so there are no bright spots or glares on your artwork.

Then set the artwork on an even surface like a wall or maybe an easel.

Using lamps

No time to wait for a cloudy day? Transportation an issue?

No worries.

Grab two (identical, if possible) lamps and set them up like so:

Turning your lamps at a 45 degree angle will make sure the artwork is evenly lit.

If you’re creating a permanent setup, consider hanging a lamp above the artwork and having one below it. This will guarantee the lighting is completely uniform across the artwork.

With the lighting set up, you’re now ready to setup our camera.

Picking and Adjusting Your Camera

For your camera, try and get your hands on a solid DSLR camera. An entry-level camera should do (~$400). If this isn’t possible, grab your point and click and take smaller pictures so you can stitch them up in photoshop (like we show you here). This way you retain as much detail as possible.

PS. Use your smartphone as a last resort. You might not be able to print as large as you’d like and the quality is night and day.

With your camera in hand, let’s talk about details.

The video by Chuck Black Art does a great job explaining what you need and why. Here is where he goes over camera settings:

https://youtu.be/bvYHXjWd3y0?t=316

But if you just want the cliffnotes…

We’re going to pay attention to two things:

Manual settings
Lens

Manual settings for your camera

There are three settings you need to be concerned with:

ISO: camera’s sensitivity to light
- Keep this as low as you can (100 if possible). Entry level DSLRs won’t be able to go above 400 without noise or loss of quality. 400+ is for higher end, even then some cameras will have difficulty going that high.
FStop: aperture
- 7.1 - 11. This can go lower but you want to keep it high because lower = narrower range of focus. Narrower field of focus might cause edges to be blurry or some details to be lost.
SS: shutter speed
- Once you have the other settings figured out, those are pretty much set. Shutter speed, however, varies from painting to painting and will always require some tweaking.
- Because it will always need tweaking, it helps to have a good understanding of the histogram
  - Here is where Chuck Black Art goes over the histogram: https://youtu.be/bvYHXjWd3y0?t=559
  - Your histogram should reflect your artwork. If there are a healthy amount of darks, you should see some bumps and curves on the “dark” end of the histogram. Likewise for lights if your artwork has some lights.
  - If your histogram is missing lights, it is underexposed. Solve this by decreasing shutter speed. If your histogram is missing darks, it is overexposed. Solve this by increasing shutter speed.
  - You should not see any flat peaks at either ends of your histogram. This means your photo is either underexposed if it’s on the dark end or overexposed if it’s on the light end.

Choosing your lens

For the best quality photo, go with a macro lens or a lens with NO zoom. Because of how telescope lens (lens with zoom) are built, if you zoom in the edges of your photos are going to be blurred.

If you’re just starting out, telescope lens will do fine, but look to upgrade if you find yourself taking photos regularly.

Taking the picture

Pull out the tripod and set your camera up on it. Don’t have a tripod on hand? Grab some boxes, books, or a table instead. All you need is a flat surface to hold the camera straight and steady.
Next, angle your camera so the lens are completely parallel with the artwork. If your artwork is slightly angled, tilt your tripod till the lens are completely parallel with the artwork like so:

3. Then, when you’re ready to take the photo, use the timer setting. Manually pressing the button might cause the camera to move, if only slightly.

Things to be aware of while shooting:

Shoot a couple shots. Setting up the photo shoot can be time-consuming so if anything is wrong, you always some back-ups to rely on.

Double check the focus. Sometimes the blur can be subtle so use the magnify tool to get a closer look. And don’t forget to refocus after every shot!
Give yourself some room for error. Instead of photographing just the artwork, leave some space outside of it as well. You can always crop it out after.

Quick Recap

Learning how to digitize your artwork is a critical part of becoming a professional artist even if you don’t ever intend to sell prints. Without digitized versions of your art, you’re literally missing out on one of the best places to make a name for yourself—the internet.

Here’s how you digitize your artwork, and how you do it well:

Two ways to digitize your artwork:
- Scanning: Ideal for smaller artwork with little to no texture
- Photographing: Better for larger artworks, textured artworks, or if you’re very prolific
How to get the best scans
- Scan into TIFF file size
- Scan into at least 300 DPI
- CIS scanners are cheaper, CCD scanners are better for textures
- Spray fixative to any smudgeable media before you scan
- If working with larger artworks, scan into pieces and stitch them together in Photoshop
How to photograph your artwork
- What you need:
  - Lighting that is evenly distributed across your artwork
    - Take the photo outside on a cloudy day or at home with two lamps pointed at a 45 degree angle from the left and right
  - Surface that’ll allow your painting to lie flight
  - Tripod
  - Decent DSLR camera
- How to setup your camera
  - ISO: keep this as low as you can (100 if possible)
  - FStop: 7.1 - 11
  - Shutter Speed: Adjust according to histogram. Increase if underexposed, decrease if overexposed.
  - Try for a lens with no zoom. Telescope lens are fine if you’re just starting out, but as you move forward in your art career, a macro lens would fare better
- How to take the picture
  - Set your camera on the tripod or solid flat surface
  - Angle your camera so it is completely parallel with the artwork
  - Use the timer setting to take the picture

We hope these tips help you create professional and high-quality images of your work. If you have your own tips and tricks, feel free to share them below in the comments.

If you follow these tips and come with some great digital images, we’d love to see them. Show us on Instagram or Facebook.

Apr 19 2019