Any one have a wide format scanner?

Steven6095

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Feb 14, 2004
Posts
1,352
Loc
Nicholasville, KY
Hi! I have a 18 x 24 in canvas art board painting of my grandfather. My cousin did the painting. I would love a few prints of it.

I have found plenty of wide format high quality printers in the area, but no one seems to have a wide format scanner that can scan it to make a print.

Anyone out there with in perhaps a hundred miles of Lexington KY that could do a high res scan of this ?

Thanks
Steven
 
The very best large format digital scans are Cruz Camera Scans. Think of it as an $80,000. digital camera.

Try a Professional Photo lab.

Expect to pay about $100.
 
Why not scan it and piece it together in PS? Its only 2 passes on a standard scanner, all the printers should be able to offer that or camera copies suitable for printing
 
Steven, several years ago, my family came across a portrait of MY grandfather, about the size of the one that you mentioned, painted by Lester Bentley - a portrait artist of some national recognition.

My family tried to purchase it, but the museum that owns it wouldn't budge. In exchange for some reframing services, they did let me borrow it long-enough to have a 4x5 copy negative made.

A local lab made a print, which I mounted and brush-stroked and put in a nice frame for my sister. It looks fabulous and I still have the negative when I'm ready to make one for myself.

Sometimes film is still the best answer.
 
giclee. But expect to be out $250 for the shoot and $250 for a first print on canvas...

I'd go Ron rout. Only the photo gave me a 85megabite CD photo scaled to 11x14...
 
HP makes a see through scanner of fairly high resolution. It permits you to do multiple scans and stitch the image seamlessly. A friend of mine used it in an art project for school and she and the instructor were pleased with the results. Check www.epinions.com for user reviews. Its only $200 or less and its the only scanner I've seen like that.

Dan
 
As Lance mentioned, Photoshop, or Photoshop Elements, will take multiple pass images and stitch them together. The process is largely automatic but can be manually adjusted when necessary.

It doesn't require a special scanner, though I fail to understand how this could be done for an 18x24 canvas with two passes through a standard 8-1/2x11 scanner.

Must be a metric thing.
shrug.gif
 
Not to be a shill, but Grumbler Warren Tucker has a Cruse scanner. A few weeks ago when Jay and I visited he gave us the rundown - awesome capabilities and mulitple output options, including canvas. We're waiting on customer approval for a job we'll be sending him. If you can get it to Wilmington NC (FedEx goes there) I'm sure he'll be able to take care of you.

The interneg is the (probably) only other approach - definitely go 4x5 or larger if you want to make it big.

Tony
 
Steven -
As Ron mentioned, having a copy negative made was the norm just a few years ago. Today, if the original is to large for our flatbed scanner, we just shoot it with a digital camera - 6 or 8 meg - depending upon how large the copies will be.
 
LOL Ron, of course an A3 scanner is standard for me... okay it would best layered up with a 6 pass scan, but a camera copy would possibly be easier, film beats digital hands down for this sort of work (with exceptions for the big pro gear).
 
I vote for a transparancy. Medium format should do nicely for making an 18x24. It could then be scanned with a film scanner and printed.
 
I have a local photographer shoot a 4x5 transparency of the original and then I scan it on my Creo scanner then send it to my Epson 9600 printer. This works great and I can get the print coming out just like the original.

Personally, and based on info that's out there, a digital image shot on either a 6 or an 8 meg camera will not give you anywhere near the resolution of a 4x5 transparency. Even my Canon 1Ds with 11 meg will not compare with the 4x5. Anyone who thinks otherwise is mistaken. And shooting originals with 4x5 is actually still the norm if you want really good quality prints.
My 1Ds will compare to 35mm but not 4x5. People forget that you are wanting to recreate the piece at its original size. This requires a LARGE file and the smaller cameras just won't give you that.
I just had a customer come in with a floppy disk telling me that an art restorer she had worked with had shot the 20x30 original oil on canvas and asked me to reprint it to the original size. I knew as soon as I saw the floppy disk that it wouldn't work as they only hold a little over 1 meg of info. As my 1Ds creates apx a 30 megabyte file I knew he had shot with a really small digital camera. Sure enough, when I opened it to the size it would end up at it was all blurry. A 4x5 transy will typically give you a file size of about 200 megabytes depending on how high the scan resolution is.

Call a professional studio photographer who specializes in 4x5 work and have him shoot it. It shouldn't cost you $250 for a single shot as it only cost around $70 up here.
 
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