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How do you make album art from a painting - scan? photo?


pjp123

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I have asked an artist friend to create some album art. Neither of us has any previous experience with album art, but he has started a painting on a 22" by 22" canvas using acrylic paint. The acrylic is slightly textured, not heavily textured like oil paint, but there is some texture.

 

My question is, what is the best way to digitize it once it's done?

 

Here are my current (uninformed) thoughts/concerns on scanning vs photo:

 

Scanning: My assumption is that scanning it would generally be better than taking a photo, but I'm not sure if scanning will work well with the slightly textured acrylic paint.

 

Photo: I imagine that a photo could come out great, but I know when I have tried to take a photo of an album cover, the photo always had what I guess are parallax errors where it doesn't come out exactly square. Am I correct in assuming that this wouldn't be an issue with a professional photographer?

 

Sorry for the newb question, but it's taking a lot of time and effort to put the artwork together, so I want to make sure it isn't a mistake to start with an acrylic painting. It would be a severe disappointment to find out after the fact that it can't easily be translated into digital.

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Scanning that painting might work. No harm in trying!

 

As for photographing it, just experiment. Set the painting in natural lighting, then use your camera on a tripod with NO flash (just set it for the timer, so you avoid any motion blurring).

 

The most important part is the post-production. Use Photoshop or even iPhoto and experiment!

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Scanning that painting might work. No harm in trying!


As for photographing it, just experiment. Set the painting in natural lighting, then use your camera on a tripod with NO flash (just set it for the timer, so you avoid any motion blurring).


The most important part is the post-production. Use Photoshop or even iPhoto and experiment!

 

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely give scanning a try to see how it comes out. I don't personally have a scanner big enough for 22" x 22" and I'd like to do it on professional equipment -- do I just take it to somebody like Kinko's or do you know if there are specialty places that would be better suited for scanning artwork?

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I've never used a large scanner. If the canvas is that large, it might be best just to photograph it. And with photography, there's a lot you can do in terms of different lightings.

 

 

OK thanks. He's pretty far into the painting at this point, so it's good to know that photography will work in case scanning doesn't.

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Use a good high resolution camera with a high end lens.

Scanning, I think, would be problematic, since the texture of the painted canvas would keep the bulk of the image off the scanner glass surface, which could possibly cause some issues with focus, light intensity, etc.

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