Re: Flatbed scanner to place on top of paintings?

Tim wrote:

MoiMoi wrote:

You need a basic understanding of copy photography/lighting.
Exact controllable 45 degree lighting, no wider than 50mm on lens zoom and of course exact same focal length setting for each shot so that later stiching doesn't bring in ppi variables to make it harder, tripod to get exactly square to the middle of the section you are copying, cardboard lens "cheater" for any stray glare, etc. It's quite doable and most important, repeatable.


I once tried flatbed scanning some old maps, but it was horribly awkward and damaged the maps. Eventually I used the technique described by MoiMoi. You don't necessarily need professional lights, but it does need to set up carefully. Quartz-halogen bulbs may be better than ordinary lamps to bring out the blue tones.

You also need a good camera and a good lens (preferably fixed focus). Exposure, focus, and white-balance all need to be fixed. To stitch the photos, you'll need half a frame overlap between each image, and some good blending software. I use Hugin and Enblend (both free).

Tim

Thanks, Tim.

I tried Hugin and Embed because of your recommendation.

Hugin is the type of program suited for technical people like computer programmers. It's not suited to people like me, who are artistically oriented, rather than technically oriented. It's not 'user friendly', as they say.

I couldn't even open the copies of Embed that I downloaded. The Emblend site leads to the X Blend for Mac OS X Web site. There I downloaded X Blend for Mac OS X. Every time I click on the X Blend icon, my Terminal program opens insteade, with a cryptic message in the Termainal window. I emailed the Krekus.com Web site for assistance, and I'm waiting for an answer.

Robert
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