Creating a Digital File of your Artwork

The better the image we receive the better the image we can print.

Scanning your artwork will always give the best results, but is not always possible due to size, the medium, or a lack of a scanner! 

Photographing artwork can be tricky but if you can follow some of the points below then you have a better chance of capturing the best image possible.

• Always use a tripod - if you don’t have one place your camera on a pile of books or similar and maybe use the self timer to eliminate any ‘camera shake’.

• Use your camera's highest quality settings (iPods and smart phones have very a small lens and very small sensors - both of which are working against you)

• Lighting - Photograph using natural daylight, the best scenario is outside or in a conservatory on a cloudy day, but never in direct sunlight. Avoid flash.

• Cropping - try not to crop your image ‘in camera’ too much, we would much prefer to see the table or bench that you're shooting it on as it gives us more to play with when we come to resizing the image for the card. However, try to fill the frame of your camera with as much of the artwork as possible as it’s the pixels we need. You also might find that the parallel lines of your original are running away from each other, don't worry too much about this as we can correct it in photoshop. If you have a zoom lens then try to keep above 50mm.

• Keep the artwork as flat as possible and shoot directly onto it.

• You should be able to create an image which is more than fine for creating a greeting card from using the above tips. Look at the whole photo and if everything is sharp (check the outer edges of the photo) and you are happy with the colours then it should be fine for printing.