Re: [PRODIG] Drum scanning chalk pastel drawing

[Richard Kenward]

In message Stephen Marsh writes

Ellie, on your last post which I did not quote...the cost of drum scans is
almost a buyers market, well at least it is if you go to a repro house. <g>

Dear Stephen

I wonder if the above is the case world wide with many houses giving up their expensive equipment in favour of more productive flat beds with lower operator demands? Soon I suspect we will have a shortage of these skills and the equipment too and only a small number of places continuing to offer drum scanning as a regular thing.

Wet mounts for transmissive originals would probably cost more than a
reflective for the same area, due to the extra time it takes in set-up and
or fitting into the transmissive mounting queue (where as reflective may
have the drum sitting there unused where they can make money scanning while
oiling up film).

Certainly it is not easy to 'wet' mount a big tranny (here I mean 10"x8" or larger) without any air bubbles, whereas it's a simple matter to dry mount a piece of artwork.

Richard can probably flesh out this comment better than me, but picking up
surface detail for fine art prints can be a big thing - as this gives a lot
of character to the image (either media or substrate texture). Drums seem to
do fine, although they use a focused 'pin' lightsource on a small
area...while flatbeds use a wide diffuse lightsource that comes from a
certain direction and can light/shadow surfaces to some extent...which can
help or hinder the scanning of textured originals.

I would be inclined to agree with you Stephen, bit like the difference between condenser or cold cathode enlargers.

The only reservations I would have about drum mounting above what Richard
states are the possibilities for some originals to crack or lift if bent, or
if there are concerns about the mounting tape used to secure the image to
the drum (you could require a half inch or so border free around the
original that could be sacrificed to the adhesion gods).

I would not want to miss out using a sheet of overlay film as this would give the means of drawing the artwork into close contact with the drum ensuring good focus. At the same time it would ensure that there is maximum safety for the precious original, as there would be wide mounting tape on all sides of the overlay film and thus the original to keep it in position. No need to loose any image area for taping too.

Just something to keep in mind.

I also have thoughts on enhancing small details such as texture found in
these types of originals - it was always part of my 'secret sauce' when
processing art originals for the imaging bureau I used to work for (artists
are probably more picky than photographers...ducking for cover! <g>).

Having made something of a speciality of the photography of old masters in particular in the past, I would suggest that greater creativity would be possible by the photographing of the original. This allows carefully controlled cross lighting to be used in conjunction with the copying lighting. This is something requiring a very careful balance as it's very subjective! Matters not whether film or digiital...there we're back on topic at last !

Cheers

Richard
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