We digitise your artworks with a 384 MegaPixel, $50,000 'museum standard' digital reprographic scanning camera and 3D soft studio lighting NOT a low resolution DSLR or flatbed print scanner!   Please read on for the full story...

Flatbed and drum print scanners can damage your precious art...
You can NOT use a print scanner to digitise canvas and watercolour art for reproduction. Apart from the possibily of media sticking to the glass a scanner uses a narrow strip lamp that creates harsh shadows from the surface texture of the watercolour paper and canvas. If you print back onto textured paper or canvas you get 'a picture of texture' on top of the 'true texture'. Ugly!  'Digital Reprography' utilises multiple diffused studio lights for shadow minimisation. See this example...

Scanners cause texture shadowsSoft light reprography minimises them
Enlarge Image.......

High Definition Digital Reprography using a 384 MegaPixel scanning camera...
Our custom built digital reprography system uses a super high resolution 'BetterLight' scanning back located in a 4" x 5" perspective adjustable studio camera fitted with the world's best Schneider apochromatic optics.. This set-up produces incredibly detailed (up to 384 Megapixel) images. Our copy rig also allows us to precisely 'shift; artworks in any direction in case we want to digitise very large art in smaller sections and use custom 'stitching' software to join the sections for almost unlimited resolution! Finally the colour accuracy of our ICC profiled systems reduces the number of proofs needed for accurate colour and tonal reproduction and a Gretag Macberth colour chart is included with each image or batch of images for BASIC print matching. (This chart helps print houses, who may not have the original artwork for colour matching, adjust the colour balance of their print systems)..

Digitising large artworks at actual size in high resolution creates HUGE image files...
Digitising large artworks at full resolution requires capturing detail far beyond the resolving power of any lens, film or digital camera which is why we digitise in sections. We can digitise art up to 1.5m x 2.3m at up to 300dpi. That's a file size of 1.34gb or 481 Megapixels! See the 200dpi and 300dpi samples below...

Oil on Canvas: 1.3m wide, lit and digitised to show some moderate surface texture.
Oil painting courtesy of Kathrin Longhurst website

Examine these large art digitisation examples up close by clicking on the 'Zoomify' links...

Oil on Canvas: 1.3m digitised at 200dpi       Watercolour on Cotton Rag: 70cm digitised at 300dpi
x     Oil painting at 200ppi: Zoomify.               Watercolour painting at 300ppi: Zoomify

Online private access or marketing Galleries: This sample has full size downloadable images! Show Me!

What 'true' resolution do you need for the highest quality art digitisation?

Firstly what is meant by 'true' resolution? Sadly some photographers with shoot with 'consumer' digital cameras and low quality zoom lenses and just sample up the files to generate fake high resolution figures. Upsampling gives big files but fuzzy, low detailed images and poor quality low contrast reproduction prints. Even worse the consumer zoom lenses used will create image distortion and unsharp, dark corners. Your artwork has to be digitised at high resolution to begin with using the best digital reprography and optical systems of the type used by European museums - and Digital Masters Australasia!

Our standard 300ppi to 3600ppi services are recommended for the reproduction of the finest details from pen & pencil drawings, technical illustrations,maps and finely detailed art that will be reproduced on smooth matt,ccotton rag, lustre and glossy papers but if required we can digitise at even higher resolutions so that the artworks can be enlarged 2 - 4 times.

In some cases works can be digitised at around 200 to 240ppi at slightly less cost if they are 'large detail' paintings that won't be viewed closer than the normal overall viewing distance to evaluate very fine details.

Pricing for our 'Ultra High Resolution' digital scanning / mastering services:
A complete 'print-ready' art reproduction service with frame distortion corrections, dust, blemish and edge reflection retouching. You don't get a 'raw' uncorrected scan that needs lots of fixing and proofing before it can be printed (like other companies do)!

Ideally artworks should be mounted or stretch framed. We illuminate the artworks with large high powered striplight softbox daylight balance studio lights and digitise with a Betterlight 384 Megapixel digital 'scanning' back on a 4" x 5" technical studio camera with Schneider Apochromatic Macro lenses. The same systems as used by European museums for art archiving and limited edition fine art reproductions...

Works are digitised at 'life size' or 'over size' with output resolutions at 200ppi, 240ppi, 300ppi (Standard Resolution), 360ppi, 400ppi, 600ppi depending on the level of detail in the artwork. the required reproduction print size and print viewing distance. For an accurate quote just email us with a list of the originals sizes, media descriptions and your target reproduction sizes. If you eMail David Myers with a 'land line' phone number and a time (during business hours) for a detailed consultation he will call you and work out a solution tailored to your needs.

Pricing for artworks digitised at life size and 'standard' 300ppi resolution or 600ppi for 2x - 3x enlargements...

A4 Original (210 x 297mm) at 300ppi, 16bit Adobe RGB,   50Mb File Size = $55.00 inc GST
A4 Original (210 x 297mm) at 600ppi, 16bit Adobe RGB, 200Mb File Size = $77.00 inc GST

A3 Original (297 x 420mm) at 300ppi, 16bit Adobe RGB, 100Mb File Size = $77.00 inc GST
A3 Original (297 x 420mm) at 600ppi, 16bit Adobe RGB, 400Mb File Size = $99.00 inc GST

A2 Original (420 x 594mm) at 300ppi, 16bit Adobe RGB, 200Mb File Size = $110.00 inc GST

A1 Original (594 x 840mm) at 300ppi, 16bit Adobe RGB, 400Mb File Size = $165.00 inc GST

A0 Original (840 x 1168mm) at 300ppi, 16bit Adobe RGB, 800Mb File Size = $198.00 inc GST

1.0m x 1.33m Original at 300ppi, 16bit Adobe RGB, 1.0Gb File Size = $275.00 inc GST

1.33m x 2.0m Original at 300ppi, 16bit Adobe RGB, 2.0Gb File Size = $385.00 inc GST

Additional Imaging Services

DVD or USB Drive Transfer Mac/PC with all files, monitor calibration image, thumbnail index cover sheet and case: No Charge

Critical additional 'Colour-to-Colour' Matching 'Sessions' for art with difficult / UV colours. Adjustment layer corrections. masking and retouching to make extra 'versions': $22.00 per imaging session plus A4 Progress Proofs at $22.00 each

Large File FTP Transfer including file conversions to LZW TIF or JPG. Up to 1Gb Total: No Charge

Online Gallery on our own server to promote your art. Much better than reducing. compressing and emailing files! No Charge
Updated as you get additional works digitised. See a basic example here: Click to view. 

What Do You Get?

The 'Digital Master' files are supplied as 16bit 'full colour range' Adobe RGB TIF files with blemish clean up retouching, basic colour matching and include a Gretag Macbeth colour reference chart for a basic colour match.

All our 'Digital Master' image files are print ready and supplied to you to do with as you wish.There is NO obligation to use our Fine Art Trade Guild certified archival print services but you may want to order proof prints as an indication of any unusual colour matching issues.

Close individual colour-to-colour matching via proof printing and precise adjustment is available as a billable option. For the digitisation of collections of artworks onsite or in the studio we can bill at hourly rates - please eMail David Myers personally for a consultation and an estimate of costs.

About Image Finishing: Image Optimisation, Retouching and File Conversions.

Many photographers shooting with digital equipment just povide un-named 24bit JPG files 'dumped' on a CD. Even worse files are consumer sRGB (Web colours) rather than professional Adobe RGB (Print Colours) This is not acceptable. We digitise and optimise images using 48bit Camera 'RAW' files which are then carefully 'Optimised' to meet the artists's exact reproduction needs and colour standards. This is what we do...

1.     RAW digital files are converted to the correct ICC colour space: 48bit Adobe RGB for print or sRGB for web.
2.     Image is straightened, cropped, scaled and has the resolution set to the final reproduction needs.
3.     The density and gamma is adjusted on a calibrated monitor for optimum print or web reproduction.
4.     Batches of similar images are colour graded so that every shot matches in tone and colour range.
5.    'Unsharp Masking' (sharpening) is applied to meet print ink trapping requirements.
6.     Any dust spots and lint on the artwork and edge reflections are retouched out and any warped edges straightened.
7.     If required additional files are created for different print sizes with Adobe RGB profiles & re-sharpened.
8.     If required we contact your print house to convert additional files to their preferred CMYK print settings.
9.     If required additional files are created for web & presentation needs (sRGB profile) and re-sharpened.
10.   Files are written to DVDs or memory sticks readable on Mac & Windows
11.   Files are 'Archived' with your job settings so we can provide any additional closer colour matching work and on prints.

Our colour managed 'Optimisation' procedures are performed on high-end Macintosh systems using pre-press calibrated monitors. We keep your costs down using custom procedures that speed up some procedures with batch processing. We also offer high end digital airbrush retouching and 'PostScript Clipping Path' deep etching services. Naturally we provide online proofing and large file transfer services and all files are archived for over seven years. That is the DMA difference - full service & support!

Also see: Archival Fine Art Printing and our 'BIG Canvas' Print Promotion