Excellent, I am so glad to find this thread. I need to do something new, the method I have now is not going to work for much longer. Right now I don’t photograph the posters, I scan them.
I evolved to this from first just trying to use my point and shoot camera which just didn’t work well. I didn’t have any lighting, the flash left glare, the fold lines stood out, the rectangle had a waste and taking pictures of posters on the floor frequently captured my toes.
(http://britposters.com/images/phto%20whats%20up%20superdoc.JPG)
I had thought the HP 4600 scanner was the answer to my problem. It seemed made for scanning large items on a flat surface then using software to stitch each image back together. It kind of worked but the HP Scanner was such poor quality that every image had stripes of alternating color hues.
(http://britposters.com/images/photo%20night.JPG)
I now have a flat bed scanner that I just take the lid off of and turn upside down. So the poster lies on a flat table and the scanner is placed glass side down on top of the poster. The table is marked out along the edges to position the scanner for 6 columns by 3 rows for a 30x40 quad. I then use Panavue ImageAssembler to put each individual 8x10 300 dpi image all together again.
I used to really like this method. It took a while, what with the scanning and the stitching, but you had a completely flat very high resolution image at the end of it. You didn’t have to worry about lighting, lens distortion or focus and the weight of the scanner kept the folds down. The only problem is that the scanner isn’t designed to be used upside down and it’s started making some really worrying graunchy noises recently. I thought I could just buy another of the same model and start again, but the new one I bought won’t scan upside down at all, it moves a little then sticks. Even though it’s an identical make and model I must have just been lucky it worked at all. Googling “scanners that work upside down” hasn’t revealed a solution.
I suspect I have a limited number of scans ahead of me now, that scanner is pretty old. So I am really appreciating some tips on how others do the photographic method. Harry’s setup looks great, simple items I can clear away after using them, always helps in my house…
I think Scanjet 4670 does a better job than 4600. I have recently scanned about 100 posters of mine and there was not a single problem. The only noise I heard was the cable connecting to the scanning lens occasionally slightly scratch the surface of the poster. I'm not sure if it is the same noise as you experienced. To avoid the scratching, I even scanned them with the Mylar sleeves (4mm) and the result is pretty much the same. Very high quality image. I really think this is a very good solution. Unfortunately, HP stopped to produce 46xx product line. But you can always find one on ebay for less than $100 or so.
Excellent, I am so glad to find this thread. I need to do something new, the method I have now is not going to work for much longer. Right now I don’t photograph the posters, I scan them.
I evolved to this from first just trying to use my point and shoot camera which just didn’t work well. I didn’t have any lighting, the flash left glare, the fold lines stood out, the rectangle had a waste and taking pictures of posters on the floor frequently captured my toes.
(http://britposters.com/images/phto%20whats%20up%20superdoc.JPG)
I had thought the HP 4600 scanner was the answer to my problem. It seemed made for scanning large items on a flat surface then using software to stitch each image back together. It kind of worked but the HP Scanner was such poor quality that every image had stripes of alternating color hues.
(http://britposters.com/images/photo%20night.JPG)
I now have a flat bed scanner that I just take the lid off of and turn upside down. So the poster lies on a flat table and the scanner is placed glass side down on top of the poster. The table is marked out along the edges to position the scanner for 6 columns by 3 rows for a 30x40 quad. I then use Panavue ImageAssembler to put each individual 8x10 300 dpi image all together again.
I used to really like this method. It took a while, what with the scanning and the stitching, but you had a completely flat very high resolution image at the end of it. You didn’t have to worry about lighting, lens distortion or focus and the weight of the scanner kept the folds down. The only problem is that the scanner isn’t designed to be used upside down and it’s started making some really worrying graunchy noises recently. I thought I could just buy another of the same model and start again, but the new one I bought won’t scan upside down at all, it moves a little then sticks. Even though it’s an identical make and model I must have just been lucky it worked at all. Googling “scanners that work upside down” hasn’t revealed a solution.
I suspect I have a limited number of scans ahead of me now, that scanner is pretty old. So I am really appreciating some tips on how others do the photographic method. Harry’s setup looks great, simple items I can clear away after using them, always helps in my house…