Forest. River. Rocks.

Here's a project idea for the long weekend. Have you heard of scanner art? The basic idea is this: you scan things and you try to make something something artistic with it. Is it art? Is it really photography? Some say yes, some say no. I say, 'Who cares?'

I have found that I can get some extraordinary results with my trusty scanner (the Epson Perfection 4490). I particularly like how the scanner captures intricate detail in natural objects. Here are a few samples of items I've created (click for a larger view).

Weird Fruit — This is a combination of six scans of the same object. I don't know what this thing is. Found it in the forest while hiking. Palm branch — I love the shape of this. I found this bleached out date palm branch on the ground under (you guessed it) a date palm. Cloves — I snipped this sample of unripe cloves from a tree on Oahu. It was the first time I had ever seen cloves actually growing on a tree. The background for this image was made using samples of the clove leaves so the colors would blend nicely. Corks — this is a scan of a 'cork board' I created from the corks of wines my wife and I drank while in living in Europe. I cut them in half with a miter saw, then mounted them on a board. Thus the cork board. The lighting from the scanner really worked well for this: the image looks better than the actual cork board. Edge.org, where the stunning work of Katinka Matson is often featured. Intrigued, I started experimenting with my scanner. I don't have any sage advice about creating scanned artwork, but I do have a few tips:

• Ensure you clean the scanner bed really well before you scan
• Be prepared to spend several hours cleaning up dust and artifacts from each image you scan with your image editor of choice (even if you DO clean the bed well, you will spend a good deal of time on this task).
• I prefer to scan in the dark with the lid of the scanner open. It produces nice clean lines and a black background, which makes it easier to extract the image.
• This is a great way to experiment with your image editing program (I use Photoshop), particularly for creating interesting backgrounds, arrangements and frames.
• Try scanning anything and everything. For items that might damage your scanner bed glass, some say to try using a transparent film (e.g. a rigid piece of clear plastic of the type used to protect business reports in days past). Haven't tried this myself — I just use the 'be really, really careful when scanning' method.
• Try playing around with arrangement and layering of your scanned items.
• Scan the same item from different angles, then try piecing it together the various images into one montage.
• Scan the same item at different resolutions, then try assembling something interesting from these scans.

If scanning objects appeals to you, check out Scanner Magic and Photo Vinc for more tips and ideas.

Scanner Art

May 23, 2008