Where to go get watercolors scanned?
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Last time I scanned watercolors at a place they came out funny colors. Where do I go to scan watercolors, when the time comes, so that they will be true colors? Thanks.
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Call a local printer and ask them where the nearest graphics company is that handles scanning. It will not be cheap.
If you have a decent scanner you can learn how to create quality scans. It does take skill and knowledge to make it all come together.
There are a number of good videos here
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If you have a good quality scanner and a decent/basic photo editing software, you can get accurate colors. From my experience, it's really hard to get accurate color straight from a scan, since the color calibration of the scanner, scanning program and computer have to all be correct and the same. For all my watercolor paintings, I scan them in myself and edit the digital copy to match the physical as closely as possible. I use Photoshop, but I'm sure you could find a cheaper or free photo editing software with the following functions: brightness/contrast, hue/saturation, color balance, and curves. It's relatively easy to learn how to use these adjustments, and it allows you to be in control of your artwork the whole way through. It's much cheaper and faster than hiring the job out. You could also just edit the scans you get from the place you used.
I recently got a 9X12 Epson scanner that was about $80. It scans at a very high resolution and is very affordable compared to the larger format ones I use at school and at work, or the super expensive ones they use at the print shops. I just plug it into my computer through USB and scan my images directly into Photoshop. If a painting is bigger than 9 x 12, I can scan them in pieces and stitch them together in Photoshop. Will Terry goes over stitching things together in his Mixed Media-Watercolor and Digital class, and there are good tutorials about it on YouTube which helped me a lot. You could figure out how to make good scans and edit them yourself in a day or two with the right tutorials and tools
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@teju-abiola Thanks, I'll have to have someone else scan it. I was hoping there is a place that knows how to calibrate
I do have GIMP and can do some editng there. A 9X12 scanner might be the perfect size though!
