Too big for the scanner?

You can still convert your large family portrait to digital.

Use your digital camera and the bright light of the outdoors to capture your treasured portraits digitally.

         What happens when you want to scan that family portrait, that is twice the size of your scanner? One suggestion is to take a photograph of the image, using a digital camera.
         First, you will want to take the portrait outside, and use natural light. Make sure there are no shadows, and no direct sunlight. You’ll want to hang the portrait up, outside, if you have a place where the lighting is right.
         If you can’t hang it up, try laying it face up on the ground, and stand over the portrait. You don’t want to be too close, so you might have to stand on a chair. You will also want to be far enough away, so you can use the telephoto lens to bring the image in closer.
         Be careful to not be at an angle, you will want to be as perpendicular as possible to the face of the image you are photographing. You will also want to use the highest resolution your camera allows.
         Sometimes you might want to use this method to convert an image to digital that would fit in the scanner. For example, a small canvas painting, or a photograph printed on heavily textured paper - when scanned the process might exaggerate the texture to an extent that it is distracting. Using a camera instead of a scanner can solve this problem.
Photographer          This is also a great way to capture and preserve the paintings of the family artist. We have a friend who does beautiful oil paintings. When she finishes a painting, she normally gives it to a family member. Although she sometimes takes a picture of her various paintings, she does not take the time to capture a quality image that can be reproduced digitally. Had she done this, she could easily put together an impressive coffee table book, that could be affordably printed at one of the many print-on-demand companies. And what an impressive and appreciated gift that would make for her family and friends!
         Using your digital camera is also a way to share those traditional scrapbook pages. Since many of these pages are too large for a home scanner, this method will capture the page digitally, and allow you to reproduce your scrapbook.