• 
• 

Make Amazing Digital Photos Without A Camera - 1/26/09

el

pt

Use your scanner to make great scanograms

This Article Features Photo Zoom

In the early years of photography, avant-garde artists realized that they could create pictures without even using a camera. Man Ray was a master of making Photograms—interesting images he created by placing objects directly on photo paper and recording the shadows and silhouettes. Photograms remained popular for decades, and they still are today. But with the advent of the flatbed photo scanner, suddenly a new era of camera-less photography arrived. Now instead of making photograms, photographers can make scanograms—photographs of objects with the scanner as a camera.

There aren’t too many rules when it comes to making Scanograms, only a few things to remember in order to maximize your chances of success. First, think about what the scanner is designed to do, and use that to your advantage. Since the device is intended to focus and light a flat subject located directly on the scanner’s glass, know that light and focus will fall off dramatically mere millimeters from the surface. This is actually part of the Scanogram’s charm: it puts the focus right on the part of the subject that’s touching the glass, making everything else fall away into soft focus and shadow.

Scanographers have a decision to make right off the bat: do they want to try for a light background or a dark background? Personally, I find a dark background easier and more effective. The best way to create one? Simply open the scanner lid and don’t close it on top of the objects you’re scanning. The light falloff will create a deep and dark background. For a lighter background, try lowering the lid on small enough objects, or lay a white sheet of foamcore or fabric over the scene. More than likely it will create a gray background rather than white, but it does create a unique look, and it’s easier to get to white from gray than from black.

You can even experiment with mirrors and other backgrounds just to see how their reflectance will affect the scanner’s lighting; the right angle will produce an amazing and colorful result. That’s because the scanning chip, and the light source, are rarely at a true 90 degrees from the glass surface. This will create a distinct top and bottom based on the lighting and recording direction, and it’s best to orient your items on the glass accordingly.

Scanograms are ideal for subjects with lots of fine detail—things like flowers and plants and other natural objects. Of course, why not use the scanner to enlarge little objects, like coins or stamps, and get a good look at all those hidden details? You can even composite multiple scans into one complete picture—creating a bouquet out of individual flowers, or a group of items out of only one original.

When it comes time to set your scanner, use the same principles as you would for a regular photo print scan. Clean the glass before you begin to eliminate unsightly smudges and dust (which you’re bound to create during the Scanogram process anyway, so be prepared to use the clone tool to remove them) and set the resolution appropriately.

If you’re scanning an object that roughly fills the 8x10-inch size of your scanner bed, know that a 300 dpi setting will provide an image size that prints nicely to life size. Setting the resolution to 600 dpi means you can effectively enlarge it to twice its natural size. These ultra-high-resolution scans are ideal if you’ll be blowing up a tiny object to examine it in detail—and that’s what scanograms are perfect for.

Add Comment