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Good-quality traditional art photo?

~Unicorn~

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When I try to take photos of my traditional art, the quality is really bad. It's blurry and dark, makes my art look much worse :(

However, I see traditional artists who have very good-quality photos of their art. My question is, how???
 
They most likely scan them onto their computer. Maybe you could attempt to find a scanning app or something and see how it works?? Idk, I've never used those. But yeah, it's usually because they scan them. Or they're magicians.
 
@himeki

I havent done traditional in a while, but I always make sure a find a spot that has a lot of natural light. It makes the image a lot less yellow and clears everything up nicely. Of course, this could just be an issue with your camera. What kind are you using?
 
They most likely scan them onto their computer. Maybe you could attempt to find a scanning app or something and see how it works?? Idk, I've never used those. But yeah, it's usually because they scan them. Or they're magicians.

I have no idea what scanning is but I'll try to check that out

- - - Post Merge - - -

@himeki

I havent done traditional in a while, but I always make sure a find a spot that has a lot of natural light. It makes the image a lot less yellow and clears everything up nicely. Of course, this could just be an issue with your camera. What kind are you using?

Oh cool, I'm himeki.

I'm using my iPad's camera.
 
I have no idea what scanning is but I'll try to check that out

- - - Post Merge - - -



Oh cool, I'm himeki.

I'm using my iPad's camera.

oh i was just 'tagging' her cause she does traditional and she takes good pictures lol

Ah ok, the lighting thing should do the trick then. If not, you can try using the iPad editor. You can try fiddling around with the brightness and contrast and see what works.
 
There's Turboscan, which i have yet to try but I've used CamScanner before. It scans your drawing and can turn them into a PDF or JPG.

Before i used camscanner though I took pictures like this:
image.png


or

unknown.png

Both might give a slight shadow gradient on your pictures when you take them but i just go into my drawing program and edit it out by starting a new layer above my "scanned" drawing and using a white airbrush tool to kinda erase the shadow. Then i'll set the layer to overlay.
I'm not sure if you use an old phone but mine is still pretty new so my pictures come out pretty sharp. if not you can always use imagine editing software or apps to make it look better!

Im pretty sure a majority of pictures of traditional work have some kind of editing done to them before they were uploaded online
 
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@himeki

I havent done traditional in a while, but I always make sure a find a spot that has a lot of natural light. It makes the image a lot less yellow and clears everything up nicely. Of course, this could just be an issue with your camera. What kind are you using?

Oh cool, I'm himeki.


oh i was just 'tagging' her cause she does traditional and she takes good pictures lol

Ah ok, the lighting thing should do the trick then. If not, you can try using the iPad editor. You can try fiddling around with the brightness and contrast and see what works.

i've been summoned //wiggles eyebrows

cherri was probably just implying that im somebody you should ask about this since i take pictures of my traditional art jhfjhf

first of all, you're gonan wanna make sure you have good lighting. i ususally just use my main lamp in my room, but otherwise i would recomend a light source that isn't colour filtered (eg, blue lampshade will give ur art a blue filter) and that is even. regular daylight is best for this, but if you're a ****ing gremlin like me who keeps the blinds shut 24/7 the light option is ur best bet

second of all, don't use some weird photo filter app! for a while i would always take pictures using instagram filter and then use a colour filter over the top (because i didnt know how to colour well back then) butttt in all honesty its better to just use the default ios camera (or snapchat....). i usually set it on square, and assuming you're on ios 11 or whatever its on now you're gonna wanna make sure live photo is off

you can make any croppings / rotation corrections on the photos app, or you can always send it to your computer somehow. i use sta.sh because it's quick and easy, but you can use what you want.
i usually use sai to touch it up a little (eg. erasing small blemishes) but thats up to you.

as for taking a good photo of your art and making it look aestheticaly pleasing, here's what i recomend!
- put a couple of your pens over the top of the image. idk why, looks nice and its a good way of hiding your uhhh lineart mistakes. here's an example of mine.
- take photos at clean angles. make sure your art shows up on the photo at the angle you are drawing it at!
- sometimes, have other objects in your background! make sure the art is the focal point, but it looks better? idk. here's another example of mine. (fun fact: i didn't actually draw this at said costa. i drew it a couple of days before, but when it came to upload it i did this. looks nice!)

and last but not least one of my top tips...
don't sign your piece w/ your online name on the actual drawing!!!
there may come a point where you need to show your artwork to serious places (eg. colleges, applications, jobs, etc) and you don't really want your name on it. or maybe you do. i bloody well dont. so for me i usually just slap my own signature (w/ my other links) onto it. i'm not gonna link a sample here, you probably know well enough.

hope i could help! feel free to pm me if you want a better guide lol



EDIT: forgot you asked about scanners too.
i can't be much of help, but i personally never use these!!! unless im scanning traditional lineart to edit onto stuff (which is rare, i usually just use the photo technique) i never use it. this is because 1) it has a tendancy to crumple your paper and 2) IT PICKS UP E V E R Y T H I N G !!! it can also just make it look....weird. lighting affects how you colour a drawing, so if the photo you take of it has different lighting then the photos can show up differently!!!
comparison_by_hiimeki-db4qkz0.png

as you can see, on the scan the colours showed up very pasty, and a lot lighter than how i saw it when i was picking colours.
this doesn't make a difference if you only sketch, but nonetheless!!
 
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Natural light! It's the best in my opinion if you're on a budget and only have a phone as your camera.
I open up a window(Oh great. 10 flies, 2 spooders, 8 ants and 3 moths -_- Welcome nah I'm joking- That doesn't really happen) and then take my pictures. If it's rainy, then I wait until mid-day to take my pictures or go to the room with the most light.
You'll need patience so it isn't blurry. Take a few different pictures and choose which one is most clear.
Next, don- Oh himeki's here...Why am I explaing XD
Oh yeah, filters can kinda ruin a drawing. I don't like them because they show off a different version of your art that may be portaying it inaccurately. Don't use filters to make a drawing vibrant either- It's like oversaturating a thumbnail on YouTube. It just doesn't work. If you're drawing's naturally looking like it went through a filter, then that is just talent. 0w0
Good luck with your pictures Uni! ^_^
 
Natural light! It's the best in my opinion if you're on a budget and only have a phone as your camera.
I open up a window(Oh great. 10 flies, 2 spooders, 8 ants and 3 moths -_- Welcome nah I'm joking- That doesn't really happen) and then take my pictures. If it's rainy, then I wait until mid-day to take my pictures or go to the room with the most light.
You'll need patience so it isn't blurry. Take a few different pictures and choose which one is most clear.
Next, don- Oh himeki's here...Why am I explaing XD
Oh yeah, filters can kinda ruin a drawing. I don't like them because they show off a different version of your art that may be portaying it inaccurately. Don't use filters to make a drawing vibrant either- It's like oversaturating a thumbnail on YouTube. It just doesn't work. If you're drawing's naturally looking like it went through a filter, then that is just talent. 0w0
Good luck with your pictures Uni! ^_^
because its always better to get advice from multiplied and various sources! :cool: besides, i'm not really good at explaining things
 
Umh, with my iphone 6 the camera is very good and I can always make perfect photos of my drawings~ ♥ before I had an old samsung and the pictures were poor quality!
So, I suggest you take photos near a window with natural light! The effect will be fantastic!!
Never use the artificial light of the lamp on your drawing, especially for traditional art ^w^
 
Umh, with my iphone 6 the camera is very good and I can always make perfect photos of my drawings~ ♥ before I had an old samsung and the pictures were poor quality!
So, I suggest you take photos near a window with natural light! The effect will be fantastic!!
Never use the artificial light of the lamp on your drawing, especially for traditional art ^w^

i kinda disagree w/ this, especially in the middle of hovember where theres like good light for like 5 hours and most people are out during this time
 
I just use my phone, usually with natural light, but lamps work just as well. Sometimes I up the brightness
 
i kinda disagree w/ this, especially in the middle of hovember where theres like good light for like 5 hours and most people are out during this time

Owh, obviously, if there isn't light outside and it is a dark winter day you must use light bulb, of course.. But it alters the color of your drawing! This is why natural light is better ( ^ω^ )
 
Did filters, this is noice


So uhhh yeah...guess I'll just come back to the thread if I need to reference anything lol

Honestly, I think the one without filters is a lot better. Whilst the pink colour filter can make it look cuter, the sparkles and stickers take away too much from the drawing itself, and it feels cluttered. First one was great tho!
 
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