Artwork Digitization

We photograph artworks using one of the highest resolution cameras and sharpest lenses on the market (the Sony a7R IV and 90mm Macro lens). We manually adjust all settings in the camera to be optimized for artwork photography.

We then start by lighting your artwork using our high-quality studio lighting. To help ensure accurate colors, we photograph most artworks under 5000K color-balanced, full spectrum, 97+ CRI professional lighting.

Next we tell the camera what 'neutral color' looks like under the exact current lighting conditions. We do this using the reverse side of the Datacolor SpyderCHECKR 24.

Next we move your artwork and replace it with a blank white piece of foamcore and photograph it. This can be used to help correct for any unevenness in the lighting.

We photograph several color calibration cards - we can use these later to calibrate how the raw camera data is interpreted by the computer.

We photograph each artwork with several color targets including an in-house developed card, the Calibrite SG and Classic, and Datacolor SpyderCheckr

Our camera has a special mode for photographing artwork - it takes a series of sixteen 60MP photos that can be interleaved into a whopping 240MP image, allowing every little brush stroke to come through in the prints.

We use an advanced color calibration application, designed for artwork reproduction, from Lumariver to read the color patches from Step 3 and generate color adjustment data. 

Our camera outputs raw data that must be interpreted by separate software to be useful. For this, we mostly use Rawtherapee as it gives extremely fine grained control over every aspect of the image. Using the original artwork as a reference, the photographer will manually adjust a wide variety of settings related to color, contrast, and sharpness to manually tune the image.

Next, we do the initial test print on the paper selected by the artist for prints - the paper affects the way the print looks so our target is usually to make the prints look great on that specific paper.

We carry more than 20 types of paper so you are sure to find one that matches the tone and character of your original artwork.

We then make additional manual adjustments to the image to account for any major color differences. The photographer uses a combination of their own artistic eye and technological tools to help ensure a high level of color accuracy.

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After these adjustments, at least one more test print is made to verify everything looks great. Some artworks require further effort color matching - and how meticulous we are with it depends on the service level you select.

In most cases it takes 2-3 total test prints to dial in the color on the target paper. Once we have reached an agreeable match we are ready to go with your print order!

We encrypt all files stored in our office using military-grade AES-XTS encryption - so that even if someone steals our hardware they cannot access your files.

We are happy to provide you an unencrypted copy of your files at any time at no charge (other than storage media if you don't bring your own).

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You may also opt-in to our online cloud hosting of your files, for easy access and online ordering.