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Updated 
 February 14, 2006 

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 For a limited time, receive four Complementary Custom Gift Card Reproductions of your painting.  
( "Paintings from Your Photographs" orders only)

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There is no charge for scans of prints up to 8" x 12".

In general, Peak Experience Imagery prefers to use a high quality file from a digital camera or for you to send us a print rather than scanning yourself. We use high quality scanners and know how to bring out the best of your photo for your painting. However, the advantage of scanning your own photo is that you can instantly sent us the file by email, saving the time and expense of postal or courier services.  However we need your payment before we start any commission.

The following tips will help you get the best scan possible of your print using a standard flat bed scanner.  We assume that you have a reasonable knowledge of your scanner and a favorite graphics program.  Much of the information here is also valid for scans of slides or negatives.

If you have little experience with scanning, we strongly suggest that you either get help from a knowledgeable person or photo processor or send us the photo (a copy, preferably) for us to scan. 

1. Use the best photo possible! 

Very dark photos and very distant subjects are the worst culprits.

Lighten-up and get Close-up!

2. A scan of a standard 4" x 6" photo is fine for most paintings.*  For  large paintings (over 16" x 20"), you may wish to scan a larger print or make use of a high quality, high resolution scanner for small prints.

3. Ensure that the photo and scanner bed are dust free.  We usually find a few spots on even the best scans ... don't worry, we will take care of them.

4. Generally you will want a full color scan (24 bit RGB color).  A general rule of thumb is that the file size should be at least 100-150 dpi for the FINAL PAINTING SIZE.  There are many books and sources on the internet that will help you calculate how to achieve this with your specific scanner, the size of your original photo and the size of the painting that you order.

Don't be fooled by your scanning software's choices of some very high resolutions, 2400, 4800 or more.  Find out what the maximum optical resolution is for your scanner and don't go much above that. 

5. Most scanning and/or graphics software have features that allow you to adjust various parameters of the image.  Here are some general comments.

6. Save the image as a compressed JPEG (.jpg) file.**  Use medium or high quality JPEG options if your graphic software program supports them. 

Generally a JPEG file should be about 10% of the 'raw' file size.  For example,  a 4" x 6" photo scanned at 600 dpi will be approximately 24 megabytes in size (TIFF format).  The JPEG file should be approximately 2.0 megabytes which usually can be sent as an email attachment.  If your internet provider does not allow this size of file to be sent, you will have to mail us a CD, or preferably, the photograph.

We will let you know immediately if we feel that your scan is not of acceptable 
quality and that you should either send us the print or provide us with a better scan.

*Professional photographers,  ... a large painting is very different than a large photo.  You would be amazed at how small a file can be used to create a great painting.  We have created 12" x 18" paintings from one square inch of a snapshot .... difficult, but possible.

**If you are going to be doing a lot of editing and multiple saves of your image, use your graphic software program's native format or TIFF format while you are editing it.  Then, as a last step, save the image as a JPEG file which you email to us.  The reason for doing this is that JPEG is considered a 'Lossy" file format meaning that you lose a little bit of quality each and every time you edit and save the file.  TIFF and most native formats do not have this issue.   Saving a JPEG file once or twice is not a problem.

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