TECHNOLOGY

by Nicholas M. HellmuthEvery month more than 17,000artists and over 26,000 photogra-phers come to the www.FLAAR.orgwebsite to ask what digital imaginghardware or software they shouldbuy. Many of these individuals andcompanies ask which printer is thebest to reproduce giclées, fine artphotos, or decorative prints.

They believe that they need a newand better printer to achieve highquality giclée results. But there ismuch more to the making of a qualitygiclée print than a quality printer. Theprocess of capturing the imagethrough use of the best scanners andcameras is critical to the process.The reason they approach FLAAR forguidance is that, with its 23 wide-for-mat inkjet printers, it is the largestuniversity or museum institute in theworld dedicated to research and re-sultant preparation of informationabout inkjet printing specifically ap-plied to art and art history.

Located at Bowling Green StateUniversity, Bowling Green, Ohio,FLAAR is an independent institutededicated to pre-Columbian art andiconography of Latin America, anddigital imaging as a means to recordthis cultural patrimony. Most of our in-teractions on campus are with theCollege of Art, and with our officialhome there, the College of Technolo-gy. FLAAR came to BGSU after pre-viously being engaged in giclée print-ing on canvas from its offices inGermany and Guatemala; this expe-rience was introduced to BGSU,where it has expanded. FLAAR atBGSU is now one of only two univer-sity institutes in the U.S. that has aCruse scanner and also a BetterLightdigital camera, the two premium cap-ture devices for digitizing watercol-ors, pastels, and oil paintings.

In addition to our own researchin-house at the university, we learna lot by visiting shows. We haveseen examples of prints that areslightly out of focus in one, two, orsometimes in three corners. We no-tice images that are flat, and fea-tureless, with not much relief. Theylook like a simple photograph, notlike an original painting with vibrantbrush strokes and texture. A reallygood shot with a Cruse, and alsocapable digitization by a master us-ing other camera technologies suchas BetterLight, and you can seeevery brush stroke and cracklure ofthe original painting.

Alignment: Precision Is All

A comment I sometimes hearfrom artists is, “I use the best pho-tographer in town; they have lots ofprofessional looking equipment.”Yes, a milliondollar studio forphotographingweddings, grad-uations, orproms may in-deed be thebest photogra-pher in yourtown. But this isby no means thebest place tohave your paint-ings digitized forsubsequent gi-clée production.

Almost invari-ably when I ask,“What align-ment system do you use, or doesyour photographer use?” I get ei-ther a look of confusion, or a look of“I don’t need to worry about align-ment.” I give you an example of lackof awareness in this respect at aprint shop I visited. They had a pro-fessional photographer and profes-sional equipment (BetterLight). Theyhad used industrial grade scaffold-ing to build a room-sized scaffoldingsystem to hold the camera at oneend and thepainting at theother end. Theirconcept wasthat by using thesame lengths c a f f o l d i n gpoles on eachside, that natu-rally the paintingwould be parallelto the camera,since both werecentered andthe side poleswere identical inlength.

But scaffold-ing is not a pre-cision instrument; especially not thejoints at the corner, which can easi-ly be off 1 or 2 millimeters. And theangle can be off a few seconds, too.Indeed, the photographer, who hadbeen using this system for digitizingoil paintings, pastels, and watercol-ors, was perplexed, “I don’t under-

stand, after I spent all this time andmoney making this rigid system ofparallelism, why the image is not ful-ly in focus on all four corners!”

Well, it’s because a large-formatcamera depth of field is quickly off ifthe sensor is not absolutely parallel

to all four corners of the painting.We did a test at the University ofMalta, Malta Centre for Restora-tion. They had been photographingpaintings and other flat works of artfor years, so we asked them to dotheir own typical set up, and let uslook at the results. We enlarged theimage, looked at all four corners,and showed them that three of thecorners were out of focus. This sim-ple test demonstrates that jerry-

rigged attempts to align the cameraback with the painting tend not towork. With film it was not as critical;but with a good digital back, youcan’t be off more than a millimeteror so. We installed a Zig-Align sys-tem, a brand new Sinar camera witha BetterLight back. Between

Martha Martinez, of the FLAARstaff, and David Frank Bujega of theMalta staff, they got all four cornersfocused the first time around.

Dozens of studios use the Zig-Align system; all with a BetterLightcamera. The ones I know the bestare Squirt Printing (Andy Wood) onthe West Coast and Fine Art Im-pressions (Gary Kerr) on the EastCoast. Realize that if you have aCruse they have permanent align-ment built into their system: a Crusedoes not need to be Zig-aligned foreach painting.

So no matter how fancy a printeryou buy, your 2880 dpi will only re-produce an out of focus photo-graph, better. But once you realizethat you have to align your paintingwith either a Cruse or a Zig-Align,you still have at least four ways todigitize a painting or drawing:

1. Put the painting directly onto aflatbed scanner.

2. Feed the painting through a wide-format scanner.

3. Photograph the painting with atraditional camera and scan thetransparency.

4. Photograph the painting with adigital camera.

Option #1 is possible, and meansyou don’t need an alignment system(because we assume the scanner isaligned to the flatbed surface). Butfew museums have a scanner largeenough to handle most paintings.Not many scanners are larger than12 by 18 inches. Those that arelarger would be very costly. Andmost curators would not want thesurface of an original work of art totouch the glass of the scanner. Butthe real problem is that you can’tcontrol the lighting inside a scanner.So option #1 is not taken seriouslyby most professional giclée printateliers.

Option #2 is also possible, andeven advertised, but I can’t imaginea curator that would let an originalpainting feed through the mecha-nism of a wide-format scanner. Tooeasy to scratch the surface. But ifyou already have a wide-formatscanner, or if you need this scannerfor scanning line drawings, you cantry it. Contex makes excellent wide-format scanners. Just realize youhave the same limitation of a flatbed

INPUT TO ACHIEVE OUTPUT IN FINE GICLEE PRINTING

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Artist Jacqueline Jasionowski, left, and Bowling GreenState University lab personnel preparing an original workof art to be scanned on the Cruse.

Testing use of a Zig-align system with the BetterLightbeing used on a project of the Malta Centre forRestoration, as part of a joint project with FLAAR.

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scanner: You can’t control the light-ing, so you can’t do side-lighting tobring out the brush strokes. But toscan a poster, map, or flat work withno texture, this can be readily ac-complished by a good wide-formatscanner.

Option #3 is still popular. Photog-raphers all across America andaround the world for that matter use4x5, medium format, and probablyan occasional 35mm shot to send toa giclée atelier to be scanned andthen printed on canvas or watercol-or paper.

But once you enlarge the trans-parency, especially from 35mm size,you start to see film grain. You in-variably get dust, scratches, hair,and other clutter. Of course, if youoil the transparency and use a drumscanner, that gets rid of litter, butfew photo labs use a drum scanner.If you do, the ones we like the bestare ICG from England (also availablein the US).

Option #4 is what the best gicléeprint studios use today, so lets fo-cus on digital cameras. But beforeentering the realm of the prestige gi-clée ateliers, lets look at what manypeople hope they can do in order tocut costs in entry-level giclée shops.Because, once you realize that us-ing a digital camera is the best or atleast the most practical way to digi-tize your painting, you have four op-tions, going from entry level up totop tier.

Digital Cameras: How to Choose

1. Use a dedicated large-format dig-ital camera back (Cruse).

2. Use a portable large-format digi-tal camera back (BetterLight,Anagramm, Kigamo etc), on acopy stand or tripod.

3. Use a medium-format camera ona copy stand or tripod.

4. Use a 35mm camera on a copystand or tripod.

5. Use a simple camera.

It is astonishing how many peoplewrite and ask us how they can usetheir 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, or 8-megapixeldigital camera to shoot for giclée.What their camera dealer and thecamera advertisement specs ne-glect to tell them is that the zoomlenses on this kind of point-and-shoot camera will distort almosteverything. So let’s not take it as aserious option for digitizing paint-ings.

You can, though, use any point-and-shoot camera for fine art pho-tography, because 6 megapixelsand above is plenty for an exhibit

print of 11- by 17-inch size, but notas a basis for giclée reproduction ofa painting. It is not the megapixelsize, it is the lack of quality of thecheap lenses.

Now a 35mm camera on a copystand or tripod is an option for someand a necessity for others, or sothey think. But a Canon EOS 1DsMark II costs $7,999, without lens.A BetterLight scanning back, large-format, compares favorably in price,though this assumes you alreadyhave a large-format camera to holdit (and a lens). But a large-formatdigital system may cost less than amedium-format system. It is toughto align a 35mm camera: the Zig-Align system works best on a large-format camera, though options areavailable formedium-format.The Cruse isself-aligned dur-ing installation,so you don’thave to align itfor every shot.This is why theCruse is moreproductive: it isall set up, anddoes not get outof alignmentsince it nevermoves out of itshome position.But the primaryreason why youdo not want toattempt doinggiclée with35mm is againthe lenses. Youneed the qualityof a Schneideror Rodenstocklens, especiallytheir APOchromatic lenses.

The next step up from 35mm ismedium-format. We would like tolook at medium-format as a mannerto digitize paintings for giclée. ASinar-Jenoptik, MegaVision, Has-selblad-Imacon, or Phase One sys-tem each has strong points. Butmost full-time long-term giclée pro-duction facilities opt for either a Bet-terLight or Cruse (both are large-format; both use Schneider orRodenstock lenses). Thus, until wehave a Mamiya AFD II, Rollei 6008AF, or Hasselblad H1 camera tohold one of the medium-formatbacks, we prefer to wait.

Copy Stand vs TripodLet’s continue the discussion by

comparing installing a copy standversus using a tripod. Most cam-eras lack a viewer at the appropriateangles for looking through the cam-era when it is up on a copy stand.Any medium-format camera with afixed viewer (one that is not inter-changeable) is not optimal on a

copy stand at all. The exception is ifyou have a video feed so you can in-spect the focus on a computer mon-itor. A copy stand limits you to theheight of the stand and size of thebase. With a tripod you simply movefarther away and you can photo-graph a painting as large as a mur-al. You can’t do this on any copystand, although yes, you can photo-graph in segments and stitch thesegments in software. We do thiswith the Cruse scanner easily.

A copy stand is not as portableas is a tripod. But a copy stand is,in theory, easier to align. You havethe copy area level, you have thecopy stand pole plumb; you havethe digital back and camera leveled.With a tripod you absolutely need to

utilize a Zig-Align system(mirrors orlaser). Manyprofessional gi-clée ateliers usethe Zig-Alignsystem effec-tively, but align-ment does taketime. You haveto align everytime you movethe tripod.

Let’s get thecomments fromtwo pros theBetterLight sys-tem (FLAAR isunique in havingboth the Bet-terLight and theCruse system;because we be-lieve that eachhas benefits;which you

should chose depending on your sit-uation and your clients’ needs).

Andy Long of Squirt Printing,Sunnyvale, CA, says, ”I could notagree with Dr. Hellmuth more aboutthe importance of capture. This is atrue case of garbage in, garbage outworkflow. At Squirt Printing we uti-lize a BetterLight Super 6K scanback mated to a Cambo 4x5 camerabody. We use the best Schneiderlenses we can buy.

“The Zig-align system is a must.We use it for every capture. An extrahalf-hour spent getting an imageproperly aligned can save manyhours wasted in Photoshop. Squirt ishighly skilled in capturing flat things.Capturing art is an art in itself.”

Gary Kerr, Fine Art Impressions,Davidson, NC, says, “The precisionwe put into digitizing art includesaligning the camera with a laser to3000/inch in order to achieve per-fect parallelism between the surfaceof the art and the digital sensorplane. This ensures zero distortion

and optimal depth of focus to in-clude the detail and paint texture inthe digital capture—a prerequisitefor making a convincing reproduc-tion.

“Everyone seems to want to pho-tograph their own artwork, but it’s abig mistake because it’s difficult todo correctly. How the original is dig-itized determines the quality of thegiclée, not the printer make andmodel. Many artists with a 6-megapixel camera call me to see ifthat will work. My reply: ‘Try drivingacross the country on one tank ofgas, we use 48 megapixels.’

“Interpretively lighting the art-work is the signature of a greatprintmaker; to ensure the nuanceand ambience of the original is re-tained in the giclée. It's the oppositeof what you get with symmetricallighting employed with automatedcopy stands. Besides, curatorialstandards are violated with verticalcopy stand set-ups which is anoth-er reason Fine Art Impressionsdoesn’t use them, especially for ourmuseum clients.

“Asking a printmaker what kindof printer they use is like asking theartist what kind of brushes theypaint with. Buying a wide-formatprinter expecting to be a master gi-clée printmaker is the same as buy-ing a grand piano and expecting tobe a concert pianist—it’s a bigmaybe.”

SummarySince FLAAR has both the Cruse

and the BetterLight, I find eachgreat in their appropriate milieu. Weuse the BetterLight primarily for ar-chaeological photography andpanorama photography. The Bet-terLight is completely portable so isideal for museums in different coun-tries, as well as fieldwork in remotejungle locations. The Cruse is per-fect for our university situationwhere a new co-op student or interncomes to learn, so the fixed dedi-cated alignment of the Cruse meansthat each new trainee does not haveto worry about the alignment.

Brent Cavanaugh, the Lab Man-ager, Center for Applied Technologyat BGSU, says, “Speed, and henceproductivity, is one of the finerpoints of the Cruse. Set up time isminimal; the actual scan time is twoto three minutes. Focusing is auto-matic, so there is no struggling tofocus; you don’t have to labor tomake sure the artwork is perpendic-ular to the camera, and the lightingis automatically balanced by thevery design of the system. This uni-versity facility needs to produceboth giclée, decorative, and indus-trial scans.

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TECHNOLOGYcontinued from page 30

BetterLight scanning back in a CamboUltima 4x5 large format camera.

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Digital Back: BetterLight is theonly scanning back that offers techsupport, training, and backup acrossthe U.S. direct from the factory.Since we know they hold up well,produce flawless color balance, andtheir software is great, this is natu-rally the one that we commend.Anagramm, Kigamo, and Phase Onewould be other options.

Don’t forget your tripod: the Git-zo Tele-Studex G508 or G509 iswhat many pro studios use, or astudio stand (we have a Bogen Sa-lon with Manfrotto head). And real-ize that your tripod head is a crucialingredient too: we could not survivewithout our Manfrotto 3263 giantgeared tripod head (we have threeof them). When you need to pre-cisely position a large-format cam-era you don’t want either a ball-heador a pan-and-tilt head.

Lighting the paintings during thedigitization is crucial to the successof the final image. Indeed lighting isso important that it is an entirelyseparate issue that should best bediscussed in a separate article. Be-ing able to vary your lighting, bothcolor temperature, angle, harshnessor softness, is one of the main ad-vantages of the component system,with a BetterLight being a crucialcomponent along with lighting. Adedicated turnkey system does notallow you to move the lighting. Soeach system has its advantages andits limitations.

Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR,President and Director, Large For-mat Digital Imaging Division of theCenter for Applied Technology,Bowling Green State University. Hecan be reached at (419) 372-8224,e-mail: frontdesk@FLAAR.org.

Acknowledgements:We thank Brent Cavanaugh, LabManager, BGSU for relating his ex-periences with the Cruse, AndyLong with his experiences with BetterLight and Gary Kerr for hisknowledge of using the BetterLight.We thank Hermann Cruse, CruseGmbH, for providing the Cruse scan-ner. We thank Michael Collette, BetterLight, for providing the BetterLight. Calumet Photographic provid-ed the Cambo 4x5 camera, courtesyof Peter Biasotti, President.

We do not yet have a medium-format system, so can’t yet com-ment ourselves. We would like totry a medium-format digital back ona professional copy stand, but untilwe have one in-house to compare,we naturally comment on what weknow from four years experiencewith Cruse and seven years withBetterLight.

Based on our own experienceand discussions with other gicléeproducers, we can summarize by

suggesting that an ideal systemwould include either a Cruse (whichhas everything built in; it is a dedi-cated turnkey solution), or, if youprefer a component system, theoptions that most professional gi-clée ateliers have found good are:4x5 camera: Arca-Swiss, CamboUltima, or Sinar would be the choic-es of most pro photographers. Wehave two Cambo Ultimas fromCalumet, so these are the ones weshow since these are the specificcameras that are in our studios.

Lens: Schneider or Rodenstockare your choices. Go for the one

that has an APOchromatic optionfor the size of lens that you want.

TECHNOLOGYcontinued from page 32

PAGE 34 ART WORLD NEWS

Lighting the painting during digitization iscrucial to the success of the final image.Being able to vary your lighting, both colortemperature, angle, harshness or softness,is one of the advantages of the componentsystem. A dedicated turnkey system doesnot allow you to move the lighting. So eachsystem has advantages and limitations.

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