STEP BY STEP HOW TO CREATE SCANNER ART

Check your settings, place and position the subject, experiment with backdrops and boost the colour and contrast to craft your scanner shot

1 Scanner settings

First, make sure you select the appropriate scanner settings. To produce the most detail in the eventual images, I would recommend using the highest possible resolution – here, I have chosen 600dpi because it captures a lot of detail. Select TIFF for the file format you want the scanner to generate: there is no compression, and you will therefore get the most latitude for editing the images afterwards.

2 Frame the subject

Once you’ve determined your object of choice, you need to frame it within the ‘lens’ of the flatbed scanner. Note what part of the object is face-down and touching the glass, as this will be in sharp focus. Use the shallow focus to your advantage to produce an image with ethereal quality. It may take you a couple of preview scans to get the positioning correct, but be patient and you’ll find a great composition.

3 Go abstract with a coloured backdrop

Using the scanner in a dark room will emphasise the black tones in the image. For more abstract results, though, try introducing a coloured backdrop. I draped a blue silk gown over the glass and positioned it carefully to produce a pleasing colour gradation from the black on the opposite side of the frame. This step may require a little trial and error.

4 Boost the contrast with Curves

Once you’ve made the scan, open it in your image editor. You may notice that things are looking slightly dull. This is to be expected from images produced by a scanner so you’ll need to make some adjustments in software. I used the Curves in Photoshop [Image > Adjustments > Curves] to boost the black background and the image’s overall contrast.