Here are a few tips to get a great scan.

The number one factor in getting a great portrait from Steel City Portraits is to provide our artists with a high quality scanned image. Making the effort to get a good photo is worth it. Getting a large, detailed photograph to scan is key. Bad color, cracks, and scratches can be fixed but a small blurry photo cannot be fixed as easily.

Scanning Help

Most scanners today are capable of taking quality scans of the photograph that we will will use to create your custom portrait. Below are a few tips on how to get a great scan to give to our artists.

 

1. Make sure the photo is large enough to get a good image of the person - even if scanned at high resolution, there is only so much data in a small area.
 

2. Scan at a high resolution - usually 600 to 1200dpi (dots per inch).
 

3. Make sure that your scan produces at least a 3 MB (megabyte) image file; if you see that the file you have created is 10 KB (kilobyte), for example, this will be too small a file to make an enlargement for the custom portrait.
 

4. Do not use any compression on the image, some programs will compress the file reducing the quality of the scan, you can usually turn this setting off in your scanning software.

 

If you need help scanning your image please feel free to call us and we will run you through it. 412-879-0098