Visualisation - Frame Profiles

[Merlin]

I was having a look around The Grumble earlier on and came across a superb thread about getting good quality images of your moulding for use on visualisation packages.

I have spent a long time trying to get good images for use on Pre-View with a number of digital cameras, yet just could not get the lighting right or the gold/silver sight lines would not show, or the grain would be weak.

I read the following

http://www.thegrumble.com/showthread.php?t=27350&page=3

I was a little sceptical, so I had a go.

I use an Epson Perfection 4490 photo scanner and achieved the following excellent result first time. Far better than the camera image.





I guess I will be now sitting down and scanning all my moulding in now.

The value of these type of Forums. So helpfull.

[markw]

John - very interesting. I agree that using a camera on some profiles is less than perfect and can be quite alarming for the customer - "its not really going to look like that is it"?

I have been guilty of sitting back and waiting for high quality images from a supplier - I shall now have a go with my scanner.

[Merlin]

I have been having a 'play' as well using Adobe Elements 5.

It is so easy using the slider bars for contrast, highlights of shadows and colour that I can now get an almost exact replica.

So much easier.

[Bill Henry]

My concern with scanning moulding profiles is the very narrow depth of field of a flat bed scanner.

Especially if one is trying a fairly deep cove or swan moulding, parts of the frame will be severely out of focus.

I think that with all of the bells and whistles that good digital SLR cameras have now-a-days that you would be able to fiddle with the aperture and color balance to get the images just about perfect.

And, once you get the camera settings just right, you could batch them much more quickly than it takes to scan them, I think.

Scanning mat/mount board samples should be okay.

[John]

Depth of field depends very much on the scanner. I remember years ago, when A4 scanners were beginning to be affordable, and well before there were any digital cameras, there was one manufacturer advertising in the British computer magazines who made a feature of their scanner's exceptional depth of field. I wish I could remember what it was called.

Here are the results from two scanners that I have access to.

The Canon CanoScan LiDE 500F has a 1mm depth of field



The Epson Perfection 1200 Photo does a bit better


The Canon would be limited to flat mouldings only, while the Epson is capable of capturing more contoured profiles.

There is an interesting page here that explains the differences seen above.

[Merlin]

That is an interesting way of finding the DOF. So simple

Here is my scan of a metal rule, with the end raised a fraction over 1.75".

Using an Epson Perfection 4490 photo Scanner




On my photo it looks like I can get just about 1" in focus, yet up to 1.5" acceptable.

Fortunately, I do not have any 1.5" scoop or spoon moulding.
I have completed about half my mouldings so far and they are all consistent and better than with a digital camera.

Admitted that if I took some time and set up the camera and the lighting to give a uniform coverage then the samples would be perfect.

The scanner gives a very acceptable image and is a lot quicker.

That will do for me until the suppliers come up with the goods. Before you shout at me, I know that some do...

[Moglet]

The residual engineer in me just lurvs the elegance of your solution for calibrating the depth of field, Merlin!

(Like the new avatar, btw! )

[Martin Harrold]

This is a very interesting thread.

I've heard that in the USA, so many framers now use computerised pricing that the moulding distributors somehow send out range availability and price updates every few days. These are entered on automatically, which means that a framer may not be aware that a price has changed.

At Lion, we are trying to develop ways to follow this most significant trend. Already, we can email or mail you all the moulding price info. We have a programme in hand (with a posh new Canon camera) to take overhead shots of all our mouldings and make them available to anyone who wants them. It turns out that it's a bigger task than we expected, so Spring Fair would be a guess as to when they might all be ready.

[John]

Merlin's scanner technique can also be employed when inputing mount colours. (Thanks John)

Scan your supplier's mount selection chart a page at a time.

The sampling from the scanned image usually requires much less colour adjustment than sampling from images taken with the camera.