Step 1 - Digitizing your artwork

There are 2 methods : using a scanner for small artworks or using a camera for bigger ones.

Method 1: using a scanner

📌 Scanning is ideal for:

Little to no texture artworks (drawings, sketches, photographs etc.)
A3 format or smaller
If you (or a friend) have a scanner at home

Scanners are now an affordable and easy way of digitizing your artworks. It requires less equipment and less hassle than photography and it’s how you will get the best resolution. This means that you can enlarge your original creation. If you paint on an A5 format for example, with a good scanner you can enlarge up to an A2 format and even larger, easily.

Unfortunately, scanning is reserved for smaller “flat” artworks (artworks with little to no texture).

To get the best quality scans, here’s what you need to keep an eye on:

Scanning into the correct file type
- TIFF is compatible across almost all different editing software
- Can be saved uncompressed (retaining as much image detail as possible)
Choosing the right pixel density/pixel count
- At minimum you should be scanning at 300 DPI

Pro tip : If your artwork is smudgeable (charcoal, pastel, etc), spray some fixative on it before you place it on the scanner. Scanning without fixative might cause your artwork to be disfigured.

Method 2 : using a camera

📌 Photography is ideal for:

Texture artworks (oils, heavy acrylic etc.) or stretched canvas
Large artworks
If you (or a friend) have a good camera

This solution is a bit more complex than using a scan, but don’t worry you can do it yourself.

🛠 What you will need…

A decent camera (a solid DSLR camera, a Point & shoot or a good smartphone)
Some lights
A tripod to hold your camera still

To get the best results, here’s what you need to keep an eye on:

Make sure you lay your artwork flat - on a table or an easel for example
You need to make sure light is on point. Use two or three light sources (i.e. desk lamps) and position them at various and steep angles
Set up your tripod at the right distance and position the camera to be parallel to the artwork to avoid any perspective distortion

Pro tip :

We recommend using a dark room to avoid reflections on your art.

Step 2 - Editing your File

⚙️ From the scanner or camera you get a digital file of your creation. Now you have to edit the image to adjust the exposure, contrast, and color balance, to bring out the artwork's full details.

To do this, you need an image processing software, we recommend to use Adobe Photoshop.

Here’s the steps to follow:

Edit the file to enhance the contrast and clean up any imperfections
Use the appropriate ICC profile (color profile) for the paper you’ve selected on Lama.co.

Head to the article bellow to read our complete guide right

Prepare my files

Pro tip : if you’re not familiar with Photoshop, think about this nice friend keen to give hand?