high-quality, low-budget scanning in NYC?
October 5, 2016 9:52 AM   Subscribe

Where can I rent time on a large, high-quality scanner, in NYC?

I have a couple dozen large artworks that need to be scanned at professional, production-level quality, for a book project. (Normally, whatever publisher I'm working with does this for me, but not this time, for some reason.) My desktop scanner is not up to the task in terms of both size and image quality, even with every Photoshop trick I can throw at it. Paying a print shop to do the scanning for me would be way too expensive, like a couple thousand dollars. I have the knowledge to do it myself, just not the equipment.

Is there somewhere I could rent time on a large, high-quality scanner? Sort of like the way printmaking or photo studios rent the use of their space and equipment by the day, except for scanning? (Other ideas also welcome.) This is in NYC.
posted by the_blizz to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)
 
Best answer: NYU and FIT both have pretty extensive digital media services available through their libraries. You can become an NYU library member even if you're not an alum, though you should doublecheck if that includes access to all the various computer labs. FIT seems a little more restrictive, but I'll just throw out that a 1.5 credit CE class for NY residents is like $250.
posted by yeahlikethat at 10:48 AM on October 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


I worked at my university's art slide library for a while, where one of my jobs was to photograph art for our digital collection. If you cannot swing a large scanner, it is possible that you could get a camera and/or photographer to digitize the art for you. The right set up could net very high resolution images, especially with multiple photos that are stitched together. If you have camera skills there are likely many options to rent full-frame or even medium format digital cameras in NYC, but I unfortunately can't really help you find them.
posted by cubby at 11:13 AM on October 5, 2016


Response by poster: Wow, great tip about membership to Bobst, thanks!
posted by the_blizz at 2:03 PM on October 5, 2016


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