Post processing your fractals-exploring new ways to create fractal art.

For those of you fractal artists who believe that fractals should remain “pure” and “untouched” right out of the fractal generator, cover your eyes. In fact, close this page on your browser, because this article is about taking the beauty of fractals and changing them, molding them like clay, adapting them in accord with your own personal artistic eye. I don’t believe in the “purist” viewpoint–in fact, I think it’s rather silly. Fractals are art, and as such, are means to an end, and the end is the artist’s vision. Just as no two completed fractals are just alike, neither are fractal artists, their vision or their tools.

(Note: I exclusively use Tierazon and Vchira for my fractal art. However, they are no longer available for download. They used to be available for purchase, but I can’t seem to find them anywhere. They are very small programs and need no install, so if you’d like these programs, post to me here.)

I wrote this “post-processing” (in other words, changing, tweaking, revising, adapting) tutorial for fractals in 2003, but I think it’s still relevant today and can offer any fractal artist who wishes to experiment some new ideas and ways of looking at their fractal art. At the very least, I hope it sparks your imagination and allows you to take risks and try things you’ve never tried before.

(I am an exclusive Photoshop user, and though I am fairly certain that programs like Paintshop Pro have similar features, I do not know their names so all my references will be from Photoshop.)

Of course, it goes without saying that some fractals are so perfect, so blissfully perfect, that to touch them would be blasphemous. I don’t see a whole lot of those, and this article is for the majority others which may have not been as similarly blessed.

Everything starts with the raw fractal. I believe you can train your eye to “see” beauty and possibilities in the most mundane of images. After awhile, once you become really comfortable with your generator of choice, you’ll know the kinds of lines and shapes that work the best and just need your special touch to bring them out.

Don’t be so quick to trash a fractal that doesn’t sing to you. If it made you stop and look, there may be something there. Keep the parameter for another day. You might be surprised at what you’ll find. Many of my own favorites were literally pulled out of the recyle bin. Conversely, I freely admit to working for hours and hours on an image only to be dreadfully disappointed with it, and it never sees the light of day.

Composition
Never rush your cropping and composition–both in your fractal generator and in your art program. It’s just as important as anything else you will do to it, and is often the difference between an average image and a great one. I compose and crop more than once, I may even do it multiple times. It is not unusual for me to spend a half hour, an hour or even more, composing and cropping.

Everything needn’t always be centered. Make it interesting! Try it as an off-center image. Or rotate the fractal round and round (either in your generator, if you can, or your art program) and see which way it looks the best. Make sure there is no boring, wasted, hanging space that does nothing but pull the eyes away from what you want the viewer to notice, what you want to emphasize.

Is there too much stuff going on in the image, so much so that the eye won’t know what to look at first? Is it beautiful but not flowing together smoothly, does it look somewhat awkward? You can often fix these problems with cropping. Do not be afraid to crop, and crop dramatically. In fact, don’t be afraid to crop so dramatically that you’ve totally changed your image, and need to render it again in a larger size because you’ve cropped so much off! Like a good writer, a capable artist will sacrifice a beautiful piece of his or her image if it detracts from the whole. Cropping is a crucial part of the process, and should not be rushed or underestimated.

Your Raw Image
I ask myself what the fractal is “about” after I’ve generated and composed it to my satisfaction. Does it have really interesting, well-defined shapes but is lacking in good color? Or, is it all about color while being rather amorphous? What stands out most about the fractal? What am I going to emphasize? Is it that wild shape in the corner that attracted me, a striking form surrounded by quieter, more serene shapes? Is it a happy image or a moody one? Is it a dreamlike image*, or more of a still life, or is it an abstract? Once you have a feel for the “mood” your image is going to exude, then you will have a better idea of the direction you will ultimately go with it. Don’t “fight” the image. In this I mean that if it has more shape and shadow going for it than color, then emphasize the shapes and let the color take second billing. If the image is all about color, then play that up with strong contrasts and glow and don’t worry about emphasizing the shapes. Go with the flow of the image you’ve made in your generator. Follow its lead.

*(For example: a dreamlike image might use a lot of different blurring effects, both with blurring filters and your hand blurring tool. Dreamlike images also work very well with some of the Flaming Pear filters like “Glare” and “Aetherize.” KPT 6′s “Equalizer” filter is one I couldn’t live without. I use it for everything. This filter gives you endless possibilities in blurring and sharpening, like having the millions of little quarter-notes between the half-notes.)

Color
The first thing I usually look at after the cropping is color. Am I happy with the colors? Usually I’m not, so I start changing them.

A side note about Ultra Fractal, inarguably the most popular and sophisticated fractal software. The artistic control you have with color (as well as other things like layers) in UF is legendary. However, you do not have even one-quarter the amount of comprehensive, artistic control of your image in any fractal generator, including UF, as you do in Photoshop or in an art program.

There are many ways to change your color. So many, in fact, that only a few will be mentioned here. First, I decide if I like the level of saturation. Often, I might start the recoloring process by desaturating a touch just to soften it. Then I might do a “test color run” by opening the Hue menu and sliding the hue bar back and forth to see the possibilities. Sometimes a slight hue adjustment is enough, although most times it isn’t.

Next, I’ll open the Color Balance menu. Giving you much more control than the Hue sliding bar, Color Balance allows you to add different shadows, tones and highlights to your *whole* image by sliding the bars back and forth. Is it a sea scene? Slide the bar toward green or cyan. An autumn scene? Go more yellow and red.

After that, if I want to play some more, I’ll go to the “Grandaddies Of Color Control options”: Selective Color and Replace Color. These are my favorites. With Selective Color, let’s say you have a yukky red shade you want to get rid of, but you want to keep everything else. You pull the drop-down menu to adjust only the Reds, and start sliding the color bars back and forth until the reds change into other colors and hues you’re happier with. With Replace Color, you can exercise even more control: using your eyedropper to select the color you want to change, as well as the amount of Tolerance (ie, how much of the color you want to select, you can only select part of it and not all of it) and change only that particular color. There are literally thousands of hues and shades and colors, and changing the Tolerance level of your selection can literally be infinite when it comes to the end color result.

Another way to change your colors is by using the regular Select menu, by dropping down and clicking on Color. With this option, you select your color with your Magic Wand, highlight it and change it to something more appealing. “Save selection” is an important part of this option because it allows you to go back later and load this same color selection again, even though later on the image may have changed dramatically. By saving your selection and then later clicking Load Selection, you can easily re-select the part of the image you originally chose, colorwise. You can do this even if you can no longer make your original color selection with your Magic Wand; having been prevented from doing so because the colors and shadows have now changed. (Because Magic Wand only picks up smooth blankets of same-color areas, after you’ve changed their color it is sometimes impossible to go back and re-select them without saving the selection.)

After you’ve changed your colors and you are content with the changes, then you can play and see what various filters will do to your image. I typically run my image through Flaming Pear’s Aetherize or Mr. Contrast or KPT’s Channel Surfing (From KPT Effects) to see what kind of effects I’ll get. I may not use them at all, or maybe I’ll use them just a little by clicking on the filter and then clicking on “fade” which will lessen the effects of whatever last filter, or action, I applied. The “fade” button is absolutely essential. I play with it right after every single effect I apply, to see how to best maximize that particular effect. Sometimes applying an effect at merely three percent strength is enough, and anything more than that is way too much.

The Curves filter in Photoshop is another wonderful way to get interesting color and light effects. You can enhance each channel, or find the dark and light colors and enhance the difference, or enhance the monochrome values of the image. Do not be afraid! Keep experimenting with your image. You don’t have to save the effects you don’t like.

Then, of course, there is always the hand-coloring option with your paintbrush.

Think I’m done yet with color? Nope. Because when I am not satisfied one hundred percent with my color, or still feel more can be done, I may go back to the same filters a second, third and fourth time to see the different effects I can get by reapplying filters over and over again, in varying amounts and ways. I might layer two or more different versions together, changing opacities and values, to see which version I like the best.

Cloning, Shadows and Light
You may find you have an image with an empty, boring area that just lays there like an eyesore, adding nothing to your image, and you’ve already cropped as much as you can. In many cases, you can use the cloning tool. “Cloning” simply means copying a part of your image and reproducing it elsewhere in the image. With the Cloning Tool, you can take a little part of your image and clone it into the empty space, blending it in. You can even clone at diminished opacity, to make it look faded or far away–a subtle afterthought that can add so much depth to your image.

To add shadows and highlights, you can use your Dodge and Burn tools to emphasize what is already there– all you need to do is to follow the natural structure of the image. Example: do you see highlights, lighter parts of the image that are seemingly facing the light? Use your dodge tool to brush over these areas to emphasize them. Conversely, use your burn tool to deepen your shadows and make them even more shadowy and contrasty. Another way to de-emphasize and emphasize parts of your image is to blur them; the sharpened part of the image will then pop out even more and grab attention when you blur what’s around it. The same effect can be used with the sponge tool, which can both desaturate or saturate color. This tool is wonderful when you want to either add or remove emphasis from a part of the image.

Another handy filter with which to add light is Flaming Pear’s Glare filter. Certain blurring and sharpening filters, like KPT’s Equalizer, also add a certain amount of light to the image. Keep experimenting; you can always hit “undo”.

You can also get wonderful lighting effects with KPT’s Effects filters, in the Channel Surfing filter. There is a preset which is luminescent, and effectively yet subtly lightens the image in such a way that it looks like ambient light.

“Everything was a blur……”
One of the most effective ways to bring attention to certain parts of your image is to blur others. Usually (not always) the part you want to blur is the background. To blur your background in Photoshop, while maintaining the most amount of control as you do so, is easy. First, you want to duplicate your layer. Then, go to filter, then blur, then Gaussian blur, and blur the bottom of the two layers…..blur as much or as little as you like. Working with the toppermost layer, you will use your brush, in the CLEAR mode, to erase the top layer so it will reveal the blurred image below. I sometimes go to my layer menu and adjust the opacities of the upper layer as I do this, so I can better see what I am blurring below. Remember, in clear mode, you can adjust the opacity of your brush as you are erasing. This allows for endless myriad effects in your image.

Arbitrary Filters aka “I Go Crazy”
Just a little note here about popular filters like Flaming Pear’s Flood filter, the filter that creates beautiful water effects, complete with reflections. Like many artists, I, too, love that filter, but I am aware of the danger of overuse and try to use it sparingly and only when I feel the image would be enhanced by it. A Mandelbrot or Julia rising out of the misty depths of the sea can be interesting, but it can also be a cliche if not handled properly. If the image can stand on its own, by all means, let it. It won’t need the odd and overdone juxtaposition of water and fractal. It makes no difference as to whether you create your “water” in your fractal generator with a formula or in an art program with a filter; the end result is usually the same: uninspired generica. Another example of this is the sparkly brush filter that makes shiny parts of an image seem to sparkle and glitter. In small doses, this is a very effective tool. When you see flat, non-shiny surfaces with a little sparkle, you’re looking at what I call The Flood Effect, or overkill.

The End Game
To me, framing your image or “preparing it for the gallery walls” as my friend would say, can make the difference between a typical presentation and a compelling one. Beautiful, ornate digital frames can be quite breathtaking, but only if they don’t overpower your image. You don’t want people gaping at your frame and ignoring your image. The frame should be considered part of the image and not a separate entity; they should flow together seamlessly. You might want to consider something other than a traditional beveled frame, and make the fractal itself the frame. There are many ways of doing this; here are just a few: by duplicating the image colors in a drop shadow; by bringing the image itself into the frame; by applying an array of effects to the borders/edges of your image to create your frame. Is your image about duality? Slice it in two and frame the two pieces next to one another. Is one part of your image busy and the other part serene? Frame the busy part more ornately than the quiet part to artfully drive this home. If you imagine your image is leading you, almost like a dance partner, creating different ways to frame your image will come to you more readily.

Thinking out of the Mandelbox
Why eat one piece of chocolate when you can have three? You can take elements of other fractals to incorporate into your image, whether it’s a shape or even a hue. You may generate a fractal that’s interesting, but prefer to make it part of another image instead of the whole reason for being, because it isn’t powerful enough to stand on its own. You may decide to make the image a metamorphasis of sorts by actually showing the development of the image–the changes and additions–by displaying them all. For example, you might want to juxtapose your original fractal next to the finished version, but make it part of the same image and frame them together. There are no rules, nor should there be. What personally rocks my world is exaggeration: whether it’s exaggerated color, exaggerated monochrome, exaggerated light effects or shapes, exaggerated flatness or shadow. What rocks your world? Do it, then!

There are truly no limits when you decide to push your creativity as far as it can go by really diving into your image and making it your own. Be daring and unafraid. If you’ve never seen it done before, it’s most probably a winner.

(New to fractals? Check out Ultra Fractal, Fractal Explorer, Chaos Pro, Apophysis. Or you can Google “Fractal Generator” and see the many free generators available for download.)

Tips for artists: the best way to print your art.

As any artist knows, printing is far from a science, it’s more of an artform. Lots of experimentation may be required before you are happy with the results. That said, however, there are certain universal, objective guidelines to follow that will result in rendering a high quality print. This remains the same if you are printing on paper, on canvas, or even on tile substrates such as glass or ceramic.

DPI or RESOLUTION

Let’s talk about DPI, or resolution. So many people still get confused about how DPI (dots per inch) works, or they think that if an image is displaying a 72 DPI resolution rate is tantamount to a low quality image. Not necessarily. Let me explain. It’s not the DPI that’s important–it’s the richness of, the amount of, the data present. The DPI number may waver and vary, but the image data will not. Either you have an image that’s innately rich in data, or you don’t. If the image is big, it has more pixels. That makes it data-rich. The former will render high quality prints, the latter will not. And you can actually change the DPI number and it won’t affect the quality of the print. In other words, SIZE DOES MATTER. Not sure what I mean? Keep reading–it will make sense, I promise.

IT’S NOT THE DPI, IT’S THE AMOUNT OF DATA THE IMAGE HAS.

What is DPI? DPI is “dots per inch”. The more pixels, or dots, per inch, the richer, the more sharp and clear your image will be. The gold standard for most professional printing is 300 DPI. A 72 DPI resolution is more suitable for web use, and easy loading. But this is where people get tripped up. The DPI number displayed on an image is less important than the amount of data the image innately has, i.e, if the image has enough data to support a large size when configured in 300 DPI. This is kind of difficult to explain, but here’s one way to explain it. Let’s say you have an image that measures 5000 pixels, but when you bring it into an image reader or art program, it shows “72 dpi”. This does not mean it’s a substandard image for printing. That DPI is fluid. It actually doesn’t matter.  What it means is that the DPI in that big, data-rich image can safely be changed to 300 DPI, and you will *still* have a high quality, professionally printable image—because, in most cases, a 5000 pixel image will most definitely have enough data to support a good print. It’s the DATA, not the DPI, you must ultimately be concerned about. So you can have the very same image–one in a lower DPI, one in a higher DPI, that will render the same result.

MAKING AN IMAGE BIGGER…CAN’T I JUST CHANGE THE NUMBERS?

Lots of artists ask me if they can’t just “change the size” or “increase the DPI” in their art program, like Photoshop, with a small, data-challenged image, to make it bigger. No, you can’t. When you do that, the computer does something called “interpolation”, which means “making stuff up from nothing.” The data isn’t there, so it’s “faked” by the computer software, and the result will never begin to match the original as far as detail. Now, this isn’t to say that professional enlargement programs like Genuine Fractal or Alien Skin Blowup can’t do a good job. Most enlargement programs work as plugins to your main art program, like Photoshop or Paintshop Pro. They can work wonders–but not miracles. That’s why digital artists have a definite edge over the traditional canvas artist—they are designing digitally, which is the format the printer is going to read, and nothing will come between that process and the printing process. You have one step–as opposed to two or three steps–between the image and the printer.

Now, conversely, let’s say you have a 56 kilobyte image. It will not matter what the DPI number is—you still have an image that is not usable for anything except web use. You will not be able to ever get a decent print from it.  There simply isn’t enough data to support high quality printing.

DIGITAL VERSUS TRADITIONAL ART

Digital artists have a definite edge when it comes to printing their work–a huge edge. Why? They can initiate their design in very high resolution, very large and rich in data, or start with a very large “digital canvas.” The image can show 72 DPI or 300 DPI—but that is moot. The important thing is, the image was created starting with a very large digital canvas: such as, say, 4500 pixels by 4500 pixels. I, for example, start my design using a digital “canvas” of about 6000 pixels. They are guaranteed superior printing results, since printing and digital art are a marriage made in heaven. Now, a painter of canvas has more challenges. They have to go through a few processes—each of which will degrade the image–to get it in digital format. They either have to scan or photograph their image first, which, in itself, will result in varying losses of data and detail. That’s an added step, but an important one, in the printing. So the scan must be as high resolution as possible–like 1200 DPI and up–to ensure the image loss of quality will be minimal. See this post to read more about how to get the most from your digital scans.

MONITOR CALIBRATION: THE HOLY GRAIL OF COLOR MANAGEMENT.

Many professional printers have spent thousands on monitor calibration software for their color management, but I have found that Adobe Gamma (automatically comes with Photoshop) works fine for me. If I know what an image is supposed to look like when printed, I simply use Adobe Gamma to calibrate my monitor to “match” what I know the images are supposed to look like, and coordinate the colors on my monitor. Having printed my work, and the work of other artists, professionally for almost six years, I’m confident in saying that programs like Adobe Gamma or Power Strip will do the job just fine.

HOW MANY PIXELS TO AN INCH IN 300 DPI?

If you’re printing your work, remember that there is 300 x 300 pixels to every inch you want to print in 300 DPI. In other words, a 12″ x 12″ print must from an image that is 3660 pixels by 3600 pixels.

COLOR PROFILES

Don’t forget to embed a color profile in your image. In Photoshop, you can do this by going to edit >> assign profile. The standard color profile is SrGB (if printing in RGB) or Adobe 1998, which is a bit more color-rich. You may choose these options from the drop-down menu that comes up when you click “assign color profile.” Resave the image once you’ve embedded your color profile.

But what about CMYK? CMYK (profile: US Web-Coated SWOP V2) is an older, more universal printing mode most prevalent when using a professional printer for large print runs. Thankfully, more and more printers are switching to (the vastly superior) RGB mode. But you may find that you have to deal with CMYK printing. CMYK colors are washed out, flat, and less luminescent and vibrant than RGB. In fact, CMYK compromises reds, decreasing their richness and turning them an orange tone. In addition, there is a very specific way to achieve CMYK perfect black and, if you don’t assign 40 to C, zero to M, zero to Y and 100 to K, you’ll end up with a very washed-out grayish black. Therefore, if you are switching between modes (CMYK to RGB or visa-versa) bring your image into Photoshop and play with the color until the image best reflects the way you want it to print.

WATCH OUT FOR TEXT

If you’re printing a piece of art that has text on it, remember you run the risk of getting your text chopped off because bleed images will be cropped by your printer. To avoid this disaster, make sure your text is at least 1/2″ inside the border.

That should do it for now. If you have any questions about getting the best print results, feel free to post here.

Why I love (and highly recommend) Irfanview.

Every time I use Irfanview I discover some other little magical power-packed feature that comes in handy.  Besides being able to view all your images in the way you like them, it does a lot more than just resave and resize in different formats. If you install of Irfanview’s free plugins, this little, non-bloated program packs a huge punch and can help you with very sophisticated requirements. And I mean more than viewing slideshows, although it can do that, too.

There are a lot of image viewers out there, such as the popular (and commercialware) ACDSee, but none of them can hold a candle to Irfanview.

With Irfanview, you can implement sophisticated batch processes such as twain processing (scanner, camera);  mass image renaming, batch resizing, batch image type, batch processed rotating, batch saturation changing,  batch DPI, batch sharpening, brightness, contrast, color balance, text overlay, color depth and RGB assigning, and more. You can add and strip EXIF data, add EXIF comments, take screenshots, assign desktop wallpaper. It’s also a multi-media player–and a damn good one that can handle anything you toss at it.

Irfanview is not a big bloaty program, and its interface is simple and intuitive.

Irfanview is constantly upgrading and improving their fabulous software, and it still remains (amazingly) free. Just make sure you download all the plugins so that you get all the benefits of Irfanview. I love it, I couldn’t work without  it, and am grateful to the folks at Irfanview for continuing to make it available for free. Download it, you’ll love it.

Click on image to see bigger screenshot.

Should artists use reps to sell their work?

Should artists use reps to sell their work? Only if they like the idea of watching their money swirl and disappear down the commode.

When my husband and I opened Color Bakery almost six years ago, one of our main concerns was getting our products (custom decorative tiles, home decor accents, art gifts, art wearables) into stores–i.e., wholesaling. Yes, we had a website, but was it enough? It was a new site, we hadn’t been online long enough to properly promote it, so we worried that not very many people would find us. At the time, we assumed that most of our sales would ultimately come from bulk purchases from resellers–not consumers. We envisioned all different kinds of stores buying from us: art stores, art galleries, gift shops, flower shops, home decor furnishings, etc. Reselling to these stores, we reasoned, was where we would make the bulk of our income. Not from the end buyer/consumer. So we proceeded with those priorities in mind.

We did our homework, and researched our options carefully before diving in to the rep world.  We had a plan. First, we created two pricing tiers: one for retail, one for wholesale. We joined a large rep member organization that specialized in matching rep organizations with manufacturers (artists can be included with the manufacturer category). This organization required a hefty annual fee, but in return, they provided us with a huge list of possible rep matches for our product line. Some listings they provided were individual reps (what they call “road reps”), but most were corporate entities with large staffs and fancy showrooms in all major US cities. Since we had a relatively large and diverse product line, and was able to customize over fifty art images with over one hundred products, we were confident that our line was deep and versatile enough to attract these “creme de la creme” rep firms. Most of these firms, we heard, were very judicious about who they took on. The product line, we were told, had to be exceptional for the best of these companies to even consider representing us. A little nervous about how we would rate with these big firms, we were nonetheless confident because the website was already beginning to generate some very nice sales, and word was rapidly spreading about us. The feedback we were getting online was wonderful, and we had great hopes for the reps.

We contacted the reps we felt were the best match for us, and spent hundreds–probably, more likely, thousands–of dollars in the manufacture of product samples they demanded. I designed a beautiful catalog and we had it professionally printed. Any kind of collateral promo material I was able to think of—sales sheets, price list, order form, business card, POP displays, etc–I designed and redesigned until I was satisfied they employed a mix of easy utility and eye candy. I even made a video slideshow of our products. Along with expensive samples–like glass tiles–we sent some pretty impressive packages out to these rep groups, so they would agree to take us on. And it paid off. They responded with great enthusiasm and complimented us on our artwork, unusual product line and customization capabilities. We were going to do great things, they assured us, because the product line was as beautiful as it was unusual.

We were quickly signed up by the top gift reps in the country. They demanded twenty percent off the wholesale (which left very little profit for us, but we hoped to make it up in bulk sales as well as name recognition potential), as well as huge showroom and show fees. Talking about show fees: having a rep group represent us at gift show at the Javits Center in New York City–along with all their other principals’ products–was over a thousand dollars, for example. And that didn’t include the cost of manufacturing and shipping product both ways, nor did it include breakage. It was worth the huge expense, my husband and I reasoned, so we wrote the checks and made sure they had everything they asked for.

Months went by. They sold next to nothing.

My husband and I scratched our heads. Were we doing something wrong? Or worse, was our line substandard? Was my art lousy? We talked about it candidly. If the internet sales was any indication, the answer to those questions was a resounding “no.” Our retail sales were booming. And growing. So what went wrong?

The reps took very little to no time to learn the line, and the many possibilities that go hand-in-hand with our kind of unprecedented (and singular) customization. The abysmal sales from the reps confounded us, and not just because our website was bringing in a substantial amount of orders from enthused customers around the globe. It was the downright lazy mentality of the many reps. Please let me explain: there’s pretty much nothing we can’t print on our products–whether it’s my own original art or that of the masters like Van Gogh or Klimt. Further, we can even customize an exclusive product line for any given store. For example, we can custom manufacture a beautiful photo of a Martha’s Vineyard scene, do a lovely font treatment and print it on any of our products.  Tourist gift shops in Cape Cod, for example, would actually be able to design their own product line to their own personal specifications. To our utter amazement, the possibilities—a color-soaked dreamscape on ceramic tile, a Klimt on a glass cutting board, a vintage art pastiche on a keyhook, an Alphonse Mucha jewelry box–eluded them. Instead, the sales reps wanted two things: a very low price point (no more than ten or fifteen dollars wholesale, even if the store they called on sold Faberge Eggs) and they wanted to plop the product down on the counter without any explanations or discussion of possibilities or options. We wondered if they even took the time to look at what we did or visit our website. They certainly never asked us meaningful questions about our capabilities or special services. All they cared about was low price points and paper sales sheets for each item so they wouldn’t have to explain anything to the store owner. In time, we began to understand that these were signs of a much bigger problem.

The reps themselves seemed to live in an altogether different time, a time before the internet existed. For example, the idea of showing a video slideshow to a customer instead of the paper brochures to which they were married terrifed them. Carrying a laptop instead of a brochure was just as alien to them as emailing, instead of faxing, their orders. It was like Maxwell Smart showing up on the set of Seinfeld.  In time, I learned the internet was an anathema to them; they hated it, feared it, and avoided it with universal vigilance.

Long gone are the days when artists, small manufacturers and crafters badly needed reps to get their name out to a large-scale audience. In their glory days, reps alone held the keys to big visibility and the potential for lucrative sales because there was no other way for the artist to garner recognition on their own. The internet has changed all that by handing the back the power where it belongs–to the artists themselves. Because this power dynamic has changed, today’s reps are like Steve McQueen in “The Blob”, frantically running from an unstoppable force which very few try to harness. Trade show attendance shrinks dramatically every year; store owners can find new products by Googling; artists can reach millions with their website. Who, then, needs reps? Theirs is an industry whose time has come and gone. They are dinosaurs sucking in their last gasp of oxygen; they are standing in front of a tidal wave with three big W’s emblazoned on its crest. Few of the rep groups we dealt with had their own ‘net presence; and, instead of using our own web site as a the sales tool it might have been, they avoided it like a rabbi at a luau.

This is not to say that, somewhere, there are rep firms that do well for those they represent. Perhaps there are. This is also not to say that there are zero benefits to hitching one’s wagon to a rep group. There may be exceptions to every rule, and perhaps the home decor/gift industry is unique. However, from my own experience as well as the experience of other artists and small manufacturers who experienced similar experiences we did, reps today will sign you up, tell you how wonderful your product line is, and suck you out of every dollar they can get before you catch on. The truth of it is, they will take their fees and free product without ever intending to take your line around and sell it. Their real goal is to grab as much as they can, hold onto you for six months to a year, at which time they will turn you over when new, unwitting replacements are in place. We know this to be true, we know it wasn’t just us because we’ve spoken to dozens of other artists and manufacturers who had the same exact experience we did. By the time you pay for samples, showroom fees, show fees, marketing materials, etc., you’ll be lucky if you break even and don’t declare bankruptcy. Misrepresentation–rather, let’s call it for what it is–lying– is the only way reps can stay in business in the age of of the internet.

You may wonder if we discontinued wholesaling. Not at all. In fact, we sell to many stores across the country, and some in Europe, too. They find us online. Every day.

Tips for making good high resolution scans

If you want to scan either your own personal art and digitize it for printing, or want to scan/enlarge vintage art for digitizing and/or printing, here are some tips you may find helpful.

First: if there is any digital retouching to be done, do it before you scan–not after. Save the digital file in .tif, not .jpg format, and print it out on the very best printer you have available–preferably laser as opposed to inkjet. (If you are scanning from a physical piece of paper, then obviously this does not apply).

If you only have an inket printer, make sure you print it on matte, not glossy, paper. Go into your printer preferences (rightclick your printer in your control panel) and set the printer on its highest settings (ie resolution).

Now, I have heard it said that when you get into the high range DPI arena, that there is no difference between 1200 DPI and, say, 3600 DPI. Bah-lone-y. Don’t believe it, because it’s simply not true. I have done extensive testing and comparison between the various resolutions, and there is indeed a marked difference between a 1200 DPI and 3600 DPI scan.

If you are scanning a relatively small image (postcard size) as opposed to a larger image (8.5 x 11 size), then you’re going to need every extra pixel you can grab–so go as high resolution as you can. If your computer has the RAM to handle it, scan those small images at about 3600 DPI, or, at the very least, 2400 DPI.

If your scanner has a relatively sophisticated interface, try and configure it if you can by setting the filters to minimize noise, and set the levels (darkness and lightness) by sliding the bar to where the image has the best contrast level. If your TWAIN interface is old or doesn’t offer any filtering, try some of these free TWAIN downloads.

Make sure your scanner’s glass is clean with every use; I use lens cleaner pads. You can also use a soft rag with alcohol. Make sure your print is as even/straight as you can make it–the last thing you want to do is fuss with rotating it around in Photoshop, so avoid that if you can.

After your scan is finished, open it in Photoshop. Depending on the amount of RAM your computer can handle, this can take anywhere from a couple of seconds to many minutes. (To increase the amount of RAM assigned to Photoshop, go to your edit > preferences panel. Also make sure you have at least one scratch disk assigned to Photoshop, ie, a drive other than “C” upon which Photoshop can write temporary data. (I have five scratch disk drives, but most people probably won’t need that many!) This will help speed up Photoshop during heavy duty RAM-sucking jobs. To add a scratch disk, go to edit > preferences > performance, locate the drive you want to use a as a scratch disk and assign it there.)

Look at your scan in 1:1 size. You will see dots, or a moire pattern. There are a couple of ways to get rid of this. I do two things. First, I go to filter > noise > median and adjust the sliding bar until the moire, or dots, blur or dissapate to my satisfaction. Every image will be different, but for extremely large scans I find “5″ a good median number. For added power, however, I use a nifty noise reduction program aptly called “Neat Image.” You can use Neat Image as a standalone software or as a Photoshop plugin.

Don’t forget to embed a color profile in your image. Most popular is sRGB, which is the standard color profile. I use Adobe 1998, which does tend to pump the color up slightly. Go to edit > assign profile in Photoshop. Resave.

Whatever you do, make sure you save your scan in .tiff or .psd format–never .jpg. Jpgs are for web use and quick loading; to prevent loss of data, it is not the proper format in which to save high resolution files. Remember, every time you open and re-save your .jpg file, you lose data. Every time. So make sure you only use .jpg for emailing, web use, etc.

Save your original, untouched scan on a DVD disc.

Questions? Problems? Let me know!