Tips For Photographing Your Handwriting

Tips For Photographing Your Handwriting

There are several details to pay attention to while you're shooting to ensure you end up with a clear image that can be easily duplicated during production.


THE SETUP

Taking your pictures in the right location will help you quickly get a bright, clear photo.  Daylight is best! Lay your paper near a window, out of direct sunlight. Afternoon light is more forgiving than morning light.

The perfect place to photograph. Near a window, with indirect sunlight.

Avoid using lamp or fluorescent light. This creates harsh shadows on the paper.


LIGHT AND SHADOWS

Be cautious of the darkness you or nearby fixtures may cast onto the image while you shoot. Highly shadowed images require more time to clean up on our end and can cause small details in the handwriting to get lost.

Perfect! Free of shadows. 

Avoid casting extreme shadows onto your handwriting.


ANGLES

Take your picture from directly above. Shooting from the side will distort the handwriting, tapering it. Letters in the background will be much smaller than those in the foreground.

I clean up letter distortion as much as possible, but extremely angled images may translate to the final piece.

Perfect! Shot straight down. 

Avoid taking your picture from the side or at an extreme angle.


STABILITY

Focus your camera and keep your hands steady. If necessary, prop your elbows on a stack of books for stability while shooting. Shaky images lose detail and are difficult to duplicate accurately.

Perfect! Steady and in focus.


Avoid shaky, out-of-focus images.


RESOLUTION AND FILE TYPES

A high-resolution image (around 300 PPI) will create the most accurate finished product. If you do not know what resolution photo your camera is producing that's okay. Follow the advice above and if your phone or tablet asks while attaching to the order, select the largest possible image size.


JPG, PNG, PDF, DOC are all acceptable files to attach to your order. If you would like to send a PSD or AI file, please send them directly to Hello@ScriptedJewelry.com.

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