Scanning on curved surface?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bror Johansson
  • Start date Start date
Bror Johansson said:
In fact, I've already tried the digital camera approach. There is
one very difficult obstacle to conquer: I tried some different
illuminations, but _always_ got some severe reflections. The labels
I'm interested in are partly metallic and highly reflectible.
Click to expand...

If your object is metalic, you probably won't get a good scan off of
it. I've found that foil surfaces in general scan poorly. I get
black or other very dark colors when I try.

In order to kill the reflections, you'll want to put it in a box or
something else with featureless (preferably white) sides. You may be
able to fashion simple with some white sheets suspended from stands.

As for lighting for a digital camera, this is going to be tricky. You
probably won't want to use the camera's flash - the flash will
probably reflect back into your lens, producing glare.

A light source above or below the bottles may work - they'll reflect
away from your lens. Light sources to the side probably won't work -
the cylindrical surface will probably create glare.

Diffuse light sources will probably help here.

Depending on how mirrored the object is, you may have to also
position the camera above/below the object to avoid seeing yourself
reflected in the object. This will then require some photoshop work
to straighten the image out again.

What you want to do doesn't sound easy, unfortunately. Good luck.

-- David
 
David said:
If your object is metalic, you probably won't get a good scan off of
it. I've found that foil surfaces in general scan poorly. I get
black or other very dark colors when I try.
Click to expand...

That's right. What might help is to cover the surface with transparent
paper (the matte kind that they used for engineering drawings before
CAD). That way, I once successfully copied CD labels with the text
printed directly on the refective surface.
 
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