Giclée Reproduction of 2-D Art

The Giclée process involves the production of a digital image from the original art, the editing, and color management of the digital file, and the printing of the digital image onto paper or canvas.

A Point to Consider

It is important to recognize that a Giclée reproduction creates a new piece of art – in a different medium from the original. Our digitizing process captures colors in a manner that differs from the human eye, and our printers create prints with pigments that differ from those used to create the original art. The paper or canvas that we use for printing will be different than that of the original. Our goal is to come as close as possible to reproducing the original — but it will always be a new and different work of art. We have a wide choice of paper and canvas surfaces for you to choose from, and we print with state-of-the-art Epson wide format printers that utilize archival pigment inks rather than dyes. Our goal is perfection …. Nothing less will leave the studio.

Digital Capture cameras for Giclée Reproduction of 2-D Artworks

Digital capture of art on our easel utilizes a pair of 900-watt North Light HID lights and a Better Light Super 8K-HS Digital scanning back. The Cambo 4X5 camera used with the scanning back utilizes Rodenstock APO-Sironar-S lenses that capture all the colors of the visible spectrum without chromatic aberration.

The cost to digitize art is $50. For pieces that are 11×14 inches or less, we can shoot 2 pieces at one time – $50 for 2 images. Art that is greater than 40×60 inches – or that requires polarization is $75.00 per image.

Digital Capture

The first step is to create a digital image of your art. We use a very special camera system from Better Light, made in California and used by the top museums and galleries around the world. We also use the lights provided by them, HID lights that produce little or no heat – safe for art.

We digitize art on an easel – up to 48 X 96 inches. For art that is highly reflective or mounted behind glass, we can polarize the light to reduce reflections. The Better Light system capture “Pure” RGB colors in a unique manner – without the artificial “Bayer Filter” interpolation used by traditional Cameras from Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc. Our system has a resolution equal to 248 megapixels – and we produce images that are about 600 MB each.

Image Editing

The digital images captured by the Better Light scanning back include the capture of a ColorChecker card with calibrated colors that is placed next to the art during the exposure. The image with the art and the color calibration card is adjusted, cropped, and edited with Photoshop in a Mac Pro computer. For large art pieces, a special program, EquaLight is used to adjust the evenness of the illumination across the art.

The computer monitors are routinely color-calibrated so that on-screen images can match the printed images. The images from the Better Light Camera System are captured as RGB images at 16 bit depth – allowing for editing  and printing without artifacts.

Photoshop Editing Stations with four monitors side-by-side at Wilderness Studio

Central to our Photographic services is the ability to edit images with Photoshop and other editing programs. We maintain color-calibrated monitors in our editing suite that allow us to control the accuracy of colors in the prints that we produce.

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Meet our printers – a pair of the latest model of Epson wide-format 44 inch printers. The new Epson SureColor P9000 printers use pigments rather than dyes to produce outstanding prints with spectacular colors, the finest image details, and outstanding archival qualities.

Image Printing

Wilderness Studio has a pair of the new Epson SureColor P9000 44‐inch‐ wide pigment ink printers. The Printers utilize Epson UltraChrome HDX pigment inks that have outstanding archival permanence. The color prints that we produce can last for 200 years without fading.

We print onto a wide variety of media, including Fine Art photographic papers and canvases. The canvas prints are coated with a UV‐blocking coating that helps the canvas print to resist fading, fingerprints, and smudges.

Feel free to contact us at any time.

Please call us to talk about your needs.

Studio Phone:  319 – 624 – 5059

Email:  richard@wilderness-studio.com