Scanner Art

Claire Gillo reveals her creative top tips and tricks for making a digital photographic image using a flatbed scanner

- Claire Gillo

With those long winter months in sight and the weather miserable and cold more often than not, now is the time to hibernate indoors. In the winter season a great project to immerse yourself in is scanner art. Producing a photographic image without the use of a camera is a creative and fun thing to do. It requires a little bit of patience and consideration in the initial set-up and ideas stage, but once these are in place it’s plain sailing from then on.

It goes without saying but to try this at home you will need a computer and a flatbed scanner. It doesn’t have to be an expensive scanner to get good results. We’ve tried this technique on a variety of models, and price doesn’t really come into it. Each scanner produces results in its own unique way. If you have access to a few scanners take some time to experiment and see which one gives you the result you prefer.