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Best method to achieve exact digital replica of a pattern using photoshop


AndrewInJensenBeach

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Hello everyone,
....brand new to this forum and this is my first post.
My wife sews and she asked if I could make digital copies of some of her sewing patterns. At first I thought this would be pretty simple, but after some trial and error, I've found that, for me, it's more of a challenge than I thought it would be. Before I post my methods so far, I'll just say that for what she wants to do, this has to be a very exact match of the original pattern.

I started with a flat bed scanner (regular size, not large format).... the problem is that some of the pattern pieces are quite large (say 22" x 42") and this requires many scans for one pattern piece, which must then be tiled together in Photoshop. The results were pretty good, especially with the Automate>>Photomerge function. The problem is it is very time consuming. So I thought I could try to do it with a camera,,, shoot it at a high rez and bring that into photoshop. My first tests were a bit off (probably 5 or 8%) .....so I guessed that it may be that the lens I am using is too wide for what I'm trying to do (Nikkor 16-35mm) and maybe that is why it is off. I reshot with a Nikkor 24-85mm and set the zoom to 50mm .....thinking this may have the least distortion in the range. I've not yet done my testing with these new shots ....I wanted to post to a forum first and ask what the best method to proceed would be.

I had the idea that to get this to work right, the trick may lie in setting the canvas size correctly.... but I want to ask if there is a better way, or if I am overlooking anything. My idea is to set the canvas size to 1" (on all sides) larger than the widest points of the pattern and set the dpi to 300 ....then, I guess, to bring the image in over that canvas and scale it up or down until it fits. Am I in the right neighborhood with that thinking, or is there a better way? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Best, Andrew

PS If there is information that I can provide to help the troubleshooting process, just let me know and I'll do my best to answer that.

P.S.S. I think the best solution would be a large format roll scanner... but they are $2K and up,, so I want to see if I can make it work with my cameras and photoshop
 
Hi @AndrewInJensenBeach

I have recently answered a related question about getting 1:1 accurate measurements when taking pictures (though that was on a smaller scale)

It was not clear if the sewing patterns already had a rid or not (I assume not).

A couple quick answers for the path your are on.
- Taking one image instead of doing Photomerge is easier and less error prone so good choice
- Having the camera exactly line up with the plane of the sewing pattern is important to reduce distortion
- If you shoot in raw and use ACR, Under the Optics panel, you turn on "Use Profile Corrections" and it will apply corrections for you particular lens to take out the distortions. Those profiles are actually based on photographing a grid and making adjustments so the grid comes out with straight vertical and horizontal lines.
- What may help in addition is to use something similar to the rotary cutting surface in the link provided:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/746845...c_type=cs&ref=pla_similar_listing_top-5&frs=1

If the sewing patterns are translucent, it make suffice to put this surface behind the pattern
If the grid is not desired in the final product, you can put your camera on a tripod or copy stand and first take a picture of the grid, and then take a second picture (with same camera settings on the tripod in the same position) and you can use one image in one Photoshop Layer and the other image in another Photoshop Layer. This would provide the measure scale for confirmation for for inclusion in the final image if desired. If there were remaining distortion, the grid would provide the guideline on how the image needs to be adjusted to make it accurate for measurements.

Just some quick ideas on how to get a more accurate end result.

This may be overkill if you are doing it for a couple patterns and never again. It is more worthwhile if there is a reasonable number of patterns now or more in the future.
The cost is a lot less that a very large scanner.
Hope this gives you some ideas to consider.
John Wheeler
 

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