So, I uploaded this pencil drawing of a pocketwatch, without a background a long time ago, using a scanner. And at the time, I thought it looked fine.

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But then I took a picture of it at school with a professional camera, lights and everything.

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And now, there is something about the second one that I love much more than the first. Now you can see the wrinkles, marks, and general wear and tear, but this somehow makes it look so much better. I think for one there is no background that isn't getting affected by this look. Combined with the strong light on the left that makes it look really dark on the right. Now, it really looks like the pocketwatch is kind of floating even though there are shadows on an invisible surface.

And now the scanned image looks so bland, and this kind of proves that the colors the scanner picks up are so different than what the camera gets. Just like what a printer does, the scanner combines colors and kind of gets them wrong so that it looks like black has a bluish tint.

So, what do you think about the difference between these two images? Am I just crazy, or does the second one look better? When else do you like the wrinkles and wear in the paper having an effect on your work? Which do you prefer: camera, scanner, or another method? Does one method make some images look better, but other images turn out worse?

I prefer the picture. It's probably closer to what you really see right?

I take my pictures in the sunlight, but I still have to work on the contrast sometimes (because I can't wait for a sunny day )

I use a digital camera for 95% of my work in capturing images. Scanners don't provide true light and I always have to tweak my image a lot to reach something that is similar to the actual drawing.

Also, if I do large scale work, scanners are limiting in size capability while a camera isn't. I can take my art work to natural light and obtain true colours and shading with a camera.

Alright thanks, I used to think that the scanner would be able to pick up more detail since its more up close, but after I used the camera at school so many times, it still picked up more detail even from far away. I guess if you wanted to stay true to the actual work it would be good to go with sunlight but sometimes the image calls for contrast which requires a strong light shining on it.