3 Use a scanner to make creative images
Is there a camera in your home you didn’t know you had? Simeon Meinema shows how the scanner you bought to digitise paperwork can be put to more creative uses
As we all know from pinhole photography, there are alternatives to using conventional cameras to produce images. And you may just have one of them in your house. Likely to be lurking in a corner of your office or study, or even packed away in your loft, is a piece of equipment that can produce distinctive digital images. Your flatbed scanner would have been purchased for digitising photographs and documents, but did you know that it will also make a great camera?
The unique feature of a scanner is its minuscule depth of field: it is literally designed to have a focal length that’s the width of a piece of paper. Used creatively, though, a scanner will produce good results from many types of composition.