Presentation/ Scanning

[Zaxser]

How do I get my scans to look less crappy?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/Zaxser/fhmhjk.jpg

This is post auto levels/ crop. I especially want to get rid of the weird lighting gradient thing while preserving the drawing.

Also:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/Zaxser/dghnsfm.jpg

Scanning in large things is a bitch. Is there anyway to fuse the two pictures?

[Zaxser]

Did I pick the wrong forum for this? I get that it isn't exactly a fine arts question, but I really don't know where I'm supposed to put a post like this, ut this is kind of important if I want to paint digitally.

[chaosrocks]

simple solution >levels slide black right, slide middle toward black, slide white to the left
then used the dodge tool to clean up the white paper

chaos

[arttorney]

On a more primitive level, it kind of looks like the edges of the paper might not be pressed down as firmly against the glass as is the middle. If there is any chance that I am seeing that correctly, you could try to make sure the entire paper is fully pressed to the glass. I don't mean you should crush the scanner with a lot of force. Just be careful about having the paper flat to the glass and also don't have other drawings behind the drawing you are currently scanning because they might be visible to the scanner as ghost images.