Realistic eraser

[jvgig]

What is the best way to touch up scanned pencil/charcoal sketches? I seem to always manage to get a few smudges during the scanning process so I need to get rid of them without others noticing.

Thanks

[AdamR]

Clone tool? For instance if you have smudges or fingerprints on the side of the paper you could either try to erase it to the best of your ability physically then rescan, or just clone over it in Photoshop.

If you've got a good camera and a bright view of the sun you could also try photographing it.

[VincentKlijn]

Increase contrast with a curve might also work. You could even limit input values to say 120 - 130. This might leave you with lines without any anti-aliasing though, but a simple 1 or 2 px gaussian blur will solve that.