how to scan drawings properly?

[dark pop toy]

I'm not sure where to post this, but I guess it could be considered a technique =)

Does anyone know how to get rid of the dark borders that occur when you try to scan a drawings from a pad larger than your scanner? You know, those smudges of light leaking in. How do you get rid of them while keeping any part of the drawing consumed by that smudge intact?

i tried brightness/contrast in photoshop, and that helps to lighten the paper back to a bright white, but i lose much of the softer detail

thanks

[Sterlingcrispin]

you could allways try leaving the cover open and putting a bright desk light near the scanner, worth a shot..?

[nafa]

Hopefully the pad would still fit into long edge of your scanner. If so, you should break the scan into 2 or more parts, making sure that parts affected by light-leakage in part-A will be properly scan in part-B etc. These parts can then be stitched back into one in PS. Here is link to the PS steps:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/l/blstitchscan.htm

[Captain Awesome]

it might be annoying to do, but you could make a quick mask in photoshop over the parts where its lighter than the rest and then adjust the levels for those particular parts. The quick mask will make it so it blends with the rest of the lines.