Scanning Help

[Angel_Poneros]

I'm trying to compile a folder in my computer/online sketchbook, and I had a few questions. I'm not worried about fixing my sketches up for digital coloring or lineart because that's not my area. What I need to know is what is the best setting to scan at to get the detail of my drawings? (I'm using an Epson Stylus CX3810) I kind of want them to be on almost completely white backgrounds, but when I scan the pictures they have a grey background, how can I fix this so I have the same sketch, but on a light or almost white background?

Thank you in advance and I hope my question is clear. :bashful:

[pomkiwi]

Hrm, difficult one, have you tried putting a sheet of white paper behind the image? I have no idea if that would work but it popped into my mind as I was reading your post. You can edit the grey if you have editing software, I would imagine it's a consistent grey as it's scanned?

[figure2]

Most scanners, no matter how good they are rarely produce perfect results. The first thing you may want to do is to make sure you are using the advanced controls in the scanner's control panel where you can control things like brightness & contrast. Even with that, you will still have to make slight corrections to your scans.

Here is a simple correction method for black & white drawings using a very simple example. As you can see in the example, the background is too gray and while not immediately apparent, the darks are not pure black:

http://www.hannon-illustration.com/artShow/step1.jpg


Open the Curves window (Image menu --> Adjustment --> Curves) and look down at the lower right corner where there are 3 eye dropper tools. The white & black eye droppers are what you will use (You can also use Levels for this process. Which one you choose just comes down to personal preference):

http://www.hannon-illustration.com/artShow/curves.jpg


Click on the white eye dropper tool in the Curves window then click in the background area in your scan that you want to be white. Next select the black eye dropper tool and look for an area of your drawing that should be pure black and click on that spot:

http://www.hannon-illustration.com/artShow/step2.jpg


The results:

http://www.hannon-illustration.com/artShow/step3.jpg


This may require a couple trys to get the exact results you want but it's a nice quick fix.