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How to scan stuff on a Flatbed Scanner to produce pictures for eNAMEL Gallery Many of us find the idea of digital images confronting and confusing. I know I did, and struggled with the jargon - resolution, dpi, file size, JPG, TIFF, BMP, GIF etbloodycetera. What follows will be as short and unjargonified as I can make it. (grin!) The present generation of inexpensive single-pass scanners are all very clever machines that can produce very good digital pictures of almost anything that is reasonably flat and can be placed on the glass scanner bed. Those of you who have ever scanned the family jewels on a photocopier will grasp the idea, whilst not necessarily wishing to grasp the subject, immediately. So .. find somebody with a single-pass flatbed colour scanner connected to their computer (they should also have some sort of program for manipulating digital images) and make them your best friend. Why single pass? Because the obsolete multiple-pass home-level scanners produce a blurry rainbow halo around your image. Then: 1/ turn the computer and scanner on, open the image-manipulation program (Photoshop, Paintshop, Photoplus etc), acquire the scanner via the commands available in the image manipulation program (e.g for Paintshop Pro 7 click on "File", "Import", "twain" "acquire") and wait until the scanner controller picture comes up on the screen. 2/ place the stuff to be scanned on the scanner bed and cover with a sheet of paper or empty pair of old tastefully-decorated jocks (see note) to exclude outside light. The covering material is not only to exclude external light but also to immobilise the stuff you want to scan, which must not be able to vibrate around on the scanner bed when the scanner head is moving - not just because it'll give you fuzzy pictures but because you can also scratch the glass scanner plate, particularly if the stuff contains stones. * You might want to use clear plastic bubblewrap or your favorite floral tissues over the object, then a sheet of paper with a smallish book or something similar on top of that again to immobilise things. * Don't use clear plastic clingfilm between the stuff and the glass bed. Leaving aside the fact that it's difficult to remove all the air bubbles, the differences in Refractive Index and clarity between the plastic and the glass will ensure a measurable loss of quality in the scanned image. * If the scanner lid will rest easily on the stuff without too much drama, close it - if not hold it securely up out of the way or remove it altogether. You don't want it dropping down onto the stuff and jamming it through the glass plate at some inopportune moment. n.b. the average set of buttocks will be too large, too heavy or both for the scanner - it's best to stick to the more robust type of photocopier for that particular subject. 3/ Go to the computer screen showing the scanner controller ("driver") interface and check that all of the parameters that can be altered - contrast, brightness, colour etc are set to the "default" settings and don't touch them again unless it's absolutely necessary. 4/ Because of the large number of scanners on the market I can't give maker-specific instructions. However: * select scanner type (flatbed) if available. * select scan type (colour) * select the highest quality level (lowest speed) available * select a suitable scanning resolution - we mostly use 300 dpi at 100% - for the purpose of this particular exercise don't use any greater resolution than 300 dpi. In any case regardless of what it is you're scanning it's a waste of time and valuable computer disc space to use anything greater than the Real Optical Resolution of your scanner which is probably 300 or 600 dpi. We'll go into the reasons why that is so in a later article. * do not apply any filters (sharpen, soften etc). Any image manipulation should be done using a dedicated program such as Adobe Photoshop, Paintshop Pro etc. * do not apply any descreening algorithms - in the case of magazine and newspaper pictures, unless you know which particular screen was used on the picture originally (and there are scads of 'em) and that specific screen is available in your particular scanner software (vanishingly unlikely) the best you'll get is a fuzzy 4th rate outcome. A stack of information will have been removed from the image by the scanner software and you will not be able to improve the quality later on using your dedicated image manipulation software. * run a "preview" scan to see where exactly on the scanner bed your stuff is and use the sizeable selection box to define the actual area you want to scan - leave some extra space around the stuff. * click on "scan" or "yee-ha" or whatever the command is for your particular scanner. * a successfully scanned picture will appear in a separate window in the image manipulation program. The picture could be considerably larger than the total screen area so you will need to use the appropriate "view" (not "resize") commands to have a good look at it. * if it looks OK save it immediately to your "Picture Masters/Originals (or whatever it is you call it)" folder/directory without performing any manipulations. Use the "File" "Save as" command to save it as a TIF format file with an appropriate name i.e. "not_buttocks_1.tif" * now save a second copy in TIF format e.g. "not_buttocks_1_test.tif" in your "Working Images" (or whatever ... ) folder/directory and use this copy to work on in the Photomanipulation program. That way, if you stuff it up you can go back to the original and start all over again. * once you have finished tweaking the TIF image (cropping, colour, brightness, contrast etc resizing and resolution setting) save it as "not_buttocks_1_test.tif". * now save another yet another copy in JPG format i.e "not_buttocks_1.jpg" - this is the the one you will use on the internet . * to email the picture to someone using: Microsoft Outlook Express: compose and address your email as usual and click on "insert" and then "file attachment". Find the JPG file you want to attach to the email and either double-click on it or highlight it with the cursor and click "attach". Then click "send". Netscape Messenger: compose and address your email as usual and click on "attach" and then "file". Again, find the JPG file you want to attach to the email and either double-click on it or highlight it with the cursor and click "open". Then click "send". (send a copy to yourself so that you know what it was you actually sent as opposed to what you think you sent). |
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