Scanning
The scanning process depends on the
use of the digital image,
it can be either for printing
or for the web. Since
the image pixels on a computer screen are bigger than
the image pixels on a printer, this means that images
may look good on a screen but worse when printed.
Scan with the exact resolution of your audience's
monitor in mind. But if you want to scan that same
image and print it out on a color printer, then it's
worth scanning at a higher resolution, maybe something
around 200 to 300 dpi.
When you first scan an image, your best bet is to
start with a low resolution setting and work your
way up. For computers, images scanned at 72 to 100
DPI will look fine. For printing on a color inkjet,
start at 200 DPI and work your way up. Your scanning
software should give you a box where you can enter
a specific DPI setting.
The next important setting you will make is the "output
type", which describes what type of image
you're scanning. These settings are pretty intuitive,
and you will find that "black
and white photograph" and "best
color photograph" will be the best choice
for most of your prints.
A preview screen in the
scanner application will show you how the image looks.
Once the image is situated correctly, simply press
the scan button and wait for the sensors to do their
work. Depending on the resolution setting, a scan
will usually take anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds.
Most scanner software will let you adjust
the color, contrast, and other aspects of your
image while scanning. If you have photoshop program,
don't bother adjusting these elements with the scanner
software. Graphics editing apps give you more control
over the process and generally produce better, clearer
results.
After you scan an image, you need to decide how to
save it in any format
from BMP to JPEG to TIFF. These formats break down
into two basic groups:
Compressed and uncompressed
("lossless" in graphics jargon). When you
save a file in a uncompressed format — TIFF,
BMP, PCX — it won't discard any of the data
during the encoding. The advantage here is that you
retain as much information as possible about the scanned
image, and can compress it later.
JPEG and GIF are the
two most widely used formats used for web. If an image
is 4 MB to begin with, JPEG will compress it to around
50 KB with only minimal loss in quality.
Usually save files in BMP or TIFF and then import
them into Photoshop. From there, you can manipulate
the image using the sharpen filters, contrast, image
sizing, touch-up, color balance, etc. When you have
the image all spiffed up, go to the save menu and
choose the format you want to save it with.
With black and white images, the best setting to
use is grayscale, also
called "black and white photo.
Use Photoshop adjustment tools
to fix the contrast. In the "Image: Adjust:
Levels" menu, you can drag the arrow across until
you get the contrast you like, ext adjustment fix
the focus of the picture using the "unsharp mask"
in the "Filter/Sharpen" menu. Both of these
edits make the picture clearer and sharper. use the
cropping tool to frame the image cutting off undesired
areas. Then resize your object before saving it as
a jpeg or saving it for web a feature by photoshop
that optimizes images for web with very low file size.
When you've got all your photos spiffed up and organized,
it will be even easier to show them off: on your machine,
via email, on a website, or by printing them on a
photo printer.
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