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| Photographed, light tweaking |
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| Scanned, no tweaking |
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| Scanned with black paper behind the page, minimal tweaking |
This is often a problem for those of us who share our work--how to get a decent image without too much tweaking! Photographing is often fastest, for me...that's the top image, which would require more tweaking to get rid of the gray/blue cast, (I did some, but still some tint there...)
The middle image is a straight scan--my paper's rather thin, and the writing on the back side showed right up in the scan, though not in the photo.
And finally, my brilliant husband suggested putting a piece of BLACK paper behind the page--that's what you see in the third scan. It required only a tiny bit of tweaking, and I'm pretty happy with it! It's clean and crisp...
I use Photoshop Elements for more serious tweaking, but for sharing online I often use Picasa 3, a free program I downloaded from the net. It's fast and plenty powerful enough for most uses. I can resize a bunch of images at once, too...good for those with limited time and not a lot of tech skills!
Oh, yes, and this little white-throated sparrow is part of a demo for my upcoming ink & watercolor mini-class!
Black paper, ha? I'll try that! :) Thanks, Kate and Joseph! :)
ReplyDeleteI tried white, and the reverse page still showed through...the black fixed everything but the slight gray shadow where the paper buckled a wee bit. I used the erase tool on that and voila, done!
DeleteOh, VERY helpful! Thank you!! I didn't know there was any way you could resize multiple images at the same time; I will definitely look into using Picasa 3. I have Photoshop Elements and use it all the time for resizing, but it's more powerful a program than I need, and I am no techno whiz, so it often baffles me if I try to do anything I'm not used to doing.
ReplyDeleteI do it by telling it to export to another folder and it automatically reduces the size. Quick-fast! (Actually you can batch edit in Photoshop Elements, too, but it is really faster to use Picasa.)
DeleteBlack Paper! I wouldn't have thought that would work. Having spent over 20 years as a graphic designer, I use Photoshop C3. My scanner is an Epson. But I still end up "tweaking" as you say. I'll have to try the black paper approach! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteLet me know how it works for you! I was amazed...
DeleteI do like the darker darks in the top photo. Thinking I need a new camera. Love the little bird and your lettering!
ReplyDeletewow Kate, this is amazing. I generally photograph my images, hardly ever scan them, and am guilty of the gray/blue cast, but that's definitely a great suggestion.
ReplyDeleteThat might work well for botanical art also - what scanner do you use Cathy? We tend to work in larger sizes so need an A3 scanner ...
ReplyDeleteVicki Lee, I've got an Epson Artisan 810, but I'm not entirely satisfied with it. The color is not as accurate as my simple old HP that died! It IS multipurpose, maybe we're asking too much of it.
DeleteThank you both! Katherine Tyrrell recently posted about getting rid of the blue cast in photos, but unfortunately I can't remember where it was. Perhaps she linked on her blog, Making a Mark.
ReplyDeletePlease tell your husband he is brilliant! .... and thank him!
ReplyDeleteI did, Elva! Both those things!
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