One problem I often see posted about is scanning knives and getting good results. Some of you are old hands at it and have no problems getting beautiful scans of your knives, but many of the folks here are having trouble. So, here's some general information that may help out those of you who are having problems.
Firstly, I always scan knives (or any three dimensional object) by laying the knife directly on the glass of the scanner and covering it with a dark, somewhat opaque cloth (a dark sweatshirt works quite well) and turning off the lights in the room. If you find this causes a lot of shadow in the image, try tucking the cloth in around the knife. Using only the lid of the scanner doesn't make for a good light seal. And light leaking into the scan from outside sources can destroy the quality of the image, making it appear "washed out" or "blurry."
Also, I usually scan at 300dpi. It takes a little longer, but the results are usually worth it. Not to mention, when you sharpen the image up in your image-editing software, there's less work for the software to do and therefore less chance of it making the image look "rough."
After scanning, you're very likely going to want to bring the size of the image down. Doing this often results in slight blurring of the image, so you'll also want to sharpen it up after sizing. Depending upon the software you're using, the default settings on the "sharpen" feature may work perfectly. But if not, look for an option that reads "Sharpen hard edges only" or something similar and try using that.
Chances are you'll have to play around with the settings on your software to get the desired effect. Just remember to hit the "Undo" button (if there's no button, you should find it under the "edit" menu) to get back to the original before trying something different.
Comments from others that have had good luck with scanning knives are more than welcome in this thread. Particularly software-specific tips.
Here's a link to a pic I've scanned using the exact process outlined above:
www.workingwebdesign.com/knives
Hope this helps.
Regards -- Shades
Firstly, I always scan knives (or any three dimensional object) by laying the knife directly on the glass of the scanner and covering it with a dark, somewhat opaque cloth (a dark sweatshirt works quite well) and turning off the lights in the room. If you find this causes a lot of shadow in the image, try tucking the cloth in around the knife. Using only the lid of the scanner doesn't make for a good light seal. And light leaking into the scan from outside sources can destroy the quality of the image, making it appear "washed out" or "blurry."
Also, I usually scan at 300dpi. It takes a little longer, but the results are usually worth it. Not to mention, when you sharpen the image up in your image-editing software, there's less work for the software to do and therefore less chance of it making the image look "rough."
After scanning, you're very likely going to want to bring the size of the image down. Doing this often results in slight blurring of the image, so you'll also want to sharpen it up after sizing. Depending upon the software you're using, the default settings on the "sharpen" feature may work perfectly. But if not, look for an option that reads "Sharpen hard edges only" or something similar and try using that.
Chances are you'll have to play around with the settings on your software to get the desired effect. Just remember to hit the "Undo" button (if there's no button, you should find it under the "edit" menu) to get back to the original before trying something different.
Comments from others that have had good luck with scanning knives are more than welcome in this thread. Particularly software-specific tips.
Here's a link to a pic I've scanned using the exact process outlined above:
www.workingwebdesign.com/knives
Hope this helps.
Regards -- Shades
