Here are 6 Scanning Tips from an Artist that will help you get the best possible scan for your buck. These points will apply to any scan wether the desired output is a fine art print or an instagram.
- Before you scan, clean the scanner bed. This will help cut down image editing later on. There is dust on the scanner bed even if you can’t see it. (Detailed instructions on cleaning the glass here)
- Scan in high resolution. If you plan on printing later on your images should be at least 300 dpi. If you want to print larger than your source material you will need to scan larger than 300 dpi.
- Scan more area than what you need. This leaves some room for error. You’ll be especially happy you did this if you need to rotate the image later on.
- Keep a copy of the original scans so you can revert back if necessary. An extra pro tip would be to keep whatever source material for your scan as well. If there are problems with the scan then you could do a rescan later on.
- Beware of level clipping. Some scanner software is horrible and you have to make sure it doesn’t blow out the highs and lows.
- Don’t have the scanner software do anything fancy if you don’t know what you are doing. There are some settings the scanner understand what type of material it is scanning. These settings are good. There are a lot of other potential adjustments that will actually degrade your image. Real image editing and enhancements should be saved for post production in Photoshop.