Cleaning scanned images

Bushido Philosopher · Post by **Bushido Philosopher** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:50 pm

Not sure where to put this, but since this is where all the screencaps tend to go, some people here should know a few things about Photoshop.

When scanning an image, it tends to pick up the texture of the paper or something that results in a lot of noise. At low resolutions, this is all right and not noticable, but if say I want to make a wallpaper, I'd need the images clean at high resolutions.

Here's a section of one of my scanned images if that helps.

See all the ugly noise?

I was hoping to get it as good as this guy's:
http://weasl.net/w.php?page=wallpapers
Great place. He knows what he's doing. I would ask him myself but most of the time his e-mail account is full so I can never get to him. (Didn't direct link since it would hammer his server.)

So if anyone knows how to get rid of that without losing too much image quality (like blurring the hec out of it), then please tell. I'd be very grateful.

Hitori · Post by **Hitori** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 1:07 pm

I don't know if this post has anything to do with General Anime.. More like scanning/image quality help for printed images. But I guess I'll drop some of my knowledge in for this.

It all depends on the scanner. In the scanning option, there is usually a de-screen option that would help dramatically remove those half-tone dots that are usually there for press printing. The better the scanner is the better it uses the de-screen option. The noise you're getting is probably from a cheaper low end scanner. When you do scan images, you really need to scan them at a higher resolution like 300 dpi or higher. When I scan images, I usually scan them at 400. The higher the dpi the better image quality you'll get when you resize the image down to 72 dpi for web images. So, when it is scanned at the higher dpi, you'll be doing all your work at that higher resolution. Also, it depends on what photo imaging program you're using. I don't know much about other programs but Adobe Photoshop. When using that program, you can use the Smart Blur filter to help clean up that noise as well. Remember to have the image at that higher dpi when you work on it. You can either try and do the Smart Blur filter over the whole image... or... Select each area separately where the noise is and use the Smart Blur. Smart Blur doesn't do everything for you so you'll have to tweak and adjust your options for the various areas and such. Well, that is all I can really say for now. Hope that helps in some way.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 1:22 pm

I use avisynth to clean up images. First of all load the image into Virutualdub or Premiere or something and export it as an AVI. Now you can process it in avisynth, then load it back through virtualdub and export as an image sequence.

Arctyc · Post by **Arctyc** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 2:28 pm

Pump up the DPI, use descreen, and then run filters on it like JPEG Artifact Removal or Gaussian Blur.

You'll notice that even on the wallpapers of the site you linked, the non-digital art pieces have some artifacts of the paper medium.

bum · Post by **bum** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 3:01 pm

dosnt photoshop have a filter or something to clean it up ?

Hitori · Post by **Hitori** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 3:20 pm

Arctyc wrote:Pump up the DPI, use descreen, and then run filters on it like JPEG Artifact Removal or Gaussian Blur.

Well, you really shouldn't bump up the dpi on anything that's smaller than 150 dpi.. You really shouldn't bump up the dpi of an image just so you can clean it. The artifacts are magnified and harder to get rid of. Unless you like to be masochistic... You should always start with a higher dpi, do the cleaning and lower the dpi. In the end, your images will come out cleaner for web output. Just like they say, Crap in.. Crap out!

Arctyc wrote:You'll notice that even on the wallpapers of the site you linked, the non-digital art pieces have some artifacts of the paper medium.

I know Weasl and that was one of his first Wallpapers..
Check out the date... Wallpaper Added : 08/31/00
And plus, he doesn't like direct linking to the wallpapers...
Here is the image you were talking about: http://www.weasl.net/w.php?wall=cbebop
His newer stuff is very clean because he has perfected his cleaning skills on scanned images.

Bushido Philosopher · Post by **Bushido Philosopher** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 4:13 pm

Well unfortunately this is a scanner that is hooked up to a Mac. Sure its great for graphic stuff, but what they don't tell you is that the options in tehe software are extremely limited. Who's really an expert Mac programmer these days though?... *sigh*.... oh well.

All I have really to work with as far as scanner options is color change, brightness/contrast, and blur/sharpen, that's it. It's one of those HP All-In-One things. The main point is that I don't have that nice de-screen function you were talking about.

But, I think that Smart Blur is really doing something for me. Looks a lot better so I guess I just need to play around with it more.

Thanks everyone. But of course further advice is more than welcome.

XspitfireDemonX · Post by **XspitfireDemonX** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 4:44 pm

1. Heres what I do. Take an image

2. And apply this...
Image>Adjustments>Levels with these settings.

3. In the end I got this...

Hope this helps

XspitfireDemonX · Post by **XspitfireDemonX** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 4:46 pm

No i'm not a pedifile. That was the closest thing around me and I didn't feel like getting up.