Posted by Judy S on January 02, 1999 at 11:13:05:
In Reply to: Re: Scanning & fading of ukiyo-e posted by John Fiorillo on January 02, 1999 at 02:45:05:
: An alternative, which I use, is to obtain a high quality photograph or slide transparency, and then use the photo or slide to scan. If you have to redo the scan, at least you’re not using the original print again. Another alternative is to capture an image with a digital camera, which would then be available for software manipulation (such as in Photoshop) and ultimately for use on the internet.
Wow, what a good point! However, let me point out that in fact with a good scanner you should only need to subject the print to bright light twice: once for the preview scan, which allows you to do only minimal manipulation (select the area to be included in the final scan, sharpen or blur a bit). Then you run the final scan, which gives you the picture (like the digital photo Mr. Fiorillo recommends) which you subject to further changes (size, format, etc.). Theoretically after this second pass you could remove the print from the scanner--you won't need it again. A good precaution might be to begin with "Save" and then follow up immediately with "save as" with a second name, so that if you want to recover the original scan you will have a copy of it.
The one thing that would require more scanning (as I know to my sorrow with slippery little photos) is placing the print on the scanner crooked, so that the first scan gives an incorrectly aligned image. Even this could be corrected in the software (by using "rotate" to straighten it out, and then cropping along the image edges, but the obvious impulse is to open the scanner, realigh the picture, and re-scan it.
Now I am thinking--every time one buys a print based on a scan, that print itself has been scanned. Hmmm.
Judy S.