Tutorial 9: Improving Scans

Scanning of Slides or Photographs

Even when you tweak the setting on the scanner, you usually end up eith a scan which needs improving -- unless you are using a very expensive piece of equipment. Below is a section of a scan (a slide of a Japanese temple building) made on my Minolta Scan Dual 2 slide scanner. It lacks sparkle and sharpness, and the colour is not quite right.

This is not a problem for Photo-Paint. Below are is a list of adjustments I made to end up with the final result. Each photograph or slide is different and you need to experiment with the settings to get the best results.

Gamma (image - adjust - gamma): use a small amount to increase the lightness of the picture. In this case, a mask was needed because the top 2/3 needed lightening more than the bottom.
Color Hue (image - adjust - color hue): use a small step of e.g. 3; I decreased blue, because my Koachrome slides usually give a slightly blue cast. This way of adjusting works fine when small tweaks are required, but does not work when there is a strong colour cast.
Contrast etc (image - adjust - brightness/contrast/intensity): I start with settings of 2, 3, 6 -- but experimentation is the key.
Sharpen (effects - sharpen): I used both directional sharpen and unsharp mask. Experiment with a medium setting, then choose undo and test a lower setting to find the best one. Take care not to sharpen too much -- it makes the picture look very strange.

Often, a scanned photograph or slide does not need overall adjustments, but tweaking of a specific area. For this, the masking tools are required. The brush masking tools is a wonderful help here.

This page was last reviewed in April 2006.