[Hidden-tech] Question about Image Quality

[Phil Innes]

Dear Chris H,

Try a good camera with 100 to 120 mm lens to distort less [a portrait lens] - if necessary bounce a flash [from white card or sheet] indirectly onto image from 45 degrees incident to image - or try 2 arc lamps 45 degrees each side, resultant image should be about 3Mb [minimum 2.5Mb as jpeg], then edit image using contrast, and also shadow and highlight controls [on a Mac these are standard in iPhoto] perhaps adjusting exposure to less, and brightness to more.

This does the trick - and unlike scanner, try a white sheet behind image rather than black if necessary. 

Finally, reduce or increase saturation [depending on color of paper or substrate] so result is black text and white background. essentially you are choosing a threshold with which image on front will appear, and fainter text from back is repressed via these filters.

Cordially, Phil


Phil Innes
Publisher
Vermont Views Magazine
www.vermontviews.org
(802) 254 9722



On Apr 22, 2014, at 1:56 PM, Chris Hoogendyk <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu> wrote:

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> 
> A couple of people have mentioned putting black behind an image so that whatever is printed on the 
> backside doesn't come through so much.
> 
> That made me wonder about another situation, so I thought I would add a question. I've been scanning 
> old family letters to/from my grandparents who were in China. Some of these letters are over 100 
> years old and were written on onion skin or tissue, both sides, in black ink! It is difficult to 
> read the original, and the scanned images are also hard to read. Would putting black behind it work 
> in this situation? Or would the translucent media just make the whole image become too dark? Has 
> anyone dealt with this or have any magic tricks? Post processing?
> 
> I'm using an Epson Artisan 837, and I have Adobe Creative Suit CS5 as well as Adobe Photoshop 
> Elements on Mac OS X Mavericks. I'm using Adobe Acrobat Pro to assemble multiple images into 
> optimized pdfs. I also have an Epson Perfection V600, but I just have that for transparencies and 
> haven't used it much yet.
> 
> 
> On 4/22/14, 11:47 AM, Lynne Rudié wrote:
>> Hi Dede
>> 	I agree with the comments already posted. But since sometimes we don't live in an ideal world, I have had passable results from scanning a printed image at a really high resolution so that I can do some image correcting or color balancing in photoshop and then reduce the resolution to make a more reasonable file size.
>> 	Sometimes the unsharp filter helps, depending on the quality of the printed image. My scanner has a backlight correction setting but putting black behind the image also helps. And, of course, use the descreening filter when you scan.
>> 	Good luck!
>> 	Lynne
>> 
>> Lynne Rudié
>> Graphic Design
>> 413.863.9406
>> 413.834.0889 (c)
>> lynnerudie at verizon.net
> 
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