Scan of book cover comes out very dark

[quoddy]

I tried to scan my father's "Service and Pay Book" from his WWII Air Force records. The cover is cardboard covered with a maroon cloth. Text is quite legible but when I attempt to scan the cover, it becomes illegible. Image is severely darkened. Tried some basic adjustments in scanning and then in Photoshop but have had no luck. Is this intended to be a security feature? Can't imagine they would do that in 1944.

176kb jpeg

1.7MB png

quoddy

[crazyfly1]

Interesting problem. I would suggest that you scan at 300 dpi (no higher) and don't make any adjustments with the scanner. In fact make sure all of the auto features are turned off on the scanner. That should give you the most information in the scan to fix in photoshop.

[quoddy]

okay CrazyFly here you go....

I am using VueScan 8.4.87
I am scanning from an N650U (Canoscan)

I have scanned at 300 dpi
the media type is color photo
bits per pixel : 48 bit RGB
Scan Resolution - 300dpi
no filters were applied
color balance was set to default
color balance : White Balance
Black point (%) 0
White Point (%) 1
Curve low: 0.25
Curve high: 0.75
Brightness: 1
Brightness Red: 1
Brightness Green: 1
Brightness Blue: 1
view color: RGB

Save to JPEG file with size reduction : 1
JPEG quality : 100

New Image


Text on cover reads:

Royal Canadian Air Force

<< emblem  >>

Service
and
Pay Book

This Book is the Property of the
Royal Canadian Air Force

quoddy

[crazyfly1]

Only 1 other thing I can think of to try and that is crop all the way to the book before you scan. Your scanner will take into account the light and dark areas of the target. Don't know if it will make a difference but it's worth a shot.

[quoddy]

Just used my sister's "point-n-shoot".

Camera shot

Better view of book.

Cropping up close before scan, changed nothing.


quoddy

[Daki]

Taking a photo of the book is better than scanning. Use to light to evenly illuminate the book The texture in the book is like old silkscreen photo's They won't scan easily Make sure the lights don't give reflections
When scanning on a glassplate You can use the oily substance used by the printing press boys to replicate without the structure
Daki