Scanned images color problems. Please Help!

[Blueline]

I've started scanning all my old album artwork and have noticed a brightish line running through all of my pictures and I can't seem to figure out how to stop it from happening.
It seems to be caused by the calibration bar (?) in the centre of the scanner, whatever part of the image is placed over it while scanning will come out slightly lighter than the rest of the image. It's really noticiable on images with black backgrounds in particular.

I have a HP Photosmart C8180 All-in-One printer scanner combo.

I've also uploaded an image of what I think is probably one of the worst affected. The area is near the bottom of the image.

http://img188.imageshack.us/i/scan0001afw.jpg/

It's starting to drive me up the wall so hopefully someone can hopefully fix or at least knows why it seems to be doing this.

Thanks.

[TommyO]

Blueline,
I'm not sure why it's doing that... maybe with an all-in-one and the size of the artwork, you just are not getting a good tight fit against the glass.

Rather than worry about why and how to fix it, why not just photograph the artwork. Use a high res digital with a tripod in good lighting. There are tons of threads about it here on RetouchPro. Just do a search for some good ideas.

[Blueline]

Ok, I've taken a picture instead of scanning and it has turned out quite well, a lot better than the scan. The problem is that it's not straight and I'm having a hard time trying to get it perfectly square.

Any tips?

Here is what it came out like: http://img188.imageshack.us/i/snap1q.jpg/

[Jerryb]

hi blueline...

this is sort of just info since TommyO advice is very good....

when I look at your image I think i see moire effect... what I see is not so much bright lines and dots but a pattern effect when I zoom in!! and this is called moire effect.. It not unusal to get this effect when scanning images.... although it seems it very common scanning newsprint images and magazine pages.. newspaper and magazines part of it is because of the way thier printed and how the scan interprits it..

various suggestion which may or may not work...
a. try scanning at larger resolution than needed and then resample in ps...
b. most scanners have a "descreen" try turning it off and/ or change some of the setting of it....
c. some scanner software maybe even have special button for scanning magazine and newsprint .. if your does try it..

now there tons of articles on the net on moire, tips on scanning or how to remove it in PS ...
I picked this one because it an over fair explaination and several links...
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/l/blmoire.htm

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Blueline

Ok, I've taken a picture instead of scanning and it has turned out quite well, a lot better than the scan. The problem is that it's not straight and I'm having a hard time trying to get it perfectly square.

Any tips?

Here is what it came out like: http://img188.imageshack.us/i/snap1q.jpg/

Looks like you need to be a bit more careful about making sure the camera is square to the orginal. But to fix this I would try the warp tool.

[TommyO]

And... don't forget the Lens Correction filter. It allows you to straighten, fix perspective problems, etc all in one screen. You may also have a bit more control over other tools.

[quoddy]

I've had good results with the perspective crop in Photoshop. Choose the crop tool and create your border around the image. Now you will notice in the context menu that there is a entry called perspective with a check box next to it. Check it and you will be able to move your cropping border corners around to the corners on your image. When you crop, the image is adjusted.

Try googling "perspective crop" for some helpful websites.

quoddy