Exploring 1

The above image is made up of two basic images, as follows:

The first uses this IR image as a base
which after the application of textures looks like this
Creating the 'torc' effect is as a result of using the Flexify PS plug-in from Flaming Pear.

The background is a heavily textured version of this image:

Heads

Tried scanning my head, primarily for a Flickr theme week called 'Me'.

Went for B&W with the intent of producing some kind of death mask. Not a bad basis, but I need to figure out how it goes from here. Need a bit of ethereality. Shiny, flat nose caused by resting it on the platen didn't help.

Wobbled my head from left to right relatively quickly.

Then much more slowly

The attempted a full 180 while the light scanned

The moved my chin up in time with the light until the top of my head hit the lid.

And this one I moved my head in the other direction. Took me several goes to get an effect I liked. Found that I got what I wanted if I stayed still while the scanner took in my shirt collar and then starting to move my face at roughly the same speed as the scanner was coming up. This was the one I submitted to the Flickr group.

More scans with the lid up

The banana above was the first where I used a plastic sheet to cover the glass. I used a piece of so-called Digital Transfer film, made by Permajet, which is most often used in some old photographic technologies, based on B&W output from an inkjet. The output is then used as a contact print. It is somewhat opalescent, so a sort of milky white rather than clear. Nice to use but needed a bit of processing to bring out the object.

Also with the Permajet film.

This scan was a bit of a disaster in that the object itself was very dusty, which I did not notice until I scanned it, and I also used an old bit of lower quality clear acrylic sheet. Picked up finger marks and also seemed to build up static, which attracted DUST of course. Getting to be a dab hand with the clone stamp.

Similar dust problem here.

Scanning some different objects with the lid up

Wife's necklace #1

Wife's necklace #2. Light is reflecting in surface of the stones, so it doesn't seem to come from directly from underneath but at an angle.

Circular brooch, which is not circular in the scan because it is at an angle to the glass.

Air blower from below. It is not a bad depth of field I note. Light fall off is not as severe as I thought. Nozzle at the top of the picture is about 5 inches above the glass.

Plastic and metal pen.

Scans

Wonderful detail in this. Obviously for shiny objects the question of reflections comes up as a factor.

Redid a 'montage' I had previously tried.
and then again to add a further item
Not a satisfactory image I feel. The objects I have used do not support each other in terms of content, texture or colour. The 3D specs could be useful in another context to show something through. I like the colours in the cd but they do not sit so well with anything else I feel. Could be quite a tricky object to use with other items? The Arabic graphic symbol is strong, but I do not like the text associated with it, which is why I tried to cover them up with the glasses. Coins just don't fit but they have some texture that could work elsewhere. All of them could work elsewhere!

Another collage:
Pen works well with the bubble wrap background, the red stands out nicely. Coins get a bit lost against the background and the button not quite strong enough. Could do with another button to increase its strength, which I don't have :-(

Continuing the scanning of a range of objects

Simple scan of the back of a paper payslip. Much more vibrant blues than actually present. I also asked the scanner to just select the document and it seemed to do a reasonable job.

Then I tried a leaf:
Lid up of course. Not really finding any difference on the effect of the background between having the light on in the room or not.

Then a handkerchief
Bubble wrap:
Wasn't sitting flat against the glass hence the different tones and reflections.

Then tried handsoap in a plastic tray:
I think the liquid needs to be backlit. I tried a torch but too powerful, just flooded everything with light. Tried torch from different distances but difficult to get the backlight and frontlight in balance.

More scans

Some more simple scans. The first was a mail order catalogue page, chosen for the reds and various other colours and the fact that it was on shiny paper. I found I was unhappy again with the colour rendition so I reapplied the same changes in PS that I had done for the previous example. Seemed to work well in that the result on the screen looked close to the printed page. Also noted btw, that the shiny paper created some blown highlights caused by reflection of the scanning light (they are just to the right of the centrefold). Finally, the double page spread was a jot larger than A4, so some trimming of the image occurred in the scan. Presumably one can scan each page separately and join them up in PS.


Second was a B&W photo that I had printed. Seemed to end up with a cyan/green cast that I fixed with a straight conversion to B&W in PS. Might be interesting to print the scanned image to see how close it is to the original print.


Finally, a composite image with an arrangement of items on the scanner. I established a selection around the part of the image I liked. Not so easy to get a clear idea of the selected result I found, since the rest of the image stays as bright as the selected bit.



Noticed some dust on this final image so cleaned the glass.

I have decided to scan at maximum quality, the same as I process my photos in, so 16-bit colour and at 360ppi, this latter size being the natural resolution of my Epson printer. You get some big old files though; the catalogue pages at the top of the blog occupy some 140MB!

We're off finally!

Got round to installing an Epson Perfection 3940 scanner, finally. Embarrassing that I have done so little over the last year.

Downloaded the driver from the Epson web site and it seemed to automatically installed itself as a plug-in for PS, so the basic task of scanning and loading into PS is quite straightforward. The preview on the screen looked ok but was not too pleased with final result; once it opened in PS it looked too saturated, particularly in the reds. Tried the following:

• Looked on the Epson website for ICC profiles that might help. Found a download that installed itself, but did not seem to make much of a difference.
• Ended up manually adjusting the result with a Levels adjustment layer to set the black and white points, and then an HSL adjustment layer to desaturate the reds. Also seemed that the image needed sharpening. Might be able to do this last part in the scanner software I notice. The result was quite satisfactory at this point.

Before and after shown below.