#basic image clean up

The Beginning:

Anyways, I’ve always been one to try to push for quality when it comes to scanning. But let’s face it, equipment alone (as in a really good scanner) won’t yield 100% amazing results. This is why we have to use graphic editing software to enhance an image and really make it “pop” and stand out.

There’s many of them out there but for this guide we’ll be using Photoshop Elements, which has come a long way from the original releases and allows you to do much more considering what you pay versus the ultra-mighty ridiculously overpriced regular Photoshop. As a note, this guide assumes you have some base working-knowledge of Photoshop such as scanning, simple resizing of an image & saving in different formats.

Scanning:

Usually I scan my images between 300-600 dpi (dots per inch) depending on the size of the image source. In theory, the bigger your original source, the less need for scanning at higher dpi. In addition, the higher the number of dpi you’re scanning at, the more detail the scan will have. However, this does not automatically mean your scan will be great-looking to the eye. Unfortunately, no scanner will save you from “the noise” a.k.a. the “grain” you see, which is the little dots you see upon zooming into the image that even when -not- zoomed, your scan doesn’t look quite as smooth.

What causes “noise”?

This is caused by the vibration produced by the scanner as it (at the risk of being redundant) “scans” and the laser light moves underneath the flatbed glass and “reads” the image. This unfortunately adds unwanted “detail” to the image (the noise/grain) which in turn adds to the size of the file. In the example of the image of “Snow Miku” scanned at 1200 dpi (my clear file was smaller than usual size), it yielded this:

Yeah, that’s a pretty big sized file and certainly most hosting places will not accept that. You could resize the file by making it smaller. This however, will not get rid of the noise and your scan will still have that grainy look.

By using noise-removing filters such as the “Gaussian Blur” we are able to fix this and reduce file size without reducing the size of the image.

In this zoom in you can clearly see the terrible dots of different colors. This is the “noise” generated by the scanner and it really hinders the quality of the image as well as appreciating the art on it. We will start getting rid of it by using a combination of “Blur” filters.

Step 1: As show in zoom below, select Filter > Blur> and on the sub menu pick Gaussian Blur.

This will yield a new small window as shown below. Click on the small slider and move it to the right until the image in the preview window begins to look smoother. You can also input manually a value. I usually use 1.2 like in the example. Click OK and the filter will be applied.

Step 2: Next, go back to the same filter menu but this time select “Blur”. This will automatically apply a basic blurring effect that should help smoothen the image further.

When we apply “blur” filters, however, this will also un-sharpen things we don’t want it to, such as hard lines and outlines that help define the illustration. In the following step we will address that.

Step 3: As shown in the image below, select Enhance > Unsharp Mask. You will get another pop up window. The next image shows a zoomed-in version of this.

In the pop up window, use the handles/sliders to adjust each setting. Play around with them till the image begins to look sharper. The numbers you see in the picture are my standard and I hardly change them. Click OK.

Step 4: Now go back and repeat steps 1 through 3. Very often with high resolution scans, one round of filtering is not enough. After repeating these steps, we are adding one more sharpening filter.

Step 5: Go to Enhance> Adjust Sharpness. A second sharpening filter helps the outline defining lines show and become more visible once again but without re-adding the noise.

As you can see, there’s plenty more controls to play around with. Move the sliders/handles back and forth. Be patient and keep trying until you are satisfied with how the preview looks.

Miku is starting look very pretty now, ne? But there’s still that kinda gray overtone that seems to be hiding some of the true colors of the image. Next we’ll really make the image pop out!

Step 6: Go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer > Levels…see image after this one for the zoom in to what it looks like.

The zoomed-in version of the pull down menu. Be sure to click on Levels and not on anything else!

As shown below, you will get a pop-box asking you to name the layer. Feel free to name it as you’d like or leave in default. This doesn’t affect our picture editing in any way.

As you can see, a “Levels” control box appears (as shown inside the purple box I added). I will be moving this one to the left of Miku so it’s easier to see and explain better how it works.

The way the “Levels” layer work, it will give you a graph of how colors are “balanced” or rather “unbalanced” in the image.

To enhance the image using the Levels, you want to move the sliders/handles towards the center in order to “balance” the colors as well as gray/black overtones. As you can see from the purple arrows, the idea is move each slider towards the spike of color as shown in the graph.

Step 7: As the picture above shows, move the outer sliders towards the center while keeping a close look on your image to make sure it doesn’t become too bright/dark, etc. Also try moving the middle one either to the left or right. If you feel you made a mistake or doesn’t look right, just hit “Undo” (Ctrl + Z) and try again until it looks right.

With just a little adjustment of all three sliders we can see a big difference and improvement on the image!

Picture Color Balance Comparison

Before // After

Miku looks much brighter now! You can also adjust the “RGB” (Red/Green/Blue) levels as well by clicking on the channel as shown below. This is really great for when a picture looks literally “too red/green/blue”.

Same as before, slide the sliders toward where the graph peaks, always keeping an eye on your image as doing so. You don’t want it to become too red/green/blue! However, if it happens, just hit “Undo” and try again. This step can take a long time and a lot of going back and forth and “Undos”. Just keep trying and you’ll get it!

Final Steps: All there’s left now is merging the Adjustment Layer with the image below and save save Save!

Again, if you need visual reference here’s a zoom-in of the pull-down menu.

Zooming in as we did in the beginning, you can see how much of the noise is gone, yet the image still looks sharp and pretty. There’s other filters that can be used, such as “Dust & Scratches,” “Despeckle”, and more, but this is the best combination that’s worked for me. Always save extra copies of your originals in case something happens!

Final size comparison: We went from the original at 105 MB to 37.1 MB after all filters were applied, a total decrease of 68 MB.That’s a lot to say the least!

The Final Result

Not to mention that’s in addition to that now the image on the right looks much more lively and smooth now! I hope this is helpful to and thank you for reading! Happy Photoshop-ing-editing-hopping and all that good stuff!