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How to Use the Scanner with Photoshop
The Lundeen lab is equipped with an HP Scanjet 5550c scanner that has features to perform flatbed scans, multiple-page scans, slide scans, and film scans. When this scanner is used in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop, it is very easy to scan your image/object and get the desired results.
Adobe Photoshop is a very powerful image creating and editing program. You can use it to import scanned images, save images in different formats, as well as applying filters, effects, transparency, etc. It would take a book to explain everything that you can do with photoshop, but a couple of the most common tasks are listed below, with instructions.
First, here are a few general Photoshop tips:
- Save your image often, and before making changes. Choose File | Save or File | Save as... to do this.
- Adjust only one component of an image at a time. Such as brightness or image size.
- Pay attention to image size and file size. (For more on this, view saving for the web)
Using the Flatbed Scanner
First, be sure the scanner is on. The power button is on the left side of the button panel on the scanner.
Then, place your image/object on the scanner's glass surface and close the cover.
Next, open Photoshop. Go to Start | Programs | Adobe Photoshop 7.0.
Then, in Photoshop go to File | Import and choose “HP Scanjet 4500c/5550c…” (seen below).
This will bring up a preview scan of your document in the HP Scanjet preview window:
Here you can make minor adjustments (such as zooming in or flipping the scan) before saving it. To make these adjustments, use the Basic and Advanced menu bars at the top of the screen or the options on the right of your screen.
When you are happy with the way your image looks, click the green “Accept” button. The HP Scanning window will disappear and a new window will be created within Photoshop. From here you can work with your image.
***NOTE: When saving your image, do not use the default
file type. Press the arrow to drop down the menu and choose to save the
image as either a .gif or a .jpg.
Back to the topUsing the Slide/Film Scanner feature
The flatbed scanner can also be used to scan in slides or film (negatives). There is an additional piece to the scanner, usually located on the top shelf to the right of the computer in the Lundeen Lab (see picture below). To scan in slides or film, this device is used (see instructions below).
***The device marked with the yellow asterisk is the TMA light source, which also serves as the slide holder. The black holder circled by the red rectangle is the negative holder and negative light shield. The black piece circled by the green rectangle is the slide light shield. The grey piece labeled with the blue asterisk is called the positioning plate.
First, be sure the scanner is on. The power button is on the left side
of the button panel on the scanner.
Then, place the positioning plate on the scanner glass and match the reference
mark on the plate to the reference mark on the scanner.
positioning plate placed on the scanner glass
Next, insert the media into the TMA light source:
For slides: Place up to three slides into the slide holder on the bottom
side of the TMA light source. Slides should be inserted right-side up.
If you are scanning fewer than three slides, insert the slide light shield
after you load the last slide.
slide inserted into the slide holder
slide holder components:
- slide holder (1)
- slide light shield (2)
For film (negatives): Slide the negative strip into the negative holder
so that the shiny side will face the scanner glass when the TMA light
source is in position on the scanner glass. If you are scanning a negative
strip with fewer than four frames, insert the negative light shield after
you load the negative strip. Then slide the negative holder into the slide
holder on the bottom side of the TMA light source.
negatives inserted into the negative holder
negative holder components:
- negative holder (1)
- negative light shield (2)
negative holder inserted into the TMA light source
After the media is properly loaded into the TMA light source, place it
into the positioning plate with slides/negatives facing down. The TMA
cable should fit in the groove on the same end of the positioning plate
as the reference marks.
TMA placed in the positioning plate
Once the scanner is all set up, open Adobe Photoshop by going to Start
| Adobe Photoshop CS.
Then, in Photoshop, go to File | Import and choose “HP Scanjet 4500c/5550c…”
(seen below).
This will bring up a preview scan of your document in the HP Scanjet preview
window:
It may not scan properly at first. You must indicate you are scanning
either slides or negatives. To do this, go to the Scan menu in this window
and select “Slides from TMA” or “Negatives from TMA”.
This will scan just the negatives or slides.
From here you can make minor adjustments (such as zooming in or flipping
the scan) before saving it. To make these adjustments, use the Basic and
Advanced menu bars at the top of the screen or the options on the right
of your screen.
When you are happy with the way your image looks, click the green “Accept”
button. The HP Scanning window will disappear and a new window will be
created within Photoshop. From here you can work with your image.
***NOTE: When saving your image, do not use the default file type. Press
the arrow to drop down the menu and choose to save the image as either
a .gif or a .jpg.
Saving for the Web
You can save an image in many different ways in photoshop. This section will cover, briefly, how to save an image for the web, in either .gif or .jpg format. You can find more information about saving for the web here.
- First, open up the image you are working with, in photoshop.
- Make any changes to the image, etc. When you are ready to save the
image in web format, click on File | Save for Web... This will bring
up the 'Save for the Web' dialogue box. I have split the box into several
sections below, with an explanation accompanying each.
- This first section shows some tools as well as 4 tabs. Original -
this holds your original image, so that you can compare it to the other
images you are about to make. Optimized - this holds the current format
you are working with. 2-up and 4-up - These hold either 2 or 4 views
of the same image.
- For right now, Click on the Optimized tab.
- Moving to the Right side of the 'Save for the Web' dialogue box, you'll
see 3 buttons followed by a bunch of options. Each image is unique in
what options are going to be the best for optimizing it, but there are
several general rules to follow.
- Web images take a long time to download and people don't like
this. The smaller the image size, the better.
- As your image size gets smaller, your image quality will decrease.
You need to find a balance between image quality and file size
- Finally, there are two main types of web graphics. .gif and
.jpg. GIFs are good for images that are simple like simple shapes
and a few strong colors; such as logos and headers. JPEGs are good
for images that are photographic, with lots of blending and color.
- Web images take a long time to download and people don't like
this. The smaller the image size, the better.
- Back to choosing your settings - with my image of the duck, I tried
both GIF 128 and JPEG high quality. The image quality was roughly the
same for both, but the JPEG was much smaller, and downloading time was
2 seconds less. (Check the lower, left-hand corner for download time)
- Here are some more notes on how to make images smaller in size: specifically GIF images...
 |
When working with GIF images, remember to take a look at the color table. In this image there are quite a few colors, but some images will only have 8 colors or 16 colors. A good way to decrease filesize is to change the number of colors using the 'Colors:' drop-down menu. Use the fewest number of colors you can for the acceptable image quality. You can also work with the 'dither' settings. (At left, 'Selective' is the current dither setting) Selective and Perceptual each give slightly different results. Again, the goal is smallest filesize with greatest quality.
|
- Here is an example of a web-optimized graphic.
Tips for Improving Image Quality
There are many different ways within photoshop to improve image quality. I will go over a couple of basic ones that pertain directly to scanned images. If you want to find out more about improving image quality, follow the links at the top of this page to Adobe's website.
- The best way to improve contrast and color and brightness within a
scanned images to adjust the levels. To bring up the levels dialogue
box, click on Image | Adjust | Levels. Once you've brought up the dialogue
box, you're going to want to move the Light and dark points. Start by
moving the light point (it's circled in light blue below) until you
reach the edge of the level area. Next move the dark point (surrounded
by the dark blue circle below) until it touches the left edge of the
levels area. Click OK to save your changes.
- Often scanned images look a little blurry. Using the unsharp mask
is a good way to correct this. Click on Filter | Sharpen | Unsharp Mask...
to bring up the unsharp mask dialogue box.
- You can drag the image in the preview window until you've got something
with edges so you can watch them get 'sharper.' Next, drag the amount
up and down. Usually between 80% and 100% with a radius of between 1.0
and 2.0 are the best settings. Click OK to save your changes.
- If you are saving your image for the internet, you can greatly decrease
filesize, by changing the resolution. Go to Image | Image size... to
bring up the following dialogue box. Our scanner is set to scan at 300
pixels/inch. If you are planning to use the image for web pages, you're
going to want to drop this to 72 pixels/inch. If you are planning to
print the image, you'll want to keep the setting higher...up to 600
pixels per inch.
