Mounted the NEW SCANNER!!!!

[depa]

Hi guys, finally I've buy a new scanner.
I want to marry the vgmdb case and scan my collection to help the database.
Obviously my collection is very little and doesn't have any ultra rare item but anyway I want to give my little contribute.
Give me the time to manage the scanner and the work will begin very soon.

[AcidBeast]

Battle Arena Toshinden -Before Stage- Vol.1 and 2 scans would be very appreciated.

[Myrkul]

Thanks in advance for any future contributions you can provide.
Would be nice to have decent scans for these old albums:

Final Fight GUY SPECIAL CD
Marvel VS. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes Original Soundtrack
QUIZ Nanairo DREAMS: Nijiirochou no Kiseki & Super Puzzle Fighter II X
Scitron 10th Anniversary Special: Garou densetsu THE BEST -Selected by Characters-
Sega Ages Sound Track the Best Plus
Sega Taikan Game Special
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers Arcade Gametrack
Time Crisis Arcade Soundtrack 002EX
Time Crisis II Arcade Soundtrack 016

[depa]

Ok, is there a scanner expert here? What are the best scanning option to get best sample possible? for example (brightness, colour, anti-dust) ecc..
Also when I get a shot, the software save the itself more the blank full portion of scanning surface. Is there a option to remove automatically the blank area?

[Cedille]

We definitely lack an instruction thread on scanning. I purchased my scanner about one year ago, but I don't think I've ever submitted scans of the best quality. I think the setting optimization would be pretty much depending on which manufacturer's hardware or which software we're using though (do people in Western use Hewlett-Packard or Samson?).

[Hellacia]

Advice from any scanning professionals would be so nice. I just spent 2 days scanning 5 albums, none of which were particularly content-heavy, and after what seemed like a LOT of effort, the scans were only mediocre in my opinion. My scanner is years old, and no matter how hard I try to clean it, the scans come out covered with marks. I also can't get the scans to be straight for the life of me.

By the way, thanks for deciding to do scans, depa! I wish more people that owned albums we don't have scans of would contribute. It can be a lot of work but it's very rewarding to see the database grow because of your efforts.

[depa]

Originally Posted by Cedille

We definitely lack an instruction thread on scanning. I purchased my scanner about one year ago, but I don't think I've ever submitted scans of the best quality. I think the setting optimization would be pretty much depending on which manufacturer's hardware or which software we're using though (do people in Western use Hewlett-Packard or Samson?).

Yeah sure, I use an EPSON but i don't have find this f.....g auto-cropping function since it would be mad to remove every blank area manually with photoshop.

[Datschge]

What I do when scanning albums is first sort everything in groups of the same size (e.g. discs, opened booklets, inserts, obis...) do a preview scan only for the first of the set to set the correct scan area, leave all settings like brightness, contrast, gamma etc. off/at the default (or whatever setting is best, but I personally think such tweakings should be done in photoshop, and ideally not be necessary at all), and bash scan everything else of the same size thereafter. However I'm honestly not sure what's the issue with marks and dirt many people have, either I'm blind or my place is clean enough...

[Foxhack]

I'm bumping this because I just got a new scanner (haven't set it up yet) and would like some input on how I do things for my usual scans.

I typically scan stuff at 600 DPI with the Descreen option turned on if the scanner supports it. Then, I resize the stuff to 300 DPI. This creates an image around 700 pixels tall and wide, good enough for a small cover display.

I can never get the scans straight either, but that's easily corrected in Photoshop by using the Measure tool (it looks like a ruler.) Just click on an edge of the book, then hold the mouse down and unclick where you want the line to end. Use your mouse to move the beginning and end of the lines to wherever you want, then go to Image / Rotate Canvas / Arbitrary. The box will have the right angle to correct the scans so they're straight.

My main issue for the past ten years has been color and brightness / contrast balance... so does anyone have any advice on that?

(And in case anyone is curious, everything that I have on CD on this list will eventually be scanned. Plus all the stuff I -don't- have listed there.)

Edit: By the way, I really suggest avoiding those scanners that scan with blue (LCD) light. They're horrible for scanning if the item is just a bit uneven. White light scanners will still scan nicely, even if a bit is slightly raised off the glass. Sadly the LCD ones are much cheaper than the white light ones... so...