BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Scanning without lint

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March 23, 2002

I feel your frustration! I used to have that problem, and I solved it by dumping the scanner and using a film scanner instead! (well, there were many other reasons much bigger, but hey...)

On a much more realistic scale, what you can do is buy some lint free cloth, or optical paper and gently clean the photograph first. Handle the photgraphy by the back and edges.

Also ensure that BOTH sides of the platten (The glass plate) on the scanner is clean. My original one was horrendous. Somewhere along the line, the scanner got hot, and the plastic vapours (which all plastics emmit when it gets hot enough) formed a very slight fog on the glass. You could only see it when the light was on, and you were look across the glass, not down on it, but cleaning it did very slightly improve sharpness and contrast.

Finally, get a can of compressed air (about $7USD, where I live in Australia) and give it a quick blast from 20cm+. Any closer and you risk leaving residue from condensing air and the propellant on the glass and the photograph.

That usually gets you a good clean sharp image. In the case where the photograph has dust still on it you can get rid of without scratching the photo, then I suggest that once you scan it, select a small area around the scratch and use the "soften" filter until it goes away. Select as small a box as you can get away with. If it looks unnatural, select a slightly larger box. If it still looks unnatural, use the rubber stamp or clone tool to find a similar area of what it should have looked like and clone over the dust.

Hope this helps! Happy scanning!

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March 25, 2002