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Start With a Scan, Second Edition
by By Hu Filleul — December 2000 Big Blue and Cousins the Greater Victoria PC Users’ Association http://www.bbc.org - February 22, 2001 at 14:04:09:
Start with a Scan by Janet Ashford and John Odham begins by showing you four varied images produced from a scanned fish, so you get the idea that scanning is a flexible tool in creating images. The first four chapters quickly cover the basics of working with scans. The first paragraph of the section on “How to Use This Book” states that, “the book is first and foremost a visual stimulus, and it is possible to get a lot of information just from looking at the art work without reading a single word.” That may be stretching it but I found the illustrations, along with a bit of reading, most informative.The fourth chapter deals with the bugbear subject of scanning resolution. For our purposes as desktop publishing hobbyists, it tells all you need to know, namely that scanning at the highest resolution available is usually an unnecessary waste of resources. I won’t repeat their scanning formulas here but they are right on. They must be. I use them.
There was a useful page on scanning large originals that won’t fit on the bed of your scanner. Using the Photoshop tools, it is quite simple but still requires a lot of care and atten-tion. For example if you have caught a salmon that won’t fit on your scanner, just cut it into steaks, scan and recombine them.
Chapter 5 is the most extensive in the book and covers editing scanned images of all types. I do quite a bit of scanned image editing using Photoshop and the chapter is a helpful extension of the Photoshop manual and tutorials. It covers all of the basic Photoshop editing tools with illustrations detailing how editing changes were made. I found that I use most of their techniques but managed to pick up some clues on how to work easier and better.
As a hobby, I do a lot of restoration work for friends on old or beat up photos and the book provides good assistance in that area. The same with selecting a part of a scanned image and combining it with another. Adding or adjusting color is a well covered subject.
Chapter 6, “Applying Artists Techniques,” is about converting scanned photo work to line art. They concentrated on using Adobe Illustrator but the same techniques could apply with other tracing or drawing programs. There were also sections on varying line quality, mood and montage in your drawing. The montage technique of using Photoshop layers to repeat images in different sizes and colors is one I hadn’t tried.
Chapter 7 on creating textures and backgrounds deals with a number of creative ways of adding texture to your subjects or applying an interesting background taken from such varied sources as a sheet of decorated paper or nature. It illustrates that there are textures all around us and many can be used in adding interest to our artwork
Chapter 8 concentrates on altering or enhancing scanned photos. It shows you how to delete or add items, boost or change their color. It also illustrates how to create special effects by adding color to grayscale, creating duotones, adding texture or morphing between two subjects. I found their advice practical and it certainly demonstrated that the old saying, “What you see is what you get” is definitely out of date.
The art of creating high contrast graphics from photographs is the subject of Chapter 9 and there are good examples of changing photos of people or buildings into what looks like drawn art. These effects were again accomplished by using standard Photoshop tools. I am going to have to experiment with them some more.
Creating type treatments is a handy chapter for anyone needing to create new and innovative effects with type, primarily in commercial applications. It shows you how to create your own fonts but I have too many choices now so would only try their methods for fun.
I have done some work with scanning objects including making a poster using scans of various shaped colored macaroni bits. Scanners are designed to scan flat pieces and when you can’t get the scanner cover down flat the result is some interesting color and shadow effects. Chapter 11 tells you how to deal with these either by getting rid of them or enhancing them with your editing program.
There is also a useful section in creating graphics from scanned objects. One of the good points of using these techniques is that it allows you to create photographic effects without using a camera.
The last two chapters deal with using the scanner in arts and crafts and in creating web pages. There is some good basic advice provided for both subjects. For example, they stressed the difference between creating for the page or the screen and the need to plan what you are doing in either media. The web page chapter pointed out the limitations of using color in web sites and which colors were the best. I found this information a useful supplement to more specialized publications on creating web pages.
This book is going to be a welcome addition to our library as we only have one good scanning book and it is about black and white and grayscale scanning. I just hope that this one is not so attractive that it takes a permanent hike. It should be one of our more useful volumes, even for those who use bit map editing programs other than Photoshop.
The cost is $52.10 Can. It is published by Peachpit Press (who are now doing Adobe’s publishing). Find it at www.peachpit.com or order through your local bookstore.
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