Since I make them 1024 wide it means that the scan is slightly larger than my Monitor screen and there is no point in using "FIT TO SCREEN" in Photoshop as the compression means the scan is crunched up looking and you cannot see it properly so I recommend always working on it at it's full size so that you can see what you are doing.
Selecting the ZOOM TOOL gives an option to click ACTUAL PIXELS to see the scan at it's full size or to use FIT SCREEN, I find this a slow way to change views and prefer to use the Keyboard shortcuts for this which are ("CTRL and the number "0" together) for "Fit to screen" and (ALT, CTRL and the number "0" all held together) for ACTUAL PIXELS.
I use these keyboard shortcuts a lot as you need to have the scan it's natural size when removing sharpening but on the other hand I like to see all of it on screen when I am working on the colour tones.
2. If using the DUPLICATE LAYER method to sharpen always do it last to avoid problems so work on the cropping, level it up, sort the colour tones and brightness. Once you have all of these looking okay only then do the sharpening.
When I first started using DUPLICATE LAYER to sharpen there were a few occasions that I had completed the scan and only then realised that it could do with some brightening up but when I went to LEVELS and pushed the sliders to the left for more brightness I could see the effects of what I had done with the cursor when removing sharpness to avoid the "jaggies" showing.
I added a scan of an extreme version of this on Page 5 and called it "FIGURE 10" just to show what was happening when the cursor was being dragged over pixellated areas, if you brighten a scan up after using DUPLICATE LAYER to sharpen it you risk the possibility of very faint lines showing where the Cursor has been dragged so ALWAYS do your sharpening last if using this method.
3. Be careful not to remove too much sharpening, on writing such as the Airline names and registration I do not go above a 25% reduction as you can end up with them look "soft" and this also applies to other parts of the scan too.
With wing edges I tend to use 80% OPACITY but I picked the Maersk 737 for writing this article as it was more difficult than normal with the black line running up it's fuselage so I used 90% OPACITY on it.
If you do accidently remove too much sharpening making the scan soft it is easy enough to click a few steps backwards by using WINDOW - HISTORY (some cut down versions of Photoshop may not have this) but if the scan has already been saved and you have loaded it up again then the best way to apply a little more sharpening to the effected areas is to use the POLYGON LASSOO to selected areas rather than add more sharpening to the entire scan when it isn't required.
Figure 11. |
 Figure 12. |
To use the Lasso place the Mouse pointer where you want to start and make regular clicks using the left mouse button around the area to be selected, once you meet where the line started double click the left Mouse button to join it up and you will see a broken line on screen that appears to moving (see "Figure 12").
This means that you have selected an area and you can now apply an UNSHARP MASK inside the broken line at whatever settings are required to sharpen it up.