I'm using a Creo iQSmart scanner with a wet mount attachment for 9x12 and 6x7 to produce 100 megabyte scans that give a print size of 20"x24". I started last week, and it is my first experience with scanning. I'll be using this scanner quite a lot in the coming months, and alread I have some questions. Despite the oil, there are gremlins on the scans. I am using Photoshop to deal with these. The healing brush does a grand job on the spots. However, there are a few other miscreants, specifically:
(a) lines an inch or so long (when the scan is at 20x24 size) that usually have some curvature to them and that look like fine hair or string;
(b) somewhat thicker lines that occasionally appear along the border of the scan; and
(b) small round blotches on the occasional scan that are the result of bubbles caused by the oil mounting.
I am using the healing brush to deal with all of these. Should I be using some other Photoshop technique in some of these cases? Am I the only person who is not sure, at times, whether the "spot" on a wall is dust or part of the image and, if the latter, whether it should be left alone?
One of the things that has become obvious in this process is that Photoshop can be used to create an image that has very little to do with the original. If I want to get rid of the air conditioner in the flat above a butcher shop housed in an historic building, I can do it rather easily. Whether I should is a different matter. Does anyone have a view on the role, if any, of authenticity in photographic prints in the digital age?
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