One of difficulties that flatbed scanners have compared to drum scanners is the way the original art is illuminated. If the surface texture is rough, as in the case of watercolor paper, the scanner will usually capture the texture as an unwanted pattern. On the left is a scan at 100% and to it's right a small area enlarged to show the watercolor paper texture problem more clearly.
The tool to get rid of the paper texture while preserving the image detail is the "Smart Blur" filter in Adobe Photoshop. Below is its dialog box. You will need to experiment with the settings according to the specific image that you are working with. In general the "Radius" setting will be lower than the "Threshold" setting. The preview window shows the effect of changes you make to those settings. Sometimes, if the adjustments result in degrading the image, it's better to leave a bit of texture and remove it afterwords using the clone or eraser tool. Always use the "High Quality" setting with "Mode: Normal."
The final result – the watercolor paper texture is eliminated while the detail of the painting is preserved.
Watercolor study of a strawberry courtesy of Susan Pritchard. To visit her blog, please click
HERE
The tool to get rid of the paper texture while preserving the image detail is the "Smart Blur" filter in Adobe Photoshop. Below is its dialog box. You will need to experiment with the settings according to the specific image that you are working with. In general the "Radius" setting will be lower than the "Threshold" setting. The preview window shows the effect of changes you make to those settings. Sometimes, if the adjustments result in degrading the image, it's better to leave a bit of texture and remove it afterwords using the clone or eraser tool. Always use the "High Quality" setting with "Mode: Normal."
The final result – the watercolor paper texture is eliminated while the detail of the painting is preserved.
Watercolor study of a strawberry courtesy of Susan Pritchard. To visit her blog, please click HERE
