The Process Manual

Tips for scanning images: • Maintain a dust-free environment. Dust on the glass of a film or flatbed scanner can produce dust and particles, known as artifacts, which will appear on the final scan. Removing artifacts will require work and time in Photoshop. Keep the scanner workstation clean with pressurized canned air, and clean the glass surface with isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth. • Protect film strips (film scanners only). Oily fingerprints and scratches on negatives will leave large imperfections in scanned film that will require more work and time in Photoshop. Store film strips in archival protectors (plastic sleeves). Most photo labs return negative film in archival protectors to keep film safe from dust, scratches and fingerprints. Handle the film only at its edges and never touch the silver side of the film. • Preview before you scan. This will save time, as you can adjust cropping before scanning the entire image. Only the selected preview area will be scanned. If your scanner has a large bed, scan a group of photos at a time and separate them later in Photoshop. • Select a team for scanning. Having a few select students to scan all images will improve consistency and quality. • Prepare before you scan. Create your page layouts to help determine the placement of photos and the size of the final placed image to help determine the scanning resolution. • Back up your scans, including the original scans, along with all of your yearbook files. Saving a copy of your images to CD or an external hard drive will save time if files are lost or damaged. DIGITAL IMAGE SPECIFICATIONS There are three important things that must be changed in each image before it is placed on your yearbook page – resolution, color space and file format. Resolution Resolution is the total number of tiny squares called pixels that make up a digital image. The higher the resolution of a digital camera or a scanner, the larger an image can be reproduced. To determine proper resolution and to prepare images properly for yearbook printing, the resolution of a digital image must be in dots per inch (dpi). The more dots contained within an inch of an image, the smoother an image will print. Yearbook images require 225 dpi to print high-quality images. Low dpi will produce jagged looking images. This jagged look is referred to as pixelation because the square shape of the pixels is visible.

CREATING

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