Mike Sibley   Comment Posted Dec.27th, 2012, viewed 330 times

Here are some helpful hints on sending in your work, but before you read this - WHEN IN DOUBT, LEAVE IT ALONE :o)

FILE TYPES - USE JPG
Almost all scanners and digital cameras will save your work as a JPEG (.jpg) and that's the file type you should use here at Drawspace. Other image types are technically acceptable but the software used to create the thumbnail images you see will only handle JPGs.

For the technically-minded - JPG is a lossy format. Every time you save changes you lose data and quality, so if you want to work on your image try saving it as a loss-less TIF (or PSD in Photoshop) and then finally convert it to a JPG to send to Drawspace.

ADJUSTING YOUR SCANS AND PHOTOS
I often find the images submitted to Drawspace are lighter than the original drawings. Most, of course, also contain a false colour.

First I should explain that I DON'T CRITIQUE ANYONE'S WORK HERE - I copy it into Photoshop and correct any obvious contrast problems and remove all colour. That way I can understand your original intention better and, I hope, offer a more accurate critique. All keyboard shortcuts given below work in Photoshop 6+ and I believe in Elements too - other image editors offer the same functions but you'll have to find out how.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY:
Unless you know how to adjust the white point/balance in your camera it will produce a very grey image. A camera reads white as an 18% grey unless you manually alter it. I'm used to seeing and correcting that "fault" so you should probably just post the photo without trying to correct it yourself. If the corrected image differs markedly from the one you supplied, I'll post it back to you with my critique.

SCANNING:
Domestic scanners often lose the lightest 10% of tone, so scan in colour at 300ppi (pixels per inch) to capture the most detail, and then reduce the result to 150ppi or even 72ppi to decrease the upload time (72ppi is monitor resolution, so you achieve nothing by using a higher resolution).

Once you've scanned your work into Photoshop, you may wish to adjust it to best reflect the appearance of the original - BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO.

First, remove any colour cast. You can do this in two ways:

1. Hit CTRL+SHIFT+U to desaturate the image. This leaves you with a 32-bit image with no colour.

Or

2. Top menubar: Image > Mode > Greyscale. This leaves you with an 8-bit image with no colour. It downloads faster if you have a slow connection.

Now correct the white balance. In other words, if your paper is white, it should be white in your scan too.

1. Hit CTRL+L for Levels.
2. Click the left-hand "white point" eyedropper.
3. Click in your image in an area that should be white. If that's too severe and removes detail from your scan, cancel it (CTRL+Z) and then...
4. Instead, move the "white" right-hand pointer to the left, watching its effect as you do so. Don't aim for perfection, just a better appearance.
5. Click OK.

Now correct the contrasts if your darks aren't showing as strong as they are in your original.

1. Hit CTRL+L for Levels again.
2. Move the "black" left-hand pointer to the right to darken the blacks, watching its effect as you do so. Don't aim for perfection, just a better appearance.
3. Click OK.

Those basic procedures should serve you quite well - but don't overdo any of them :o)

Finally, WHEN IN DOUBT, LEAVE IT ALONE - I always fix it here in my studio before I critique and often post it back so you can check it against your original.