The AGFA Arcus II scanner is the
best flatbed scanner in the department. It has an optical
resolution of up to 2400 dpi, and can scan transparencies as well
as reflective originals. If the Nikon LS-2000 is not
available to scan slides or film, this scanner is your best
bet. It is located in the Research Lab.
- Turn off the computer and all
peripherals.
- Turn on the Arcus II.
- Boot the computer by pressing the power button on the front
of the computer. Please note that it is absolutely vital
to turn power on to the scanner before turning on the
computer. If the computer cannot find the scanner, you
must shut the computer off - rebooting it will have no effect.
- With the computer started, use either the desktop icon or
the Start menu to start Adobe Photoshop.
- In Photoshop, choose File:Import Twain 32...
This will start the FotoLook software.
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The FotoLook software is relatively complex. The window
is shown to the right. Starting at the top:
 | Original: You have 3 choices, Reflective,
Transparent, or Negative. Reflective is used for
material printed on paper, transparent for slides, and negative
for negative film. Special instructions for slides and
negatives are found below. |
| Mode: 4 choices: |
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Line-Art is for black & white drawings; Gray-Scale
for b&w photos, Color RGB for most color images,
and Color CMYK if you know what output device you will use
and have set it up.
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Bits per Color affects how many colors are displayed.
The choices are 8, 10 or 12; a larger number means more colors
(and a more realistic image) but larger file size. 8
should be sufficient for most images, but if the color seems
blotchy, try setting it to 10 or 12. |
| To scale the image, set the ScaleTo at 100% and
select an input corresponding to the number of lines per inch
on your output device (72 for a monitor, 600 or 1200 for a
color printer or laserwriter, respectively). Set it
between 400 and 600 to scan slides or negatives. |
| The Range, ToneCurve, Sharpness, Descreen
and Flavor options are advanced settings. You
should set the Range to Automatic (not Dmin/Dmax as shown
above). Ignore the others for now. If you are
scanning Line-Art you will see different choices. |
| Click on Preview to get a preview of the image. |
| Using the mouse, draw a rectangle on the preview image of
the area you want to make a final scan of. |
| Click on Scan to scan the image. A new window
will open in Photoshop with the scanned image. |
| You can make several scans before returning to
Photoshop. You cannot edit any of the images opened in
Photoshop without first closing the Fotolook window. |
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| Advanced Settings:
 If the
instructions above do not provide a satisfactory scan, you can use the
wizard to set up the scanner. Select the area you want to scan,
then start the wizard using the wizard button on the toolbar.
Among the settings that you can adjust are the descreen settings,
useful if the original is a newspaper or magazine photo (which is
actually composed of small dots.
If you are scanning slides or negatives, the transparency adapter of
the Arcus II is built in. It does not cover the entire glass,
however, so a special overlay is available to lay on the glass.
This forces you to put the transparencies in areas covered by the
transparency lamp. There are also several film holders to hold
film of various types flat on the screen. When scanning slides, I
typically lay 4 to 8 slides on the Arcus and scan them all at
once. I then cut and paste from this composite image in
Photoshop. For slides or negatives, you will want to set the input
ppi higher than 100; typically settings of 400 to 600 will give you a
decent-sized image. The preview and scanned images will be
dark. To fix this, in Photoshop:
- Highlight the image area of one of the slides.
- Select Edit:Copy from the menu
- Select File:New from the menu.
- Go to the new file (which is automatically sized to accommodate
the image). Select Edit:Paste from the menu.
- Now select Image:Adjust:AutoLevels from the menu.
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 The
FotoLook window with slides on the scanner. |
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| These two slides were scanned in with different scanners. The
slide on the left was scanned in using the Nikon LS-2000; the slide on
the right was scanned in using the Agfa Arcus II:
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