How to Scan Photographs in Photoshop
When working on a photo in Adobe Photoshop, it is always preferable to use a digital version you have transferred from a camera or a digital storage media such as a CD, SD card or flash drive. However, there will likely be occasions when you are forced to work with a scanned copy, such as when you are doing photo restoration work. Fortunately, scanning a photograph directly into Adobe Photoshop is a fairly straightforward process.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Place the document you want to scan into Photoshop onto your scanner bed. If the document is an old photo you are trying to restore and preserve, be careful while handling it so that you don't cause further damage. Lower the top and turn on the scanner.
-
2
Open Photoshop. Select "File" from the menu, click "Import" and select your scanner from the listed devices. If you scanner didn't come with a Photoshop plug-in, click the "Select Twain 32 Source" option. Photoshop CS5 users will need to download the Twain plug-in from Adobe's website.
-
-
3
Click on the "Preview" button in the scanner interface to get a quick test scan of the document. Reposition if necessary and reload the preview.
-
4
Use the scanner software selection tool to restrict the scan to only the document itself (otherwise it may include white space from your scanner bed). Raise the scan resolution to at least 600 DPI, then click "Scan." The scanned photo will appear in Photoshop. If you want the scanned photo to be larger, proceed to the next step. If the size is OK, skip to Step 6.
-
5
Select "Image" from the menu and click "Image size." In the dialog that opens, change "Interpolation" to "Bicubic smoother." Then choose the increment format you want (pixels or inches) and increase the width and height to your preferences for the photo. Click "OK."
-
6
Select "File" and click "Save as." In the dialog box, name your file, select the location you want to save to and save it as a high-resolution .JPEG file.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
The Twain plug-in will only work with Twain-compatible scanners.
