A question for those of you who scan drawings (maybe a new Mac/Wacom problem?)

LauraA

Hi all! After reading all of your advice I recently bought an Epson V600 scanner, and it seems to do a great job. But I am having a very weird problem in trying to use the scans, and I'm trying to figure out how much of it is my new computer and how much something about using scans in themselves. Bear with me, because this gets technical, but should make sense to those who use Photoshop.

So...I scan the drawing, drop the scan into the PS doc, go to channels and select all by pressing command (on a Mac), invert, and fill with black into a new layer. The scan is thus lifted to form a transparent layer. Then I turn off the original scanned layer and put the new layer where I need it. All good so far. My scan specs are 600 dpi .png, gray color space and generic gray Gamma 2.2 profile.

The problem comes when I try to adjust the new layer. I don't even always have the same problem, but frequently when I try to merge down an adjustment layer, the adjustment disappears. Other times it applies, but only to a part of the layer, and it leaves a strange box where the adjustment is not visible (or maybe vice versa, but still unacceptable). Sometimes, but only sometimes, I can make an adjustment directly through image >adjust. The problem seems to be the worst with curves layers, which are very useful for scanned drawings. I am also having problems with adjustment layers not clipping to the layer directly below, but making subtle shifts in the supposedly unaffected layers.

The weirdest thing of all is that if I add a digital pencil layer underneath the lifted scan layer, I can still adjust and apply it to the digital layer with no problem!

Naturally, I have been in touch with both PS and Wacom. The problem may be that there isn't a driver that works well with my new MacBook Pro 14 with silicon chip and Monterey. (I really needed a new computer and was already having plenty of tech support issues, so I had little choice about waiting until they worked out the kinks.) But I don't think the techs really know what they're talking about either, because they don't work like we do. They had never heard of this specific problem.

So, have any of you who scan drawing had problems like this? OR, do you have general advice for a scan-newbie? I really like the potential of pencil scans, but so far this has been a real headache!

Thank you!

Melissa_Bailey

@lauraa so ... I could just be spitballing here ... but have you tried setting the scan profile to RGB or CMYK and seeing if that helps or fixes your adjustment layer issue in PS?

I'm not a techie at all but I do know that in Photoshop, I run into issues when trying to import a grayscale image into a color document.

Is there a reason why you're scanning in b&w when the image is going to be colorized in PS? When I scan artwork (using an Epson WF-7820 all-in-one), I use Epson's ScanSmart app and scan in "photo mode", which only has the option of grayscale or color scanning -- the color scans are in RGB. I do some adjusting in the app, but most of the image editing and correction is done in Photoshop, including setting the color profile. It seems that every artist has their own scanning process; this is what works for me with the machine I have.

LauraA

@melissa-bailey-0 Thank you! I scanned in greyscale because I'm a scanner newbie and I figured "thousands of grays" sounded pretty good for a pencil drawing!

Yesterday I converted the whole doc to Adobe RBG 1998 (or whatever it's called), but I'm still having the same problem. I'll see what happens if I scan in color...