Scanning of foil

  • Thread starter Thread starter David C.
  • Start date Start date
D

David C.

This may be impossible, but....

I'm scanning my DVD covers for insertion in a database program.

Some covers have the color printed on a foil-like backing. When I
scan these (on an Epson 4870), the colored ares come through OK. The
white areas (where it's basically plain foil) come out as a dark
purple.

Do you know of any way to eliminate this effect? Either via the
scanner software or Photoshop?

I tried using Photoshop's "replace color" functionality and the
result was not very good.

I may end up having to image these covers using a digital camera and
some bright ambient light. But I'd rather avoid that much work if I
can.

Any suggestions?

-- David
 
Please don't top-post. Message rearranged for easier reading
comprehension.
Would covering up the foil before scanning be an option?
Click to expand...

It's highly probable that the ink (or whatever) on top of the foil is
arranged such that it leaves bare foil showing in patterns that aren't
easy to cover up--think "big explosion behind a helicopter, all done in
foil". This looks nifty in a store display, but it's a PITA to scan
with the scanner David is using. He wants to scan the DVD cover and
spend as little time as possible on it, apparently.

David, why are you scanning the DVD covers, anyway? I did a quick grep
through freshmeat.net for DVD database programs a while back, and most
of those interfaced with IMDB in some way. No screwing around with
scanning crap then; you just tell the frontend "I have title 00123456"
and the backend downloads relevant JPEGs, summaries, and so forth from
IMDB--no screwing around, no fuss. Message-ID is
(e-mail address removed)202.dyndns.org
but I don't know how much it'll help you; everything I found required
Perl+Apache+MySQL and you're probably running 'Doze. You might want to
tell us the name of this DVD database you're using, since someone may
have experience with it and may know how to get it to grab images from
IMDB.
 
This may be impossible, but....

I'm scanning my DVD covers for insertion in a database program.

Some covers have the color printed on a foil-like backing. When I
scan these (on an Epson 4870), the colored ares come through OK. The
white areas (where it's basically plain foil) come out as a dark
purple.
Click to expand...


I think reflective foil is impossible to scan correctly. The scanner
lamp is too close and bright, the lighting angle is not adjustable, the
lamp is reflected directly back, the scanner calibration is designed for
duller paper, not a bright mirror, etc.

Lifting the trailing edge of the CD to change the angle to point away
from the lamp might possibly help, but it will introduce other
distortions. The camera seems the best way, so that the lighting can be
controlled. The scanner is not a camera, in regard to adjustable
lighting angles and focus distance.
 
The cursor defaults to the top fo the page, so it must be the natural place
that Bill Gates feels it should be, and that's good enough for me.
 
Dances With Crows said:
David, why are you scanning the DVD covers, anyway?
Click to expand...

Because I have a FileMaker database of my movies and I want to put
the cover art in it.
I did a quick grep through freshmeat.net for DVD database programs a
while back, and most of those interfaced with IMDB in some way. No
screwing around with scanning crap then; you just tell the frontend
"I have title 00123456" and the backend downloads relevant JPEGs,
summaries, and so forth from IMDB--no screwing around, no fuss.
Click to expand...

That's all great, but it doesn't answer my question.
Message-ID is
(e-mail address removed)202.dyndns.org
but I don't know how much it'll help you; everything I found
required Perl+Apache+MySQL and you're probably running 'Doze. You
might want to tell us the name of this DVD database you're using,
since someone may have experience with it and may know how to get it
to grab images from IMDB.
Click to expand...

Thanks for being so insulting. Next time, if you can't answer my
question, just don't reply at all.

*plonk*

-- David
 
Ivan said:
Would covering up the foil before scanning be an option?
Click to expand...

Not really. It's not like there's a big square of foil. It's usually
in the shape of some text or some other kind of image.

For the simple shapes, I can outline it with a lasso tool in Photoshop
and then do color replacement in the region, but that doesn't work for
more complicated patterns.

I can use a digital camera to capture these covers, but it's not easy
to set up the lighting and camera angle to get a good image without a
professional studio.

For now, I've simply been grabbing images off of Amazon's web site for
those I can't scan properly, but I don't like to do that. They aren't
always the same images I have on my DVD covers.

-- David
 
Wayne Fulton said:
I think reflective foil is impossible to scan correctly. ...
Click to expand...

I'm quickly coming to the same conclusion.
Lifting the trailing edge of the CD to change the angle to point
away from the lamp might possibly help, but it will introduce other
distortions.
Click to expand...

It helped a little, but not completely. Lifting it enough to get the
colors right ended up lifting part of the image too far for the
scanner to focus on.
The camera seems the best way, so that the lighting can be
controlled. The scanner is not a camera, in regard to adjustable
lighting angles and focus distance.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I was hoping there'd be some trick somewhere, possibly
involving post-processing that could compensate, but that's seeming
less and less likely as I try more experiments.

-- David
 
I did not see anything insulting in the post from 'Dances With ...'

And I thought his suggestion that you might try interfacing with an external
DB to get hold of the jpg images a solution that could save you a lot of
effort - indeed in one of your later posts you even admit to taking the
images off of Amazon's web site.
 
David said:
Not really. It's not like there's a big square of foil. It's usually
in the shape of some text or some other kind of image.

For the simple shapes, I can outline it with a lasso tool in Photoshop
and then do color replacement in the region, but that doesn't work for
more complicated patterns.

I can use a digital camera to capture these covers, but it's not easy
to set up the lighting and camera angle to get a good image without a
professional studio.

For now, I've simply been grabbing images off of Amazon's web site for
those I can't scan properly, but I don't like to do that. They aren't
always the same images I have on my DVD covers.

-- David
Click to expand...


You've hit the problem in your own post--you have to fiddle with the
lighting to get the angle of illumination just right, and with a scanner
the light and sensor element are usually pretty close to 90 degrees, so
the light bounces somewhere other than into the element. You can try
tipping one side of the cover to change the angle and correct the
keystoning with a program like Paint Shop Pro (perspective correction,
most have it nowdays), or use your camera and a light tent. This is
basically a thin sheet draped around the subject with lights shining on
all sides of it so there is not one source of light and the metallic
printing isn't lit from just one angle. But first, try shooting outdoors
on a *cloudy* day (same thing as a light tent).

Brendan
--
 
Back
Top