I decided to start this thread with the idea that everyone here who scans, probably has some tips that they learned that they could share with others. The idea is that the better people are at scanning, the better the pictures will be that we download. This was how I learned to scan....with the help of other scanners.
So, if anyone would care to share some of their tips and techniques, this is the place to do it.
One of the first tips I got was to de-screen your scans if you scanned from magazines. My first scanner had a de-screen function, but you had to manually set it up, and it took a long time to get the correct lpi set.
The newer flatbed scanners have this de-screen function, only now you just turn it on. It does everything else itself.
If you don't de-screen a scan from a magazine, you will get lines running across the picture, or a crosshatch pattern. This is called moire, and it results from the half tone printing process that printers use.
If you scan an actual photograph, you don't need to de-screen it because it has a continuous emulsion, not half toning. You only need to use the de-screen function for the printed page.