Anime-Beta TNG

I usually used the microfiber cloth and tissue paper to wipe away dusts. Lately though, I couldn't help but notice my images seem to come out lighter and lighter. Not sure why that is, or if its some kind of hardware failure, but if not, I thought some cleaning tips might help. So topic, and also, do you guys use any kind of chemical stuff?

Any tip and advise welcomed.

I have always just used a small amount of normal glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth.
It sounds more like you are having a scanner/software problem if they keep coming out lighter.

Thanks for your input JWR! I'll try a bit of glass cleaner, if that don't work...then its my excuse to add a new scanner to wishlist lol

Is your scans becoming lighter on cels as well as sketches or just the sketches?
One thing I found was my original scanner (a Canon) had a white background on the inside lid that tended to wash out lightly penciled sketches. I had to place a black sheet of cardboard behind the sketch that fixed that problem for me. My new scanner (Mustek) has a black colored inside cover so I no longer need to add the extra sheet.

well that's a good question, its hard to tell on cels, I think they are slightly lighter, but due to the colors, its harder to tell. Its meanly sketch images that I can say for sure. On some sketches its got that washed out or too much light exposure look. I also noticed that it now takes a long time to scan an images. On highest quality, it takes somewhere between a minute and half to two minutes per scan. My scanner is the Mustek with black colored board inside, but when scanning cel I also find that I need to sometimes smack a text book or two on top of cel to keep it from "floating". Sometimes thats not enough and I have to press my hand against the books to keep the entire cel completely flat down onto scanning bed. Maybe that destroyed the scanner?

Unless your scan bar (that travels under the glass) is binding or sticking I doubt that the pressure you are putting on is affecting the scan quality. You might look at the settings (maybe scan at a lower resolution) and see if how those changes affect your scan (you can always reset them later if you wish).

I expect you may need to replace your scanner down road if the problem continues or gets worse.

I don't think the scan bar is sticking or anything but well...mustek doesn't have many option thats for sure, I'll try to lower resolution and see what happens.

I run my Mustek scanner through my "photoshop" program in my case Epson Photoimpressions. That gives me more control and I can edit them right there after scan.

I usually edit the scan with basic program such as IrfanView or windows photo gallery or rarely, paint. Does small adjustments such as brightening the image up with little effort. Doesn't seem to help very much on the sketch scans, lately. I'll get sometime to test out more scans this weekend, will see what happens.