Why did my scanner alter my Sailor Moon cel's colors?

90sKid · Post by **90sKid** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:23 am

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I recently scanned one of my cels and the image came out in a completely different color! It hasn't done this with any of my other cels, so I was wondering if it may be the type of paint or something? I'm really confused on why it did this. Here's a picture of the altered scan with a screenshot for comparison (I also included a snapshot of how it really looks)

Is there any tricks to getting my scanner to copy the right color?

Angelic-Lair · Post by **Angelic-Lair** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:44 am

Hi!
This is actually a really good question.

It's not so much the type of paint as it is the type of scanner. What brand of scanner are you using? (Canon, HP, Epson, other)
We have two scanners, an HP and a Canon, and each renders colors differently.
The Canon has a tendency to shift towards the red/yellow end of the spectrum but it cannot capture certain shades of pink. The HP has a tendency to shift towards the blue end of the spectrum.
It's a result of the type of lighting used - LED or Fluorescent.
Your scan looks like it came off a Canon scanner with LED lighting. The pink in the shirt is gone but the skin tones are way too red.
If that is indeed the case, then there isn't much that can be done. You can adjust for the red shift, but no matter how you calibrate the scanner, the pinks will not show up.
Unfortunately, it's the nature of the beast.

Edit: Here's an example of the same cel (our avatar) scanned on the HP: http://www.angelic-lair.com/beta/marine03b_b.jpg
and on the Canon: http://www.angelic-lair.com/beta/marine02_b.jpg
Notice the background color variations.

Nene · Post by **Nene** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:20 am

I used to use an old Lexmark when I first started collecting and it actually picked up pinks and reds perfectly, as per this cel: http://nene.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_ ... mID=225635
But I did notice that it also added a yellow tinge to brown colours.

I then bought a Brother A3 scanner a year or so ago and found that it doesn't pick up pinks very well at all. An example at the bottom of the page here: http://nene.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_ ... mID=237288

So like Angelic-Lair said, I think it probably depends on the type of scanner.

However, I did notice that your Usagi has that awkward pale pink which I've found to be a pain to scan. I have one cel with colouring like that: http://nene.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_ ... mID=266876

I had to scan Shampoo-Neko with a black background (used one of the Itoya inserts) and using the Lexmark scanner. I forget now but I may have even had to alter the colour slightly in a program to get it as close to accurate as possible.

Post by **sensei** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:38 am

I have MS Picture Manager loaded on my laptop, which has a nice feature
that allows you to readjust the color balance by selecting a portion that
you want to appear as white. When I scan, I leave a strip of the scanner
lid in, select for that (sometimes for all the new images at once) and do a
rough adjust. But, like Angelic-lair, I sometimes find it necessary to
fiddle with the scans to make them look more like the cel (usually upping
the contrast a little).

It is interesting that the subtle airbrushed blush didn't scan at all. You
might try Nene's trick of using a different colored background, black, or
maybe dark red.

Once I had a plain green background behind a cel that kept scanning
black. Someone told me that it was too close to the color of money, and
that the scanner had been preprogrammed to reject that specific shade
to foil counterfeiters. So I'm sure scanners are much more complicated
beasts than we give them credit for being.

Maybe money is pink in the country where your scanner is made?

90sKid · Post by **90sKid** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:06 pm

Thank you so much guys for all the replies! I'm glad to hear others have had this problem, because I really thought I just had some weird faulty scanner!

Angelic-Lair- My scanner isn't Cannon, it's a Lexmark one. I'm still guessing there's not much that can be done? xD And thanks for that pic comparison! I understand that scanners use color balance and all that techy stuff, but I still find it weird how it can just change colors on one and not on the other. (This is why I won't attempt touching the color button on mine. Too noobish with this stuff ha ha....)

Nene-I'm using a Lexmark too, but mine doesn't seem to be able to pick up the pinks/red properly. I'll definitely try scanning with the black background to see if that works! Thanks for the tip. =)

Sensei-Thank you for the tips as well! If all else fails, I might have to go fiddle around with my image in a picture program to get it to look at least semi-normal. (I was surprised that the blush didn't scan at all either. I mean, color changing is one thing, but making things disappear? Such a weird thing...)

And that's pretty interesting about the green! I didn't know that scanners auto blocked certain colors of the dollar. That would be kind of funny if my scanner was blocking pink because it was worried that I might be counterfeiting foreign money. If that was the case, I'd need an American scanner for my pinks, and a foreign one for my greens. xP

Again, thank all of you guys for the quick and helpful responses!

Golden Boy · Post by **Golden Boy** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 3:15 pm

There's always Photoshop (or your favorite image editor)!

My scanner tends to shift to red a bit. So I just bring it back in line with PS.

gb

Angelic-Lair · Post by **Angelic-Lair** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 4:02 pm

Some scanners just don't "see" certain colors. Whether it's because the manufacturers programmed these colors out, as Sensei implied, or because the hardware is limited remains to be seen. Suffice it to say that no two imaging devices ever "see" things exactly the same.

Which means:

1) If a scanner fails to "see" a particular color, then no amount of adjustment in Photoshop, Paintshop, etc. is going to bring that color out, as it was never there to start with.

2) If, however, the scanner actually can "see" the color, then it is merely making an adjustment for the white point, and you can probably trick it by using a colored background as Nene did.

Hope that helps! ^__^

iceman57 · Post by **iceman57** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 4:29 pm

Golden Boy wrote:There's always Photoshop (or your favorite image editor)!

My scanner tends to shift to red a bit. So I just bring it back in line with PS.

gb

Same here for Photoshop as whole color spectrum look a bit more pale on Mustek scanner. Brightness +10, Contrast +30, and cel gains back its original color.
About mis-scanned colors comes from a mix between CCD chip, scanner brand software and DPI resolution. The example of the blush missing appear to come from a low resolution matrix that used a main "pink" for the whole skin area instead of detailing the bunny face. I recommand at least a 1200 DPI scanner (using vertical and horizontal same DPI for a more realistic imaging. Some scanner only use the half quality on vertical and let the software algorythm fill the blanks with the attached mistakes).

90sKid · Post by **90sKid** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:29 pm

Thanks for all of the technical advice guys! I'll definitely try my hand at some of these tricks. =) Hopefully I can a better looking image up.

pixie_princess · Post by **pixie_princess** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:41 pm

Scanner wise, I've always had my best luck with ones that are able to scan negatives as well.I've never had any issues (related to color) with either of the two Canon scanners I've owned -they have both always done well on pinks and reds. If you ever consider purchasing a new scanner, it might be best to see if you can try it out in person.