Debinding > Cropping

You wouldn't even know it was cropped unless you saw the original. I never knew you had such a hard-on for complete fences.

You wouldn't know many images are overfiltered, clipped, oversaturated and have a green cast unless you saw the original, either...

Yeah, I agree. And since I can't buy everything, I guess it's easier for me to accept the way it's presented unless there's some obvious mistake that ruins the central focus of the image.

cheese said:
You wouldn't even know it was cropped unless you saw the original. I never knew you had such a hard-on for complete fences.

You might might shrug your shoulders, and say 'So what?' but I have the belief that we should try to retain the original image where possible. I want to see the artists original vision, and scanning a de-bound artbook is the correct way to do it.

In this case cropping is the only way to get anything decent out of the Pireze scans. Such a pity.

You can usually recover a lot more with dodge tool->highlights in PS.

I don't make a habit of fixing random batches like that. I don't want scanners to start thinkin: "why debind, when this guy will just fix it for me?". It can take me several minutes to fix a scan like this--doing it on a batch can take hours. So, I only use this fix on images I happen to like. The results are usually better, though generally still need some cropping; it tends to become posterized as the discoloration gets worse.

If anyone wants to try this, a couple tips:
- convert the image to 16-bit. This way, you can raise and lower the brightness (dodge/burn) without posterizing the image more and more. Convert back to 8-bit when you're done.
- work with a curves layer on top to enhance the problem. Otherwise, you may only partially fix it, and even if it's not easily visible to you, it may be on other monitors and to other eyes. Delete the layer when you're done.

I'd think there'd be a way to do this more automatically--measuring the discoloration and applying dodge with a precise gradient. I havn't found a good way to do that, though.

(This won't help blurring, which is another symptom of the binding lifting the page off the scanner bed.)

The artist's original vision is in a book or on a file on his/her computer. Scanning is already a lossy process. Even at 600 DPI or more you are losing the paper presentation (matte, textured, glossy), the way the image hits the light and the original colors as soon as it's scanned. Every monitor displays differently, and even your level of brightness affects what the end user sees. You can assume you're seeing it as you should, but unless you own the book, you don't know and you're doing the same as shrugging your shoulders and saying 'so what.'

Want to see the artist's original vision? Pay for their work.

It's not perfect, therefore it doesn't matter how bad it is? That's just a poor excuse to justify poor scans.

Want to see the artist's original vision? Pay for their work.

Please, this is just condescending. A book that sold for 800 yen can cost me $40, after shipping and deputy fees and auction markup, and none of that extra cost goes to the artist.

Excuses are excuses. Not buying it at all because it's expensive is also an excuse.

My ultimate point was that these scans aren't bad, especially compared to the usual from Pireze. End of story.

It's not an excuse, it's a reason--and a very good reason, unless you're independently wealthy.

Luxury items are just that, a luxury. You don't need to have it, it's not vital to your existence so if you can't afford it now, you don't buy it or you save up to get it. Thus, not buying it because it's expensive is an excuse.

Can you both stop arguing about this, please take it to pm

An 800 yen item is not a "luxury item". It's an affordable book, made unaffordable by external costs that don't benefit the artist even slightly. Not spending $40 for on an 800 yen item is not an excuse; it's common sense.

There are also plenty of books (such as this one) which I'm not interested in enough to want them on my shelf. I don't want every book. That doesn't mean I don't want to see them in high quality. That's why I'm here.