If I do Hand Drawing, and want to scan the pictures. I dont feel

>>3004944
Nothing other than scan at the highest optical (not interpolated) resolution that the scanner is capable of, at the highest bit-depth. Even if you're working in black and white, keep it in color mode, and disable all post-processing features in the scanner software. Then edit exposure/brightness/contrast/hue/saturation in Photoshop to try to get as close as possible.

Scan everything in color at the highest resolution possible in .tiff format with no compression.

You're always going to have to make adjustments to the color in Photoshop though. When I scan my paintings I find I have to create an adjustment layer for each color to tweak them just right.

>>3004944
scanning never comes out the correct color because it's shining a super bright white light onto (and through usually) the paper and pigments. better to take a picture with a camera in indirect sunlight

>>3004944
The issue is a scanner with no calibration just records what it's sensors "see" - generally it will just compare the colors to a generic RGB lookup table, and call it a day.

Getting a scanner to scan accurately is more complicated than worth the money and hassle. You'd need a good scanner ($500-$700), color correction software and a industry grade color target, a monitor colorimeter that can use the scanner target to create a custom LUT for your monitor (look up table), and then also whatever printing you want involved with any of that. Not cheap, not easy.

Source: me and my boss spent $50k and six months at an art publisher getting our monitors to match paintings we had drum scanned at a color house. It's gotten a bit cheaper since, and there's a lot more tech to support it, but you're gonna drop some coin doing it, and some effort.

>>3004944
The issue of adjusting files is your monitor is uncalibrated. You can adjust the colors, send the file to another computer/browser, and it will look completely different. You'd need a colorimeter to neutralize your greys, set the white point of your monitor to the ambient light in the room, THEN adjust colors. And then, they'll still look off on other monitors.

Here's my basic tips:

Black and white - scan in B&W mode, at 1200 dpi/ppi at least. In Photoshop, use the levels control panel to set the white point and the black point, then use the middle slider to adjust the values to minimize artifacts from the screen. It will take some trial and error.

Color:
This is a little more complicated. Canon software often does an acceptable job with the factory settings, and with digital ICE. Experiment. Try a scan with the recommended, and then try one with everything turned off and it's just a dump from the sensor to a file, and see how much work is needed to correct the file. I can do it easily because I was trained in color correction, it can be incredibly frustrating for a beginner who's not trained.

In general, don't let the scanner software sharpen, do that on your own. I will allow it to reduce grain, because Epson's software is pretty good at it. Other things, I figure out settings from trial and error, but I have a long background with scanning. Like everyone else has mentioned, you're going to have to manually adjust, unless you buy very expensive calibration equipment, or pay someone else to do it.
Basic Sharpening for Beginners:
Go to UnSharp Mask. Set amount to 200%.To start, set a low threshold between .5 and 1, and a small radius, around 10. Move the threshold, and look at the image. Apply threshold until artifacts appear at edges, or it overall looks too sharp, back off a few points. You're generally not going to need more than 2.0 of threshold, and a couple points of radius (more radius, more soft)

>>3005345
Not entirely true. Lighting for photographing art is a science, it's got everything to do with the shutter speed, the flashes, and the angle of the flashes. Shooting art without a flash is a waste of time, imho. And, flashes will also make some paint transparent, you can minimize this with the camera settings and flash. A scanner will do a much better job at just capturing the image, and the light is EVEN, which is crucial - you're recommending shooting in uneven light, which is pointless for capturing accuracy.

File: ColorTarget.jpg (1015KB, 1000x777px) Image search: [Google]

1015KB, 1000x777px

More tips:

Surprisingly to many, Auto Tone, Auto Color, and Auto Balance do a pretty good job. They're there for a reason. Try them. Often I'll just need Auto Color to have PS remove casts and neutralize the greys.

Next, Levels. Click on the options button. There's 4 choices for what Auto Levels does - try them all on the same painting scan. Often I find the "enhance per channel contrast" to be the best for color scans.

I won't go into adjusting color, I'd be here all night - color correction is an art. Your goal should be "good enough" with what you have. One thing you can do, is get a color target, a small one, with an accurate greyscale ramp, a white and black target, and the basic colors, so you can scan that with the image, and adjust to it. Again, your monitor isn't calibrated, but it will get you close enough. I'll attach a complicated one we've used in the past to test software and hardware. At the very least, use this file to adjust your monitor manually, then scan it and see what values your scanner is seeing. It might give you some insight to what color casts it's creating. Again, Epson software isn't bad for general use.

If you're looking for a scanner, I'd say the Epson perfection v600 - $200, and it's a beast, with pretty good results. I have a v500 here that's dying, and will be replaced soon with the v600. The higher end models are even more, but you're looking at $500 for those.

If you're curious, this is what you'd need to calibrate your scanner and system:
http://www.silverfast.com/show/it8-targets/en.html

>>3005512
I like my CanoScan Lide 220, it does a very decent job with watercolors.