scanning tip

if you've visited my flickr page, i am obviously obsessed with vintage magazines-especially from the 40's & 50's. i have hundreds of them-most bought on ebay in fat lots of 5+. the process is, items received in the mail, molly stops whatever she is doing, lays on the floor, and goes through every single one, ripping stuff out like a total nutter. then i scan my favs & post them on flickr for others to enjoy.

but here's the thing with scanning-especially old pictures-you get this weird pattern that is only really visible when you look at the picture up close-it's almost checkerboard.

but there is hope! a sweet soul on flickr gave me a tip-if you have photoshop, you can put a .5 gaussian blur on the picture, and VOILA-checkerboard pattern is obsolete. totally works & it takes 2 seconds. the old picture is on the left. easier to notice the difference if you see them larger (by clicking on each one).