awillfulmuse.myfastforum.org ~ Cleaning Tutorial:Step 6:Gutters

Nosferatu Translator Joined: 01 Nov 2008 Posts: 79

Sometimes you may notice a gray ban along the edge of your scan after you level your scan. You simply need to level this area separately.

First you'll need to enter Quick Mask mode. Click on the Quick Mask mode button and you'll notice at the top of your scan's window it'll say Quick Mask.

Then, select the brush tool

and use it to paint over the gutter. You'll notice that the parts you brush over will be a transparent red. If not then, click on the curved arrow like in the image below.

You'll notice that the black and white of the squares below it will flip. The brush will start painting a transparent red. Before it was painting a clear color. If you make a mistake and paint more than you want transparent red, then click on the arrow and then paint out the areas you don't want red.

The parts you paint red will be your selection. Actually, the clear area is selected and the red area is not selected, but we'll inverse it later. Its just easier to see the gutter this way.

Click to see full size image

Once you are done, click on the Standard Mode button and you'll notice that the red went away and part of the scan is selected. Right now, the area that was not painted red is selected. You'll need to inverse the selection so that the area that was painted red is selected. To do this, select 'Select>>Inverse' from the drop down menu at the top or hit 'Shift+Ctrl+i'

Click to see full size image

Now, you'll need to go back into the level window('Ctrl+l') and level the selected area separately. You'll want to level the area in stages, because part of the gutter is darker than other parts.

Click to see full size image

Once you level the area as much as you can without over leveling or under leveling a part of the selection. Then, you'll need to go back into Quick Mask Mode and modify your selection. You'll notice that most of the scan is transparent red now since you inversed the selection. You'll just need to paint red the areas that does not need to be leveled anymore.

Click to see full size image

When you are done, you can go back into Standard Mode and Level the selection again. This will need to be repeated until the gutter is basically gone, because sometimes some dirt can not simply be leveled away. OR if you've leveled the area to the point that the gutter is only appearing on an area that is all white, you may simply use the brush tool to wipe out the remainder of the gutter. Just be careful not to erase any of the images or parts of the frames.

Click to see full size image

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Previous Step: Leveling:
http://awillfulmuse.myfastforum.org/about636.html

Next Step: Dirt and Text:
http://awillfulmuse.myfastforum.org/about638.html

I'd just like to say some thing here. I've looked in many different areas for gutter and shadow tutorials and none of them seem to help me where I need help, if the shadow is only on white spots of the manga that's not hard to fix, but when you have heavy shadows on extremely detailed areas its much more challenging and none of the tutorials I've found have touched even a bit on how to fix those mangas, its shown how to do the easy ones and no the hard ones which are the ones people really need help on if you have one for what I'm talking about then I'd love you lots other wise good post.

I have trouble with those too, the gutter that overlaps on detailed areas. -_-; I end up just leveling whatever I can, the rest I go in with a small 1-3px brush and clean it as best as I can (or I use clone stamp).. time consuming but effective. I've also experimented with the curves option on certain areas but haven't had much luck with it yet.

Nosferatu Translator Joined: 01 Nov 2008 Posts: 79

Yeah, those are tricky. I usually level very carefully, which means that there are more leveling rounds than normal. And like Missa, I clone on really difficult patterned areas that simply won't level. If you want to post an example, I'll try to clean it and show you what I did with it.

Sounds like a challenge to me, lol jk. Let me look and see if I still have one that I remember looking at dumbfounded wondering what I was going to do.

Nosferatu Translator Joined: 01 Nov 2008 Posts: 79

Oh no! Be kind to me! j/k Sounds like a good idea. If I find something, I'll post it up.

I usually use the dodge and burn tool for getting in the sticky stuff and level out for the big large areas.

Nosferatu Translator Joined: 01 Nov 2008 Posts: 79

You're right Okami Hime! I forgot about those, they're useful tools too! Thanks for mentioning them.