Graded Card Scanning Guide - Take a Look!

BullJack13

Nic=The master of card scanning!!!

NGS428

@ReggieCleveland said:
Glad this got bumped. I'm adding the URL to my favorites so I never have to search for it again when I want to spread the word of the good book. This tutorial changed my life. I love you, Nic.

Arthur
xoxoxoxoxo

So much love! Thanks! A guy over on the BO forums requested the latest add. I love helping anyone out if they ask.

NGS428

@BullJack13 said:
Nic=The master of card scanning!!!

Thanks Jack! Dare I say you are the master of Griffey Star cards?!!

BullJack13

@NGS428 said:

@BullJack13 said:
Nic=The master of card scanning!!!

Thanks Jack! Dare I say you are the master of Griffey Star cards?!!

LOL, Not quite but thank you!!

1951WheatiesPremium

@NGS428 said:

@ReggieCleveland said:
Glad this got bumped. I'm adding the URL to my favorites so I never have to search for it again when I want to spread the word of the good book. This tutorial changed my life. I love you, Nic.

Arthur
xoxoxoxoxo

So much love! Thanks! A guy over on the BO forums requested the latest add. I love helping anyone out if they ask.

Nic, I went from pretty terrible to pretty good and you can basically see it happen in THIS thread 😂

Thanks again!

Newer efforts…

1947-66 Exhibits Jackie Robinson

ReggieCleveland

@1951WheatiesPremium said:

@NGS428 said:

@ReggieCleveland said:
Glad this got bumped. I'm adding the URL to my favorites so I never have to search for it again when I want to spread the word of the good book. This tutorial changed my life. I love you, Nic.

Arthur
xoxoxoxoxo

So much love! Thanks! A guy over on the BO forums requested the latest add. I love helping anyone out if they ask.

Nic, I went from pretty terrible to pretty good and you can basically see it happen in THIS thread 😂

Thanks again!

Newer efforts…

1947-66 Exhibits Jackie Robinson

You need to splurge a little and get a CCD scanner. Makes all the difference in the world.

Arthur

1951WheatiesPremium

@ReggieCleveland said:

@1951WheatiesPremium said:

@NGS428 said:

@ReggieCleveland said:
Glad this got bumped. I'm adding the URL to my favorites so I never have to search for it again when I want to spread the word of the good book. This tutorial changed my life. I love you, Nic.

Arthur
xoxoxoxoxo

So much love! Thanks! A guy over on the BO forums requested the latest add. I love helping anyone out if they ask.

Nic, I went from pretty terrible to pretty good and you can basically see it happen in THIS thread 😂

Thanks again!

Newer efforts…

1947-66 Exhibits Jackie Robinson

You need to splurge a little and get a CCD scanner. Makes all the difference in the world.

Arthur

As with just about every time you post, I’m
Sure you are right here too. But any extra money goes to cards and I am not a tech guy and it’s a three in one scanner-printer-copier. Here’s a small sample of the reason I even have it…





😂👍🤪😂
I make a point of rotating the real things in and out of storage often and these scans are good enough for me.

😉

Chicago1976

Thank you @NGS428. Very helpful! Now I know why my scans suck (I have CIS vs CCD). Probably time for an upgrade...lol

NGS428

@Chicago1976 said:
Thank you @NGS428. Very helpful! Now I know why my scans suck (I have CIS vs CCD). Probably time for an upgrade...lol

As far as graded cards go, remember CIS = Can’t Image For the S use whatever word you want...

NGS428

@1951WheatiesPremium said:

@ReggieCleveland said:

@1951WheatiesPremium said:

@NGS428 said:

@ReggieCleveland said:
Glad this got bumped. I'm adding the URL to my favorites so I never have to search for it again when I want to spread the word of the good book. This tutorial changed my life. I love you, Nic.

Arthur
xoxoxoxoxo

So much love! Thanks! A guy over on the BO forums requested the latest add. I love helping anyone out if they ask.

Nic, I went from pretty terrible to pretty good and you can basically see it happen in THIS thread 😂

Thanks again!

Newer efforts…

1947-66 Exhibits Jackie Robinson

You need to splurge a little and get a CCD scanner. Makes all the difference in the world.

Arthur

As with just about every time you post, I’m
Sure you are right here too. But any extra money goes to cards and I am not a tech guy and it’s a three in one scanner-printer-copier. Here’s a small sample of the reason I even have it…

😂👍🤪😂
I make a point of rotating the real things in and out of storage often and these scans are good enough for me.

😉

Those are some nice scans. I let my 3 in 1 scan those type of document's too. The V600 does the heavy lifting.

bgr

Nic,

Thanks for pointing me to this - would have saved me a ton of time.

Great guide full of lots of excellent tips.

For foil cards (like the 93 SP Jeter) I recommend using a backlight correction technique. This would adjust the gain and bias of each pixel in the image.

If you assume that the original image has a alpha of 1.0 and a beta of 0. you will step the alpha up between about 1.0 and 3.0 and adjust the beta between 0 and 100. The alpha adjusts the contrast and the beta adjusts the brightness. You could probably go as high as 2.0 on alpha and 50 on brightness and get a "shimmery" result. Both of these will introduce a linear frequency response to the image improving the legibility and brightness.

Here's an example.

This is the output from the scanner. Pretty basic default scanner settings.

Here's the adjustment I am referring to above.

Here's what most scanners would do with a gamma adjustment.

I guess judge for yourself which is better. I think that the ab-scaling vs. gamma-scaling produces a more rich output for these image types. But, I guess it's like both are fine, and maybe only image-nerds care.

Here's a quick little example if anyone wants to try it.

`import numpy as np;
import cv2 as cv;
import math as m;
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

imgO_nom = "/mnt/e/cards/ebay/2024_DGPT_Tattar_S25_FR.png";

imgO = cv.imread(imgO_nom, cv.IMREAD_UNCHANGED);

h = m.floor(imgO.shape[1] / 4);
w = m.floor(imgO.shape[0] / 4);

imgO = cv.resize(imgO, (h,w), cv.INTER_LINEAR);

h,w = imgO.shape[:2];
print("Image: ", w,h);

cv.imshow("a", imgO);
cv.imwrite("/mnt/e/cards/example/a.png", imgO);

a = 2.2;
b = 30;

imgB = imgO.copy();

for y in range(imgB.shape[0]):
for x in range(imgB.shape[1]):
for z in range(imgB.shape[2]):
imgB[y,x,z] = np.clip(a * imgB[y,x,z] + b, 0, 255);

cv.imshow("b", imgB);
cv.imwrite("/mnt/e/cards/example/b.png", imgB);

lut = np.empty((1,256), np.uint8);
for i in range(256):
lut[0,i] = np.clip(pow(i/255.0, 0.3) * 255.0, 0, 255);

imgC = cv.LUT(imgO, lut);

cv.imshow("c", imgC);
cv.imwrite("/mnt/e/cards/example/c.png", imgC);

while True:
key = cv.waitKey(0);
if key == 27:
print("Exit");
break;
`

NGS428

Thanks for the input @bgr ! Not sure I can successfully use the code you posted, but I’ll give it a few more reads.

Using my settings in the guide, my meter looks like this. My main goal is to get it to look like it does in hand. This one seems to be close as is.

Most of the feedback I get is on refractor cards and people wanting to see that refractor look. That has been a tough one to crack on a scanner.

bgr

Here's a quick example with the Jeter.

Here's your image... enhanced.

My scanner was a little brighter than what I was expecting there so that is somewhat over-saturated and looks worse. But yours looks better I think.