1. I have built a chamber from strips of mirror one inch high and four by five inches in width and length. This fits into the tranny hood space on the scanner. I place the light box (having previously removed it from the base) on top of this chamber, which means the light source is now lifted by an inch from the scanning bed. The flower or object to be scanned is placed inside the chamber. It is sufficiently large enough for most small objects. (I may build a larger chamber to fit across the whole scanner bed).

 

2. I now make my first scan as if scanning a transparency. This gives a translucent flower on a clear white background. Save as a file.

 

3. WITHOUT MOVING the subject or the box and hood I next make a scan as a flatbed scan. This is done by firstly making a pre-scan and then setting the scanner settings to yield the same size and resolution as the scan using the transparency hood. This gives a solid flower, but will be against a messy background. Save as file.

 

4. Now for the important bit. Open both the files, and they should be exactly the same in size and resolution. Drag the translucent flower into the solid flower as a second layer and save the new file. Close the previously two files.

 

5. You now have a picture with three layers. Background plus two identical flowers but against different backgrounds. The translucent layer need to be the top layer. Using the magic wand tool, or whichever your favourite way of selecting is, select the flower from the background. Save the selection as a Channel. Once selected remove the background on the translucent flower layer by deleting it. The translucent flower now is sitting on top of the next layer. Using the Vector tool line the two layers up exactly. Re-select the previously saved selection, select the solid flower layer, and then remove the background by deleting it.

 

6. If all has gone well you should now have two identical flowers on two separate layers against the Background Layer. Save this file.

 

7. I can now say 'add salt to taste' but instead what you do is to use the opacity, or any other colour adjustment tools until the flower is to your liking. With the example I sent I intensified the colour on the bottom layer and reduced the opacity on the top layer until the desired affect was achieved.

 

8. You will have gathered by now that to put together a number of different flowers plus buds and other paraphernalia could easily result in several layers, and a recent attempt of mine resulted in a file size of 254MB before flattening for printing.