Scanner trouble (photo montage)
 

I'm having some trouble with our flatbed scanner reflecting light off some pictures and causing some general nastiness like big shiny spots on the scans. I'm using an Epson Rx595 all in one, and doing the import function through photoshop using the customizable pro settings. Have any suggestions or settings I should look at to reduce this? I'm stumped and can't find what I'm looking for online.

ok, i'm going to ask the most obvious of questions but hey, its worth a try:

are you closing the lid before you scan?

sorry :)

Yep, I'm closing the lid. A photographer friend of mine seems to think that maybe something is out of alignment for it to be causing reflections like that on the photo's surface.

Does the scanner Have a white background on the lid, if it does maybe try a piece of black construction paper behind the photo and see if its any better.

this has happened to me a few times and I find that in every case there is a substance of some sort on the face of the photgraph. Might be rubber glue or tape residue. I generally rub my finger over the face and can feel the junk so I can either remove it by rubbing my finger over it or a soft cloth but in some case a gum eraser does the job.
Don

Don,
I would think the same thing except it's happening over large areas of the photograph, one picture it happened over the entire middle 1/6th of the image.

I'm going to try the black background idea a little later. We'll see.

Ethan can you post a sample of the phenomenon?

Often a reflection is caused by the original not being completely flat to the glass. Have you tried scanning it in a different area of the glass? Does the reflection remain constant if the original is in a different place?

A mechanical misalignment usually manifests itself as a band of distortion perpendicular to the direction of the moving optics in the scanner.

I tend to agree with Don in that often there can be a "transparent" but refractive sunstance either on the glass or more often the photo.

Let us know how it's going!

It very well could be that it's not completely flat. I tried pressing down on the lid while doing a preview scan of my worst picture and sure enough, it got better. It's not 100% fixed, but it's better. I'll experiment with adding more padding in a few days when I have the chance.

Thanks for the tips. I'll try to post something in a few days.

Well I'll be a son of a...
 

Well you got me thinking about this little problem and I went over to my old Rx580 which recently died when I cleared a paperjam by pulling the wrong way (grrrr) and sure enough, the lid on the scanner part is a good bit heavier than the lid on the newer Rx595. I bet that's why I'm suddenly having these reflection issues.
Newer isn't always better.
Well now I'm kinda ticked off about this whole mess. They went cheap on the lid and it's causing me problems. Thanks Epson.