Well, its not much of a tutorial. More like steps I follow. =D
Photoshop is needed!!
First off I assume you know what burn and dodge tools do. If you don’t then I suggest you brush up on basics before you start this.
I’ll explain a bit about leveling.
Go to levels and you will see 3 pointers. One in the far left, one in the middle and one in the far left. Here’s what I do. I bring the black triangle to the edge of the spike near it and set the white triangle to about 235-250. It depends on the image quality mostly.
Now we need to adjust the gray slider to the right to make the whole page a little darker. Be careful because this is the easiest place to over-level! Zoom into the page and watch the lines as you adjust the sliders. You don’t want them to become too pixelated! You just want to darken them up a little. If you over-level, then all your grays pixels are converted to either black or white, and this makes the lines look pixelated. Over-leveled blacks have a jagged look, and you can see ‘steps’ in the line. Gray pixels make lines look smooth . The trick here is to remove the grays we don’t want, but keep the grays we do want.
I had to change it from 1.15 - 0.84 depending on the manga page.
We are also going to need ‘topaz labs’ filters for this. Download “Topaz denoise” and “topaz clean” from the internet.
the page we shall use is this.
So here is what we are going to do.
You will find that most manga pages are like this (Fairy Tail manga scans are total crap, but most of them are like this). What we need to do is remove the grayness of the whole picture. Here’s how you do it.
At first duplicate the layer and set the image to grayscale. Then go to Image-> adjustments-> Replace Color
Then use the settings I show you.
Set fuzziness to 80 and lightness to 100. It works on almost all manga pages.
What happens here is the gray parts are removed. All you have to do is press on a gray part in the small picture. Fiddle around a bit and you’ll understand.
Next go to levels. I have already explained what it is and how it works. Here are the settings I use.
Experts say don’t move the middle one much so its wise to listen to them.
Then duplicate this layer(the one with the “levels” edits). Set it to ‘multiply’ and put ‘opacity’ to 38 percent. The settings for opacity changes depending on the raw quality. So fiddle around. Here are my settings:
After that, flatten the image. Yes. Flatten it. Then go to Filters-> Stylize-> Duffuse-> Anisotrophic.
This is what mine looks like now.
As you can see, there are some patterns on the picture(yours and mine).
Now, we need to use the burn and dodge tools. REMEMBER: Always put the image to RGB color when using these tools.
I usually burn the midtones on selected places. For example the places marked in yellow in the above picture. I burn the shadows in the places marked in red. Fiddle around and you’ll understand. [Remember to set exposure to these tools to 50%]
This is what my picture looks like now
Some people prefer to use Gaussian blur at this point. Don’t do it unless you have to.
Now, we use the Topaz Studio.
GO to Topaz Denoise. Here are the settings I use.
Fiddle around with these. You’ll get to understand the tool better then.
Burn/dodge again if you have to.
Then go to topaz studio and select topaz clean.
Press cartooned on the left(always). Now this part I leave to you. Fiddle around until you get it right. [Hint: once you press cartooned, 75% of the work get done already]
here is what I came up with
As you see, my work isn’t perfect and my explaining is not good as well. But, we do have the internet right? Try to use it to make your job easier.
BTW: I have yet to properly clean this page. There are 4 basic things I did not do. Can you identify them?
And you can find some raw manga pages here to practice on :
and here are some:
Photoshop is needed!!
First off I assume you know what burn and dodge tools do. If you don’t then I suggest you brush up on basics before you start this.
I’ll explain a bit about leveling.
Go to levels and you will see 3 pointers. One in the far left, one in the middle and one in the far left. Here’s what I do. I bring the black triangle to the edge of the spike near it and set the white triangle to about 235-250. It depends on the image quality mostly.
Now we need to adjust the gray slider to the right to make the whole page a little darker. Be careful because this is the easiest place to over-level! Zoom into the page and watch the lines as you adjust the sliders. You don’t want them to become too pixelated! You just want to darken them up a little. If you over-level, then all your grays pixels are converted to either black or white, and this makes the lines look pixelated. Over-leveled blacks have a jagged look, and you can see ‘steps’ in the line. Gray pixels make lines look smooth . The trick here is to remove the grays we don’t want, but keep the grays we do want.
I had to change it from 1.15 - 0.84 depending on the manga page.
We are also going to need ‘topaz labs’ filters for this. Download “Topaz denoise” and “topaz clean” from the internet.
You must be registered for see links
: You’ll find them here.Fiddle!! Fiddle!! Fiddle!! Fiddle around with the settings and try to understand it.
the page we shall use is this.
You must be registered for see images
So here is what we are going to do.
You will find that most manga pages are like this (Fairy Tail manga scans are total crap, but most of them are like this). What we need to do is remove the grayness of the whole picture. Here’s how you do it.
At first duplicate the layer and set the image to grayscale. Then go to Image-> adjustments-> Replace Color
Then use the settings I show you.
You must be registered for see images
Set fuzziness to 80 and lightness to 100. It works on almost all manga pages.
What happens here is the gray parts are removed. All you have to do is press on a gray part in the small picture. Fiddle around a bit and you’ll understand.
Next go to levels. I have already explained what it is and how it works. Here are the settings I use.
You must be registered for see images
Experts say don’t move the middle one much so its wise to listen to them.
Then duplicate this layer(the one with the “levels” edits). Set it to ‘multiply’ and put ‘opacity’ to 38 percent. The settings for opacity changes depending on the raw quality. So fiddle around. Here are my settings:
You must be registered for see images
After that, flatten the image. Yes. Flatten it. Then go to Filters-> Stylize-> Duffuse-> Anisotrophic.
This is what mine looks like now.
You must be registered for see images
As you can see, there are some patterns on the picture(yours and mine).
Now, we need to use the burn and dodge tools. REMEMBER: Always put the image to RGB color when using these tools.
I usually burn the midtones on selected places. For example the places marked in yellow in the above picture. I burn the shadows in the places marked in red. Fiddle around and you’ll understand. [Remember to set exposure to these tools to 50%]
This is what my picture looks like now
You must be registered for see images
Some people prefer to use Gaussian blur at this point. Don’t do it unless you have to.
Now, we use the Topaz Studio.
GO to Topaz Denoise. Here are the settings I use.
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
Fiddle around with these. You’ll get to understand the tool better then.
Burn/dodge again if you have to.
Then go to topaz studio and select topaz clean.
Press cartooned on the left(always). Now this part I leave to you. Fiddle around until you get it right. [Hint: once you press cartooned, 75% of the work get done already]
here is what I came up with
You must be registered for see images
As you see, my work isn’t perfect and my explaining is not good as well. But, we do have the internet right? Try to use it to make your job easier.
BTW: I have yet to properly clean this page. There are 4 basic things I did not do. Can you identify them?
And you can find some raw manga pages here to practice on :
You must be registered for see links
and here are some:
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
Last edited:
