Scanned photo - whats the best process to get best quality from paper photos?

[tommykjensen]

I have not had time or oportunity to go out and photograph lately, hopefully I will get an oportunity to photograph some christmas photos one of the next days.

In the meantime I looked and some old paper photos and scanned this one of a dog my brother had several years ago. The scanned photo had some dust which I removed with PS CS filter dust & scratches. Then I used the history brush on some of the areas that became unsharp due to that filter. I did try scottes masking tutorial to mask the dog but I was not very successfull.



What else can I do?

What are Your process of scanning photos? I have a HP 5530C scanner.

Original scan before editing (http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/photohtml.php?n=scanned_dog_orig.jpg)


http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/photo.php?n=scanned_dog.jpg

[cmar]

I have PS 6, and the dust filter sucks, so I use the clone tool to remove dust and scratches.
No loss in sharpness that way.

[Meerkat17]

Obviously it was taken with flash and the retina tends to pick it up more than a humans - You will need to work on the eyes and darken them down.

The dogs nose looks quite sharp but I would do some sharpening of the eyes and head.

David