How to make a really nice scan/picture of the cel?

If you have a lot of larger items and don't have the ability to stitch scans together, you might want to consider buying an A3 scanner. The Mustek one runs about $150 w/ shipping on E-bay, and other than the included software being a bit wonky, I've heard good things about it. Plus, it beats dragging the item to Kinko FedEx, having to lie to the workers that it's your original painting (they won't scan copyrighted stuff due to lawsuits) and explaining to the staff that you already know how to work the machine and would appreciate it if they didn't touch your cel without gloves (true story).

Thank you everyone for the tips!
I am going to try it again this evening and see if I can get some better scans by playing around with the colors and putting in a background.

Thank you!

Here's something it took me years to realize I could do in photoshop: Photomerge!! When I used to scan things too big for my scanner, I'd scan it in pieces and then stick the pieces together myself and then try to blend the two halves together by clone stamping, smudging, etc. Then one day a coworker pointed out to me that photoshop will do all that work for you (with better results). If you scan something in pieces, save all the pieces together in one folder. Then go to File, select 'Automate' and then select 'photomerge'. Browse to the folder where the pieces are kept and then photoshop will automatically combine them into a single image. GREAT for backgrounds and oversized cels. I really can't believe how much time I wasted in the past not knowing I could do that. Also saves you money not needing to buy a larger scanner .:)

For color adjustments I just adjust the levels the most. Hit 'control + L' and then play around with the slider to make dark areas brighter or washed out areas darker. I also sometimes increase the saturation a smidge with the hue/saturation slider you can bring up with 'control + U'.

oh wow! I did not know that!

I will have to try that for my pan cels tonight. ^__^
Thanks!!!

I scan cels in pieces, too. During the scan process I had to press my hand on the top cover so that no light comes in.

For my Ai Shite Night cel I have to use a different way because my scanner adulterate the color. Simply I take a photo and cut it with GIMP.