Making ambrotype or tintype is very interesting and rather hard process. The last step of the process is varnishing the plate. Varnish layer preserve a plate from oxidizing. But our work is not finished yet. Usually we need to make a digital copy of our ambrotype. The most common way is to scan an ambrotype or an tintype with flatbed scanner.

So you hold your ambrotype or tintype in your hands. Let make a perfect scan.

You know that ambrotypes and tintypes are positive images so we should scan them in reflection mode. But there is no white point on those images only black point. So we have to scan them in a slightly different way

I tell you a secret: you should scan with opened scanner lid in a dark room (I mean in a room without light not a photo dark room) When you scan in this way you get a perfect black border around your plate - this is a black point for future processing in Photoshop.

• Put a plate face down on a glass of the scanner. Do not close scanner lid
• Make Preview
• Select an area just a little bit smaller then a plate
• Set output levels to 0..255
• Set input levels in position so entire Output Histogram (to show Output Histogram just click Output button) will be inside those values
• Disable all enhancements: dust removers, sharping, etc
• Enlarge scan area to add a small black border around a plate
• Scan into tiff at 600-1200 dpi

Now we have to process the raw scan for better image. Let use Adobe Photoshop CS3 or higher. It'll better if you calibrate your monitor before.

• Open scanned image
• Set monitor colors(Window->Proof Setup->Monitor RGB)
• Open Levels Window (Image->Adjustment->Levels)
• Choose "Black point". Use left pipette from the Levels window and trap on the black border around image until you like the result
• Choose Mid-tone using second pipette and clicking on the medium tones on the image till you like the result
• You can adjust highlights slightly using right slider in a Levels window
• Crop black border
• (optional)You may tone the image, for example with "Photo filter"
• (optional)Change entire contrast with "Curves"

• Zoom to 100%
• Apply "Dust and Scratches" filter. You should play with parameters to remove dust but not remove details. Start from (2, 20)
• (optional)You can use History brush for previous step to apply dust remove step only in spesial places where no to much details
• Remove biger dust, spots, hairs by "Spot Healing Brush"

We should sharp scanned image because scanner has lenses, glass and there are loss of sharpness after scanning. You can use different approach to increase sharpness: "Unsharp Mask", Edge sharpness in Lab, etc. We will use rather simple method which makes good results: "High Pass" and Overlay.

• Create a copy of original layer
• Apply "High Pass" filter to a new layer. You should choose filter value so you can see only a contour of original image
• Apply "Gaussan Blur" filter with the value about the half of the previous one
• Set blend style "Overlay" for a top layer
• Set opacity 80% for a top laye and decrease in case of too high shapness
• Join all layers
• Save file in tiff format

So we processed a digital copy of ambrotype (or timtype) so we can print it or send to magazine for example. But we need slightly smaller image to publish over the web, or send by email, etc.

• Change Image size "Image->Image Size": set resolution 72dpi and size 500px on short side
• Apply "Unsharp Mask" filter. Choose filter parameters accoding to your liking. (Start from 40:0.5:0)
• Save a copy in JPEG format with highest quality value (12)s

So we got two files - one for publications in magazines, prints and another one for web and presentations.