Textured paper and the Stipple effect

Sometimes when scanning an old photograph on a flatbed scanner you will see little speckles in the scanned image because the old photography paper was sometimes either stipple or luster and had a slight undulation texture. Because the flat bed scanner uses up and down lights you get this stipple effect as the light scans over the photograph's  little bumps creating tiny shadows and highlights. So sometimes, rather than scanning it, it is better to correctly photograph the image using a full frame large format camera and studio lights. This technique is also used for digitalizing large photos or artwork that don't fit on the flatbed scanner. You can see more about this technique on the Oversized Photos/Artwork page