Processing the S-weeds for web presentation:

   The basic idea is quite simple: put the flower on the scanner without closing the lid. I don't like to crush the flowers, and besides it's easier to pry them out of a dark background. When the room isn't dark enough, I use a cardboard box fitted with black cloth on the inside.
   I usually scan at a resolution of 150 dpi - the round double of the 72dpi that will be used in the web images. 150dpi is an OK resolution for the necessary editing to lift the flower out of the background, and doesn't produce TOO huge files. Higher resolutions are useful for details, though - they work as a magnification. (Since I wrote this in September -01 I have started scanning routinely at 300dpi: better quality, easier editing. Also installed a new hard disk).

   The scanner bed is the most well-polished pane of glass in my home. Even so there are usually specks of dust and grit that need editing out (by handcraft) before the flower can be made into a neat selection. I lift this selection into a layer of its own against a tan background, reduce it to the final resolution of 72dpi, and give it a drop shadow. When I first tried PhotoShop I frowned at drop shadows, but without them the lifelike effect of the S-weeds just wouldn't be the same. (I'm STILL a fan of drop shadows for the purpose of bas-relief still life).
  At this point there will often be several different parts of a flower (details or scans from different angles) to arrange on the image surface. It pays, of course, to have given attention to placing the flower on the scanner in a way that shows it off best. Still, as I start thinking of the final webpage I will usually shift the orientation of the flower around some more.

   When the image looks right, I save it as a .gif - indexed colors. The .gif format lets you have a transparent background, which is what makes it possible to let the flower "float" on top of the background texture of the page - if the drop shadow has been made against a background of similar enough hue.

   Well, that's all there's to it! With the right tools, it's not such a complicated process - although it does take its time, and weeds with lots of fine hairs and fuzz are VERY frustrating to get to look even nearly right.

A final word to the Psychology of Learning: "Practice makes Perfect" - no, never perfect (I'm against perfection) but: using a technique for a long time you certainly get more skilled and find new ways of developing it.