How To Clean Up Scanned Sketches

Some people have been asking me for a quick and easy way to clean up smudges when scanning stuff off their MoleSkine's and sketch books.

Now, in Photoshop, all you need to do is pull up Levels from Image -> Adjustment. For the white arrow, pull it a bit left until it hits near the beginning bump of the rightmost curve. For the black arrow, go right slightly until the darks appear uniform.

Alternatively, you could always spike up the Brightness and Contrast, but that often results in much of the detail blowing up and getting a crappy look overall. Use this method and you'll be immediately more pro.