I recently developed an image of a person playing guitar on a 8x10 print. The person was wearing a black hooded sweater so alot of the image is black with the exception of part of his face/his hand/and the bottom of the guitar. This is intentional as it adds mood to the image. I have a cheap scanner packaged with my printer (its not flatbed). If I scan the images while trying to get the black parts black. I get missing parts of the face (parts that are shadowed). If I try to get the face to show in the image, the black parts are gray and faded.
I am wondering if a more expensive flatbed scanner would pick up a greater range of shades in the image, or will I be forced to labor with this image in photoshop (even tho the print is perfect).