@rek Yeah, sorry for not being more specific (I don't really know why my results aren't as good so I don't know the unknowns), but I will try to play with the levels and do some touch ups.
I have a feeling that I didn't set the scanner quality as high as it could and that's why I got some artifacts, so that's another thing to check.
Thanks for the tips and inspiration nonetheless, and I'd love to see more details of the process!