Critiques - - Before and After

AtlanaAnna · #1 06-11-2005, 01:03 AM

I used the Healing brush to clean the specks in the background as well as specks in the shirt. I used Levels to darken the image slightly. That's all I've done at this point. I can't decide if the picture looks better before or after I darkened it a little. Also, I'm interested in knowing what some of you would do with this picture.

Thanks,
Sylvia Morris

Caitlin · #2 06-11-2005, 01:40 AM

The main thing I would do with this photo (which is basically in very good condition) is find the best way to remove the paper texture.

There are a couple of ways - See if scanning the photo at a different angle lessens the shadows, or you can see if scanning twice, rotating the picture by 180 degrees between scans, and overlaying them helps. This can have very good results though it is fiddly.

Another tool discussed a lot here lately is the free FFT RGB filter. I had a go with this on your picture, and it was only partially successul. I think this might be because the pattern is not across the whole image - but vanishes to white in the background. Do you have an original scan where the pattern is apparent in the background as well?

Finally, Neat Image can also have some success removing paper texture. In this case it would also be more effective if the paper texture was present in the background - in this case so there was a uniform area of pattern to sample.

Attachment 1 is FFT. 2 is Neat Image - results would be much improved with the textured background intact.

soleah · #3 06-11-2005, 07:35 AM

You might want to try this tutorial by Flora - Remove Photopaper Texture from Old Photos

This tutorial uses Neat Image and Gaussian Blur.

AtlanaAnna · #4 06-11-2005, 10:38 AM

Thank you both so much. I'm off to work with these techniques. I may have more questions.

AtlanaAnna · #5 06-11-2005, 11:36 AM

Well, I've fallen flat on my face trying both of these techniques. I just don't have enough foundational knowledge to get through this. I do have the original scan as well as the original picture. When I Zoom in, I can see the honey comb pattern in the background of the white area. I did go download Neat Image; however, I don't know how to make it function as a plug-in with Photoshop. When I tried to open the image inside Neat Image as a stand-alone application, it said it couldn't open the image because it was a .tiff file and referenced Grayscale and RGB bit ranges that are acceptable. Can you give me a few more baby-steps to get me a little further along? Thanks.

soleah · #6 06-11-2005, 01:10 PM

As it is, Anna, I'm using the Neat Image stand alone demo version.

This version does support TIFF files with NO IMAGE COMPRESSION. However, it cannot save the output to a TIFF file. Only to a JPEG file.

Make a duplicate of your file first and use that duplicate in neat image.

Here's what you do:
1. Duplicate your file. - Click Image - Duplicate

2. Using your duplicate file, Flatten your image - To reduce file size

3. Save duplicate in TIFF format - When you're in the TIFF Options dialog box, under the IMAGE COMPRESSION, click NONE.

4. In Neat Image, open your duplicate file. You probably might want to experiment. I just accept the default setting.

5. In Photoshop, open the output file created from NeatImage, copy it and paste it on top your original file.

6. Here's the thing. Neat Image does a good job of removing noise/texture but it also makes the important details blurry. Add layer mask and with a soft black brush paint over those important details like the eyes, nose, mouth and hair. You can also adjust the opacity of the layer.

Let us know how you did it.

AtlanaAnna · #7 06-11-2005, 02:11 PM

This image is in indexed color mode. Do I need to change it to RBG to do this? Also, after duplicating the image, I'm not sure what you mean about flattening the duplicate image. With the duplicate image selected, the Flatten command is grayed out / not available. Excuse my iliteracy but I thought there would need to be layers for me to flatten an image. I may need a few more detailed baby-steps. Thanks so much for your help.

AtlanaAnna · #8 06-11-2005, 05:42 PM

Stuck again.......... I've got the image duplicated and flatten and opened inside Neat Image. When I tried to do the AutoProfile, it just says NeatImage cannot automatically find uniform area. I've played around in the software but I can't seem to figure out what to do. Any ideas?

Caitlin · #9 06-11-2005, 05:46 PM

Anna - In NeatImage I used the boy's forehead, though I think the background would be better if it does have uniform paper pattern on it. If you have to ignore the NeatImage warning, and see what the result is.

AtlanaAnna · #10 06-11-2005, 11:57 PM

Just want to let you know where I am in the process. I'm showing you the results after putting it through NeatImage. The 'after' result removed all the noise except for on the shirt. Look at how it discriminated. Any thoughts?

Caitlin · #11 06-12-2005, 01:38 AM

What you could try is a couple of different duplicate layers, and use a stronger Neat Image on each. So for the shirt really bump up the noise reduction, and mask out everything but that section to show the 'lighter' de-noising below for the rest of the photo. (This is paraphrasing the tutorial Flora has done on the topic)

Swampy · #12 06-12-2005, 02:13 PM

I ran the Noise->Despeckle filter about 6 times on the image. It did a pretty good job of cleaning up the moire look in the shadows.

Kraellin · #13 06-12-2005, 04:16 PM

this looks like a halftone or newsprint type image. did you scan it this way or is that the way it was/is?

besides the spottiness/halftone aspect, this image needs some tones, different tones. it's too 'black and white'. the stark white background mixed with his overly white/light face and shirt, gives this image a bit of an overexposed look. darkening the background with some light mixed greys and adding some grey texture to his face would help a lot. try some curves, levels and histogram adjustment to spread out the tones a bit.

Craig

soleah · #14 06-12-2005, 06:58 PM

Hello Sylvia,

Regarding your last post, you're doing a good job. To remove remaining pattern/texture, aside from the instructions offered by the others here which would also be very effective, you can also apply Flora's tutorial. She used the Gaussian blur filter.

This is a normal process, Sylvia. Try everything you can.

AtlanaAnna · #15 06-12-2005, 07:02 PM

Kraellin,

I totally agree with you. That's what I needed to hear. I was thinking the same thing but I don't have enough experience to know that's the problem. Caitlin, I maxed out the NeatImage settings on this picture. I'm not sure how to use masking to work with the shirt but I'm going to play with it and see if I can figure it out. Swampy, I'm going to also try your suggestion and see what kind of results I get. I may need more help and I so appreciate everyone's input!

Sylvia