Help With This Picture

[BIZZYB]

I AM TRYING TO FIX THIS PHOTOGRAPH FOR A FRIEND. ONLY ONE THEY HAVE OF THEIR MOTHER. CAN SOMEONE HELP ME..WHERE DO I BEGIN. LOOKS PRETTY BAD AFTER SCAN...THANKS DIANA

UPDATE LARGER PHOTO TO SEE PROBLEMS....PER INSTRUCTIONS FOUND HERE.

WELL I TRIED TO DO IT AND I CANNOT GET THE SIZE SMALLER THAN 158. I DID EXACTLY BY INSTRUCTIONS TO NO AVAIL...ANYONE CAN HELP ME PLEASE ADVISE....THANKS IN ADVANCE

[cardmnal]

Diana,

The file is tiny and there is not much information to work with but I gave it a go anyway. Unforunately I did not write anything down but I think this is what I did.


I cleaned it up some by using a layer mask. A great tutorial for this is here .
Next i created a new fill/adjustment layer for channels and adjusted the sliders till I got the definition I wanted.
Adjust levels.
flatten layers.
unsharp mask.
adjust levels again.

[BIZZYB]

I Know It Is Tiny. I Tried To Make It Larger, However I Cannot Make It Smaller Than 158 For Some Reason. I Did What Instructions Said...hmmm Do You Know Why I Cannot Resize The File Size Lower Than 158...thanks For Your Help...and Any Ideas Oh How I Can Post A Larger Pic...diana

[missmab449]

hi i havent got any suggestions on repairing this photo but i have used Smart resizer to increase the DPI and size of the picture hope this helps with other adjustments

[CJ Swartz]

Diana, your file is much smaller than needed to work with -- it is only 71 pixels x 100 pixels -- it can be as large as 800 pixels x 1100 (plus or minus) if you are using Photoshop and use Save for Web, as explained below. You state that you were following instructions you found here in the forum, but it can be confusing when you're doing it for the first time, and you may have missed a step along the way. Missmabb has uploaded a resized version, but getting an original from you would be best for folks here to work on while helping you figure out how to do the retouch work.

Short tutorial on resizing for upload to RetouchPro forums:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...5171#post75171

Excerpt from above link:

As a thumb rule, the biggest size and best quality, I think, can be achieved still remaining in the 100KB limit, is JPG format, 800x600 pixels at about 60% quality setting ...

One way of doing it is the 'File > Save for Web' Option in Photoshop:

From the Options on the right side of the 'Save for Web' window choose:
JPEG Medium as Preset and check the Optimized Box. (Image 1)


Click on the small arrow on the right of the 'Preset' window and, from the cascading Menu, choose 'Optimize to File Size'. (Image 2)


Type 100 in the 'Desired File Size' Box ... (Image 3) ... and let Photoshop do the work for you!

[Flora]

Hi Diana,

Welcome to RP!

What everybody else said about the 'tiny' size of your picture ....

I've added something new and a couple of snapshots to the 'mini tutorial' CJ pointed out .... (Link to it in the bottom line under my signature too ...)

If you are working with PS, following those steps, you should be able to get your image to a 'workable' size .....

If you still have troubles, just 'yell' and we'll try to find another solution...

[BIZZYB]

Ok Here It Goes...i Hope It Works...lol Diana

By George I Think I've Got It...ok Now Try And Help Me With This Bad Photograph....thanks A Bunch Guys

[CJ Swartz]

It worked, it worked!!! It's BIG!!

Now we have something to work with...

[BIZZYB]

Lol Work On Honey.....lol

[Flora]

Hi Diana,

You did it!!! Great

Your picture is really in poor conditions .... beside the light 'honeycomb' texture it's very faded and out of focus/blurred .... Is the original just like that? ... Is it better and would improve by a different scanning procedure? Did it blur much after resizing?

Anyway I had a go at it .... nothing much can be done if the original is very blurred ... whatever you do, you'll never get it to a 'crisp' finish, even if you increase its contrast greatly .... actually by doing that you usually get solid black and white 'blocks' and lose any detail they might contain ....

I'm posting the result I got and if you think it's OK, I'll post a detailed description on how I got there ....

[BIZZYB]

Hi Flora,

I Scanned This At 800 Or 1200 Dpi. The Picture Is Pretty Much Like You See It, The Original Is A Wallet Sixe Print And I Scanned It To Be Printed As A Five By Seven. You Think That Is Too Big Of Expectations For Such A Bad Picture? If You Think I Would Get Better Results With A Different Scanning Method Please Tell Me The Best Way. Your Work On The Photo Is Much Better Than The One I Posted. If This Scanning Methond Is Sufficient Then Go Ahead And Leave Me The Info For Getting The Results That You Have. Thanks So Much...diana

[jonk]

Hi Diana,

This is really not that hard of a photograph to restore. The channels are in great shape and the image has little damage. The biggest problem I see is the “Print Texture”. This gives the photo a “Magazine” effect when scanning. I will scan this image several times and in different directions. Then superimpose each scan using translucent layers. Of course there are many ways to reduce this effect. No matter which one you use just remember; reduce the print texture before you do any restoration work. Otherwise it will just magnify the problem.

Here is a good thread on how to reduce print texture:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...=print+texture

I did the photos below with just a few minutes of work. I did some color corrections, restorations work using the Healing & Clone brushes. I did some final image adjustments with some filters to see the results (see second image).

A note on sizing – You might try to use the 10% method until you reach the size you’re looking for since this was a wallet photo. I would try this after I get a good scan. Just a thought.

Hope this was helpful!

Jon

[BIZZYB]

Hi Jon,

Thanks So Much For Your Help...though I Am Not Sure What You Mean By Using The Ten Percent Method. Could You Please Elaborate On That For Me. I Am New At This. Thanks Diana

[Flora]

Originally Posted by BIZZYB

Hi Flora,

I Scanned This At 800 Or 1200 Dpi. The Picture Is Pretty Much Like You See It, The Original Is A Wallet Sixe Print And I Scanned It To Be Printed As A Five By Seven. You Think That Is Too Big Of Expectations For Such A Bad Picture? If You Think I Would Get Better Results With A Different Scanning Method Please Tell Me The Best Way. Your Work On The Photo Is Much Better Than The One I Posted. If This Scanning Methond Is Sufficient Then Go Ahead And Leave Me The Info For Getting The Results That You Have. Thanks So Much...diana

Hi Diana,

.... your scanning technique is very, very accurate given the very small size of the original ... it explains the biiig file you had problems compressing, though ....
If I remember right, I read somewhere that scanning over 300 dpi only increases the file size and not the quality of it .... but given the reduced size of the original I think that increasing the scanning dpi a bit, is right!!!

Here is what I did with your picture .... (I work with Photoshop...)

• Duplicated the background.
  
  
• Run a soft Gaussian Blur (Radius 0.8) on the duplicate to minimize the honeycomb pattern. (there are different ways to do this, the best, described by Jon, is to scan the picture at different angles ... Roger wrote an excellent Tutorial on this technique ... but since this picture is originally very faded, I found that the Gaussian Blur did the job quite well, without deteriorating the image too much...)
  
  
• Created a Luminosity Mask, copied it on its own Layer (Ctrl+J), and set its blending to Multiply (adjust the Layer's Opacity as necessary)... (the action for creating a Luminosity Maks can be downloaded here).
  
  
• Going back to (clicking on) the blurred Layer, I created a Shadows Mask, copied it on its own Layer (Ctrl+J), and set its blending to Soft Light ... (the action for creating a Shadow Maks can be downloaded here).
  
  
• Merged Visible ... (the action for merging 'visible' without losing the underlying 'steps' can be downloaded here).
  
  
• Duplicated the Merged Layer and run the Polaroid Dust&Scratches Removal Filter for both Dark and Light Dust on the same Duplicated Layer ... (the Polaroid D&S Filter can be downloaded free here).
  
  
• Created a Black (Hide All) Layer Mask for the Dust corrected Layer and, with a small soft white Brush I painted over the spots and scratches to eliminate them.
  
  
• Merged Visible.
  
  
• I used the Levels to improve on tone and contrast a bit.
  
  
• Finally I Created a soft white vignette around the edges and corners to fade the background a bit...(the action for darkening Edges and Corners can be downloaded here). Even if the action is for 'darkening', when presented with the choice, just chose white or any other colour of your choice as your colour.

Hope this helps ....

[nebgranny]

Beautiful Beautiful work Flora. You are amazing !! As well as everyony who worked on the photo. I just played a little , cleaned her up a bit with clone brush, cut her out and put her on a very similiar background. I then just used the clairfy function. Neb