Newbie -- Need Help Cleaning up Dirt

[kcole321]

I've attached copies of a photo of my husband's father that I've been trying to restore. I'm new at this; but, as you can see, I've managed a fair job of cleaning up the image itself. However, I'd like to save the matte also. I can't figure out how to clean up the 'dirt' without destroying the detail of the embossing. Any help would really be appreciated. I've struggled with this for quite a while.

Thanks, in advance.

K.

[Kraellin]

ah, a michigander! welcome to RP, kcole. (i used to live in the ann arbor/ypsilanti area for years).

there is a very simple technique for handling most of what you're wanting here. duplicate the layer. then, make a new, blank raster layer. highlight the 2nd layer (the dupe of the background), and use your color picker to sample the most prevalent color on the matte. on the blank raster layer use your airbrush/spraypaint tool set at a fairly low opacity (i used 18 and lower) and simply 'spray' over the areas you wish to change. the beauty of this is that you still keep a fair amount of texture and can erase anything on the sprayed layer that isnt right. very simple.

now, i went ahead and did up a quick job on your picture to illustrate. this took all of about 15 minutes or so and i didnt do much of the detail work. that's YOUR job but it shldnt be that tough. when working around the studio name embossing, i simply used a smaller brush.

and, after doing the spraying, you could do a blur on the sprayed layer if you wanted. i preferred not to in this instance as i thought it would destroy more texture.

to finalize things a bit, i added an adjustment layer of contrast/lighten. i went -5 on lighten and +15 on contrast.

et voila'

craig

edit: oh, and i resized the image for better compression on posting here.
and, the other beauty of using that technique is that you can not only erase what you dont like without being destructive to the original, you can also ADD more in if you dont like an area. i'd recommend doing the whole image at roughly what i did and then going over it again at a lower opacity to touch it up. i didnt do that last bit as i just wanted to show you the technique.

and, if too much texture is removed and just unvoidable, you can always add more back with some masks and noise or masks and a pattern or texture application.

[kcole321]

Wow! That looks really great. Hope I can follow all your directions. I'll give it a try and come back with more questions if necessary.

BTW, I also live in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area in what used to be a little town called Belleville. I really love it here, but there is so much building going on that I'm wondering if I'll need to move to stay in the "country".

Also, can you suggest any classes that would help in learning photo restoration. I really enjoy doing these pictures, but get really frustated when I come across a problem I can't figure out how to fix!!

Thanks for your help.

Kathy

[Cameraken]

Hi Kathy. Welcome to Retouch Pro

I’m not to keen on painting and try to avoid it if I can. I looked for another way.

Duplicate the background and Rename it High Pass.

On the High Pass Layer run Filter > Other > High Pass with Radius 5.0. Then Set the blending Mode to Luminosity.

Now (with the High Pass Layer Active) Image > Adjust > Levels.
Use these Numbers 50 1.00 140

The Frame should now look OK. All that remains is to add a layer mask with an oval to bring back the original picture.

The good thing about this method that it has also sharpened the frame and the signature. The bad thing is it has also sharpened the texture,
It would be easy to add another blurred copy above and selectively mask the texture
You could also add a hue/sat layer to adjust the colour
(I have not done either of these)

I hope you can see what I’ve done because it has saved for the web at zero quality.

I’m interested to know what you think?. Or if anyone else has any other methods.


Ken

[byRo]

Ken,

If you did the same High-pass trick at a lower radius, and inverted this layer you can get rid of the grunge.
Even better, use an adaptive equaliser instead of the high-pass. Don't have time now but I'll try and post the method tonight.

Rô

[Cameraken]

Thanks Rô. I look forward to your method.

I recently downloaded an Adaptive Equalizer from Chris Russ
http://www.reindeergraphics.com/free.shtml#adapteq
Which I found in this great thread
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...light=adaptive

I did have a play with it here but it seemed to make things worse.

I was trying to keep some of the texture. However after reading Kathy’s question again I think she only wants to keep the embossing



Ken

[kcole321]

Lots of things here for me to try. Can someone explain what the High Pass Filter is really doing?

My original thought was to save the embossing and possibly add some noise for the texture later.

I'll have a go at all these techniques and see what the difference is with each.

Thanks,

Kathy

[Kraellin]

kathy,

yup, i'm familiar with belleville. my dad used to work at the rawsonville ford plant, which isnt quite belleville, and i have friends that live in belleville....or did. not sure they're still there. my dad also used to work at the willow run plant during the war, i believe.

as for classes and courses, i use this site and, i know a LOT of folks use the katrin (katrim?) eismann (sp?) book on photoshop and pretty much consider it the photoshop bible. and no doubt Washtenaw Community College has classes on this by now also. maybe even eastern mich univ. but i find 'formal' education a bit restrictive and dry and prefer self studies. the best first study is the manual of whatever program you're using and just learn the tools. after that it's mostly just practice, practice, practice! you'll want to become VERY proficient with the clone/heal/makeover/smudge/push and related tools! clone is the workhorse of restoration (but not necessarily of retouching).

and ken, the high pass, like you say, adds too much texture. you'd need jpeg artifact removal now. it also didnt clean up everything. your lower right hand corner is still grungy.

another way to go about removing just the grunge would be to make a luminosity selection of just the matte portion of the image. if done correctly you could conceivably pick up just the darker areas as the selection and then simply run a lighten process or coloring process to bring the selection up to snuff with the rest of the matte. i havent tried this on this image, but it shld work.

craig

[Flora]

Hi Kathy,

Welcome to RP!

Working on your retouched version, (great job!!! ) ... I selected the matte frame and used the Emboss Filter on it ...

[byRo]

Originally Posted by Cameraken

I did have a play with it here but it seemed to make things worse.

Sorry, Ken, I didn't make myself clear.

The adaptive equalization process is great for bringing out details. What I do mostly however is run it in reverse. Like this....
- Duplicate the layer;
- Run the adaptive equalizer on the new layer with settings 0, 0, ?, 0 - where ? is 0 for smaller images (like RP sizes) and up to 100 for larger (as is the case here);
- Invert this layer (i.e. reverse the effect);
- Set blending to Soft Light, and Opacity to around 10% (tweak a bit).

This works fine for deGrunging images, and smoothing skin. I use this in PS 7.0. If I were using CS2, I'd probably head straight for the suface blur.

Too late for Xmas, but here's a present. The action below is set up for smaller images (i.e. using 0,0,0,0).

Rô

[kcole321]

Thanks to everyone for all the ideas. I'm still working my through each one (to see what I can learn), but, Ro, the results from your technique are great!!

Flora, thanks for the "thumbs up"!! It helped to boost my confidence a bit.

[kcole321]

Oops, forgot to ask Flora!! I played a little with the emboss filter, but didn't get the nice results you did. Do you recall what settings you used?

Thanks,

Kathy

[Cameraken]

Rô
Thank You Very Much

That works great.

I noticed that this action still uses the Reindeer Graphics Equaliser. Is this something that can’t be ‘made’ in Photoshop7?

I did a search of this site and Google. The only Adaptive Equalizers I could find were for Sound. How do you learn this stuff?

I was a little surprised at the blending mode. I was expecting Linear Light (Subtract)

Thank You once again.

Prezzy for You
I wondered if you had seen this.

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...light=adaptive

Loads of good things in this. Have a look at the FFT bit. It cuts down on the star painting ‘cos you only need to do half of them. There is also a preview and it keeps the colour.
It’s not a plug-in but if you have PS and Image Analyser open you can copy and paste between the two.

Ken

[Flora]

Hi,

Cathy,

after selecting the matte frame, I copied it on its own layer and set the blending to Overlay.

I used the Emboss Filter with the following settings .. (see attachment)

Created a layer mask and painted black everywhere but on the ornated frame and the signature. (attachment 2)

byRo,

thank you so much for the 'present' ... I had dowloaded the adaptive equalizer ages ago but never really learned how to use it ....

Ken,

thanks for the link .... Downloaded that as well ... but, for what I could see, I fear that, for me too, it

Originally Posted by Doug Nelson

requires more brainpower than I have.

....

[Kraellin]

ken,

thank you for bumping that one up again. got it, installed it, and used it. very slick!

craig