Retouching photo of a photo

[Johnny C]

A friend of mine asked me to retouch an old family photo - see attached. It was too big for scanning so I mountedit on my basement wall and took a picture of it in RAW with my 20D. I have attached my rookie attempt to retouch it in photshop. My main questions are - am I asking to much by taking a photo of the photo? And, the original photo is pretty pixelated - what technique might I use to improve that?

Thanks,

[bart_hickman]

Well looks pretty good to me, although the attachment is small.

Do you really mean pixellated? Or do you main grainy/noisy? For noise, there are various NR programs on the market--Noise Ninja, Paintshop Pro 9 or later, Neat Image, Picture Cooler, etc...

Bart

[rrustic]

I put your photo through neat image.
Alot of the "noise" was removed.
I am sure with a bit more work, it could look really great.
When you enlarge it a bit, those pixels sure do show themselves.

Rich

[Ed_L]

Welcome aboard, Johnny. It looks pretty good to me. I didn't do anything with the noise, but I thought the guy on the right needed to be have a little more density. Basically, I just made new layers with him, changed the blending modes to multiply, and lowered the opacity until I was satisfied. Then I used a hue/sat adjustment to pull the color close to the rest of the image. It still needs more work, but I think it's a step in the right direction.

Ed

[Johnny C]

Thanks a TON guys you are really helping me!! In general, what about the technique of taking a photo of a photo instead of scanning?

[Kraellin]

johnny c,

welcome to RP.

what about the technique of taking a photo of a photo instead of scanning?

the simple answer is, whatever works. if taking a photo of a photo works out better than scanning, then that's the right answer.

craig

[Ed_L]

I'd say if you're going to do copy work with a camera, you should:

(1) Make sure you'll have enough pixels to do the job.

(2) Have either a permanently available setup or one that you can set up easily.

(3) Make certain that you have the camera square to the pic.

(4) Have proper lighting to do the job at hand.

(5) Make sure the lens you use will not distort the image.

(6) A good polarizing light setup and filter is beneficial.

There are times when a copy setup will have advantages over using a scanner.

Ed

[studioj]

This is a really old technique but can be applied perfectly in this days.

People used to call it: "Internegative" when you duplicate a photo taking a new photo of it, first retouchers, old retouchers used to do this, and some of them used to take a final new photo of the retouched work.

Now it's not the proper name, but it works pretty good, this depending on your final proyect.

I have a nice scanner at work, but I have today a customer who wants an ad very little, and he wants the same image than a very large poster.

I'll not scann that poster for a little ad, I'll take the photo of it, just like you.

Don't tell my boss