Silvering problem and help

[kiwicol]

Hi,
Some time ago I got a box of old negatives from the USA, taken in the late 1800's. They were all rolled up, some single, others 5 or 6 together. I have slowly been scanning them after figuring out a method to hold them flat while I did so. Some of these negs are very fragile and brittle, so I can only scan them once as I do not want to damage them any more. Several have large areas of what I believe is called "Silvering" on them. I have searched this site and found numerous threads on how to get rid of it. The easy ones I have tried without success, and the harder solutions I have attempted, but have not been able to complete as they have "Lost me" with the terminology, or I am unable to understand how to do some steps. I have used Photoshop for a couple of years, but only for basic requirements, and have only recently started to learn more. Is there anyone out there who can help me remove this silvering and guide me through it with simple easy understood steps that a Photoshop beginner can understand? I have CS2.
many thanks from New Zealand

[Tony W]

Hi Kiwicol
A couple of ways that may prove succesful are to use either the Channel mixer or the B&W adjustment.

Attached is a quick try using a B&W adjustment layer.
1. Duplicate background layer
2. Add B&W adjustment layer
3. Set channels as below (to copy my image):
Red = 40
Yellow = 40
Green = 135
Cyan = 20
Blue = -119
Magenta = 75
4 Add a curves layer and shift mid point slightly higher to lighten image.

As I am unsure now if CS2 has the B&W you can use the channel mixer to get a similar result:
1. Tick Monochrome
2. Set channels
Red = 100
Green = -45
Blue = -3
Constant = +7
3. You may need to add a curves layer to improve overall image.

I am fairly sure that playing around with either of these methods you will get a good result and be able to minimise restoration work.

[philbach]

Well the first thing I did was to look at the channels and the red channel had the least "Silvering." So I used the channel mixer adjustment layer (In CS2 you can use the channel mixer). And I just used the red channel to make the black and white image.

Next I used a curves adjustment layer to increase contrast.

I copied the adjustment layer and filled its mask with black and then painted the mask with white to bring out areas that needed more contrast.

I used neat image to decrease noise

[kiwicol]

Thanks Tony and Philbach, I will give those methods a try. CS2 does not seem to have the B&W so will try the alternate. At least these methods are not to complicated for me!
My problem with some of the other methods I found on here is they would be ok for someone with a reasonable knowledge of Photoshop and who knows how to do things like "copy image to alpha channel" but to a beginner like me this may as well be in another language. lol Anyway I am learning all the time so as long as people don't mind me asking questions I will slowly get there, I hope.

[Tony W]

Hope it works out well for you - how about posting the picture when you are finished
Remember we are all learning and the folks here are always willing to help those who ask questions and are willing to help themselves

[kiwicol]

Thanks for that support. I have had a go at it and am quite happy with the results. I put a sepia tone to it which I think makes it look a bit better.
Comments would be appreciated.

[Flora]

WOW, great job kiwicol!!

You managed to balance shadows/highlights without overdoing on the shadows!!!

You succeeded in bringing out all the details possible without having to 'paint' them on ....

With your restoration the image still looks like a photo and not a personal, artistic interpretation of it.

Great, simply great!!!

Share with us how you got there?

[Tony W]

A great job kiwicol as Flora said you have brought out all the detail and maintained the look of the photo. The addition of the sepia tone does IMO make it look better - more in keeping with the age and feel of the original?

Very well done and good luck with the rest of your restorations

[kiwicol]

Many thanks for that Flora, it certainly makes me feel good that I have managed to master one part of restoration. It took a while.
I followed Tony W's instructions (above) 1,2 & 3 then added a curves layer as suggested, changed the blending mode to screen, opacity 100%. I then added a 2nd curves layer, blending mode screen and reduced opacity to 88%, and it was still not light enough so I duplicated the 2nd curves layer, adjusted the curve a little. I then added a hue/saturation layer, checked colorize, hue 11, saturation 16 and lightness -4. Katrin Eismann's book helped with the latter.

[kiwicol]

All thanks to your help Tony, very much appreciated