problem with black and withe photo

[jenjen]

Kraellin,


I printed out your picture just to see the difference in the contrast. It seemed very gray and wasn't much difference from the original. Which makes it kind of funny because it looks better on screen then in print. Hmm i give up on it. Thanks everyone.

[Kraellin]

jen,

you may have to make some adjustments in how your printer talks to your computer and photoshop, possibly with new drivers, or by using a different mode. i've seen lots of talk on the site about printing from cmyk instead of rgb. i dont have this problem in psp, but photoshop might need some different profile or mode change or something of that nature. if i run across a specific thread that talks about this i'll post it up here for you.

Craig

[Klaatu Baradda]

Hi Jennifer,
It looks like the problem has more to do with the original scan than it does with Photoshop, the monitor or printing.

The JPEG artifacts are very toublesome. If possible, you should rescan the image and choose to save it as a TIF file. TIF won't give you this blocky arrangement. It gets very noticeable when you lighten or saturate an image like this. Honestly, any image-work you value, JPEG should be the last choice.

Once you have a good scan, Levels, Curves or Shadow/Highlights should easily correct the contrast balance of the image and give you a good print.

[jenjen]

I saved as a Jpeg later when i put it through neat image, beacuse i think that is the only format i can get to open up in that program. Its not the plug-in filter its seperate. Anyway it was saved as a Psd. I just printed out again the same picture i did before and it looked totally different when nothing was done to it. Maybe i got ghost here!

[Kraellin]

jen,

i almost always do neat image images in .bmp and i also only use the stand-alone, so i know .bmp works.

not sure what's going on with your printer, though.

i gave this another shot, only this time i didnt do much cleaning, just trying to get the contrast and levels right. i also didnt bother with the blown out area on the left.

Craig

edit: resized and posted another of the same.

[jenjen]

Oh i didn't know that i could save it under that format. I know i have alot to learn still, but i guess that i what i'm here for.

[Flora]

Hi,

Jennifer,

had a go at your picture using Curves, Levels (Blendings: Multiply, Overlay, Soft Light) and gradients on their Layer Masks since I wanted to bring back details in the faded upper part of the picture without affecting/increasing the shadows in the lower part.

Let me know if you'd like more detailed explanations.

[jenjen]

Flora,

If you don't mind i would like an explaination.

Basically did you added a levels adj layer with a mask and would mask out everything for what you wanted. For example if you wanted her dress darker you added the layer and brushed out everything else? Right? Thanks Flora your a saint!

[Cassidy]

Jen I have subsequently played with that image and found that overlaying a grayscale gradient helps a bit, have a play, damn girl, 6 new ink cartridges is $100, lol

[jenjen]

have a play, damn girl, 6 new ink cartridges is $100,


What's that all about?

[Cameraken]

Hi Jennifer

I did this a couple of days ago and forgot to post it

My first suggestion should have worked but as soon as I noticed it was difficult I started from scratch. You were right that the lower half of this picture is darker than the top and I used gradient masks to correct. The original must be very flat and trying to add contrast back is loosing too much detail.
There is no reason why my attached picture should not print out OK so if it doesn’t you will need to look at printer settings, make sure you are telling your printer to print in black and white and not in colour.


Klaatu
JPEG: Jam Packed (with) Extreme Garbage

So that’s what it means.

Ken

[Kraellin]

good to have you back, flora and wonderful job as usual!

Craig

[Flora]

Hi Jennifer,

thank you for your kindness!!

The following description is only about how I balanced faded upper and darker lower parts of your picture. Here is what I did: (see Attachment)

1. Duplicated the Background.
   
   
2. Created a Curves Adjustment Layer .... without changing anything in the AL itself, I simply changed its Blending to Overlay... The upper faded part started to improve, but the darker lower part got a bit too dark so, I used a linear gradient black to white on the Curves Layer mask.
   
   
3. Duplicated the Curves Layer, changed its Blending to Multiply, reduced its Opacity to 41% and adjusted/changed the gradient on the mask.
   
   
4. Duplicated the 'Multiply' Curves Layer, changed its Blending to Soft Light. re-adjusted the gradient on its mask and lowered its Opacity to 11%.
   
   
5. The resulting image was balanced but somehow flat and darkish, so I created a further Curves Adjustment Layer to add just enough contrast to have a better basis for the rest of the restoration...

After that, I used Dust&Scratches to clean the picture, Neat Image (very soft to not completely remove the pattern on the skirt and jacket of the woman on the left.)

I worked with Luminosity and Shadow Masks to furhter enhance the image and, finally I applied a soft Sepia Tone to the shadows only.

Hope this helps...

Craig,

thank you so much for your kindness and warm welcome back!!!

[jenjen]

Thanks for the help Flora. I'll try it that way once. You make it sound easy!