[CJ Max]

A very good friend of mine asked me to restore one of his old, treasured, family photos. It is a German, albumen print from 1884. There is substantial damage - emulsion degradation to the point where under substantial magnification small pieces can be seen to be curling up in the centers and down on the edges, fading, mold, scratches, pencil marks, etc..

I must admit that I'm having some difficulties with it and will welcome any suggestions as to how to restore it. I've done mostly tintypes and prints from the early 1900's and not had any difficulties that I couldn't overcome; however, this one is something quite different. It's the first time that I've seen an old German albumen print, and I must say that I'm surprised at the quality of the product compared to some comparable albumen images of the time from other countries...although I understand that albumen prints are notorious for deteriorating.

Many thanks,

Cliff.

[Doug Nelson]

Try this:

Split channels, discard Blue and Green (this gets rid of a lot of the stains)
Duplicate background channel of remaining (Red) version and set blending mode to Multiply (This builds up density in the detail areas)
Duplicate multiply layer (more density)
Add Levels adjustment layer, hold Alt-key down while dragging shadow and highlight sliders (this provides preview of when image detail is getting discarded). Adjust midtone slider to taste (don't hold the Alt key for this one).
Flatten, and you're ready to start spotting

[Kraellin]

i did just a general cleanup on this and not a spot cleanup.

dupe layer.
Fast Fix plugin on dupe to desaturate and get a generally better contrast
dupe that
digital camera noise removal
added contrast/brightness adjustment layer to darken and give even more contrast

done.

still needs some spot work, but the above will clean up a LOT of stuff. also, i realize the posting limit may not be allowing us to see all the issues you see with the original. if this is the case and you can post the original uncompressed image somewhere, that would help give a better inspection of what's going on.... if that's needed.

Craig

[Cassidy]

I have a whole album of these albumin german prints, seems levels takes you quite a way too, remarkable integrity in detail I have found, despite flaws. Don't try and wipe off mould etc.

[Kraellin]

ok, finished this one up. did some cleaning, some histogram adjustment, contrast layer, and curves layer. the cleaning was with clone and push.

also fixed the border up a bit and did an extra one with a frame. both are attached.

Craig

[Cameraken]

Hi Cliff.

I have been working on your picture.

There seems to be a lot of detail in the boy’s shirt which I can’t quite make out. Also there is something between the boy’s hands which again I can’t make out.

Is it possible to post this area again at a higher resolution? (The area between the chin and the knees.)


Ken

[CJ Max]

http://www.pbase.com/cjmax/image/53739622

Here's the link to the original. The most problematic emulsion damage is in the areas of the hands, legs, shorts and shirt.

I tried the first suggestion and got it sorted out nicely, thanks to Doug.

I'm still hung up on the craquelure. I guess that it may just require some tedious hand work...

Many thanks,

Cliff.

[CJ Max]

Craig,

[quote=Kraellin]i did just a general cleanup on this and not a spot cleanup.

dupe layer.
Fast Fix plugin on dupe to desaturate and get a generally better contrast

I'm not familiar with Fast Fix, so I did a quick Google - very handy looking plugin. Question: When I go to save Fast Fix, where (which file) should I save it in? I've not used Photoshop plugins before. This will be a first.

Thanks,

Cliff.

[Kraellin]

i think Photoshop is the same as Paint Shop Pro with this. you put it in the 'plugins' folder. it might be zipped up when you download it, so unzip it first so that you get the .8bf file showing. then simply copy that over to the plugins folder. if it comes with an installer, then simply double click the file to run the install and follow the installation choices and direct it to your ps plugins folder when it asks where it shld go.

yes, Fast Fix is a great little plugin. i use it a lot as a sort of pre-fix, quick clean-up tool, just to get things closer to what i want them as. i think of it as a pre filter and use it quite often. it's also great when all you want to do is desaturate an image.

Craig

[philbach]

Well I started out following Doug's advice. I split the channels and only worked on the red channel. I then copied the layer x 2 using multiply blending mode. I used a levels adjustment layer in photoshop and did use the Option/Alt feature to identify the white and black points.

What worked well was the next step was to use surface blur which cleaned it up significantly and then a dose of Neat Image.

The rest was routine clean up.

Swampy taught me about the surface blur feature in Photoshop CS2 yesterday and it really is a helpful filter.

[Cameraken]

Hi Cliff.

I’m still not sure what is in-between his hands. I think it may be blur where he has moved during the exposure. Anyway I removed it.

I started with a mix of the red and green channels
I used blur to remove a lot of the marks and then added noise back
The marks on his leg were removed with a layer set to overlay.
Neat Image.
Finally I added the sepia tone.

Ken

[Frank Lopes]

Originally Posted by CJ Max

A very good friend of mine asked me to restore one of his old, treasured, family photos. It is a German, albumen print from 1884.
Cliff.

I really had a hard time with the jpeg artifacts, but I took a crack at it just the same.

[CJ Max]

It's always nice to be able to get assistance and learn something - in this case perhaps 3 things. A big "thank you" to all who participated.

It would appear that there was some movement of several of the boy's fingers on his left hand. Whatever it was that was on his lap or in his hand perhaps is anyone's guess. I chose to eliminate it completely.

I'll probably finish it up in the next day or two. I've done about 5 different takes on it, each one better than the previous ones.

Merry Christmas,

Cliff.

[Flora]

Hi Cliff, everybody,

I had a go at your picture...

I also used the channels for density and most of the steps described in this Tutorial to finish the restoration.