Photo Restoration - - Cracks and stains galore - Page 2

bart_hickman · #16 10-14-2006, 12:25 AM

As usual an excellent job from Flora. I would do all the stuff she mentioned about darken/lighten/overlay/etc... layers, however to get quick jump start on the cracks to ease the cloning/patching job, the first thing I'd do is this (it looks long, but it's just a couple minutes).

Duplicate the original (as always). Select (rectangular lasso) a small piece of undamaged photo that is somewhat representative of the texture in the whole image--I picked a section his cheeck. ctrl-shift-copy to put it into the clipboard. Open the pattern maker (filter->pattern maker). Click the "use clipboard" checkbox and then click the generate button. Then click the little save icon to save the pattern. Click cancel. We'll use this pattern later.

Next:

1. Copy the blue channel into a layer (attachment 1)
2. Do high-pass filter radius 9 on it (attachment 2)
3. Use levels adjust to isolate the cracks (attachment 3)
4. Using the move tool, shift this layer down and to the right 1 pixel
5. convert it to a selection (ctrl-click the thumbnail in the channel palette)
6. expand the selection 2 pixels
7. feather the selection 1 pixel
8. turn off the new layer and activate the original layer
9. choose the patch tool
10. pop up the pattern chooser and select the pattern you saved a minute ago.
11. click the "use pattern" button. Now you see attachment 4.

Attachment 4 still needs work, but the job is easier because the cracks are much reduced in visibility. You will need to mask this layer to remove a few problems it caused, but for me at least it saves some work because the healing brush doesn't have to work so hard.

Attachment 5 shows a few minutes worth of Flora-ization to patch up details that were formerly under cracks. For the ridge under the noise, I highpass filtered a photo of one of my sons (really, any person would work) and grabbed a copy of that facial feature and pasted onto our subject using linear light blend mode. Then surface blurred it and levels adjusted it to match tonality. The other features seem easy to clone/heal back to life.

I didn't bother with the texture because it was already mentioned.

Bart

ukpapasmurf · #17 10-14-2006, 04:05 AM

Must agree with 'anjcook' Floras work is outstanding
Would be proud to even trhink that I could achieve a standard half as good

Smurf

anjcook · #18 10-14-2006, 01:06 PM

All I can say is WOW and THANKS! There are aLOT of great artists here with exceptionally good tips

I am working away with the pic..still. I can't fet the Mac fft program ImageJ to do anything...Oh well...when and if I get it down-pat, I will always remember it! LOL

Flora · #19 10-14-2006, 01:31 PM

Thanks everybody for your kindness!!!

anjcook,

Quote:

Originally Posted by anjcook

That photo is one of my baby brother when he was in grade 1. He's in his 40's now, and still a bit of a stinker...

...

I do hope you will make that Mac FFT run!!!

cducasse,

I think you started quite well ... but somehow got a bit heavy on the surface blur on your final version... You might also try to add some noise and feathering to your vignette which looks a bit to hard on the edges and definitely too smooth to fit in with the rest of the image...

Bart,

I just love your 'quick jump start on the cracks' .... great technique!!! Thank you so much for sharing!!!

Smurf,

thanks for your kind words .... as for the rest ... just 'stick around' ...

Cameraken · #20 10-14-2006, 07:40 PM

Hi Anjcook.

If you need any help with ImageJ then just ask. I have the Windows version installed and it works OK on this image.

This is a great practice picture for cracks and tears. Please consider uploading it to our archive. There is a thread to help here
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/web...e-archive.html

Hi Bart.
I tried the ‘quick start’
I don’t get step 4? I missed it out and it worked OK? But your results are better than I could get. I am using PS7 but I think I translated it right?
Are you just trying to remove the darkest areas of the damage?

Ken.

bart_hickman · #21 10-14-2006, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cameraken

Hi Bart.
I tried the ‘quick start’
I don’t get step 4? I missed it out and it worked OK? But your results are better than I could get. I am using PS7 but I think I translated it right?
Are you just trying to remove the darkest areas of the damage?
Ken.

You are correct--my crack mapping only gets the white parts of the cracks, but there's a thin shadow below and right of each crack, so I shift the mask to center it better to get the shadows before expanding. Skipping step 4 would still yield a good headstart.

The colors are you version are great--that's one of those things I haven't practiced much yet.

Bart

DCobb · #22 10-14-2006, 11:18 PM

Gave it a try for a little practice. It would be nice to have Flora's talent.

DC

Cameraken · #23 10-15-2006, 06:55 AM

Hi Bart.

Thanks.
Now I understand step 4.

The reason that I did not get as good results was because I could not find a patch of the image to define a good pattern. Maybe I should have made the patch seamless?

I tried again and used the whole image rotated 180 as the pattern. This gave much better results.

This method is a good idea.
I usually just paint over large cracks before using the healing tool but this method is quicker and more accurate.

Ken.

Kraellin · #24 10-15-2006, 10:56 AM

fascinating the styles and procedures each of us find and use.

something that i rarely have used is setting the mode before i clone or push. normally, i do my work and then change to a different blend mode. but something flora has been saying over many different postings seemed to indicate that she sets the blend mode before cloning/healing. so, thought i'd give that a try.

first, i ran FFT rgb, but then i left the black and white result as is with just the luminance mode set and duplicated that and turned off the prior copy. i then added a blank layer over the top of this and set it to luminance also. and rather than clone i used push with a softer brush than i normally use. this allowed me to 'push' the luminance around effectively wiping out the white marks. the downside is that it also leaves a bit of color leftovers.

for the color leftovers, i copy merged and copied to a new layer and ran a normal clone in normal blend mode.

it was an interesting experiment for me.

anjcook · #25 10-15-2006, 03:06 PM

well, I uploaded it to the archives. I do not understand ImageJ in the least. I played with it all day yesterday and decided I totally stink at math!!sooooo...I am trying to do the work in Photoshop only, with no extra plugins.

unimatrix001 · #26 10-21-2006, 12:33 PM

i worked on the face mostly. used decrack to isolate the cracks. then noise ninja
followed by the patch tool to smooth the bad areas. desaturated adjusted the levels and overlayed copy of orginal set to color blend mode.

bart_hickman · #27 10-21-2006, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cameraken

Hi Bart.

Thanks.
Now I understand step 4.

The reason that I did not get as good results was because I could not find a patch of the image to define a good pattern. Maybe I should have made the patch seamless?

Ken.

For the texture I had grabbed a tiny square from his cheek. I just noticed I forgot to even mention using the pattern maker in Photoshop. I need to edit that post. I used the pattern maker to convert a patch of his cheek into a texture. (Doh!)

Bart

Daviskw · #28 10-22-2006, 09:27 AM

Hello all

I used mostly Flora's advice, although nowhere near as good, but some of everyones.
To remove the texture I used Image Analyzer.

Flora if I may ask... do you use a darken layer to even the color, say the light cracks...then use the healing brush for overall evening?

Butch