Photo Restoration - - Cracks and stains galore

anjcook · #1 10-10-2006, 11:21 AM

Hello! I have been playing with this photo off and on for a long while now, and can't come up with anything decent. Can you guys give me any advice or tips? The photo has a texture from hades, is torn, and stained. I am on a Mac, so some plugin programs aren't available to me. (OS 10.3.9; CS2) The photo was a school photo taken in the early 70's, and it has a waffle cone like paper pattern.

Any tips, tricks suggestions?? Should I just sip a bourbon and have a bonfire with the photo?

klassylady25 · #2 10-10-2006, 12:35 PM

It's a matter of time and PATIENCE! It's going to be slow but it is salvagable.

Presently the picture is very small. You can post 100K on here and then we could see the extent of what needs to be done better.

anjcook · #3 10-10-2006, 01:15 PM

Hello

The photo is an attactched thumbnail at 79kb. I have no problem clicking on it, and it opens into generous sized photo...I can right click and save the photo, re-open it in Photoshop and it is a 6x9 @72 dpi. I can open it large in IE, Safari, Firefox and uploaded it using Opera. I don't understand? Here is a link to a smaller photo on photobucket.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58/Anjc/jtb.jpg

Maybe that will work for you?

TIA

klassylady25 · #4 10-10-2006, 01:41 PM

Prehaps this will give you an idea. I just worked the upper left hand corner!!!

Kraellin · #5 10-10-2006, 01:47 PM

anjcook,

welcome to RP.

as klassylady said, this is quite salvagable. for the paper texture pattern, use a good fast fourier transform program (FFT) like FFT rgb or Image Analyzer. not sure if either of those work on a Mac, however. you'll have to check. if not, report back and there are other methods you can try. also, do a search here on the forums about FFT and paper patterns.

once you have the pattern handled, i'd say cloning is the next step. start with the easy stuff like the background and work towards the harder areas like the eyes. there are several good helps on cloning techniques here on the forums also. so, another search would be in order. cloning is going to handle 80% of what you need here.

after you get things looking a bit better, a color balance would be in order and maybe a bit of brightening and a smidgen of contrast.

and for the really fine detail, i like to use a 'push' brush, which is basically just a heavier smudge. i normally set this to a very tiny brush, like 1 or 2 pixels and a medium to very low opacity, depending on what i'm working on.

there is a lot of detail still in your photo, so it's actually a fairly easy one. the hardest parts will probably be the face, particularly the eyes and lips and somewhat the ear(s). take your time and remember, the 'Undo' button if your best friend

also, we know we're limited here with the 100k file size. i do hope you have a larger image to work with on your computer and that it's a higher resolution than 72. you generally want resolutions to be in the 200 dpi range or better for retouching and restoring. just makes finding and restoring detail much easier. and of course, subsequent printing much better.

craig

anjcook · #6 10-10-2006, 01:48 PM

That is better than what I came up with....I am just pfft on this photo. What did you do to achieve the results?

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58...ll-working.jpg

anjcook · #7 10-10-2006, 01:56 PM

Kraellin,

Oh yeah..LOL! It's more than a 72 dpi file on disk

I scanned it in and saved it at 600 dpi, as it will be printed after I am through. Thanks for your suggestion on FFT programs, but I haven't found anything other than Noise Ninja or Neat Image to work with..Image Analyzer is a Windows platform program only.

Thanks for the welcome..I have been around for a long time lurking. I signed up ages ago and lurked, then forgot about the board, and re-registerd a few weeks ago. I enjoy the many varied techniques and seeing the works of a lot of very talented people on this board

Kraellin · #8 10-10-2006, 02:06 PM

ah, a lurker! get windows, you can look through those easier

yeah, i was afraid there might not be an FFT for Mac. actually, i'm sure there is; i just dont know where to find it. you might try a google search. also, do a search in the tutorial area. one of the tut's might mention mac.

there are other techniques. i was just reading one a day or so ago and if i run across it again, i'll post the link.

good on the resolution. 600 dpi shld be fine.

what i see on your results image is you actually did pretty good on the lips and eyes, but not quite sure what you're doing to cause all that blurring in other areas. looks like 'smudge' and if so, stop using that. i only use smudge at an extremely low opacity and only to very gently smooth transitions. yes, i know i mentioned 'push', which is a heavy smudge, but i use that in a very small brush, as mentioned and mostly to get edge lines better. if clone is giving you that blurring, then you need to change your technique. clone shld be able to give very good textures and detail. but, it is an art and takes practice to develop a good technique. it's well worth it, though. clone is your second best friend in restores.

also, when cloning, you clone ONTO a blank layer on top of all your other layers. set your tool to 'use all layers'. this will pick up what you want from the other layers but will lay it down on your blank layer. this makes it a LOT easier to correct things.

craig

anjcook · #9 10-10-2006, 02:13 PM

Kraellin,

The blur is fron Neat Image to remove the textured background. ITA, cloning on blank layers IS a good idea. I think there are 35 layers total on this so far.. I used a LOT of cloning and Patch tool ... they are my best friend! LOL! I tried cloning before removing the backround and THAT wasn't pretty! LOLOL! I think I am having a hard time with this because it is a personal project of mine, I dunno.

anjcook · #10 10-10-2006, 02:17 PM

ACK! not 35 layers! 15 layers...pshew..my mind has gone!

Kraellin · #11 10-10-2006, 02:27 PM

ok, well, back off on the neat image settings then. it's too much blur and not necessary here. i've been working on this a bit myself and have used no noise removal so far. i'll probably do a very light noise removal with psp when i get things better, but i save that for the last steps.

craig

Flora · #12 10-13-2006, 03:57 AM

Hi anjcook,

had a go at your image and, like everybody else, I think it can be restored very well...
I used FFT to remove the texture ...

Yes, I know you are on a Mac and haven't found FFT for Mac yet...

Quote:

Originally Posted by anjcook

Thanks for your suggestion on FFT programs, but I haven't found anything other than Noise Ninja or Neat Image to work with..Image Analyzer is a Windows platform program only.

...but I remembered that this particular issue had been discussed before, so, after searching the forums, I found that Cameraken had provided links for a Mac version of FFT ...

... you can find them here

I do hope you will be able to get the Mac FFT filter because it really works wonders in removing old paper texture ... (Attachment 1) .... Rô's great Tutorial on its usage is here...true, this tutorial was written for Windows.. but I think that the technique is the same ....

To remove cracks, tears and to 'clean' the image, after having removed the texture, I used mostly blank Layers set to: Lighten, Darken, Colour, Soft Light, Overlay on which I used: black or white or colour brush, Heal Brush or Clone Tool (always sampling from surrounding areas and adjusting Opacity)... Levels to improve contrast and colour a bit ... USM for a light final sharpening.

I worked only on part of the little boy's face .... (Attachment 1)

Hope this helps...

anjcook · #13 10-13-2006, 03:31 PM

WOW! Thank you Flora for the links and the great tips! I found the fft prgram for Mac, ImagJ, the other day and was going to try to figure it out later this weekend, so the how to link is DEF. a blessing to me! 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

Thanks again for the links

cducasse · #14 10-13-2006, 09:36 PM

I have just been using a lot of clone tool, obviously there is a lot more work to be done, but it's looking pretty good I think

cducasse · #15 10-13-2006, 10:08 PM

a half hour later...didn't turn out all that great I don't think, but what do you all think?