Lots of noise...Old Photo

[QueenBrownShuga]

I have an old photo of my grandmother and grandfather when they were young. The background of the photo was really textured which causes the photo to look like it has a lot of noise which also caused some of the details to disappear. Any suggestions on how to fix the pixelation/noise problem?

You can find the photo here

[Swampy]

If you can, rescan and set your scan software to descreen. That might help remove some of the texture.

[Daviskw]

Hi there

I quickly ran the picture thru Image Analyzer which is a free program you can download. This got rid of most texture noise.

Then I ran the picture thru Neat Image which also has a free evaluation program.

This will give you a good base to begin with.

Butch

[Kraellin]

that's a pretty small image. lots of 'jaggies' there. a bigger image at a higher resolution would help.

[Cameraken]

Hi QueenBrownShuga.

I think you may find this tutorial useful.

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=255

Here are my settings

Levels step
Red 5 1.00 158
Green 3 1.00 122
Blue 1 1.00 94

Channel Mixer Step
Red 80
Green 20
Blue 0

Marks and Blemishes Step.
Radius 4
Threshold 5

Sharpen Step
Amount 60
Radius 1.1
Threshold 4


Put the colour Back Step.
Faded the colour Layer to 65%

Hope this helps

Ken.

[unimatrix001]

i tried this using TRL digital noise reduction. its a free action for photoshop. you can get the action here http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/...eReduction.htm
then i used a curves layer and set the opacity at 18 percent.

[QueenBrownShuga]

Thanks Unimatrix, but I don't have photoshop.

[ahmetturker]

1: Resaize
2: Auto levels + colour
3:nosie ware + sarphen
4:shadows/Higlight
5:March colour.
6:Hue saturation.

[QueenBrownShuga]

I haven't had a chance to try these, but thank you everyone for your suggestions.

[Daviskw]

Hope it works for you Queen

May I ask what program you are using?.. We could give better advice I think.

Butch

[Juergen D]

Two Screen layers, Levels and Curves adjustments. High Pass filter on the couple only (in Overlay mode). Result was run through Neat Image. The faces needed some extra work to remove leftover artifacts, fairly well accomplished mostly by painting on a Color layer.

Juergen

[QueenBrownShuga]

I use PSP X

[QueenBrownShuga]

Butch..how did you add color to the photo?

[Daviskw]

Hello Queen

I just applied three color layers… One for the dress, one for the skin and hair, and one for the mans coat and general background.

The dress and coat were fill layers set to the color mode or softlight I’m not sure which I used. I hide all then paint the color back in using the mask.

I believe I used a gradient mask for the skin and hair set to color blendmode. Again hide all and paint in with the mask.

I did add a little shadow and highlights with neutral layers set to colorburn and colordodge and low opacity brush.

Butch

[QueenBrownShuga]

Butch...thank you for sharing your steps to adding color. It worked! It took me a little while to do it, but it was my first recolor. I think Grandma will like it. I uploaded it HERE if anyone wants to see how it turned out.

I couldn't seem to fix the bigger pixels without making the picture looked funny, so I left them. When I printed out the picture (8x10) it turned out nice, so I am happy.

Thanks again everyone.

[Daviskw]

Good job Queen!!!... looks very good ,glad it worked out for you.

Butch

[QueenBrownShuga]

Thank you