Photo Restoration - - How to smooth jacket

Gerald McClaren · #1 12-07-2006, 10:41 AM

Hi! This is an old poloroid picture of my friend. The quality is not too good, on the other hand, I had enlargen this picture and noticed that the whole picture has a lot of pits. How can I smooth these pits out?

p.s I'm still having some problems on uploading a larger picture on the web. I don't know where to type in the 800 pixels i.e resolution, width, height etc. also, the constrain proportion box, do I delete the check mark from all the other boxes and leave constrain proportion check?

Gerald McClaren

philbach · #2 12-07-2006, 11:52 AM

Well it looks like the spots on the jacket can be helped with the healing brush tool in photoshop. To get the proper file size here is some information: CLICK HERE

I usually resize to 800 pixels in the largest dimension. And then use the Save for Web function and when the save for web window comes up I click on the little triangle on the right and select Optimize for file size of 99k

Kraellin · #3 12-07-2006, 07:22 PM

hi gerald,

the first thing i did was a highlight/midtone/shadows adjustment to bring him out of the shadow more.

i then ran two separate curves layers, one to set the black and white points and another to bring up the shadows a bit more and to balance the contrasts.

i then cropped to a new image and doubled the size.

i did a little airbrushing and then ran the polaroid dust and scratch remover to get rid of your pitting, but just the white specks.

from there it was a lot of cloning and airbrushing.

for some of the fine work on the face, i used the push brush.

then, a little more airbrushing to smooth some things out and a light clarify filter to bring his face out a bit more.

Gerald McClaren · #4 12-07-2006, 07:55 PM

Phillbach and Kraellin thanks for the illustrations, they were very, very, helpful. I appreaciated it very much. Now, what is the largest size photo I can upload to retouchpro? For example, can I upload a 5X7 with this method? or that might be too large. What is the largest size photo any one of you had uploaded to retouchpro?

Gerald McClaren

Kraellin · #5 12-07-2006, 08:21 PM

gerald,

when dealing with digital files, you have to understand a few things. it's not like a normal photograph. saying just '5x7' means nothing without also saying what resolution it is (how many pixels per inch). and 'file size' is a different term.

you can upload to RP a 'file size' of up to 100 kilobytes (1000 bytes), also said as '100k'.

a '5x7' could have a resolution (the numbers of dots per linear inch of one line on a computer monitor) of 100 and it would be different from a '5x7' with a resolution of 200 pixels per inch (ppi). the file sizes of the two would be different and, the image sizes would increase proportionately.

your '5x7' ONLY refers to the relationship of the width by the length of the image. it's NOT actually 5 x 7 inches. it's just the relationship of the sides or 'aspect ratio'. and that's all 'aspect ratio' means, the relationship of the sides to each other.

so, understand, image size, file size, and resolution size are not the same thing. so, i'm afraid your question doesnt make sense. the only restriction i know of here on RP is file size and that's 100 kilobytes.

and just to confuse this a bit more, images can be 'compressed' to reduce the FILE SIZE. it wont touch the image size or aspect ratio. it actually removes BYTES from the image to make it a smaller file. you can also reduce the RESOLUTION to make a file smaller.

Gerald McClaren · #6 12-08-2006, 10:23 PM

I really appreaciated your expertise and knowledge of photoshop, but any question deserves an answer when ask politely. I had asked the question because I didn't know the answer. The question might not make any sense to you, but it means a whole to me. Hopefully, someone out there will not be afraid to ask a question that doesn't make any sense.

Gerald McClaren

chillin · #7 12-08-2006, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerald McClaren

I really appreaciated your expertise and knowledge of photoshop, but any question deserves an answer when ask politely. I had asked the question because I didn't know the answer. The question might not make any sense to you, but it means a whole to me. Hopefully, someone out there will not be afraid to ask a question that doesn't make any sense.

Gerald McClaren

If you want to post lossless pictures (no compression), upload it to a website & post a link. If you don't have a website use free services like rapidshare with a 100mb limit.

Kraellin · #8 12-08-2006, 10:52 PM

gerald,

hopefully, i havent offended you in some way by answering your question. i certainly wasnt trying to. your questions are always welcome here. it was probably when i said your question doesnt make sense. i meant no offense by this. it's simply that saying '5x7' all by itself doesnt mean much, since 5x7 can be PRINTED whether the image is 5000 x 7000 pixels or 500 x 700 pixels or whatever the actual DIGITAL dimensions of the image are.

so, when you say can you upload a 5x7 to here, yes, you can, but it could be 5x7 pixels or 50x70 pixels or 500x700 pixels and so on and it's the pixel count that matters, not the 5x7. that make sense?

CJ Swartz · #9 12-08-2006, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerald McClaren

p.s I'm still having some problems on uploading a larger picture on the web. I don't know where to type in the 800 pixels i.e resolution, width, height etc. also, the constrain proportion box, do I delete the check mark from all the other boxes and leave constrain proportion check?... Gerald McClaren

Gerald, Craig is trying to explain WHY things work, but the whole subject of pixels and dpi etc. confuses a lot of us. What you and Craig and the rest of us would like to do is help you upload bigger copies of your images so that everyone can see them better. Use the File --> "Save for Web" to get to the next screen. I still use PShop Version 7, so your screen might say something a bit different than mine, but mine has a box on the right hand side that lets you choose between Image Size and Color Table. Choose the Image Size box and type 800 for the longest side of your photo (either width or height). DO check the "constraint proportions" box -- it's like the box on Image Size when we are resizing an image. Photoshop will automatically size the other side of your photo in proportion to the longer side. Click "Apply" to make your choice of size final. Look at the upper left hand side of the window and be sure that "optimized" is the choice (rather than 2-up, 4-up, or Original). Then go up to the top right-hand side of your window where it has boxes for "optimized" and "Quality" etc. Click "optimized". Click the button above it (with an arrow pointing to the right) and click "optimize to file size" and enter 100 (or 99 to be safe) in the top space where it has a box for "desired file size". This will give you an optimized file of 100k that will be accepted by RetouchPro's forum software AND a larger image than you are usually able to upload.

It takes a couple of times to get used to it, but it's easy AFTER you know how.