Fixing a strange texture on this old photo

[Budkin]

Hello all,

New member here. I'm pretty experienced in Photoshop for Web Development and Ive dabbled a little bit in photo retouching but I'm still pretty much a noob. Anyway, I'm making a Ken Burns style video of my dad in which I'll need to zoom closer into the photos. What I'm noticing on a couple of them from around 1976 is that there is a texture on the scanned photo that I didn't really notice when I scanned it. I thought it was like tiny cracks at first but as I look closer it almost looks like it's some kind of glossy coating that has begun breaking down. Does this look familiar to anyone here and if so, what is the best way to restore that part of this photo? This forum seems like the place to be, I'm glad I found it!

P.S. It was tough for me to get the image down to 100k and still retain the texture detail I'm referring to, so I cropped and reduced the DPI and quality. If I need to put something else up let me know. Thanks.

[Jerryb]

hi,
I am novice my self but a few things to come mind
to me it looks like what they call cracking.. basically either at the time the picture was developed, improper mixtures or drying times causes uneven drying or over time heat and cold, the emulsion dries and shrinks and cracking or surface uneveness occurs...

now looking at the picture , normally it could look very minor but under a scan it could get amplified in the digitize picture... because of the angle of the scanning light..! I have run across that on a few of m scanned photographs.... smile... every flaw gets amplified..lol...

I was just reading today here on the board ,of a scanning technique that might help your case, to minimize the textured effects.. they referenced this retouchpro tutorial.... http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=58

it well worth the try.. and then after that.... use PS to do any additional repair.... but I won't address that.. this is too important to you., iam a novice ..... the experts are the one who can tell how to go about that...

Originally Posted by Budkin

Hello all,

New member here. I'm pretty experienced in Photoshop for Web Development and Ive dabbled a little bit in photo retouching but I'm still pretty much a noob. Anyway, I'm making a Ken Burns style video of my dad in which I'll need to zoom closer into the photos. What I'm noticing on a couple of them from around 1976 is that there is a texture on the scanned photo that I didn't really notice when I scanned it. I thought it was like tiny cracks at first but as I look closer it almost looks like it's some kind of glossy coating that has begun breaking down. Does this look familiar to anyone here and if so, what is the best way to restore that part of this photo? This forum seems like the place to be, I'm glad I found it!

P.S. It was tough for me to get the image down to 100k and still retain the texture detail I'm referring to, so I cropped and reduced the DPI and quality. If I need to put something else up let me know. Thanks.

[unimatrix001]

i ran this through the Polaroid dust and scratch filter. then sharpened using unmask sharpen and finally noise ninja to remove the final little bit of noise. this was a quick job about 8 minutes... more time would make for a better result.

[Swampy]

Basically, Color Corrections, Decrack action (available here in RTP somewhere) and Surface Blur. Still a little "soft" and could use some sharpening and other tweaks, but it removes the texture.

[stosh7]

I took a whack at reducing the "cackle" with a decent result. Since the cackles are about the same size I created a mask with the high pass filter. Reducing the brightness of the cackles turned them into noise like dots which all but disappeared with a run through Noiseware. I don't think the sharpenss suffered.

Also balanced the color a bit however ran out of time so i couldn't finish the hair which I assume is not really green. How do you like it otherwise?

Stosh

[Budkin]

Man these are all great. I love the fact that there are so many different ways go about it. I'll have to track down some of the actions and various tools that you guys are mentioning. If anyone has any recommendations for a "common" set of useful plug-ins beyond what Photoshop CS2 offers by default that would be great. Thanks a ton everyone!

[Lasa]

I like the look, stosh7!
Could you give a little more detail on how you did it...? sounds interesting.
Lasa

[solitear]

Hi Everyone..... I just happened to be snooping around and found you guys here with some awesome techniques.

Swampy, I'm going to look up that De-crack action..... I didn't know that existed...

And Stosh...... hey buddy...... that was some beautiful work!!! I'd love to know how you did that..... I know you said you created a mask with the high pass filter..... could you, V E R R Y..... S L O W L Y...... tellmehow????? I love the results!

Beth

[mistermonday]

Budkin, I did a curve adjustment layer to correct the color then converted the image to LAB and ran Noiseware (a noise filter) on the L channel. I probably applied the noise filter more aggressively than I needed to and I did not sharpen.
Regards, Murray

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by solitear

... I'm going to look up that De-crack action..... I didn't know that existed...Beth

For Beth, and everyone else who might be interested, here's a link to the "Quick De-crack" tutorial -- the tut has a link to the action.

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php/?m=show&id=5

[Kraellin]

i had a go at this also.

polaroid dust and scratch remover seems to work best. i ran it as a plugin, so i had to reduce the image size so that no side was greater than 800 pixels, but you could run it in stand-alone mode and it shld work fine without reducing.

i ran a color balance adjustment layer and brightness/contrast adjustment layer.

ran psp's digital camera noise removal.

some cloning and airbrushing.

p.s. he reminds me of peter sellers.

[Daviskw]

Hi There... lots of good advice i see

I used the medium filter... took a snapshot... backed up in the history pallet just before the medium filter. Then used the history brush set to darken to remove most of the damage.

I also ran it thru Image analyzer to the small texture.

Butch

[solitear]

CJ.... thanks for the link..... I can't wait to get....'crackin'.......Aarrrrgh......

oxox

[adong]

try

[Cassidy]

adong,

In the interests of helping others we usually post our methods

[Lasa]

I tried to follow the "Quick de-crack" thread to the download and got into a loop but never found the download..it says download but takes me to another page without downloads? I kmow I'm missing something...
Lasa

[Lasa]

Gave it a run..
Ran a level on each channel bring out the colors and kill the red caste.
Duplicated the layer...then applied the Dust + Scratches filter.
Used 4 Radius / 11 Thresholds.
Then ran a slight Curve to brighten it.
(I like the way it kept the real film look) It would probably be cleaner had I finished on a noise removing software but I like it as is.

Lasa

[Swampy]

Lasa

The link doesn't go to a page, it is the actual ZIP file. Click the link below and the deCrack.zip file should download to your desktop.

deCrack.zip

[Lasa]

Swampy, I must be dense or something but even the ZIP-link is taking me another page. (see attached page)
maybe I have some anti-zip-somthing on my PC interfering..?

Lasa

[Swampy]

Lasa, I sent you a PM with a link to download it from my public folder on .mac. I have no idea why you can't get to it, but you should be able to get it from my site.

Sorry... the link to my URL is in the second PM... I'm a real ditz today! :-)

[mayberry]

Not sure if this is helpful, or just added to the problem, but I added MORE NOISE!! Equalized..Fade50%..Brightness/Contrast..Warming Filter..Surface Blur..Filter Add Noise..Filter Crosshatch. Dodge/Burn.

[Cameraken]

Hi Budkin.
Welcome to Retouch Pro

Here is another method

Layer Shifting

Create four copies on layers above the original and set them all to darken mode
Shift one layer one pixel up
Shift one layer one pixel down
Shift one layer one pixel left
Shift one layer one pixel right

It’s still not perfect but it’s a good start and will reduce the amount of noise reduction required.

Hope this helps.

Ken.

[nebgranny]

Hi :
Swampy or anyone else who may want to respond. I just downloaded the zip. Now how do I put it into actions?
I opened cs2 in my program files and I do not seem to have actions anywhere that I can see..that does not mean it is not there..Tee Hee. Can someone help me with this placement please? Thanks Neb

[Swampy]

Photoshop->Presets->Photoshop Actions. Open Photoshop's Actions palette and from its flyout menu -> Load Actions.

[nebgranny]

Thanks Swampy...But found ou tI had already downloaded it..DA..Thats scarey...Neb

[albatrosss]

Used Camerakens method which, to me, was really unique and worked nicely. I then adjusted each level. Used color balance followed by smudge and blur. Finally finished with Hi pass filter.

I (allbatrosss) never sent this in. How did it get their? A mystery. Am i losing it?

[philbach]

Well I copied the layer and set the copied layer to darken. Next I selected the move tool and moved the top layer a few clicks up and to the right with the arrow key.

Sometimes this method works great.

[Budkin]

Thanks so much everyone! I'm really blown away with how many methods there are, and especially with the end results. I've got a lot to learn but all of this feedback will most surely get me started on the right foot!

[chillin]

Pretty much I had to go down to every scratch

[CeDeEl]

Continuation on unimatrix001's reply (first reply)
Used red and green (channel mixer layer) monochrome
used original for color
adjusted levels

Chris