ball point pen gone wild

[skipc]

i've never had one this bad. are there any suggestions for a reasonably fast method to remove the ball point damage? i would shudder at the time necessary to clone/patch. tia...skip

note: the image attached is an unprocessed downsize of the scan. 20+ year old polaroid print. the blowup represents the sketchyness of the ball point.

[joey florio]

I read this and thought I could help. I have a K.E. book that has a section on removing blue ball point pen ink from a photo.
In the book example, you look at the blue channel and the ink doesn't show at all. So, the author makes a grayscale image out of that.
In your photo, the ink is still prominent in the blue channel, but less so. Maybe if you know how to mix channels, you can get the blue ink reduced to nothing.

[CJ Swartz]

Skip, another thing you can try is the technique suggested by Cameraken for another problem -- I think you'll find that it works for this one also
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/143881-post6.html

Try it, it helps reduce the amount of cloning and other hand work. You can play with the amount of nudging up/down to see what works best.

[Panpan]

I selected the blue channel, switched to LAB mode and replaced the lightness channel with the blue.

After getting rid of the ball-pen blue with the selective color tool, I used byro's degrunge technique (see his tutorial on this site) at 2.1/0.7.

I know that it's beyond my skill to fix the woman's face further, so there's no point in doing the easier stuff like the clothes.

Pierre

[DCobb]

I have always found these ball point pen pictures interesting. Mention was made of Katrin Eismann's work which I have done--only her practice picture is black and white and not color with the exception of the blue pen marks. I use the cloning tool, patch tool, healing brush and the spot healing brush. The thing that I have found that helps with this work is my Wacom Graphics tablet and the pens. You can work quickly and tap out areas that would be much more time consuming working with a mouse. The attached picture is a long ways from finished but this is where I decided to end my efforts.

dc

[Kraellin]

i just did the boy. i used scratch remover, followed by clone, followed by airbrush, and just a tiny bit of push (smudge).

it really doesnt take that long and with all those marks, i dont see a quickie method that is going to work for all of it.

[klassylady25]

Very good job Craig!

[bodegg]

White bread? I know this sounds a bit daft but I've seen this work (on tv not tried it myself). You take a fresh slice of white bread, pull the soft, fluffy centre out, and rub it across the damaged photo. The ballpoint ink will be removed! Honest! I would try it in a small corner first just in case!

[irshgrlkc]

Originally Posted by bodegg

White bread? I know this sounds a bit daft but I've seen this work (on tv not tried it myself). You take a fresh slice of white bread, pull the soft, fluffy centre out, and rub it across the damaged photo. The ballpoint ink will be removed! Honest! I would try it in a small corner first just in case!

I almost want to write on a picture just to see if this does in fact work, but I am too afraid too.

[bodegg]

Yes, I should have suggested that you try it out by scribbling on a 'scrap' print. I haven't made this up though; I wish I could remember where I saw it!

[CJ Swartz]

From Wikipedia: "Prior to using rubber, white bread (without crust) was used to erase the mark of graphite pencil and charcoal. It is still sometimes used for that by charcoal artists."

Don't know about ball point ink, but there are a number of internet references to bread being used as art erasers.

[Kraellin]

thanks, klassy

[Ziaphra]

Lots and lots and lots and lots of cloning!

[skipc]

thanks all!

pretty much had to use a lot of patch tool. then a lot of layers to paint back the missing features of the mothers face. then not much joy. the client who did the intial damage as a child didn't appreciate the attempt. i suggested she try the bread trick—in fact i could think of a use for the entire loaf. best...skip

[John Collins]

Ball point pen ink is soluble in alcohol, so a bit of gin will do (keep most of it temporarily in a shot glass).

John