Any document re-touchers please?

[Britsdad]

Hi all, it's been a while, and I have a question.
This is the birth cert of my mother's mother from 1900, as you can see it's a bit of a mess! I have scanned it as a colour photo at 600 dpi with an Epson Perfection 1250 with unsharp mask active, and this is the result.
Is there a better way to scan it?
I have done photos with tape stains but this is a different matter. Any pointers would be welcome.
I have been "playing" with it useing about 20 colour range selections and levels layers on each of them and I think I've got as far as I can, is there anyone who knows of a different and better way of attacking this image?
I don't want to loose all the creases ect. but just make it more legible and loose the stains. Any suggestions are very welcome.
John

[Britsdad]

And this is what I've got with the back.
John

[TomasD]

Im impressed..

It was a complete mess to start out.. One thing I'm wondering, would it be possible to concentrate the efforts to the text, burning out the back ground, and then printing the text onto a parchment?

[Britsdad]

Thankyou TomasD,
Yea someone else did that on another forum, but it's not really what I wanted to do. Thanks again.
John

[DCobb]

Interesting task. I used your completed image to adjust some of the text and paper.
dc

[Britsdad]

dc, Very nice, how'd you get rid of the last little bit of the tape marks? I just can't seem to get them.
Thanks.....John

[DCobb]

Alien Skin has a plug-in called Image Doctor that has a Smart Fill. I had tried using the PS dust and scratches with the history brush and while it did take the elements out that I wanted to remove; nevertheless, I didn't like the texture. With Smart Fill you first select the area you want to address and then run the filter. I finished small areas using the cloning and healing tool.

dc

[Kraellin]

i found this rather interesting. you've got some bleed-through from the other side where the tape was. this may or may not help you sort out the proper lettering. regardless, i found it interesting.

nice job, dc.

do you plan to take this further than the stain removal, john? (and nice job to you too).

[Britsdad]

Thanks Craig,
Yea I've seen the bleed thru' and been cloning and patching it out. My main reason for posting these was to see if anyone could come up with a different approach than I did, and if the scans I did could have been better done.
thanks again to everyone.....John

[BillFrey]

Hi Britsdad,

If the 'bleed through' is caused by the scanner, you can use an old trick we used years ago in pre-press.... Place a matching colored (as the bleed color) piece of paper behind the document while scanning.

This isn't effective when the bleed through is physical.

Good luck,
Bill

[Britsdad]

Thanks Bill,
But the bleed is on the original, not caused by the scan. However your tip is a good one, and I'll remember it.
Thankyou....John

[EJB]

Hello,
I am very new to all the wonders here! However I would have tried, very carefully, to iron the document flat before proceeding.
Please tell me if that's a No No?

[Britsdad]

EJB,
Welcome to Retouchpro, I don't know if it's a no-no (I only do this for fun!) but I kinda liked the small folds an creases, and I felt it would be better to keep them.
Thanks for looking.....John

[EJB]

Thanks,
It would take some of the character away I suppose

[DCobb]

I do photograph documents for a public library. All documents are photographed in an as is condition for posting online at the library's website. I also will do a retouch of the documents in the event a library patron wants such a copy and simply make note when I do the data entry that a retouched copy is available should such be desired.

dc

[tjrock]

Probably most of the people in this forum have restored images like this. I have been restorying images for a grandma's 100 birthday to be held in a few months, and have ran accross things similar to this. It might take several suggestions, and playing before you get the right combination. One thing I do see in this image, is it can be seperated into layers using the channels in any of the photoshop versions 5.5/CS2. Doing do will give you more control over restorying the text seperate from the paper. Using opacity during the combination process will help you line up the "paper folds" before flattening the image back to one.

I run into the same problem: what to keep, and what to correct. You've made it clear to keep the folds in the paper, and remove the stin. You'll have to find the balance here. The tools to restore the image are basic, but time consuming, but seperating the text from the background, and using some basic tools like levels, channels, various levels of the clone tool should be useful.

[Dave.Cox]

I don't know if this helps, but I was playing with this, and found that if I added a photo filter with the settings R=0, G=169, B=255, I could see almost all of the text, even the red text behind the tape, although it is faint. Having that, you should be able to proceed as you like.

[Kraellin]

britsdad,

ok, getting back to your original request... make a selection of the taped area, probably best if you feathered the edges just a touch on that. to that selection apply a hue/sat adjustment layer. by adjusting the various channels, i think it was mostly the reds, you can bring the taped area pretty darn close to the original paper color. if you need to, you can then clone the edges of the transition to match up better, taped to non-taped.

you might also try a color balance on the selection too.

[grannysdc]

John,

You stated, "I don't want to loose all the creases ect. but just make it more legible and loose the stains. Any suggestions are very welcome." Soooo, I have a suggestion.

I have just started using this filter and it looks very promising.. I did these from your original dark versions using the Color Deconvolution filter, a FREE PhotoShop plug-in for color separation from 4N6site.com ... took about 20 minuets and have done no other adjustments yet... I am sure with some tweaking your results could be much better.

Granny

[Britsdad]

Thanks guys,
I'll have a try with all your suggestions, may take a while though
Granny, nice find I'll download that filter and give it a try.
Kraellin, yea that's basically what I've been doing, but a levels layer seemed to work best. I just thought there may be another option.
Again thankyou all......John

[coal]

it might be called cheating but....... it might be helpfull
i normaly would use this for a job like that one...

http://home.planet.nl/~ber03728/4N6s...n/examples.htm

[Kraellin]

john, you're welcome.

so, where are the finished pieces?

[Britsdad]

Craig,
I said I might be a while Thanks to all who volunteered their help, I've really enjoyed doing this, and trying all the suggestions, but I think this is as far as I want to take them. (it's a damn sight better than it was )
Again thankyou to all.....John

[Kraellin]

yup. that's pretty good. nice job!

being a bit of a fanatic on this stuff, i feel compelled to tell you that it could be done further (sorry, i'm like an old english teacher correcting every little iota of grammar). a little clone here and there on the discoloration and a bit of brush work on some of the lettering.... (yeah, i know. i'll shut up now ).

it really is MUCH better.

and thank you for posting the finished product