Restoring old WW11 pictures

[barris]

I have a collection of Ektrachrome slides dating from around 1942/45. I scanned them onto a hard drive as soon as I found them as it was apparent that they had deterioated over time despite only being viewed once or twice in the last 30 years or so. My wife and I need to restore some of these pictures for a possible future publication and would like some advice regarding a certain pattern effect that appears in a number of shots( please see example in attached photo)I am currently using Photoshop Elements 4.0 for editing and would appreciate any help or advice.

[winwintoo]

Have you tried rotating the slide 90 degrees and scanning again and then combining the two images?

I don't know if it will help in your case, but I've had good luck doing this on images that are very cracked - something to do with how the scanner light hits the cracks.

I realize that your slides are not "cracked" in the way a paper image is, but what I see in the image you attached, I would give it a try.

Margaret

[barris]

Will give this a try....any more suggestions?

thanks....barris

[Cameraken]

Hi Barris.

Welcome to Retouch Pro.

The 'Pattern' on the image appears to be caused by Newton Rings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_rings

Are the Slides in glass mounts?

The best solution would be to remove the slides from the glass mounts and re-scan. But if this is not possible then leaving a small air gap between the slide glass and the scanner glass may help.


Hope this helps

Ken.

[Kraellin]

barris, welcome to RP.

what you have there is a type of moire pattern. it's a bit of a wide one, but nonetheless moire. try this thread for help and dont neglect the links to other tutorials within that thread. http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/ima...ope-moire.html

if that doesnt do it, we can have a go at something else.

[unimatrix001]

I gave this a try
duplicate background layer twice
set first duplicate layer blending mode to lighten
set second layer blending mode to darken
select move tool tap arrow keys to move darken layer up and to the right
select lighten layer and tap arrow keys to move layer down and to the left
ran noiseware set to landscape default settings.
used surface blur radius of 8 threshold of 2
used grain surgery to sample grain from original image
then used grain surgery to match grain
finally auto color so its a little dark

[Kraellin]

what are the tap arrow keys and where are they, unimatrix?

[Kraellin]

ok, i've stared at this too long, no doubt. so, i'm probably way off here, but i'll post anyways and i can always change it later.

[WINTERGODDESS]

Wow that is great Kraellin...!! Beautiful Job....and it is like a glowing look

[dkcoats]

Unimatrix & Craig - very nice work.

I'm with Ken, though; they look like Newton rings to me, too.

[Kraellin]

thanks, wintergoddess

dc, they could be. just looked like a big moire to me, but i'm not familiar with newton rings and i couldnt get ken's link to work... so, might just be my error there. however, i did notice one thing in photoshop. the moire remove tool looked like it would have handled it had i been able to get it to let me do an 'ok' on it. the 'ok' button wouldnt un-ghost. but the preview window looked like it would have handled it.

edit: lol, and wouldnt you know, now that i said i couldnt get that link to work, i got it to work. does sound like newton rings, doesnt it. sure wish they'd included a picture example on that wiki.

edit again: ok, i'm getting old and senile. they did provide example pics.

[Kraellin]

and just in case you dont like the somewhat stylized, diffuse glow look of the first one and want a more natural look, i'm including this one, no extra charge.

[barris]

Thanks everyone for your great input so far . I think this will be a ongoing topic for some time with me as I have over 100 slides that need restoring to something like their original condition . so I hope to keep everyone busy with more challenges in the coming months.....I really do appreciate the effort.Around 25% can and have been rescanned less their glass mounts and the results have been dramatic ,the rest I am slowly working on a 1:1 basis , so expect more samples.Begining to work through your various software suggestions , looks as if It will be a case of mix and match , keep the ideas coming.

Cheers....barris

[jannetie]

Originally Posted by barris

I have a collection of Ektrachrome slides dating from around 1942/45. I scanned them onto a hard drive as soon as I found them as it was apparent that they had deterioated over time despite only being viewed once or twice in the last 30 years or so. My wife and I need to restore some of these pictures for a possible future publication and would like some advice regarding a certain pattern effect that appears in a number of shots( please see example in attached photo)I am currently using Photoshop Elements 4.0 for editing and would appreciate any help or advice.

Would descreening work, if you have that option? I've never had the problem with transparencies, only once with negatives and that was so small an area I fixed it with the clone tool.

Everyone's fixes look great!

Janice

[unimatrix001]

Craig, the arrow keys are on the right side of the keyboard next to the numeral keys.

[Kraellin]

thanks, unimatrix. ah, actual keys. i was thinking it was in the software. ok, got it

[unimatrix001]

not a problem was a very hot day a work and my brain wasnt working very well. should have explained that better in my first post