How to clean scanned photo showing lines

[miles74]

Please help me how to clean a scanned photo with lines in it. Im going to used it in flash presentation (it will be projected on a huge screen). I think my scanner has a problem. the actual photo is clear and crisp. the quality of the paper is glossy.

here's one of them:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2321/...2a1d341b_o.jpg

thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

[MatthewMarshall]

http://www.neatimage.com

you can download this nice program. the free demo basicaly has most features of the profesional, but its for home use only. If you like the plugin alot, and you are going to use it business. $29.90 not bad at all. its great to remove noise and lines like your scanner is giving you. I included a sample using only the default auto settings it took like 15 seconds to do. You can fine tune it to make it even better. but you can see it does a realy good job.

[duwayne]

Sure looks like a scanner problem. NeatImage is great and will help a lot but there are still scan lines (I tried several filter and tried to adjust the filtered frequencies). You can select the background and add a Gaussian Blur. This give a nice affect anyway. There are still scan lines through the girls hair. The best thing to do is have someone re-scan the image on a different scanner.

[miles74]

I've downloaded the program, and yes it made some quick clean-up on the photo. I still need to do some manual cleaning, though. Thanks MatthewMarshall.

[miles74]

Thanks duwayne, im trying to apply the gaussian blur. yeah, i agree the lines are still obvious on the subject.

here's the output using Neat Image:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2076/...523e13f7_b.jpg

[miles74]

unfortunately, its the only scanner we have. our client doesnt have one. darn. that's why i have to clean 66 photos manually (so tedious). thanks to the Neat Image program... lessens the hassle. Thanks guys

[Dave.Cox]

I tried the FFT filter on this, and it did a good job of removing the scan lines. Unfortunatly, you would have to do each one.

[Britsdad]

miles74,
Yes noiseware is a very good solution for this sort of problem, but you don't have to pay anything for it. You can download the full "community version" from here, it's a standalone program and it's free.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5758.html
Regards.....John

[miles74]

I tried the FFT filter on this, and it did a good job of removing the scan lines. Unfortunatly, you would have to do each one.

Sorry but i dont know where to find the FFT filter. Thanks for the tip Dave.

[miles74]

Thanks Britsdad for the Noiseware tool. Ive tried it too, same output as Neat Image. I will just try on both tools wherever the photos look best. Thanks guys.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2289/...e25e3c72_b.jpg

[miles74]

I just downloaded the FFT filter (found it in one of the tutorials here in retouchpro) and added to my photoshop plugins. Its going to be a long day but It will be worth the hassle if you're going for the best quality. Thanks Dave.

where to find the tutorial:
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=185
and FFT filter plugin:
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~avc25/archive.htm#FFT

[Kraellin]

hi miles and welcome to RP.

i'm probably missing something here, but, if the originals are clean, no lines and you ran them through the scanner and now you have lines, then wouldnt the easier thing be to just clean the scanner? it could be something as simple as wiping off the glass plate(s).

[MatthewMarshall]

If you have a walmart in your area, go there and spend 40 bucks and get a new scanner. It will save you tons of time Time= money right?

[miles74]

I appreciate the tip, really. guess my boss cant afford to get a new scanner. i'll just have the photos scanned again....somewhere else. thanks again.

[Dave.Cox]

It may be worth taking these down to your local printer, and getting them to scan them for you.