B&W Scan help

[janie]

Aside from patience, what is the first step to take in retouching this photo? It is scanned at 1200. I am using Photoshop PS3 Extended. I have a lot to learn and a lot of photos to fix.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2232591...7604069830805/

[Sweetlight]

Janie,
That is a pretty broad question because everyone develops their own rythym, patterns and routine as far as what comes first etc...

For me I always crop with no resolution or size stated just to straighten out my horizon lines (because I have this crazy OCD horizon line hang-up.) I always leave plenty of room outside of the actual image for adding borders and such and of course you can always increase the size of your canvas later if needed. I'd be more than happy to help if you ask some more specific questions.
If you want to make a first crop at a resolution to slow down the drain on your system I always start at the largest size of print I will be pursuing ie: An 11x14ish at 300 dpi.

Hope that helps a little at least.

[janie]

Thanks. Most of the original pictures are 4x6, 3x3 or 2x3 pictures. My intent is to keep them at that size or make them all 4x6.

I did crop the first one down and got rid of the white...

So I started with the woman (my mom) from the top and tried to clone her hair, but that didn't work. I shall now experiment with painting it and making my mouse a left handed mouse, might help

[leanan`si]

For me, when working on a B&W photo, the next step is to check the channels and see which RGB channel is going to give you the best definition and tones with the least amount of damage. Channels is right next to the Layer tab. You'll see the image in RGB colour, then the Red/Green/Blue channels are shown separately. Find the channel which looks the best, then switch to greyscale (Image-Mode) and you'll be prompted to ditch other channels. You can switch back to RGB and add a sepia layer later if you wish to.

[janie]

that helps a lot, there are a lot of red tones in the picture. Thanks.

[leanan`si]

Just another thing to look at before any restoration work .. check the levels. Some old photos were printed in sepia tones, some have gained sepia tones purely through age. Your photo is from an age where the original would more than likely have been B&W. The discolouration on the photo border is a fair indication. Select levels in the menu icon at the bottom of the layer palette which is a circle half black, half white. There are three eyedroppers. Click on the eyedropper to the right side, then onto the border of the photo. It will change the levels values based on the assumption that the photo border is in fact white. You can also use the levels option by moving the markers to the edges of the histogram .. black on the left, white on the right.

[0lBaldy]

A couple quick versions with a Tutorial link

First pic is your original

The second picture was done using the tutorial found here: "Restoring an old photograph"

The third is a continuation of the second .. cropped and straightened and Shadow/Highlight adjustment made with a little extra cloning, healing and painting done

~Original~ Tutorial~ Continued~

[leanan`si]

Hi again Janie,

I've done a quick restore of this photo. I liked the red channel because it had a soft tone to it and the photo seemed to need that. Switched to grey scale and after running Photoshop noise filters to remove dust/scratches/noise, on a new level I used the healing tool, clone tool to remove odd scratches and 'bits'. The face and throat were a little uneven in tone so I used a very light airbrush to blend. (Not my best talent I have to say) I tend to even think 'spray paint' and have to re-think 'air brush'! I did check the levels and felt comfortable with there not being an absolute white or black, I think it would have been a bit harsh.

[janie]

Wow, again, my thanks for all of your input and retouches.

The photo is an original, I have about 40 of these types of pictures to work on. This was on her honeymoon in 1947.

I've got a notebook and am taking notes.

Thanks for the link to.

I'll post my results soon

[zganie]

First thing turn everything automatic off on your scanner.like sharpening color correction
2nd after you scan look at it did you capture the full range of tones from the original
3rd if you did save an original before you do anything
4th crop or resize the image if necessary save as a new file
5th do an overall tonal or color correction does not have to be exact but good
now its ready to work on

[TommyO]

Janie,
As zganie said, most of us turn off everything automatic on the scanner. However, given the number of prints you are attempting to correct, you could also put them in piles depending on whether they are (a) absolute one of a kinds that you want to work on, (b) need a lot of work but not so good you will spend lots of time, (c) just need some basic correction and then you're going to archive for the grandkids.
The stack of a's you could scan with no auto settings using your color calibrated workspace (right?). Proceed as normal.
The stack of b's you could scan with auto-leveling and auto-sharpening, then simply touch up the blemishes quickly within Photoshop. Newer scanners can even dust for you, and some now have digital ICE built in (but ICE is slow).
The stack of c's you could scan with auto-most everything (except color) and never touch within PS. In fact, when I have such a large stack, I usually don't use the scanner at all on the c's. I photograph the photo with a high resolution digital camera using a copystand setup. It is so much faster and achieves what I want for simple archiving purposes. By accumulating 30 or 100 prints on the camera, you also get to name them as a batch when you download to the PC. Much faster ! I can capture about 2 images per minute at the same resolution of the scanner (or higher). Hence, 100 photo's in less than an hour.

Just an FYI... good luck on your work.

[janie]

Tommy, great idea! Right now I have them in stacks by "family" members.

I just got another scanner, but it doesn't have ICE, I don't think.