Help to enhance writing on back of photo

[TonyR12]

Hi all, first post so please be gentle!

I have digital copy of a family photo postcard, which appears to have some writing on back. I was hoping that this writing would identify the family, but as I cannot read it, I need help to enhance it & make it legible. All help & advice gratefully received. Regards, Tony.

[crazyfly1]

Not enough image there, way too pixelated from jpeg compression. If you can rescan at at least 600ppi and save it as a tiff, then upload. There might be a chance.

[TonyR12]

Hi Wm. Blake, cousin has original so will have to ask him to scan & save as tif format. Will post here when I get it. Thanks, Tony.

[TonyR12]

Hi all, having probs with tif format. Cannot upload onto here as tif & size too big, so managed to put them here, one colour, other grayscale. Fingers crossed I hope this works & images are right format to work on. Regards, Tony.

[crazyfly1]

Nope, that didn't work. Links are dead. Try webshots. You might also try posting the higher resolution scans here. They can't be over 100kb so you'll have to shrink them and post each one as it's own post. These will at least be better quality then the first one you posted.

[0lBaldy]

like stated before, higher resolution might do wonders

[TonyR12]

Hi both, link works fine for me - if you click on red cross next to colour or grayscale you get 'file download' option window eg 'open, save, cancel'.

Crazyfly1, I'm open to correction, but I cannot see anywhere on here that accepts tiffs, no matter what size they are. The higher-res scans were tiffs so I'm rather stuck with them.

OlBaldy, first link you gave only talks of jpgs. Crazyfly1's first reply asked for tiff. Second link I've already mastered - see attached thumbnail at top.

I must admit that I am not very computer literate, but slowly I can usually work my way around things. Today however I had to admit defeat after spending hours trying to link to hosting sites - photobucket don't appear to accept tifs either & rapidshare was such a headache I had to give up. Will look at other suggestions tomorrow. Thanks both, Tony.

[crazyfly1]

tony, don't worry about the tiff. go ahead and post jpg. Imprtant thing was the better origional scan.

[MatthewMarshall]

Originally Posted by crazyfly1

Nope, that didn't work. Links are dead. Try webshots. You might also try posting the higher resolution scans here. They can't be over 100kb so you'll have to shrink them and post each one as it's own post. These will at least be better quality then the first one you posted.

its not dead i just download the file. its a tiff it wont show up in your explorer browser you have to click the link and download it.

[crazyfly1]

Thanks matthewmarshall

[MatthewMarshall]

Ok this is all i could pull from your scan. If you really need to see the print. take it to your local university archival department. have them scan it. Alot of university's have inferred and other types of scanners that call look at just the ink on a print. But here is my best try.

[crazyfly1]

Tony, here is my try. You may be able to help at this point i you know some family history and names. Couple more things I want to try so I may post another try later.

[MatthewMarshall]

Originally Posted by crazyfly1

Tony, here is my try. You may be able to help at this point i you know some family history and names. Couple more things I want to try so I may post another try later.

Great edit getting the words out. could you tell us how you are doing it?

[0lBaldy]

Looks like "Mother & children" to me CrazyFly... How U do dat?

[TonyR12]

Hi Matthew Marshall & Crazyfly1, that's impressive stuff from both of you. Cannot make out first letters of first word but there's a 'y' then something before maybe ending 'ea'. Second word looks like 'children' with possibly an '&' before it.

So I'm guessing it's going to be something like 'Name & children' or 'Granny Name & children' as it's a photo of woman & four children. Thanks both, I'm jealous of your talent & looks if those are your own profile photos. Tony.

[crazyfly1]

OlBaldy, I think you may be right. I'm going to spend some more time with it and see what I can do. What I did was a curves adj on each channel until each one gave up as much of the writing as it could. I used hs to bring out the blue of the writing and then converted to bw with the bw filter turning blue to as dark as possible. Then I used shadow highlights with shadow off, contrast cranked up, color corection off. and played with the radius on highlights.
Murray does some REALLY amazing recovery here;
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...d-writing.html

Tony, you are too kind.

[TonyR12]

Hi OlBaldy, you posted while I was composing. It could well be Mother & children or Grandmother & children - just need Crazyfly1 to work his magic on the first few letters.

I was hoping for a name rather than Mother or Grandmother, so as I could identify the family, but hey ho will have to accept what is written. Tony.

[mistermonday]

Tony, to me it looks like it is the name of a person follow by an ampersand and the word children. The person may me in the form of initial(s) then last name.
Not sure what kinds of scanners you have access to, but one with a high dynamic range scanned at high resolution (2400 ppi), might yield much better results. You could also place a blue or red translucent piece of mylar over it to separate the writing from the background.
Regards, Murray

[TonyR12]

Thanks for your ideas & help Murray. I agree first word is starting to look like a couple of initials and then name, which I can't make out.

My cousin has the original & he is less computer literate than me. I have to talk him through how to attach things in e-mails so to do as you suggest will be ackward. I'll have to go visit & see what we can do. Tony.

[crazyfly1]

Murray, I think it's time for a tutorial. Please.

[mistermonday]

Hi William,
Thanks. I will try to put something together on the weekend.
Regards, Murray

[Kraellin]

i concur with william, murray, your efforts here need to be chronicled.