Help enlarging and removing grain

[dscojim]

Hi,
I have a wedding photo of my parents in-law. They only ever got thumbnails of their wedding photos and never got them developed. Attached is an enlargement of the small print.

I am fine with retouching the dust and scratches, but i was hoping someone might be able to help me with the paper stipple. Because I have blown the image up there is a kind of a grain through the white dress and sky. Can anyone give me suggestions on ways to correct this. I have tried FFt but since it is not overly consistent it doesn't seem to help.

[JSFphoto]

Is that the largest image you have? If it is get busy with the clone or healing options PS has to offer. If you do have a larger version i can take a look at what else is possible... Try converting into a different color space like LAB or CMYK or whatever and bluring some channels... In LAB sometimes putting a blur on the A and B channels helps ( mostly with noise but might help with your situation a lil bit) just don't blur the L channel unless you prefer fuzzy memories!

[TommyO]

In order to maintain the detail...
- duplicate the layer, change the blend mode of the copy to "exclusion", then lower the opacity to about 30% or so.
- either create a mask and paint over all non-clothing items with black, or select all the clothing before creating the layer above so you'll have a mask that allows the blend mode to only affect the clothing.
- then use the healing brush to touch up the few remaining spots, and adjust contrast to bring back the lightness.
- also experiment with the healing brush set to "lighten" blend mode on darker spots, or "darken" on whiter spots.
- on non-clothing/non-facial areas, use other filters or denoise filters.

Hope this helps !

[Kraellin]

hi dscojim, and welcome to RP, and, g'day, mate

i know we have a 100k restriction on file sizes here, so it's hard to tell from looking at what you posted, exactly what the problem is. but, if you've got a paper texture running throughout your image, the method is FFT. check out the tutorial on this in our tutorial section if you need more help with that. you MUST follow it exactly to get the desired results and even then, it's not going to be perfect.

you can also try the RGB FFT filter or Image Analyser, which has a built in FFT filter.

but, because of the image size posted, i couldnt really see your stipple/paper texture. so, i used paint shop pro's noise reduction and an unsharp mask at 2/100/5 and a bit of smudging/push to clean things up. so, see attached:

[Daviskw]

To me it depends on how important the picture is along with its detail. If it is very important then I would use dodge and burn to lighten or darken as needed.

Just pick an area and be mindful or what is shadow and what is noise or damage. Then use levels or curves to make lighten and darken layers...hide all then paint in corrections.

Alternately or along with you could use a soft light layer filled with 50 percent gray or two layers one set to lighten the other darken.

All these methods will suit your needs.

Good luck Butch

[mgilvey]

Originally Posted by TommyO

In order to maintain the detail...
- duplicate the layer, change the blend mode of the copy to "exclusion", then lower the opacity to about 30% or so.
- either create a mask and paint over all non-clothing items with black, or select all the clothing before creating the layer above so you'll have a mask that allows the blend mode to only affect the clothing.
- then use the healing brush to touch up the few remaining spots, and adjust contrast to bring back the lightness.
- also experiment with the healing brush set to "lighten" blend mode on darker spots, or "darken" on whiter spots.
- on non-clothing/non-facial areas, use other filters or denoise filters.

Hope this helps !

Wow TommyO, I was going to hack at it with NoiseNinja but your Exclusion method kicks butt! I did sust what you said, made a layer mask and selectively revealed the dress then made a Curves adjustment layer from the layer mask and whammo! All kinds of tonal control!