help, please

josie j · #1 03-09-2009, 10:48 PM

Hello, I was sent here from another board, I was sent this photo from my sister in-law, it's fella many moons ago. I want clean it up. (if possible) I downloaded Paint Shop Pro Photo x2 trial. But it's alot to take in. I watched the videos several times. Then I went to the help pages, I'm so confused! This the photo. All suggestions will greatly appreciated. Thanks josie ps the second photo is my first try, no layers. I'm having trouble understand layers. (how they work)

Flora · #2 03-10-2009, 01:36 AM

Hi josie j,

welcome to RetouchPRO!

Unfortunately the image you attached is only slightly bigger than a postage stamp!

Please follow this link for instructions on size and quality of attachments.

DXM · #3 03-10-2009, 09:38 AM

Josie>> I concur with flora, I immediately saw that quite a lot of that photo could be restored. however a larger version is a must for that to happen.

0lBaldy · #4 03-10-2009, 10:43 AM

Josie j, welcome to RetouchPRO!

At the present time your picture is 102 px X 83 px with a resolution 72.. ( that is only 1.4 inches wide and 1 inch high!) is it possible to rescan the picture much larger and at a resolution of at least 300?

A good starting size for posting here would be at least 1024 px X 833 px @ 72

For how to Resize pictures for the web using PSP and keeping it under 100K: (click here)

DXM · #5 03-10-2009, 11:18 AM

Josie>> Ol baldy's post reminded me of my manners. I should've said welcome too.

Anywho... If you have some kind of newer digital camera you could "fake a scan" by placing the photo as flat as you can on a non-reflective surface in a well (but not harshly) lit room and then simply take a picture making sure that the photo covers at least 70% of the viewfinder. That should give your image the appropriate proportions to work with if you subsequently follow Ol'Baldys recommendations on how to resize.

it's a "quick-and-dirty" solution but has been known to work.

kimberhoff · #6 03-10-2009, 01:40 PM

Photo restoration is fairly complex. There is no one right way to go about it. You do need a good high resolution digital capture of the photo to start with. Depending on the quality you are expecting, it might be worth your time to outsource this to a restoration lab that can digitally restore the photo and print you new archival copies, or even restore the original photo. They can provide you with a restored file also. I work with a place in Chicago called Joel Oppenheimer or Oppenheimer Editions. http://www.audubonart.com. They have many years experience with this type of work.

TommyO · #7 03-10-2009, 04:07 PM

Josie,
Again, welcome !

Since you are new to restoration, everyone here generally recommends the same book to learn a very good overall process: Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (Third Edition), by Katrin Eismann, via New Riders publishing, 2006. The book contains a very good layout, hundreds of practice images, step by step procedures. (The book was published three times, so be sure to get the third edition.) While the book references Photoshop, it is easily applied to Paint Shop Pro.

You should also consider her sister book to clarify layers and masking: Photoshop Masking & Compositing, New Riders publishing, 2005.

josie j · #8 03-11-2009, 12:08 AM

First of all thank you for the warm welcome, and the advice. I'm trying to resize the photo, but when I try upload it, the box times out. But I've got modem problem. So that could be the trouble. So I'm going to wait til I have the new modem. Thanks to all. josie

RokcetScientist · #9 03-11-2009, 09:25 AM

If you don't want to paint yourself (and us) in a corner you ought to upload a full res image. But you can't attach a full res image file as it is well over 100Kb.

To get around that limitation you can use one of these FREE Large File Transfer services – if you have a broadband connection! – to send your full res image to your own mail address, then open that mail message, copy the link that's in it, and paste/post that link here.

• Podmailing.com is FREE and allows transfer of unlimited numbers of files of unlimited size. I've transferred upto 6GB files without a hitch.
http://www.podmailing.com/

• Yousendit.com is FREE upto 1GB/month with max 100MB per transfer.
http://www.yousendit.com/

• Pando.com is FREE upto 1GB of files or folders per transfer.
http://www.pando.com/

josie j · #10 03-12-2009, 03:26 PM

I don't know if this is better, I hope so. Now that I think you can see my photo, where do I start? Thank you all for your advise,please send more. josie

RokcetScientist · #11 03-12-2009, 09:03 PM

Nope, still not nearly big enough to be able to do anything meaningful with. It needs to be at least 10 times that size. Minimum. You've already got the advice. Now why not apply it to upload a high resolution version?

TommyO · #12 03-12-2009, 09:28 PM

Josie,
It takes a little practice to get the file size both acceptable for the forum (less than 100K) and to have enough pixels for us to work with. I am not a Paint Shop Pro user, so I am not familiar with the settings PSP uses to save jpg images. However, you should attempt to save the file as a copy, with an image resolution of 150 ppi or higher. The dimensions of the image in inches is not as important, as that relates more to printed size, not pixel size. While a "small" (in inches) image is not good for us either, we can easily change that. We just cannot recreate the pixels that are lost when the jpg compression is too great. (Well, we can recreate more pixels, but they will not look good or representative of the original image.)

Here is an example of what we see when we look at the thumbnail. As you can see, it just is not good enough to work with. So, practice getting more pixels into the 100K limit and try uploading again !

Flora · #13 03-12-2009, 10:54 PM

Hi josie j,

we all know that resizing images can be very confusing ..

... and my 'instructions' for it are limited to Photoshop, so, they aren't really of any help to you... I'll send you a PM with my email address where you can send the full size/resolution picture and I'll resize and upload it here for you.