Need help restoring photos? Please help!!!

[Konan]

Hello all,

I am a new member (just joined) and I need some help. While tracing our family history, we were pleased to find some pics of our ancestors. The problem is that they are Very old and I was wondering what software/ methods would be best to use to get rid of paper texture and to bring out the people in each picture. Any suggestions?

[lurch]

It looks like your scanner is defective. Note that the the lines continue outside the body of the scanned image.

[Konan]

Originally Posted by lurch

It looks like your scanner is defective. Note that the the lines continue outside the body of the scanned image.

That outer black portion is part of the picture. Any suggestions on how to remove textures from older photos?

[Xaran]

Please say what software you have.

Christine

[Tony W]

Originally Posted by Konan

That outer black portion is part of the picture. Any suggestions on how to remove textures from older photos?

Why are you including the outer black section of the photograph when you can crop down to the actual image area and gather a larger image with potentially better information. IMO this needs to be rescanned.

The regularly spaced vertical lines on your image suggest to me as Lurch pointed out defective scanner. Are these lines visible on the original and to the same extent as shown on your scan?

[Chain]

When scanning the image, make sure you do the following to get the best possible starting point:

1. Scan in very high/maximum resolution
2. Turn off most/all automatic adjustments done by the scanner software (main problem is if it clips colors)
3. Scan in 16-bit per pixel mode (might be called 48-bit).
4. Save in a lossless format (TIFF/PNG/PSD). Do not at any stage save as JPEG.

If possible, upload this original file somwhere. It is good if anyone here wants to have a little go at it.

For cleaning up the pictures, on a general basis, I would say the two main things you do when restoring an image like this are:

1. (A lot of) healing/cloning on a new layer (or multiple new layers). This will remove dust, scratches, stains, etc.
2. Add Curves Adjustment Layers to adjust brightness/contrast. Use layer masks to limit the adjustments to different areas.

You might also find some minor use of the Dust & Scratches filter in Photoshop. Also for the repeating texture (if it is indeed paper texture and not a bad scanner) it might be worth seeing if FFT will help you remove/reduce it.

[Chain]

Originally Posted by lurch

It looks like your scanner is defective. Note that the the lines continue outside the body of the scanned image.

Almost looks like it was printed on a ye olde ink jetty with a clogged nozzle

[Konan]

I have photoshop elements. That is the only real editing software that I have. I have uploaded the image to Media fire if anybody here wants to take a stab at it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?u6beco05pst2hui

[Tony W]

This looks to be a poor quality scan and you should try again using the method Chain sugggested.

As the original still looks like potential scanner problems could you please answer the question posted "Are these lines visible on the original and to the same extent as shown on your scan?"

[Konan]

It doesn't have to be spotless, just clean it up and make the people stand out from the back more. Any suggestions on methods I should use?

[Tony W]

Is there any good reason why you are ignoring my question about your original scan?

Is it that you are looking for someone to do a freebie for you? If so try the classifieds

Only if you are prepared to answer questions posed to you and try the suggestions made will you get a proper response that may help you help yourself.

To reinforce the need for the best scan you can get to minimise work I have taken your posted original. After using curves to lighten and to minimise cloning applied dust and scratches and also ran the fft filter to minimise further the vertical line issue. As you can see these actions have caused a loss of sharpness that I at least find unacceptable. Also the image is pretty pixelated due to its small size as evidenced by the apparent graininess. I believe that more image information will be available in a better scan both in terms of 48bit colour and the highest dpi you can get and if as I believe the lines have been introduced by scanning you will save yourself much time cleaning up

[Konan]

I have actually been trying to take care of it myself with the Spot Healing and Clone Stamp tools. My result is attached. I am not looking for a freebee, I wanted to know the best methods for handling such a task. I haven't been able to ask my aunt about the scanner quality thing.

[Tony W]

Great, my faith restored . Looks like you are doing a good job so far but a lot of work. I would wait and see if you can get a better scan before going further - it just may save you an awful lot of work and get you a much better final image.

[Steve13]

I had a Canon scanner that was doing that, I ran a calibration that was in the scanner utility program, and it straightened out. Turn the pic 90 deg and scan. If the lines change direction, it's a scanner problem.

[Nezbitten]

I concur with Steve13, my old Canon had that issue and the Calibration fixed it.!