Scanner streaks

[Sanda]

I'm restoring a few photos which have been copied on a photo copier. The main problem is they have severe scanner streaks and I'm almost at my wits end trying to fix them. has anybody got any suggestions for me please?

[Doug Nelson]

Can we see one, or a piece of one?

[Sanda]

sorry I should have posted a sample.
I've reduced the size which makes them look better.

[Flora]

Hi Sanda,

..you might have already tried this ... but you could have a look at this thread on how to reduce texture in a scanned picture ...

[Flora]

... me again ...

reading your post again, (if I've understood it rightly), you might not have the possibility to re-scan the picture ... so I tried to fix it with PS.

Scanner streaks and JPG artifacts were a big problem, but here is my attempt to correct them:

1- after cropping and straightening the picture, I created a new Layer and with the Blur Tool (Soft Brush, Mode->Color, Opacity-> 30-50%), I eliminated the streaks on his face. (I chose this method, after having tried to do overall corrections, because it allowed me to work on selected parts of the image without losing important details)

2- I corrected the colour of his face using Apply Image :

Source Channel->Blue
Target Channel->Green
Blending->Darken
Opacity->60%

3- As for the jacket, it was just experimenting with Curves, Brightness&Contrast, Hue&Saturation, selecting, copying and playing with the Layers' blend mode and Opacity.

4- High Pass Filter to sharpen and, finally, replaced the background with a Radial Gradient .

[Sanda]

WOW
Flora that's wonderful. I didn't think it was possible to get such a good result from such a poor original.

I'm going to follow your instructions and hopefully I will be able to get a result close to what you did.

you're right rescanning was no help as the original was so bad

Thank you, you've given me th inspiration to try again. That's one of the things I love about this place, when you feel something is getting the better of you sombody is there to show you the light.

Thank you.

[Sanda]

Flora.
I downloaded paintshop pro trial version in hope of reproducing the results you got. But it's going to take me some time to learn how to use the program as it's not as similar to Photoshop as I thought it might be. But I'm still trying.

[Stephen M]

Hi Flora, just a quick tip on channel blending if you were not aware of potential issues with this particular method -

Be careful of blue/yellow channel blends, if the image has jpeg artifacts or acquire noise - it will often be very strong in the blue/yellow colour component. If care is not taken the cleaner RG channels may take on more luminance damage when the B is blended.

Two techniques that I often use when I have to borrow from the blue/yellow channel are:

i) Apply colour component cleaning to a dupe and blend from that cleaner dupe. Blur or median or other filtering in colour blend or fades or to the AB channels of LAB.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binar...ctremoval.html

ii) Darken a dupe of the R or G to similar tones to the B and use that instead (if applicable).

More on channel blends can be found at my links section under the channel mixer, calculations and apply image sub-section:

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binar...V_links.html#C (scroll down a bit)


No big deal, just a potential pitfall to be aware of.

Regards,

Stephen Marsh.

[Flora]

Hi Sanda,

...Thank you so much for your comment ... and I'm so glad if what I did with your picture was of any help ....

One thing, though, when I wrote "...so I tried to fix it with PS ...." I intended Photoshop ... and not PSP or PaintShopPro ... So sorry about that misunderstanding .... ...I felt so bad reading that you have downloaded it because I wasn't clear in specifying which program I use ... which, btw, is Photoshop7 ..... just hope you're not going to kill me .....

If you'd like me to be more specific in some points of my description, just let me know ....

Hi Stephen,

Thank you so very much for your kindness and your precious tips!!!
I do treasure all of them!
...And thank you for your site which I know 'by heart', now, and from which I never return empty handed!!

[Sanda]

Flora
It was me who misunderstood , it's not a problem downloading Paintshop it's interesting to try another program. I don't think I read your post properly I've been up all night watching cricket on TV and I don't think my brain was awake when I red your post..

Re-reading it now it makes more sense to me, maybe I should make sure I'm awake properly when I read important things like this. Thanks again.

Stephen
Thanks for the tip, I have a couple more of these scanned photocopies to do so I'll keep your suggestions in mind. Just hope I can do as good a job as Flora did.

[Stephen M]

Sanda, if you are PC based you may be interested in looking into the preview of the Eye Fidelity Tools (EFT) which is mentioned in a thread here at RP (search for the above keywords). PM me with your contact details if you want to play with it.

At first glance it would seem that using darken mode in your edits would be beneficial. This way the lighter streaks should only be affected by the blending of the filtered image into the original, preserving the original darker tones which do not need fixing.

Channel blending via apply image is very powerful and may be of great help in this task, as suggested earlier by Flora. Magic can be worked with apply image, I like a lot and it is often more useful than calculations or channel mixer.

Another way to target corrections without masks or using blending modes is with layer blend if sliders, but that is another post in itself. <g>

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binar...V_links.html#B

Regards,

Stephen Marsh.

[Flora]

Hi Fishboy,

...thank you so much for your words ... .....

Restoring and Retouching is what I loooove to do ..... I couldn't create anything artistic to save my life, though ...

P.S. I had a look at your site .... and WOW .... wonderful pictures ...