Remove photopaper texture from old photo

[Duv]

Double Wow!!

This is what I got in 2 minutes. Just the filter and levels adjustment. It takes just a wee bit of experimentation in cloning out the stars. The better you get the better the result. Eveyone should have this plugin.

Cheers
Dave

[vinniesworld]

Here's my effort, used the filter, cloned out the stars, duplicated the background, a little noise, blur and masked the eyes, mouth, nose and eyebrows. Finally levels, USM at 20/50 to increase the contrast and then USM again to sharpen.

[Flora]

Wow .... I'm really impressed with the results everybody got!!!!

I've just downloaded the plug-in and, I guess, I know what I'll be doing today!!!

Hi tzec,

Welcome to RP!

What an entrance!!!!

Thank you so much for sharing the link and your results ....

Looking forward to your next post!!

[JohnnyT]

I downloaded Neat Image from the link, but I still cant seem to run Neat Image from my duplicate layer......help?

[Flora]

Hi JohnnyT,

Welcome to RP!

The free version of Neat Image comes without the Photoshop Plug-In .... in other words, it can be used as a Stand Alone program only ....

In this Tutorial you will find instructions on how to use it .... just scroll down the page to the NEAT IMAGE STAND ALONE part...

Hope this helps.

[rnbluvva]

Hi Flora!

Did you ever end up doing a tutorial on how to get rid of Honeycomb texutre?

I'd love a link to it if you did.

Hope all is going well for you.

Nat

[rnbluvva]

Flora,

Did a search and found it!

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=140

You are groovealicious!

[Flora]

Hi Nat!!

So nice to 'see' you again!!!

My Tutorial was written a long time ago ... before I had discovered the FFT Filter wich can really work magic on removing Honeycomb texture ...

You can find everything on it ... even the link to the site where the FFT plug-in can be downloaded in this excellent Tutorial .. and needless to say ... just 'yell' if you need more help ..

Hope everything is well for you too.

Take care.

[rnbluvva]

Hey Flora!

Nice to 'see' you again as well. No rolling blackouts right now in your life I hope

Yes I found that FFT tutorial and am reading it now and just downloaded the plugin. I am just playing with the border. I am working on a hi-res image (400dpi) and I used a 250px 'Stroke' of 128/128/128 Gray. Is that correct? It's to get rid of the ringing effect that you guys ran in to.

I've attached a section of the portrait for you to see. It's honeycomb city!

I also posted in another thread about the Decrack action I am trying to use. I wish I could figure out how to fix it so I can run the action. The image has a ton of cracks.

Thanks as always for the brilliant help Flora!

Nat

[Flora]

Hi again,

... still sporadically fighting against 'blackouts' .. but, fortunately, very seldom and not as prolonged as the previous ones ...

I had the same problem with the Decrack Action .... It seems to be 'programmed' to work on the 'background' ... so ... what I did was:

After other corrections ... I 'Created a new document from the current state' .. and flattened the new document so that it has only the background ... Run the action on it ...

The Action can minimize/remove either light cracks (using the 'Minimun' Filter) or dark cracks (using the 'Maximum Filter) ... so I duplicated the action renaming them to Decrack Light/Dark and eliminating from their steps the part I didn't need ... ie: the 'Miminum' Step when removing the dark cracks ... and the 'Maximum' Step when removing light cracks ...

Hope this helps ...

[Flora]

OOOppppsss ... forgotten...

After running the Decrack action on the newly created document, you can alway Shift+drag the Decrack Layer to your original working document...

[rnbluvva]

Hey Flora,

Thanks for the tips on how to use the Decrack Action. I will refer back to what you said when I am at that step.

I tried the FFT Plugin and Tutorial and got a strange, transparent result. Is this because I am using this on a Black and White image? I notice the image in the Turorial by byRo is color.

I did the exact steps of the tutorial and below is what I got as a result. Not sure what I did wrong. The image is black and white, but it is RGB/8.

Original can be seen here
Below is the post-FFT- see how it is transparent?

Also I am confused on the very first step:
1) Duplicate original image
- Right click on title bar;
- Duplicate (merged, if it has more than one layer) to a new image.

When I right click on my title bar I just get options to make the image full size or minimize or close it. I don't know what he is refering to here. What I did was to make a New Window by going to Window > Arrange > New Window for 'file name'.

Was this incorrect?

Also in the last step:

8) Put the colours back in:
- Slide, with <Shift> pressed (to align), your (now un-textured) luminosity back layer on top of the original (that’s the one we left behind in step 1);
- Set this new layer's blending mode to Luminosity.
- Select your original layer, which is below the new Luminosity layer;
- Apply a small radius (2 or 3 should do) Noise>Median filter (this blurs the colours a little, but don't worry all the important sharpness is in the luminosity layer).


Are we working with two layers in one document here, or are we working with two documents?

Any clarification would be much appreciated!

Nat

PS. sorry about the blackouts. They are such a pain!

[Flora]

Hi Nat,

I'm smiling while I write this ... smiling because getting the 'hang' on using FFT has been one of the most frustrating experience I've had with image manipulation ... and the one that put my patience and stubborness to a very severe test ...

But to your questions ...

* FFT can be used on colour and B&W images as long as they are in RGB Mode ... meaning ... presenting all colour channels even if they look about the same ....

* FFT doesn't recognize 'Layers' so it is to be used on a 'flattened' image.

Since this is usually the first thing I do when necessary, I simply duplicate the 'document' therefore 'we' are working with 2 documents, where the one destined to FFT should have the Background Layer only!

* Working on the FFT Document, I increase the Canvas size of 2 to 5 cm. (sorry I'm used to metric sizes... ), choosing grey as its colour. This will help with the blasted 'banding' which, otherwise, would be placed on the image .. (Attachment 1)

* Done that, I run FFT on it ... (I usually go for RGB FFT) ... (Attachment 2) shows the 'stars' I covered on the FFT red channel .... Correct the green channel if necessary ...

IMPORTANT ... Once finished working on the 'stars' in the individual Channels, remember to go back to the composite view by clicking on RGB before running IFFT

* Run IFFT and, if you are satisfied with the result, decrease the canvas' size to return to your original size, Shift+Drag the FFT corrected Background to your working original and, if the image you are working on is in colours, change the blending of the dragged FFT Layer to 'Luminosity' .... this will give you your original colour picture minus the Honeycomb texture!

Hope this helps..

[byRo]

Natalie, nice to see you back. ( I am listening to your music as I write this )

Originally Posted by rnbluvva

When I right click on my title bar I just get options to make the image full size or minimize or close it. I don't know what he is refering to here. What I did was to make a New Window by going to Window > Arrange > New Window for 'file name'.

Oops, seems that this little confusion was my fault - I'll be editing the tutorial to correct.

The "Duplicate" option is only there if you are not editing in full-screen mode. I'll change this to the menu option - Image>Duplicate.
We need to duplicate the image to preserve a copy with the colours, because the FFT will throw away this information. The New Window option won't help us here because it creates only a new visualization of the same image.

As to the transparent problem, as Flora said (thanks Flora ), this is usually because you haven't selected all channels again before using the inverse FFT.

As to the grey border, there isn't a pre-defined size - adding about 20% more on each side should do the trick. (But, please, don't hate me if it doesn't)

Rô

[Kraellin]

hi natalie,

welcome home

i had a go with your image. i've been experimenting with a new technique on the fft rgb. it's a bit of a twist from other methods but seems to have some promise.

i also ran psp's digital noise removal on this, psps scratch remover, some clone and push and then AIM's sharpen plugin to finish.

nice picture and good to see you back again. i hope your journeys have been fun and prosperous.

craig

[Kraellin]

by the way, i used fft rgb, not the normal fft and i run it on the full image and not a channel split. and yes, you can do black and whites with fft rgb. works just fine. the trick is finding where the honeycomb resides. in this particular black and white, it might have been easier with the normal fft, but i've just gotten used to the ease of use of fft rgb, so that's what i use most often.

craig

[rnbluvva]

All I have to say is A-FREAKING-MEN!

This FFT Method is incredible! My friend from Eritrea gave me 27 of her mother's old family pictures to restore, she baiscally said.. 'Nat... do what ya can'! I did one before this one and it took me forever and ever to try to get that honeycomb off the image and it ended up looking way to soft using the other method I was using. I am going to go back to that image and use the FFT Method.

This FFT Method is awe inducing and I am so grateful to have found it!

Flora: Thank you again. You are a veritable garden of wisdom. I love that you share this with us and I have learned an incredible amount from you. I think I must come to Italy, or wherever you are to do a show just for you to thank you! Thank you for explaining the steps you took and for answering my questions! I am going to see about using Neat Image and USM after I have cleaned up the cracks.
I see you drew in some lines and also used dots. Can you tell me why you drew the lines?

Rô: Thanks for the welcome back! Glad you are enjoying the songs. Working on a new album at the moment, so hope to fill your ears with some new material by Fall. Thank you for such a great tutorial and for introducing me to this method. It's really wonderful and makes me wish I had paid more attention to Math in school. Math and computer sciences are beautiful things! I am glad you explained how to duplicate the document. It was so silly not to try the menu item for that. I was fixated on clicking the document bar! Can't see the forest for the trees sometimes! LOL

Kraellin: Thanks for the welcome home! Been seeing the inside of a studio most days. We are upgrading to Pro Tools this week so I have the week off while the guts of the studio are being reorganized! So yay, I finally get some time to keep honing my skills in the restoration/retouch area I have come to love so much! Good go on the image! What are the tweaks you made when using FFT?

I've posted my FFT Results below with the Before (Attachment 1), During (Attachement 2) and After (Attachment 3).

The banding is there, but I can work with it. Now I must see if I can get any decent results with the Decrack Action and then work away at cloning and reconstructing the torn bits. This is pretty much the worst source image I have ever worked with as far as tears and scratches go. But it's a lot of fun!

Thanks for all the wonderful help.

[rnbluvva]

Originally Posted by Flora

Hi again,

... still sporadically fighting against 'blackouts' .. but, fortunately, very seldom and not as prolonged as the previous ones ...

I had the same problem with the Decrack Action .... It seems to be 'programmed' to work on the 'background' ... so ... what I did was:

After other corrections ... I 'Created a new document from the current state' .. and flattened the new document so that it has only the background ... Run the action on it ...

The Action can minimize/remove either light cracks (using the 'Minimun' Filter) or dark cracks (using the 'Maximum Filter) ... so I duplicated the action renaming them to Decrack Light/Dark and eliminating from their steps the part I didn't need ... ie: the 'Miminum' Step when removing the dark cracks ... and the 'Maximum' Step when removing light cracks ...

Hope this helps ...

Flora! Yes that did help. I worked from a flattened copy and the Action ran fine.

Below is what I got with a HPF setting of 4. I tried 2 and there were more cracks evident. But with 4 I lost some eye detail on the father. I guess no matter what I am going to have to do a lot of cloning on this one.
See original image

I am interested in what you did with the Action by splitting it. Is there any chance you could mail me the Actions you made or explain how you altered them? I'm a bit confused on how you split them up.

As you can see, the larger, lighter cracks in the image were not affected that much. The smaller ones were reduced noticably though.

Thanks again

[megl]

This FFT technique is quite interesting. However, I find that sometimes when an image doesn't have the honeycomb pattern all over, using this method introduces patterns in the areas not covered by the pattern.

For example with this image:

http://www.sendefladen.dk/retouchpro/honeycomb.jpg

I know it's quite an extreme example, but I simply can't get it to work.

/megl

[Kraellin]

natalie,

what i've been experimenting with on the fft is cloning over the 'stars' instead of blacking them out. mixed results so far.

craig

[byRo]

Originally Posted by megl

... using this method introduces patterns in the areas not covered by the pattern.

This is quite true. The FFT technique works on the image as a whole, and so does not detect the presence or not of the pattern.

The best I can suggest, in this case, would be to use a layer mask to exclude the offending (FFT) parts and let the original show through.

Rô

[Skyarcher]

Originally Posted by rnbluvva

Flora! Yes that did help. I worked from a flattened copy and the Action ran fine.

Below is what I got with a HPF setting of 4. I tried 2 and there were more cracks evident. But with 4 I lost some eye detail on the father. I guess no matter what I am going to have to do a lot of cloning on this one.
See original image

I am interested in what you did with the Action by splitting it. Is there any chance you could mail me the Actions you made or explain how you altered them? I'm a bit confused on how you split them up.

As you can see, the larger, lighter cracks in the image were not affected that much. The smaller ones were reduced noticably though.

Thanks again

Natalie, I'll explain over on the other thread :
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=26

how to change it so you have light and dark (minimum/maximum). I got it off the tutorial. Don't want to add it here since it's for cracks, not texture.

Have been playing with it most of last night and part of today. I love this action!

[Akbar Tahir]

hi everyone i blured red and green channels with guassian blur and smart blured blue channel,used history brush on eyes and nose opacity was 35 then after that i desaturated the whole pic thats it

[Skyarcher]

I've printed out tutorial, downloaded the FFT plugin from site, twice, because when I go to use it in PSCS, it tells me there is a program error.

I extracted files from the zip, then copied the 2 plugins from BIN file over to plugins with PS. I can see the plugins, but cannot use them.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[rnbluvva]

Skyarcher:

What I did was to make a FFT Folder within my Photoshop Plugins folder and I extracted the entire distribution into my new Folder.

You have to exit PS and restart the program for the Plugins to be 'visable' and useable.

Hope you get to the bottom of it.

[Skyarcher]

Thanks Natalie, I'll try again. I've restarted PS about 6 times now. I can see the plugins, but when I go to use them, I get program error.

Hopefully I'll get it working soon, this would save me about 5 hours worth of work on the image I'm restoring now.

[Skyarcher]

Anyone out there that could give me suggestion as to why I can't use the plugin?

Both plugins are in my plugin file, yes, I've restarted PS til I'm blue in the face, I can click on the plugin, but when I do, it says it cannot complete because of program error.

Any help would be appreciated!

[byRo]

Skyarcher, sorry I don't have any good answers - let's try some questions then:

1) Are you using a MAC or PC? I believe that this FFT doesn't work on MAC's

2) When you say PS CS, that would mean CS1 (and not CS2)?

3) Have you tried downloading and installing the old version of FFT?

4) Have you tried downloading the filter again?

5) When you say that you see the filter - Do you see "FFT RGB" and "IFFT RBG"?

Rô

[Flora]

Nat,

sorry to get back so late .... you'll never believe what happened to me ... Was in my garden, heard a noise from above and looked up .... I saw this very bright beam of light .... felt I was being 'beamed up' .... lost time track ... and when I 'woke' up ... I was sitting at my 'puter and it was today!!!! .... Kidding aside ... I 've been very busy ... and will be for the next two weeks ....

Originally Posted by rnbluvva

I think I must come to Italy, or wherever you are to do a show just for you to thank you!

.... You can't imagine how much I appreciate you saying this!!! .... Your music is already with me whenever I sit at my 'puter' indipendently of which 'corner' of the world I happen to be ...

I'm attaching Decrack_Set.zip, the 'split' Decrack Action which I've also adapted to be used on any Layer containing either the 'merged' image after previous corrections, or only a part/selection of the whole image (i.e. hair, face etc) ....

From the .zip archive, extract Decrack_Set.atn to 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Presets\Photoshop Actions' folder (provided this is where you have installed PS!!) ... Open PS, load Decrack_Set into you actions Palette, click on the small arrow on the right of Decrack_Set and you'll see Decrack Light (for light cracks) and Decrack Dark (for dark cracks) ...

In Attachment 2 you can see the immediate result after running the Decrack Light action on part of your image .... The biggest cracks won't disappear completely, but, by tweaking some of the proposed values you can get very close to that .....

Originally Posted by rnbluvva

But with 4 I lost some eye detail on the father

....By using the action on a duplicated Layer, you can always use a Layer mask to 'hide' the effects of the action on parts of the image you wish to leave untouched ....

Originally Posted by rnbluvva

..I see you drew in some lines and also used dots. Can you tell me why you drew the lines?...

.... just being my old 'lazy' self who gets 'bored to death' with 'blackening out' each star individually ...

Skyarcher!

Welcome to RP!

Sorry to hear you are having troubles using the FFT Plug-in .... I've tried to see if I could get an error message like yours, but no matter what I did ... I never did...
It's really a mystery ...
Just a silly question .... are you working with PC Windows or with Mac?

Akbar Tahir,

You managed quite well to minimize the 'pattern' on the skin, but it is still very visible in eybrows, eyes, nose and mouth .... have you tried the FFT Filter? Attachment 3

Attachment 4 Eyes zoom-in

[Flora]

Rô,

.... you 'beat' me while I was writing my reply ...